Tag: Don Desrosiers

My impression of the Clean Show started on an extremely positive note. Not only was the weather great – far better than the rain we had during the last Clean Show in Georgia – and the badge pickup could not have been smoother.

I made every attempt to be as prepared as possible, printing out my flight itinerary, hotel reservation, press pass, and clean show reservation at my office. But, alas, I forgot all of that on my office desk so I approached the Clean Show registration arena thinking I would be a real problem child. Not so. There were more than enough self-service kiosks to easily look up your pre-paid reservation and print your badge in an instant. This simply could not have gone better. This got my day going in the right direction!

Continue reading “Impressions from Clean 2022 By Don Desrosiers” →

I have some thoughts that border on cliché regarding the Clean Show. No big surprise there. I think every drycleaner needs to go, no matter who they are or what their situation.

Continue reading “How to Attend the Clean Show by Don Desrosiers” →

By Don Desrosiers, Tailwind Systems

OKAY, I ADMIT IT: I OWN A LOT OF ROBERT GRAHAM SHIRTS. Back in my plant days, there were no $300-$500 shirts and my father would think I am nuts to pay that kind of money for a shirt. Maybe you do, too. But the fact is, they are out there and your customers have them. You can frown upon them or you can seize the money- making opportunity they represent. I very strongly encourage the latter.

Continue reading “Above-Average Shirts Need Above Average Care” →

By Don Desrosiers, Tailwind Systems

As we struggle to return our businesses to a feeling of normality and try to pretend the past couple of years have been a bad dream, we must remember we cannot leave it all to chance.  When we compete for market share, we often do the obvious things to stay we are a step ahead of our competitors.  We guarantee on-time service and quality work. We spend money on store beautification, employee training, DLI classes, and modern equipment.  These are all key expenditures and highly recommended but we can also run out of ideas.  We can look around our brand-new plant with brand-new, state-of-the-art equipment, stocked full of terrific, fully-trained, dynamic employees and think, “What now?”

Continue reading “Take Your Quality to New Levels” →

By Don Desrosiers, Tailwind Systems

Maybe this whole COVID thing is close to being behind us. Hopefully the lessons learned will stay with us for a lifetime. Whenever something monumental occurs, it is very important to gather some sort of lesson from it. Sometimes it can take a very long time, especially when a lot of healing needs to happen first. When 1,500 people died on the Titantic in 1912, it took a long time for people in that era to make sense of the tragedy. Similarly, COVID-19 has killed more than four million people at the time of this writing. Eventually, we will want to know how many people it has saved. On a more local level, COVID-19 has cost you a lot and there needs to be a lesson in there somewhere. Twenty years ago I published a piece about 9/11. Here is what I wrote then:

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Formulate Your Way to Success

By Don Desrosiers, Tailwind Systems

I received an interesting telephone call today that prompted the idea for this column. It’s all about math. You probably hated math in school and never thought you’d really need it. When the pocket calculator came out in 1974, you probably became certain that even if you did need math, you wouldn’t have to struggle with formulas. Sadly, neither Casio nor Radio Shack have built-in functions for g-force or moisture retention or anything else important to you. Continue reading “Formulate Your Way to Success with Don Desrosiers, Tailwind Systems” →

I was once at a drycleaner’s store who had a sign in the window:

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Adapting, Overcoming, and Improvising, Into the “New Normal”
By Don Desrosiers, Tailwind Systems

You probably said it to someone today. Surely, you said it to yourself within the past couple of weeks; “I can’t wait for things to go back to normal.” Me, too. But, what exactly is “normal”?

Continue reading “COVID-19 Moved Your Cheese” →