Happy Holidays and a successful New Year Too All!
In This Issue:
- 2004 -What Lies Ahead?
- Flyers - More Bang for the Buck
- The Mobile Dry Cleaner Manual - Additions
2004 -What Lies Ahead?
Industry analyst are more optimistic about the future of the drycleaning
industry. The past few years have seen many changes in the
drycleaning industry, namely more drycleaners creating more competition causing
downward pressures of pricing policies, more casual fashions, a
proliferation of wash and wear garments, industry dryclean-at-home
products and a tighter economy.
The year 2004 however, is showing signs of an upward trend for our
industry. The economy is improving, there is a return to more
formal wear in the workplace with many companies eliminating "Casual
Friday", the so called dryclean-at-home products haven't lived up to
expectations, and busy personal schedules create the need and desire for
professional garment care.
Modern day drycleaning has been around since 1846, ever since Jolly Belin
discovered that kerosene would remove candle wax, but few know that the
drycleaning process can be traced back to Greece as early as
1600-1100 BC. The drycleaners of those days are thought to have used
grease-absorbent earths and sands to remove spots from clothes.If you
really have a desire to learn more about the history and the present day
process of the dry cleaning industry follow this link, www.garfield.library.upenn.edu/essays/v8p213y1985.pdf
You will need adobe reader to open the article and it can be downloaded
free-of-charge at www.adobe.com
The drycleaning industry, like any other industry will experience it's up
and downs, but it has survived many dramatic hits over the last 50 years
yet it still provides a very comfortable living to many individuals and
will do so for many years to come. There may be periods where
you will have to use all your energies to work through a down period, but
the pendulum has always swung back and those who persisted have been
generously rewarded.
Flyers - More Bang for the Buck
You know advertising is important!
Advertising exploits every means of available
communications. Every where you look you see advertising:
newspapers, magazines, radio, television, cinema, direct mail, billboards,
e-mail, internet, store fronts, motor vehicles, electronic signs, sky
writing, hot air balloons, and on and on and on. Even in your own
home, it’s impossible to avoid exposure to advertising. Look at
your appliances; open your pantry or refrigerator; almost everything in
your home advertises its name or product. Your television, radio,
computer, telephone, and mailbox incessantly bring advertising into your
home and life. You need customers and
advertising gets customers, but how can you afford the high costs of
advertising on a limited budget?
There are many low budget means of
advertising to your chosen market: referral programs, local newspaper
articles, partnership with local businesses, direct
solicitation, etc., but today we will discuss the use of flyers as an
effective low cost means of accomplishing this goal.
As you are aware, effective advertising
is repetitious. Flyers can provide that repetition without breaking
the bank.
When formulating your plan, consider two
major points:
- The Flyer
- Distribution
1. Create a flyer. Start with a
headline, use graphics when possible, state your offer or purpose of
the flyer, call your prospect to action, include your name,
address, phone number. If you can't create your own flyer, use the
services of printing companies such as Sir Speedy, Minute Man, or a
local printer. The advertisements in your local newspapers can
give you ideas as to layouts, wording, what offers to make and how.
2. Distribute the Flyer. After
choosing a targeted area, begin distributing flyers to the homes or
business of your choice. Select an area a day that requires
about an hour's time to distribute. Choose enough areas that will
encompass a two week period. For example, if you service your
customers four days a week choose eight different areas, one each day for
two weeks. When you have put out flyers in all these area,
distribute the flyers all over again to the same prospects who
received your flyers earlier. Continue doing this for two months
soliciting in the area during the same period. Eventually
you will become known, soliciting will become easier, and new
customers will begin contacting you by telephone.
Below are comments from David,
Gerry, and Tony, three MDCSP members who have successfully used
flyers to promote their mobile dry cleaning businesses and have posted
these messages in the "Cleaning Room" found on the "members
only" sight of www.themobiledrycleaner.com
- "Everyone in our neighborhood puts their flyers in small bags weighted with a pen or washer or something. They then throw them in the driveway like newspapers."
- "You don't need expensive advertising. I bought a specific mailing list from my local chamber of commerce that targeted homes with dual incomes and house values 15% higher than the median price in our area. Sent a flyer with a "frequent cleaning" card (For every ten orders over 15.00, get 20% off the 11th order) to that list.
Saw about a 11% response on that mailing with a 40% pick up of clients."
- "Sorry, The mail box is off limits under all conditions except mailing. Place your flyer with a fantastic offer!!! and I mean make it good! in a plain white #10 envelope sealed shut. Write Merry Xmas on the front of it, nothing else! Place these on the front door as if the neighbor would have left it there for the homeowner. Next month those same doors with "sorry we missed you". Keep doing this every month to those same targeted doors, change the envelope color or style. Just make sure that the doors you place them on are actually being used to enter the house and that you really would want them as a customer."
Distribute flyers! This is just another cost saving marketing technique that can save you money while at the same time increase your customer base by double digit percentages. Use the previous suggestions or add your own imagination, but in any case, marketing with flyers is a tool you should not ignore.
The Mobile Dry Cleaner Manual - Additions
If you're looking for a lucrative home-based
business, Mobile Dry Cleaning is the answer.
Starting any business, especially one with
which you are not totally familiar, requires training and experience.
You may have entrepreneurial abilities and desires, but in-depth
knowledge of any undertaking is extremely important. Education and
experience provide that knowledge.
The Mobile Dry Cleaner Manual supplies
the education. In addition to the features already
discussed at www.themobiledrycleaner.com
we have revised the manual to include:
-
Important elements of the dry cleaners contract.
-
Expanded residential and workplace marketing techniques.
-
How toget past security and develop gated communities and multi-level residences .
-
An in-depth discussion of payment methods including using credit cards and associated costs.
-
How to equip your vehicle for hanging completed orders.
-
How to solicit for new business.
-
Expanded marketing tools.
-
How to properly examine garments to insure a quality product.
-
A more detailed description of a Mobile Dry Cleaners typical day
The ability to start your business
inexpensively and on a part-time schedule affords the opportunity to gain
experience without sacrificing your present position or finances.
As an added bonus, we have made an
electronic version of the Mobile Dry Cleaner Manual available at a reduced
cost. Download the Manual immediately and start your Mobile Dry
Cleaning Business tomorrow and take advantage of the Holiday festivities.
Remember, the Mobile Dry Cleaner Manual and the MDCSP
membership is offered with a money back, no questions asked guarantee.
If you are serious about having your own business, you owe it to yourself
to check it out.
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and send to:
C.E. Hill- MDCSP
www.themobiledrycleaner.com Back