Originally posted – Feb 05, 2014
Most people seem to love lists.
Maybe it’s because we live in an era of overstimulation, especially in terms of information – and lists tend to bring order to the chaos. Perhaps it’s because lists help you remember what you have done and what you still have to do. Or, maybe it’s because lists can help focus our minds around larger tasks and prevent us from procrastinating.
Whatever the reason, I like to create lists for myself. So, I thought this month’s article should feature the 10 most important concepts (in my opinion) that all self-service laundry operators and, of course, other small-business owners would benefit from understanding in the running of their businesses and in conducting their lives as entrepreneurs.
This list is in no particular order of importance. They are all important, especially if you view them as a group and benefit from their synergistic nature, meaning they are best when they work together in harmony. Individually, they are pretty cool, but as a group I think they are even cooler.
When you read and digest them, they will make you think, and thinking (especially thinking deeply) will help you become more curious and therefore more creative – and ultimately more successful and self-assured. The Big Ten will provide more dimensions to your life because nobody’s life should just be one-dimensional.
So, repeat after me:
- I am not too set in my ways to learn something new.
- I am not too set in my ways to change my thinking.
- I’m not too set in my ways to change my perspective.
Now… let’s check out The Big Ten:
1. If your fundamentals are absolutely sound, the rest is simply a matter of detail.
For example, if you are constructing a high-rise building and your foundation is not structurally correct, I would suggest that nobody visit the upper floors because the original error in the premise will definitely appear in the conclusion. I think you get my point.
OK, let’s talk laundry here. If you situate your laundry in a demographically weak area, down the line there is not much to hope for the business because your demographics are your destiny.
However, if your demographics are strong, the rest is simply details – such as establishing the correct vend prices; having the right hours of operation; and installing the appropriate types, sizes and quantities of machines. This principle applies to all aspects of your store, not just the demographic validity.
2. Put your customers into a state of willing suspension of disbelief.
The key word here is “willing.”A lot of laundry owners write advertisements, and a lot of people see them. However, the two most common words in advertising are “Yeah, sure”- meaning that we are so inundated with ads that we tend to disbelieve most of them.
If you write your own ads, you should understand the definition of the word “verisimilitude,” which essentially means the appearance of being truthful. If your messages demonstrate verisimilitude (they are scrupulously honest), you will enable prospective customers to willingly suspend their disbelief.
3. Owning a business means you are always in the uncomfortable situation of needing to know more information than practical reality will permit.
This is the one that gives you that nervous feeling in your stomach.
The bad news is that there is no solution to this problem. The good news is that the way you can manage this often-occurring situation is to develop the ability to be comfortable while being uncomfortable.
Just accept the fact that all business owners deal with this, so you’re not alone or unique. Also, accept the fact that business life is actually fair (despite the frequent bemoaning of others that you have heard to the contrary), because it’s unfair to everyone. That, logically, makes it fair.
This may surprise you. You don’t need to know everything about your business and what affects it to run it successfully. The best suggestion is to stop beating yourself up because you simply can’t find a way to know everything; accept this fact of business life, and counteract it by developing more creative skills.
I trust that your stomach is feeling better now.
4. People are mighty complex creatures.
And all forms of behavior have multiple causes. Nothing is simple when it comes to human responses. The more you know about human psychology, the better marketer you will be.
By the way, that’s why economics is actually a social science, despite all of the advanced mathematics involved. Economics is fundamentally the study of human behavior as it relates to and interacts with money.
Another important aspect of human nature is that – as American author William Faulkner wrote in his 1932 masterpiece “Light in August”- “Memory believes before knowing remembers.”What this essentially means is that the long shadow people’s memories cast influences and alters their perception of the present and the future.
The takeaway here is that, when designing and planning your laundry, leave little room for misinterpretation. Make your signage, advertising and loyalty programs as clear as can be.
From the customer’s perceptual standpoint, your laundry should be as thrilled with itself as you are with it.
5. Customers have more reasons to buy than you have to sell.
As business owners, we have only one primary reason to sell our products, and that is to make money. However, as I mentioned, the human species is mighty complex. People certainly don’t always tell you everything that’s on their minds. Most salespeople learn that lesson rather quickly.
This applies to why people go to self-service laundries, too. There are several reasons why people would go to laundries. I firmly believe there are five primary buying motives for all purchases: fear, greed, exclusivity, guilt and the need for approval.
For example, some people use your laundry because they fear getting behind and running out of clothes. Others become your customers because they have determined it’s cheaper (greed) for a lot of reasons than doing their wash at home. And some feel that doing their wash in your beautiful facility with multiple machines and where the attendant always recognizes them makes them feel exclusive.
Then, there are some who might feel guilty that they don’t wash their comforters or other household items often enough. And, lastly, some folks might get approval from spouses, partners or family members because they never allow anyone to run out of their favorite clothes by doing their laundry regularly in your multi-machine facility.
See what I mean? People have a lot of reasons to buy, so the more you understand this, the better laundry you will have – and, most certainly, the effectiveness of your marketing will improve if you weave in the five primary buying motivators into your ads in a subtle and acceptable manner.
6. Know the difference between show and tell.
Believe it or not, it has the same significance as the learning exercise we all took part in as kids in school. The idea is to advertise in a visual manner, because using radio ads exposes the recipient to what has been referred to as the “theater of the mind.”In other words, it’s open to interpretation.
In fact, all communication is controlled by the receiver and not the sender. This is true because people are influenced by many intervening variables, such as experience, age, gender, cultural background and a host of others. So, their interpretation of received communication of all types is filtered by these personal variables.
Clearly, the best advertising strategy for a self-service laundry is visual. In other words, use show and tell – not just tell. Imagine an individual who may be 60 years old and hasn’t visited a laundromat in decades listening to your radio spot. Naturally, he or she would interpret what is being said with recollections of what a laundry looked like the last time he or she used one.
If the recollections brought back irritating memories of a bunch of small topload washers, equally tiny dryers and customers waiting around to use them, this individual might not even consider using your laundry.
However, showing your facility by means of a print ad or, better yet, by running a television spot, has a great chance of attracting this individual to your store. It enables you to actually show the laundry in its modern, high-tech form. I produce many television commercials for my laundry and for clients across the United States, and we achieve wonderful results.
7. You don’t need an operating manual.
There are hundreds of franchises available to today’s investors. These businesses are appealing because they come with a book of instructions from the franchisor. If you own a franchise, you not only pay a hefty signup fee, but it’s also common to have to fork over a percentage of your gross sales for the honor and privilege of being a franchisee.
By contrast, laundry owners have no manual. Your operating manual can be found in the mirror. However, the tradeoff is that you pay no signup fee and no percentage of your sales to anyone. You’re on our own.
But, because there is no manual, you must be creative and energetic – and, by being so, you are entitled to all of the upside rewards without having to share them with a parent organization. In addition, you determine your own advertising, controlling its content and cost.
I have always believed that franchises are great for those who require a specific set of directions. However, I’ve noticed that non-franchised small-business owners tend to not require a manual and are more the types to rely on themselves; they’re likely more creative by nature.
Therefore, view yourself as what you are – unique, creative and self-sufficient. I’ve heard it said that living with uncertainty is ultimately more profitable than living with certainty. You’re living your laundry dream by being willing to bet on yourself.
Congratulations! You are a pure entrepreneur. Relish the experience. You most certainly have my admiration.
8. Don’t ever make your customers work harder than you do – if so, you’ll regret it.
That’s not a misprint. This is an all-too-common occurrence, not only in small businesses but in large ones, too. In fact, I actually have a long list of irritating examples of how this can occur. I’m sure you’ll recognize some of these from your personal experiences:
- When calling a large company and hearing, “All of our representatives are busy talking to other customers. Your wait time is 25 minutes.”(Get more representatives!)
- When calling a doctor’s office and hearing, “The first available appointment time that the doctor can see you is in four weeks.”(Get another doctor!)
- When ordering dinner in a restaurant and hearing, “Absolutely no substitutes. Your order comes with fries. A baked potato will be a dollar extra.”(Find another restaurant!)
- Not being able to talk to a human being when calling a company. (Do business with another company!)
- When at a large store and only one checkout lane is open, causing an insultingly long wait time. (Put your items back on the shelves and leave!)
- When calling a company to buy something and hearing, “We will call you back at our earliest convenience.”(Their earliest convenience? They have it backward!)
In the case of a self-service laundry, it’s easy to make the customer work too hard – by having inappropriate hours of operation, attendants who simply don’t care, uncomfortable heating or air conditioning temperatures in the store, too few of the most popular washers and dryers, empty snack and drink vending machines, and too much equipment that’s simply out of service.
Essentially, all of these events require the customer work harder than he or she should have to. The moral of the story: if you make the customer work harder than you do, your days are numbered as a business owner. It’s just a matter of time before it all comes crashing down on you.
9. Smart business owners get comfortable with the ubiquity of risk.
Risk underlies and affects every move a business owner makes. Certainly, there are risks and costs to taking action, but they are far less than the long range risks and costs of lethargic inaction.
Your business is not a static enterprise. It’s dynamic. For example, look at consumer electronics behemoth Apple. To remain a market leader (or simply to just stay in business, for that matter), Apple must constantly develop new communications products – and these products must hit a home run each time they roll them out.
Of course, the same applies to automobiles and many other products. Your self-service laundry business is no different. Constantly step back and look at it objectively. What can you add or subtract? What can you improve? How can you innovate it and stand out from the crowd of other laundries?
If you don’t do this, I can guarantee that one or more of your competitors surely will. So be sure to make your laundry appear different in some strikingly appealing way.
10. Get very familiar with “the parrot joke.”
Here it is: “I bought a parrot that talked, but it never said it was hungry. So, it died.”
This joke can have a slightly deeper meaning, which I suggest you take to heart. Much like the parrot, your laundry customers often don’t talk either, especially about the aspects of your laundromat they don’t like.
Therefore, it’s wise for you to speak with them as often as possible about what they like and what they don’t like about your store. Find out what they’re really thinking.
A word to the wise: study your prospects more than the product – doing so will prevent your market share from slowly dying off.
There they are…The Big Ten.
Get ’em? Got ’em? Good!
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