Originally posted – Apr 25, 2014
The most popular and traditional way to keep up with information about one’s specific business or profession is by simply reading information offered by knowledgeable individuals who also reside within, or are closely related to, that particular industry or occupation.
But wait, there’s more.
I often tend to think “out of the box,” in sort of a quirky, contrarian style. Therefore, I believe a huge amount also can be learned from those who reside outside of your particular industry or occupation.
With that in mind, here are 10 of the most interesting and thought-provoking statements from a diverse group of individuals – none of whom are remotely connected to the self-service laundry industry.
Once you read and digest them, I think you will find some or all of them will give you a fresh, energized perspective on your business and, thereby, likely help to enhance your success.
So, here they are, presented in no particular order of importance:
1. “There is no good or bad. There is only perception.” – the philosophy of Stoicism
Or, as William Shakespeare wrote, “there is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
When you own a self-service laundry, “things” happen all the time – some enjoyable and some not so much fun. As a result, the central message from Stoic philosophy as well as the Bard is that you can choose your reaction to them and, by so doing, choose your mood.
In other words, it’s not what occurs that matters, it’s how you choose to react to what occurs that counts. It is profoundly liberating when you realize how pointless it is to get upset about the things you can’t control. So, don’t stress out about things beyond your sphere of influence.
2. “It took Michelangelo four years to paint the Sistine Chapel. It took Herb just as long to not write his novel.” – from a pop art website
Today is the oldest you have ever been and the youngest you will ever be. Don’t put off business (or any) projects just because they will take some time, whatever your age.
For example, let’s say you want to go back to college part-time to get an MBA or to research a new site to establish an additional laundry, but you get turned off because it will take a few years. Just remember that the same two years will pass at the same speed, whether you are working on these projects or not.
3. “The reverse side also has a reverse side.” – Japanese proverb
You can view this as a grass-is-always-greener-on-the-other-side-of-the-street lesson. When business owners get into a tight spot, many of them wish the opposite situation would occur… rapidly.
However, remember to be careful for what you wish for because it just might happen – and cause even more problems for you. For example, you might be wishing to significantly increase your customer count, so you launch a very successful and somewhat costly marketing program that actually does so.
But, what if your machinery has not been properly maintained and the increased customer usage causes multiple machine breakdowns? This could completely undermine your new marketing program and actually cause you to lose customers and do less business.
In addition, you have spent significant money on the increased advertising. There are most certainly many other examples of the “reverse-side phenomenon.”
4. “You don’t lead by hitting people over the head. That’s assault, not leadership.” – 34th U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Many of you probably employ an attendant or two, or maybe more. How you manage these individuals will have a huge effect on how they react to customers in your absence. They represent you directly to the people who patronize your laundry, so it’s expedient for you to have a good working relationship with them.
Highly motivated, customer-friendly and cooperative attendants should be your goal at all times. No, they won’t always perform that way despite the no doubt brilliant pep talk you had with them when they were first hired. You must create them to be a positive managerial extension of yourself.
Take an objective look at your management style and make sure you and your employees are “on the same team.” If you sense an attendant’s attitude or behavior change, search out the issue at hand and solve whatever problem (or imagined problem) is the cause. Not doing so can prove mighty costly.
5. “My belt holds my pants up, but the loops hold my belt up. So, which one’s the real hero?” – Comedian Mitch Hedberg
The technical comedic basis for this particular one-liner is that there is a difference between causation and correlation.
The standard example of this – taught in college statistics classes – is that there is a positive correlation in the summer between the amount of ice cream consumed and the amount of deaths due to drowning.
Yes, they are correlated, but one does not cause the other. The reason they are correlated is obviously because only during warm weather months do people often swim and also consume a lot of ice cream.
So, not knowing the reason why (or why not) a given marketing, advertising or loyalty program was successful can be problematic for you when considering your next promotional program.
Success does not necessarily breed success – and a hunch is not a strategy… nor, is guessing. What’s more, being lucky is neither a valid tactic nor a reliable strategy that can be duplicated. Hence, be certain you know the difference between causation and correlation.
6. “A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.” – Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Paul Simon
This lyric from Simon’s classic “The Boxer” is brilliantly insightful. Psychologists often refer to this as perceptual distortion. Essentially, it means misleading yourself because the truth (objective reality) is too uncomfortable to deal with.
A perfect example of this occurred when thousands of people continued to hold Enron stock and sing the praises of this investment, despite all of the obvious bad news about the company and while watching its value plunge to zero.
Here’s the lesson: when viewing your laundry, its services and its staff, do so objectively (as through the eyes of a customer). Remember that your laundry business is what it is and what the customer actually thinks it is. The customer always has to come first. Put yourself second.
7. “What would you do if you were not afraid? – Spencer Johnson, M.D., author of “Who Moved My Cheese”
In my view, one of the greatest barriers to success is fear of failure. It’s a common affliction in humans. For laundry owners, it could impede a new and different marketing campaign, a new loyalty program, a new management style, anything. Our high-speed mental activity begins, and we play out all of the “bad” things that can occur if it doesn’t work. We stop right there in our mental tracks and do nothing because the fear of failure overrides the thoughts of success.
The cause of this is often our internal mental projection of how we will be viewed by ourselves and others if things simply don’t work out. “What will the neighbors think?” is a reasonable metaphor for this event.
Here’s some good advice: don’t worry about what others think or may think. You are neither right nor wrong because people agree or disagree with you. You are right solely because your facts and reasoning are right. In the end, that’s all that counts.
Hockey great Wayne Gretzky put it best when he said, “You miss all of the shots you don’t take.”
Be like Gretzky and take some shots. But be careful where and how you aim, because the odds of a surprise to the downside are almost always greater than a surprise to the upside.
8. “If I had nine hours to chop down a tree, I would spend the first six sharpening my ax.” – 16th U.S. President Abraham Lincoln
We’re talking about preparation here, versus just jumping into the ring. Former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali once said, “The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym and out there on the road… long before I dance under those lights.”
As a laundry owner, you can (and must) sharpen your ax by first making yourself completely knowledgeable about marketing, your equipment, your customers, the economy, your demographics, your competition and your employees. Then – and only then – you can use this knowledge and training effectively.
Prepare like Ali and think like Honest Abe – and the light at the end of the tunnel won’t be an oncoming train.
9. “In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is.” – Baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra
Many people will start their sentences with the phrase “theoretically speaking.” However, realistically, we live in the very practical non-theoretical world of real conditions that constantly confront us – and often the “geography” can be challenging and difficult to navigate.
However, permit me to introduce you to the terrain.
Yes, in theory, since your self-service laundry is the nicest in the area, all of the laundromat customers should wash and dry at your facility only.
But they don’t!
In theory, since you are a great manager, all of your attendants should behave exactly in accordance with company policies.
But they don’t!
And, in theory, since you maintain your equipment properly, none of your washers or dryers should ever malfunction.
But they do!
Therefore, it’s a grand idea to be familiar with the underlying theories, but also remember that in the real dynamic world of actual laundry events things often happen differently.
Practicing physicians see this every day, and so do stock and options traders. So, be flexible and, above all, be practical in running your business, planning your advertising and establishing your expectations.
10. “There are known knowns. These are the things that we know that we know. There are known unknowns, that is to say that there are things that we know we don’t know. But, then, there are unknown unknowns that are things that we don’t know we don’t know.” – Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
This is a logically interesting quote commonly attributed to Secretary Rumsfeld, but it likely had its origin within the world of biological research sciences. When Rumsfeld used it, he was referring, of course, to geopolitical events. The purpose here is to generalize the concept to the strategy of running your business.
“Known knowns” are when you know when an event is going to occur and what the outcome will be. For example, you know that clothes get dirty and must be washed and dried, because people have a limited amount of clothing and not everyone has convenient access to a washer and dryer. Hence, you can be confident that your business is structurally valid because it satisfies a recurring demand.
“Known unknowns” are when you know an event is going to occur but you just don’t know what the outcome will be. For example, this can be as simple as placing an expensive ad promoting your laundry in a newspaper that will be published on a given day – you know people will read it, but you don’t know how many will respond and visit your laundry.
Then, there are the dreaded “unknown unknowns,” which is the most common scenario, where you don’t (and can’t) know what events – such as the weather, a competitor’s promotional actions, economic events or a new store opening – will occur or how significantly they will impact your business.
The purpose of the aforementioned is to provide you with some insight into risk management, because the moment you open your laundry or buy an existing one your total risk strategy should be in place.
Here are some tips in this regard.
• When and if you decide to expand or acquire an additional laundry, be vigilant regarding demographic validity and trade area exclusivity (known knowns).
• Be careful when placing your advertising that the cost to do so is economically sane and that you’re in the “right” place. Advertising salespeople love to sell ads – and, while they don’t necessarily misrepresent, they occasionally omit things (known unknowns). Ineffective ads can’t be fixed, just replaced.
• Regarding the infamous unknown unknowns, be constantly attentive to risk management by not overextending yourself financially, staying knowledgeable and not putting all of your business and financial eggs in any one particular basket.
Risk management can take many forms and is rich with strategies, but pay particular attention to managing your marketing risk.
Have you ever heard of the Martingale Betting System? It was originated for casino games. The essential strategy was that, when on a losing streak, the bettor should double down after each loss until he or she finally won and returned to break-even status.
The problem with this “strategy” (and why it lost popularity) is the irrefutable laws of probability dictate that the gambler will eventually run into a protracted losing streak that will wipe him or her out. In other words, it lacked reliability. It didn’t work.
The same principle applies to marketing and advertising campaigns for your self-service laundry. Just because a specific program doesn’t appear to work, don’t “double down,” intending to recover your original costs and run it again only in grander, more expensive fashion.
Unless you accurately recognize and correct the original fundamental errors in your marketing premise, you, too, can be “wiped out.”
Instead, put your ego aside, absorb the expense and immediately scrap or revise the original advertising “pie,” because no matter how many times you slice it you won’t end up with more pie than when you started.
With regard to correcting a specific ineffective marketing strategy, often times taking the fastest path out is the best way to find the correct path in.
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