The First Post

This is my first post to The DryCleaners Blog. My goal is to bring you different viewpoints, ideas, situations from my day to day life in the industry as a manufacturers rep. In my previous life as a dry cleaner ( my father got me started in the business in a One Hour Martinizing plant back in 1983), I read all the trade magazines, talked to the sales reps, joined IFI(DLI) and attended trade shows in order to try to get as much information regarding my business as possible and for the most part, there was a lot of information available. After 12 years in the plant, I felt that I knew everything that there was to know about the dry cleaning and laundry business. That would prove to be no further from the truth.

I went to work for one of the chemical manufacturers in the industry in 1995. It was then that I realized that even though I had been running the day to day operations of a dry cleaning plant, I really hadn't learned as much as I had thought. It was that training along with the plant calls I made (3 different territories, 6 states and over 1500 dry cleaning plants over the next 15 years) that has really opened my eyes. There are so many things to learn about this business. I learn something new everyday it maybe a different technique for spotting, maybe a different idea for advertising, possibly a promotional idea or packaging idea, technical tip, a problem garment, etc. It is endless.

That brings us to social media, networking, Facebook, chat rooms, blogs and forums. What an outstanding way they are in order to interact and share ideas with like minded people. I started looking and found that it is quite simple to start a blog (although it is definately harder to fill it with good information) and there were very few, if any, blogs about the dry cleaning and laundry industry.

That brings me to this entry. It is my hope to bring you good information, insight and even some entertainment from those tidbits I pick up while on this journey and at the same time, maybe make the day a little easier for those that make their living from the cleaning of clothes.