Howard Scott
February 8, 2012
PEMBROKE, Mass. — Let’s examine a delicate subject: the bathroom for customers in your store(s). You have four choices. You can have no public restroom, and...
Howard Scott
February 7, 2012
PEMBROKE, Mass. — Let’s examine a delicate subject: the bathroom for customers in your store(s). You have four choices. You can have no public restroom, and...
Howard Scott
January 3, 2012
PEMBROKE, Mass. — Tax time is here again. You know the drill. You gather up all your paperwork, ledgers, computer reports, and the like, and drop them off at your...
Howard Scott
September 15, 2011
PEMBROKE, Mass. — At almost every Laundromat I stop at these days, I hear roughly the same thing: “These are tough times. The country has 12% unemployment....
Howard Scott
August 23, 2011
PEMBROKE, Mass. — I recently spent time at a Laundromat and observed these dynamics. The wash/dry/fold person was going about her task as if in a trance. Every so...
Howard Scott
July 14, 2011
PEMBROKE, Mass. — “Why should I spend money on an identity when I spell out exactly what we are?”
That’s the question one store owner asks as he...
Howard Scott
June 21, 2011
CHICAGO — An American Coin-Op columnist recently suggested that buying an existing business is always the way to go. “Why would anyone want to reinvent the...
Howard Scott
May 3, 2011
CHICAGO — You might have one or two employees. They’re not highly paid. Advancement possibilities are low. Most staffers do not view their job as the most important part of...
Howard Scott
March 20, 2011
CHICAGO — I recently received an interesting e-mail from a Laundromat owner. The owner was thinking about putting in a back door. He had gravel out back, but realized that...
Howard Scott
October 28, 2010
CHICAGO — I recently visited a Laundromat in southern Florida, and noticed something different. At first, it seemed like a typical self-service laundries, with machines on...
Howard Scott
June 1, 2010
To update or not? You have purchased an existing Laundromat, and it’s in pretty good shape. The walls are a mite gray, the ceiling has some spots, and the tile floor has a...
Howard Scott
April 15, 2010
CHICAGO — For my money, Enterprise Rent-A-Car is the No. 1 company in terms of customer service. Why? Its enthusiasm, that’s why.
Whenever I travel and rent a car, I always...
Howard Scott
March 12, 2010
It’s endless. Customers leaving litter on the folding tables. Children monkeying with washers and dryers. Teen-agers marking up walls with graffiti. Mothers tossing diaper...
Howard Scott
February 10, 2010
It’s tough to talk about people management, because everyone has their own style, and results aren’t readily quantifiable. You can’t say John is a better people manager...
Howard Scott
January 8, 2010
When it comes to choosing a good store location, everyone seems to have plenty of ideas. The keys to choosing a good location are density of population, with a high...
Howard Scott
December 11, 2009
Now that the holiday season is here, it’s getting close to tax time — if you are one who likes to plan ahead and be organized.
Most self-service laundry owners probably...
Howard Scott
September 17, 2009
If you offer drop-off drycleaning or are thinking about handling commercial accounts, you must, to a certain extent, become a drycleaner. At the very least, you must...
Howard Scott
August 18, 2009
Everyone knows that word-of-mouth advertising is the best form of winning business, but few do anything about it. One Laundromat owner told me: “Word-of-mouth advertising...
Howard Scott
June 23, 2009
A major ($16 million in sales) drycleaning and Laundromat corporation recently hired an expensive consultant to offer advice about the business. The company had suffered in...
Howard Scott
May 21, 2009
How many times a day do you hear the word “huh?” Is “Say what?” a common phrase around your store? How often do you believe your attendants are asked to repeat their words...
Howard Scott
April 7, 2009
Most people probably don’t tie the words “event” and “self-service laundry” together. After all, yours is a service business, where people come in at their convenience. The...
Howard Scott
March 19, 2009
Most people probably like the fact that they leave work at 5 p.m. or so and forget about it. But not entrepreneurs. Sixty- to 70-hour workweeks are not unusual. That’s...
Howard Scott
November 28, 2008
Simple guidelines can be just the thing to obtain a memorable snapshot of your laundry business. Such guidelines could point out patterns or problems that you might not...
Howard Scott
October 30, 2008
Your service helps customers clean their clothes. Why not give them tips on how to do a better job? Do you think this is a waste of time? Do you think everyone knows how to...
Howard Scott
October 2, 2008
During a recent five-day trip to New York City, I spent part of time visiting 15 coin laundries in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn.
When there was a staffer in attendance,...
