How to Start a Laundry and Dry Cleaning Business by Quick Dry Cleaning Software

HOW TO START A

LAUNDRY AND DRY CLEANING BUSINESS A Step by Step Guide for Business Success

STEP SETUP OF WORKSHOP / PROCESSING UNIT

The first task you need to do is to research on workshop and processing unit as Workshop plays an important role. Research on different workshops will give you a sound idea and provide you different ways to manage your business and will also provide you path to walk on by which you can easily pre plan things and can provide you the way to settle your workshop with all important and valuable components.

1. FIND A SUITABLE PLACE ď Ź

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Suitable place for workshop is another important aspect to keep in mind at the time of setting up workshop unit as it should be easy to travel as you willl send your clothes for washing. Workshop requires a large space as different machines are used to process the garments so a workshop must have proper space .

2. ELECTRICITY REQUIRMENT While deciding about the workshop one must take care about electricity requirement as what kind of phase you are going to be use single phase or 3 phase depending upon his usage and load.

How to Start a Laundry and Dry Cleaning Business

3. WATER CONNECTION One must take care of proper water supply as water and electricity are most needful ingredients in workshop to keep the clothed ready at given time and to make your business successful.

4. CERTIFICATIONS AND LEGAL DOCUMENTS Certifications are becoming trade mark noways Customers get attract when they see any certification So it will help you in bringing you customers. Apart from certification legal documents like clearance from local government is required

How to Start a Laundry and Dry Cleaning Business

STEP SETUP OF SHOP/ STORE

1. GOOD FRONT Face is the index of mind similarly the front of any shop is the index of your Dry cleaning or Laundry business. The front of the shop will help you to make your branding and will help you to attract customers .

2. LOCALITY Certifications are becoming trade mark noways Customers get attract when they see any certification So it will help you in bringing you customers. Apart from certification legal documents like clearance from local government is required

3. LOOKS The internal infrastructure of the Shop or Store should be eye catching and attractive. The More catchy it will look the more it will catch the customers. The store or Shop should display all the things like how the garments are placed and how neatly and cleanly you are handling the business. Messy stuff irritates customers. Customers need the things to be neat and clean.

4. RESOURCES AVAILAIBILITY One should Open the store or shop where All the required resources like water , electricity And dry cleaning material is easily available. There should not be any scarcity of resources.

How to Start a Laundry and Dry Cleaning Business

5. STAFF REQUIREMENT The staff is valuable and important resource to run any business smoothly. Business needs different personnel for different purpose .The basic question comes under this is how many services you are giving to the customers? Like if you are providing pick and home facility so you must have 1 guy for pick and drop facility at the same time you also need 1 guy to be at counter to attend the customers and 1 guy for checking. So personnel requirement depends upon how many services you are providing to the customers Now the question personnels? ď Ź

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The basic step is to use the medium of advertisement like newspaper , pamphlets and portals. One can use local agencies to hire personnel One can hire personnel from specialized agencies particularly specialized in this field.

How to Start a Laundry and Dry Cleaning Business

STEP RAW MATERIAL AND MACHINERY

1. RAW MATERIAL Raw Material includes Chemicals, Packing material ,barcode Printing material etc. You must know which chemicals will be used ,Which material you will used and what kind of material should you use for barcode printing as you know barcode can be vanished if you do not use quality material. You can get the knowledge all above questions from existing business and you can also go for seminars and dry cleaners meeting . Once you decide which material to use you should find the place from where to buy this raw material and chemicals at best prices that should be easy on your pocket books. Go through various vendors and pick up the best as per your requirement as many vendors are available in the market.

2. MACHINERY Machinery setup is a one time and predefined task. What all equipments to be used and with how much capacity will be required. One should take care of these machinery aspects as changing machinery again and again is challenging task. Technology also plays important role in deciding which machinery to be used. You also need to finalize technology that you will use and deliver to customers with all pros and cons of that technology. Once you decide which technology to be used you need to survey about that technology and gather feedback. Once you are confirmed with the machine/technology you should consult existing businessmen and survey yourself from where to buy the Technology. Some aspects that matters while Invite a proposal and decide after comparing there prices, how good is there support system, do they have local support etc.

How to Start a Laundry and Dry Cleaning Business

STEP

FINANCES

All businesses are different, whether it is size, sector, location, or speciality – there is always an element that sets one apart from the other. But there is one thing that is common to every business in every country and sector around the world – finance. It determines the income coming in and the expenditure going out, inputs and outputs, the size of an organization, and more importantly if it will be financially successful and sustainable. Before making the decision to branch out and step into the unknown, it’s important to understand the role the finance functions play in the world of business. It forms the basis of effective business management and will ultimately affect the bottom line. Often the hardest part of starting a business is raising the money to get going. The entrepreneur might have a great idea and clear idea of how to turn it into a successful business. However, if sufficient finance can't be raised, it is unlikely that the business will get off the ground. Raising finance for start-up requires careful planning. The owner needs to decide:    

How much finance is required? When and how long the finance is needed for? What security (if any) can be provided? Whether the owner is prepared to give up some control (ownership) of the start-up in return for investment? How to Start a Laundry and Dry Cleaning Business

STEP

INCREASE YOUR BUSINESS WITH BRANDING

Branding is one of the most important aspects of any business, large or small. An effective brand strategy gives you a major edge in increasingly competitive markets. But what exactly does "branding" mean? How does it affect a business like yours? Simply put, your brand is your promise to your customer. It tells them what they can expect from your products and services, and it differentiates your offering from your competitors'. Your brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be. The foundation of your brand is your logo. Your website, packaging and promotional materials. Some Important things to make your business a brand includes Invoice Design- Invoice must include appropriate business logo and an elegant tag line so as to make your business meaningful. Write a memorable, meaningful and concise statement that captures the essence of your brand.

1. SHOP INTERIOR AND DESIGN Shop interior and design helps in to make it brand and influenced by and contribute to its corporate values.

How to Start a Laundry and Dry Cleaning Business

2. PACKING MATERIAL Effective packaging can sell a brand at its point-of-sale. It’s a powerful visual design element that needs to be a key ingredient in your marketing mix. It’s also essential to help you build your brand's image and identity so that you truly stand out from the crowd. 

Play an important role in your product’s saleability.

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Contribute to the marketability of your offering.

3. UNIFORMS Every interaction a member of your staff has with existing and potential customers is reinforcing your brand. Even when they are travelling to and from work and out to lunch amongst the general public it’s an opportunity for your brand to gain additional exposure. It’s like having your own mobile advertisement Color branded uniforms have a positive effect in three very different ways: 

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Staff benefits through an increased sense of pride, sharing a sense of camaraderie and equality Company benefits through increased brand recognition and a professional looking team Customers benefit by easily identifying staff and building a sense of trust.

How to Start a Laundry and Dry Cleaning Business

4. SMS Sms can be send at the time of booking and delivery of garments to the customer, so it will help the customer to save his time as well as it will help you to make impression in front of customers.

5. BE CONSISTENT Every interaction a member of your staff has with existing and potential customers is reinforcing your brand. Even when they are travelling to and from work and out to lunch amongst the general public it’s an opportunity for your brand to gain additional exposure. It’s like having your own mobile advertisement Color branded uniforms have a positive effect in three very different ways: 

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6. PROCESS Your work flow attracts the customer mad market. How you are managing the pick up and drop facility ,your way of handling with the customer ,your way of managing clothes leave a huge impact on customer's mind. How you communicate with your customers like sending promotional SMS or emails and garments related SMS at different times. How to Start a Laundry and Dry Cleaning Business

STEP

ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT

Manage Accounts care of daily cash balances, orders, cash, sales, income and expenses. Account books gives you a glimpse of how business is growing, these are important numbers to judge business health. Also you should take care of taxation as per government rules and regulation. Managing accounts on day to day basis is important task as it helps to get information about daily basis receiving and expenditure. Maintaining records will help us to know the total profit I am earning or i do need to change in anything as i am not getting the expected results. It also helps in security basis owner will get to know that accounting is going well and with no employee pilferage.

How to Start a Laundry and Dry Cleaning Business

STEP

CUSTOMER RETENTION

Every small business owner knows how crucial it is to drive repeat business and keep customers coming back. Delivering a superior product or service and providing excellent customer support are mandatory criteria – but what else can be done to differentiate your business? Quality and convenience-If you are providing quality services and also providing convenience to customers, they don’t have any reason to look for another option. Offering promos or discounts.-A promotion or special offer is a great incentive for a first-time customer to return to your store, whether it’s online or a brick and mortar location. It also shows that you care about your customers. Building a loyal client base definitely requires you to provide these special deals every so often. Take down detailed customer notes -the simplest things mean the most in a small business. Remembering small details about a customer – their product preferences, for example, can go a long way in fortifying your relationship with them. They will appreciate you taking the time to recall specific details about their last order, considering the many other customers you are handling on a constant basis. Advantages Of Customer Retention

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Retaining customers is less expensive than acquiring new ones. Happy customers are more likely to tell their friends and family about your business. Repeat customers spend more money but require less help. How to Start a Laundry and Dry Cleaning Business

STEP

GROWTH STRATEGY

Once you have a good set of customers to sustain your business, you should strive to drive a growth strategy. One should know how to gain new customer and how to get more business from current customers. Most small companies have plans to grow their business and increase profits. However, there are certain methods business must use for implementing a growth strategy. The method a business use to expand its business is largely contingent upon its financial situation, the competition and even government regulation. Some common growth strategies in business include services expansion,packages delivery like advance package,discount package and Flat quantity package.

How to Start a Laundry and Dry Cleaning Business

STEP

PROCESS IMPROVEMENT

Once you have achieved a working process workflow, you should start working on improving it, try to fill the gaps, try to improve, introduce new ways (chemicals, machinery automation ) to speed up the process and save on time and cost. 

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Get Automate- It will help you in branding as it will attract the customers and even help you in maintain records with the help of tracking and accounts managing mechanism. It will save your time and help you out by speeding up your process. Improve Fabric Care - Customers entrust their most sensitive, delicate garments to dry cleaners with the understanding that they’ll be receiving excellent fabric care. Expand Your List of Items that can be laundered

How to Start a Laundry and Dry Cleaning Business

STEP

INVESTMENT IN TECHNOLOGY

In todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s world no business can be successful without the use of technology; it has power to touch every aspect of life. Same goes with Dry Cleaning business, you can have machinery to process garments, Steam Press to improve pressing unit, and so on. One particular thing is to use a good software for management of your business. In fact a good software can help you improve in every aspect of business like invoicing, customer retention, growth, communication, accounting.

How to Start a Laundry and Dry Cleaning Business

THANK YOU You must be getting 100s of garments on a daily basis and hence there is a need to employ proper control like a software to track garments and employee pilferage. If you can ensure that no garment is lost and also ensure that your processes are strong enough that employee pilferages can be kept at minimum then you would be able to increase your profits considerably. Quick Dry Cleaning Software is one of the most efficient software available for dry cleaning and laundry businesses. With users in 23 countries, spread across 5 Continents, it can help you to take your business to next level by increasing profits immensely, reduce wastage, deliver a "WOW" feeling to your customers and create better working environment for your staff. In case you are interested to know more about this software feel free to start a free trial version of Quick Dry Cleaning Software.

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