There are thousands of laundry and dry cleaning businesses all over the world. But only a few of them can do business scaling. Except for those few businesses, others are still serving very few customers every day and have only 1-2 stores. Do you know why this difference exists between these two types of businesses? No, it is not because of huge capital investments by large businesses. But it is due to better operations and business management by them.
So if you are one of the latter types of businesses, here is what you can do to achieve that business growth. Start tracking KPIs(Key Performance Indicators) of your business and focus on improving the results. By tracking KPIs, you will not only be able to manage your business better but you will also get quantifiable metrics. Those metrics will give you a target to improve upon every time.
Why should you track these metrics:
- Helps in identifying scopes for improvements opportunities
- Helps you in allocating resources efficiently
- Gives you a benchmark revenue figure to work upon
- The numbers keep you motivated to achieve more
- A better understanding of your business operations
- Helps in taking business decisions
Here is a list of 5 metrics that every laundry business should target for successful growth:
1. Number of Garments processed every day
The daily in and out of garments from your workshop tells you a lot about your operations. A Small laundry business processes 0-100 garments every day. And a relatively large laundry business processes anywhere from 100 to 1000 garments every day. Categorizing your business based on the number of garments processed per day gives you a holistic view of the operations of your business.
2. Utility Costs
A laundry business requires you to incur many costs every day. Monitor the costs incurred on daily operations over a while. These costs will include electricity costs, transportation charges and the cost of using water. Include all other miscellaneous expenses in this and track them over a while. You will start noticing repetitions after a specific period. Take these repetitive costs as a base and search for ways to reduce these costs. Once you track these costs, you will be surprised by knowing the number of costs that can be cut down. Thus, just reduce these costs keeping your business output at the maximum. Read more about greener ways to cut down costs in a laundry business here.
3. Daily Cash Book
Checking the cash book daily after a day’s operations is a custom that is followed by every dry cleaner around the world. A day at the store cannot be concluded without checking the transactions at the end of the day. This check helps to know the daily in and out of money as well as the revenue earned on a specific day.
4. Customer Feedback and Complaints
As much as it is important to manage your business effectively, it is equally important to know your customers since they are the main building block of any business. Keep track of your delivery time and the quality of services you are providing. A single mistake from your end can lead you to lose a well-paying customer. It is important to take feedback from every customer after completing an order. If the customer is happy about your services, you will get a good review and if he/she isn’t happy, you will get numbers to work upon. Either way, tracking customer feedback will prove to be a boon for your business.
For better tracking of customer complaints and feedback, use mobile apps for your on-demand services. These applications provide customers with the power to book a pickup and delivery request at their comfort and also enables them to ask them for feedback after the order is completed. Read more about On-Demand App here. Or you can connect with us here to discuss the possibility of enabling an on-demand app in your laundry business.
5. Gross Income/Profitability
You are running a business, it is profitable and you are happy with the money you are generating from this business because you feel it’s the optimum amount one can earn in a laundry business. Is this your story? If it is, it might be time for you to rethink your thoughts. What if all the big laundry business chains of the world started thinking like this at the beginning of their business? Well, they would’ve never become a popular household name then. So what’s stopping you from becoming the next household name? Your inability to scale your business is stopping you.
Here’s what you should do to measure your profitability and scale your business – Once you start earning a sufficient amount of profits from your laundry store, start delegating the work to your employees at the store and focus on opening a new store. Then, set a benchmark for the new store’s profits and similarly, put it on autopilot mode once it’s stable enough and start thinking about opening another new store. This chain continues until you reach a point where you are a household name. That’s how big businesses are made.
We, at QDC, have helped many businesses scale their way to profitability from just one single store to hundreds of stores. For any consultation, you may connect with us here.
Once you start tracking all these metrics, you will be able to grow your business multifold. It is rightly said by someone that ‘You can’t improve what you can’t measure’. So, start measuring these metrics now and make your business go through the ride of growth. We, at QDC, aim to provide the best help to all laundry businesses. So if you need our help, don’t forget to write to us at [email protected] or get on a 1:1 consultation for your business here.
