Content about Human Interest

CHICAGO — Quick. Easy. Efficient. Who doesn’t love online banking? Be aware, though, of the danger: Hackers can access your account, drain your funds and threaten the survival of your business.

The risk is growing. Cyber attacks increased some 24% in the first half of 2012 over the same period the previous year, according to a new report from security firm Symantec. Reason? “Any time the economy goes down, white collar crime goes up,” says Bill McDermott, CEO of Atlanta-based McDermott Financial Solutions. “We’re seeing an increase in corporate account takeovers. It’s a huge problem.”

Banks commonly refuse to indemnify companies for funds stolen from commercial accounts. “A lot of people have the misunderstanding that banks offer to business accounts the protection offered to consumers,” says McDermott. “In fact, banks will not hold business account holders harmless for losses from cyber-fraud.”

CHICAGO — Smart people make dumb mistakes, especially when it comes to money. Why this is so has the experts puzzled, though there are many theories on the subject. Whatever the reason for this enigma, here are a half-dozen costly money mistakes that you need to avoid:

FAILING TO SEPARATE PERSONAL FINANCES FROM BUSINESS PERFORMANCE

Many business owners and professional practitioners keep a sharp eye on business performance while cheating themselves and their families by failing to manage their personal finances skillfully. That’s a poor idea. These are two entirely separate challenges; both need and deserve your best efforts.

There is no better time than now to review your personal financial health and your goals for a secure financial future.

FAILING TO PLAN FOR RETIREMENT

We humans tend to assign more importance to today than to tomorrow. While the concept of retirement seems to be undergoing some drastic revisions these days, for most of us, there comes a time when our working days will end.

SAN FRANCISCO — Owners often ask how to prepare their dry cleaning business for an optimum-priced sale. Generally, the answer is the same as the answer to an entirely different question: “How can I improve my business?”

To optimize the value of a business, make it the best it can be. Is that an oversimplification? Yes. Is it true? Yes.

IF YOU’RE NOT SELLING, YOU’RE BUYING

Whether you are preparing your business for an arm’s length sale, for a transfer to the next generation that you hope will be as passionate about dry cleaning as you are, or you have no sale planned, you are still preparing the company for a “sale” at some value.

If you are not actively selling your business, you are actively re-buying it yourself every day. You are making a conscious or subconscious decision to continue to exchange your capital investment, time, effort and equity (whatever the current value) for ongoing ownership of your company.

Optimized value benefits you whether you sell or not because the business is more valuable as a profit generator over the long and short terms.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Rochester is probably best known for being the home of the world famous Mayo Clinic, founded in 1889. It is Rochester’s economic center, employing some 30,000 people in the city of roughly 108,000.

But for the staffers of Dison (pronounced dee-son) Cleaners, former and present, Rochester is home to another longtime community fixture that holds a much more special place in their hearts. His name is Leland.

Earlier this year—on June 2, to be precise—Leland Bierbaum, 86, marked 65 years of service as the company’s bookkeeper. That’s right—65 years.It is his first and only job.

It was the summer of 1947 when Harold “Hap” Dison Sr., grandfather of current owners Mark and Greg Dison, hired Bierbaum. He started out making $35 a week and worked every day but Sundays.

PEMBROKE, Mass. — One of the best ways you can find out what the marketplace thinks of your business is to listen to your customers. They can tell what level of quality you churn out, how detail-focused your crew is, how pleasant and knowledgeable your counter staff appears, what makes patrons happy about your offering, and what upsets them.

But obtaining customer input is not always so easy. You can’t set up a panel of six customers and ask them questions. For one thing, they might not be truthful. For another, they probably wouldn’t agree to do it. Nor can you have them fill out a survey form, because most will not put too much thought into the effort. And if your staffers ask every customer their level of satisfaction, they would simply utter, “Fine.” So you must be creative, even ingenious, in obtaining marketing information from your customers.

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. — When Best Cleaners owners Bill and Shawn McCann completed the conversion of their family-owned business to the GreenEarth® dry cleaning method a decade ago, they knew it was the right move for many reasons.

Despite the significant cost of modifying equipment in all 11 Connecticut locations, they believed that switching from perc to the environmentally safe silicone-based solvent would be a win-win for everyone. Customers’ clothing and household goods would be treated to a kinder, gentler cleaning process while chemical odors would become a distant memory. Soon, the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection recognized Best with a Green Circle Award for voluntarily implementing a facility-wide pollution prevention plan.

In recognition of Best’s leadership and commitment to keeping Connecticut green, Connecticut State Sen. Paul Doyle recently presented the McCanns with a citation from Gov. Dannel “Dan” Malloy honoring the 10th anniversary milestone and Best’s ongoing community support.

IRVINE, Calif. — Several drycleaning and laundry services franchises were recently recognized by Entrepreneur Magazineas being among the top 500 franchise systems for 2012.

Making this year’s list were:

• Martinizing Dry Cleaning, No. 278
• ZIPS Dry Cleaners, No. 325
• FRSTeam, No. 333
• Comet Cleaners, No. 346
• Certified Restoration Drycleaning Network, No. 388
• 1-800-DryClean, No. 427
• DryClean USA, No. 461
• Pressed4Time Inc., No. 481

To be eligible for the annual Franchise 500® ranking, a franchisor must have a minimum of 10 units, with at least one in the United States, and must be seeking new franchisees, the magazine says. All companies are judged on financial strength and stability, growth rate, size of the system, and other factors.

To learn more about the Franchise 500®, visit the Entrepreneur website.

LOS ANGELES — During that first hard year of building my personal management company, I had lunch with Michael Levine, a celebrity publicist who seems to show up on TV every time a star overdoses, heads to rehab or goes to jail.

“Rick,” he said, “what you need is revenue. Doesn’t matter if you believe in the clients or not, it only matters if they help pay your rent.”

Several years later, with my company now mature and well established, he called me to remind me that it was his advice that led to my subsequent success.

“I do have to thank you,” I told him. “Every time I thought about taking on a client I wasn’t passionate about but was making money, I thought of your advice and chose not to take on the client.”

My business success was predicated on casting directors and producers believing in my sense of taste. How could I have asked the buying community to trust my belief in my clients if I didn’t believe in them?

PEMBROKE, Mass. — Tax time is here again. Before I give you some tax tips, I want to tell you to pay your fair taxes. I know that not all of you do.

While visiting a dry cleaner’s store, he said to me, “I pay myself a salary of $25,000, $500 a week. But I can’t make it on that. So I take another $20,000 out of here,” pointing to his cash register.

I looked around his small shop. This owner has worked hard 15 years to make his living. He’s doing no more business now than he was a decade ago, and he still does the lion’s share of volume himself. He works 50-55 hours a week processing clothes.

I ask myself, has he not progressed because he skims the top? Is he not interested in building a business? Is his only goal to make a living?

Would it have been different if he drew a fair salary, paid his fair share of taxes, and stayed focused on the business? I can’t say for certain, but I bet his unwarranted withdrawals have had something to do with his lack of progress.

CHICAGO — Runways in the world’s fashion capitals came alive for 2011’s fall season, as if to herald an end to recessionary reserve and embrace edgy elegance again.

Ultra-bright colors, extreme ruffles and riotous patterns starred in over-the-top productions featuring post-apocalyptic landscapes, manacled models and psychedelic toadstools. Only minutes elapsed between many of the designer duds’ debuts and the time they hit the streets, knocked off for the mass market under many more-affordable labels.

Some of the season’s styles—the classically tailored mid-century modern and menswear-inspired looks, for example—shouldn’t present professional dry cleaners with problems if they remember to read their care labels and steady their skill sets. But others may have the most seasoned operators at a loss for a cleaning strategy, or at risk for a claim.

And as the following four trends move from the runway to the mall, they have the potential to present the biggest challenges.

CHICAGO — Runways in the world’s fashion capitals came alive for 2011’s fall season, as if to herald an end to recessionary reserve and embrace edgy elegance again.

Ultra-bright colors, extreme ruffles and riotous patterns starred in over-the-top productions featuring post-apocalyptic landscapes, manacled models and psychedelic toadstools. Only minutes elapsed between many of the designer duds’ debuts and the time they hit the streets, knocked off for the mass market under many more-affordable labels.

Some of the season’s styles—the classically tailored mid-century modern and menswear-inspired looks, for example—shouldn’t present professional dry cleaners with problems if they remember to read their care labels and steady their skill sets. But others may have the most seasoned operators at a loss for a cleaning strategy, or at risk for a claim.

And as the following four trends move from the runway to the mall, they have the potential to present the biggest challenges.

LOS ANGELES — I have shopped all over the world: in Toronto, I shop at Rochester Big and Tall. In New York, Rochester Big and Tall. In London, Rochester; Chicago, Rochester. Being 6-foot-4 with 37-inch sleeves, my choices in clothing have been pretty limited. At most big and tall men’s stores, Nehru jackets are just coming into style.

That was a bit of a problem when I was a personal manager and knew that there’d be some “Hollywood” people judging me on my “look.” Though I love dressing well, most clothing stores are fashion museums to me, and stylish clothes the artifacts.

I compensated with ties. I became known for having an amazing tie collection: thin, wide, vintage and new. While designer threads were out of the question because they weren’t made in my size, I got people to focus on the one fashion accessory where I could compete.

Instead of accepting my limitations, I concentrated on the positives.