March 2007
March 2007
The
Saskatchewan Professional Drycleaners
Association is pleased to announce that the membership fees for the 2007
are FREE to all members in good standing in the 2006 year. The association will provide this free
service because of a decision to go to an alternating schedule of conventions
every second year, with the possibility of a technical seminar in
non-convention years. The SPDA has
forwarded last year's membership list to the International Fabricare Institute
along with payment for your joint membership fee. We believe this is appropriate to
"grandfather" existing members as a portion of your annual membership
fee goes towards subsidizing the convention.
The
Saskatchewan Professional Drycleaners Association will NOT be hosting a
convention this spring as originally scheduled.
The association has changed to a system of sponsoring conventions, every
second year. We have adopted this system
for a variety of reasons. First many of
our Allied Trades and suppliers feel that they do not want the expense of
setting up for a convention every year.
If the convention was less frequent, then more suppliers would attend
and some of the suppliers could make a bigger effort to display new products. Many times, we have debated the timing of the
convention, but this year we are competing with several other industry
conventions like The Clean Show in
We
are also having difficulty finding speakers and presenters. We have a good track record of finding
excellent speakers, often at little or no expense. Conversely, some of our major presenters have
substantial speaking fees and travel expenses are growing beyond the budget of
our annual convention. We feel that we
can better cope with these issues on alternating convention years. But, we still need your help. For all members who are receiving free
membership, we invite you to contact a member of the association board and
provide your feedback regarding topics and speakers for future technical
seminars. Over the last eleven years, we
have sponsored many spotting, pressing, maintenance and management seminars
both at conventions and at separate locations.
We need to know what you are looking for in this area. We want your input and suggestions.
For
all the reasons noted above, we feel that a convention every second year would
be more appropriate for our association.
Watch for upcoming notices regarding a technical seminar some time this
fall/winter. ■
Pressing Issues is published
on behalf of the SPDA by
Lakeview Office Services,
Ph: (306) 584-3581
Talking BUSINESS
Steve Strauss
Rather than my normal question and answer fare, this
month I want to look ahead. I have often
said that this is an amazing time to be an entrepreneur. Trends and tools have combined to allow small
business people to do more than ever in history. So here then are my Top 10 Trends in Small
Business, 2007.
10. Web 2.0: The first time I went online, in 1997 or so, I
remember thinking that the Internet seemed to be nothing more than a giant Yellow Pages, as the only thing there seemed to
be able to do online then was to read homepages of various businesses.
In the few years
after that, the Internet boom occurred and businesspeople of all stripes tried
to figure out how to monetize the Web (yours truly included, with a truncated
attempt to create a legal supercenter I called “Lawtropolis!”). A few of these entrepreneurs were successful,
like Jeff Bezos with Amazon.com and the folks over at Yahoo, but many were not.
But the story,
happily, did not end there. We are now
seeing the emergence of what has been called Web 2.0, and it is great news for
the small businessperson. The novelty
and nervousness of buying online is now gone and e-commerce has exploded. One example:
According to the Internet retailers’ industry group IMRG, Christmas
sales this year were up 50% over last year.
Whether it’s selling to consumers or
businesses or affiliate marketing or e-services or whatever, there is no
shortage of ways to expand your business online, and now is the time to do so.
9. e-Marketing Trumps Traditional Marketing:
A correlation to Trend No. 10 is that the continued emergence of the
Internet means the continued devaluation of traditional advertising
sources. The days when you could simply
buy a television advertising package, for instance, and expect results is
waning. TiVo for one is making that
obsolete. Satellite radio is doing the
same in radio.
In comparison,
online marketing is booming. Small
business advertising is the backbone of the Google empire, and a main reason
small business people like it is that they pay only for qualified leads (or
clicks as the case may be). Google
didn’t become Google by accident. Savvy
entrepreneurs are moving a significant portion of their marketing online.
8. Little is the New Big:
With all due respect to Seth Godin, I have been discussing this trend
for a few years now, and 2006 is the year when we saw it come to fruition. The latest statistics show that there are now
at least 20 million micro businesses in this country, and by some estimates,
the number is much higher.
These businesses
are fed by the ever increasing, powerful, technological tools being made
available to small businesses, as well as the growth of micro businesses
worldwide (see Trend No. 5, The World is Getting Flatter).
The trend extends
beyond types of businesses into products as well. Small products like the iPod and the Mini
Cooper similarly indicate that little is the new big.
7. Say Hello to the New Consumer:
There is a sea change occurring in who our most likely customers will
be. For the past generation or so, the
Baby Boom generation grew into middle age and businesses large and small worked
at tapping this generally affluent, consumer-driven, huge market. But the times, they are a ‘changing’, because
the demographics of this country are changing, and you may well consider
changing with it.
First off, the
Boomers are starting to enter, if not old age, then late-middle age, as the
first wave begins to turn 60. That’s a
market. Their children, Gen Y, are a
sophisticated, computer savvy independent-minded bunch and another potentially
lucrative market. The final piece of
this new market puzzle is the growth of the Hispanic market.
continued …
According to a Washington
Post story last
year, “Hispanics accounted for about half the growth in the
6. Fragmentation is Changing Everything:
There are hundreds of television stations available to you right this
very minute, hundreds of regular and satellite radio stations, as well as a
multitude of Podcasts, downloads, uplinks, and billions of websites. The television networks are losing power and
market share because information is now readily available 24/7 in a variety of
formats. Information is fragmenting, as
is business: Millions of small businesses around the globe have become international
business thanks to the Internet.
It used to be
that you had to be a huge corporation with a corresponding corporate budget to
be a major business player, but not so today.
Today, anyone with a computer, Internet access, and a good idea can tap
this fragmented universe.
5. The World is Getting Flatter:
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman’s book
continues to make waves and influence people almost two years after it was
published because it is really onto something.
We all know we are living in an amazing time, where technology is
creating fresh connections and old ways are being transformed. The World is Flat explains what it taking
place and how the old world is being turned into a brave new one, in ways both
good and bad.
For the
entrepreneur, this phenomenon carries
with it both
risks and rewards.
The
downside is that there are many, many more people competing
with you now. The good news is that
there are that many more markets and potential customers out there too.
4. Green Revolution:
Whether it’s GM unveiling an all-new electric concept car last week, or
Whole Foods markets becoming nearly ubiquitous, or the rise of sustainable
development, there is no doubt that there is an increased desire on the part of
businesses and consumers alike to go green.
For the small
business owner, the green revolution presents opportunities: It can mean helping other companies be more
environmentally friendly, or catering to the desires of your customers to be
more organic, or offering green products, and so on, but whatever the case,
this may be a chance to do good and do well at the same time.
3. Personalization:
Time
magazine didn’t name you the Person of the Year for nothing. Personalization is changing everything, business
included, maybe business especially.
This trend is taking many forms, from user created content (communal
encyclopedias, Amazon.com reviews, the blogosphere) to portable, downloadable music,
and websites such as YouTube and MySpace. The future is here
and (with all due respect to Burger King) now you can have it your way.
How do you use
this to your advantage? I’m not quite
sure yet. What I do know is that it is
here and we better figure it out.
2. Work anywhere, any place:
This was going to be my No. 1 trend until I read an article you will
hear about in a moment. In either case,
the ability to now work wherever and whenever you want is one of the most
amazing things that has happened to small business, ever.
There was a time
when you worked from 9 to 5. It seems
quaint, doesn’t it? The tools now
available, but especially the Internet and wireless technology, are
transforming how we get the job done.
Working from home, or on vacation, or while on the commuter train, or at
a stop light means that the line between work life and home life continues to
be blurred. It also means we can be more
flexible and creative.
It is liberating
not having to go to the office and work at your desk every day.
1. Global warming may put you out of business:
According to a report from the British government written by former
World Bank economist Sir Nicholas Stern (“The Stern Review on the Economics of
Climate Change”). “Climate change could devastate the global
economy on a scale of the two world wars and the depression of the 1930s” (CNN.com, October 30, 2006).
“The report said
global warming could result in melting glaciers, rising sea levels, falling
crop yields, drinking water shortages, higher death tolls from malnutrition and
heat stress, and outbreaks of malaria and dengue fever.” In turn, we cold witness a mass migration of
millions, the likes of which we have never seen and the effects of which
will be devastating.
From a purely economic point of view, Stern contends that the global
economy could shrink by 20%.
The most chilling
sentence in the report? “This disaster
is not set to happen in some science fiction future many years ahead, but in
our lifetime.”
I am not here to
discuss whether global warming is real or whether it is due to human actions or
all of the other nonsense usually associated with this debate. All I know is that the British government
assigned Stern the task of analyzing the effects of current environmental
trends, and his report is chilling.
Of course, this
can be reversed. Says Stern, “We have
the time and knowledge to act but only if we act internationally, strongly and
urgently.”
May you live in
interesting times indeed! ■
The views expressed here are those of the author. You can e-mail Steve Strauss at sstrauss@MrAllBiz.com. Questions may be addressed in subsequent
columns. Steven D. Strauss is one of the
world’s leading business experts. A
lawyer, author, and public speaker, Steve has spoken around the world about
entrepreneurship, including at the United Nations, and he has been on CNN,
CNBC, MSNBC, the O’Reilly Factor, and many other television and radio
shows. His latest book is The Small Business Bible: Everything You Need to Know About Starting and Growing Your Own
Business. If you would like Steve to
speak to your group, help your business grow, or if you would like to sign up
for his free newsletter, “Small Business Success Secrets!” please visit his
website, www.MrAllBiz.com.
Board of Directors
· Larry Tessier, President (306) 789-9666
Busy Bee Cleaners,
· Rob Kinley, Vice-President (306) 244-6243
Image Cleaners,
· Don Pattison, Past President (306) 242-5811
Executive Cleaners,
· Shane Bancescue, Secretary/Treasurer
Work (306) 721-8500 - Fax (306) 721-2710
Home (306) 729-2080
· Arlene Clark, Director,
(306) 693-4466
Kwala-T Cleaners,
· Bob Telfer, Director North Sask.
(306) 764-6262
Dresswell Drycleaners,
TABS No.
354
International
Fabricare Institute Bulletin
Drapes
Damaged By Light
What Is The Problem? Tears show up after cleaning in
draperies or curtains that have weakened yarns.
What Does It Look
Like? The damage appears as horizontal shredding
that runs in straight vertical lines along the more exposed edges or folds of a
drapery. The damage can show up on the
shell side, the lining side, or both, but it is always confined to the pattern
of direct or indirect exposure from sunlight while hanging. Other areas of fabric protected from sunlight
exposure are not degraded. In most cases
the thinner vertical yarns are gone while the thicker horizontal yarns remain.
What Caused It?
Exposure to sunlight on a continual basis will gradually weaken and
eventually cause damage to most textiles.
Sometimes a dye type, print design, or fabric finish absorbs more
damaging rays and accelerates sun damage, so some curtains can be more
susceptible to damage over time than others.
Can It Be Prevented?
Not really. This type of damage
can only be prevented by blocking out exposure to sunlight, which may not be
desirable. Use of shades, blinds,
blackout linings, or similar methods can be used to protect draperies from
sunlight exposure.
The Top 10 Small Business Trends
for 2007
Who Is Responsible? This is a
normal circumstance of consumer use and is to be expected on curtains exposed
to the sun over time. Some types of
fabrics are more sensitive to light than others, but basically drapes more
protected from sunlight will not show damage.
Light rays slowly weaken and degrade the fabric structure only in the
more exposed areas, such as folds, or edges.
The necessary agitation of cleaning causes the already weakened yarns to
separate and tear. Remember, all
professional care processes are total immersion, subjecting the entire curtain
and all components to the same treatment, and cannot cause this type of
selective damage.
Is There A Remedy?
Drapes damaged by light cannot be repaired. ■