As Ben Franklin used to say, "A penny saved is a penny earned." It's a saying that guides many of us as owners in the drycleaning industry. Every day we monitor our labor costs, supply costs, and utility costs to make sure that we're not wasting one penny that could be going to the bottom line. Frequently, owners ask me questions about sales. How do I find new customers? How should I advertise to get new people in the door? How do I grow revenue? I would argue that the best way to grow revenue is to make sure you save the revenue you've already got. After all, just like pennies, revenue saved is revenue earned. To illustrate the power of revenue saved, or "revenue retention," as it is commonly called, I like to think of revenue in a bucket. Pretend your bucket contains all of your revenue from the previous year, say $500,000. For example, let's assume you followed Ben Franklin's maxim to the letter and managed to retain all of your customers from the previous year. That means you would have $500,000 in revenue - a full bucket.
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