Oregon Dry Cleaners Association

Oregon Dry Cleaners Association Newsletter October 2004 in this issue Tip Top Cleaners - Portland Vendor Recognition Employee Gift idea's for the Holidays Greetings! So much time goes into planning convention, and yet we all still have businesses to run that don't wait while we're gone. However each year's convention provides me with knowledge and a chance to network with my fellow cleaners and learn new things. I find that I always come back energized with a new resolve to try out a new trick or change something in our plant. We will have a full convention report in our next issue but at this time I'd like to thank our vendors that came to convention with pictures and links to their websites! Last year was our first year doing tabletop displays, and we had a nice turn out again this year. It really gives our allied trades and others a chance to show their stuff. I'd also like to thank Scott and Mickie McClure for being this month's member profile, Bob and I wound up at the McClure table this year during the banquet and their tips and insights into this industry are invaluable. Leslie Kettenhofen - District 3 Director, Webmaster & Newsletter Editor Tip Top Cleaners - Portland Owners Scott & Mickie McClure Mickie has been involved with dry-cleaning for over 35 years starting work for a family friend in Illinois. I started in dry-cleaning when we moved to Oregon. We looked for a business that we enjoyed working in that provided a stable income and at the same time allowed us to be our own boss. We purchased our first plant in 2002, which was an existing store that had been in business in the same location for over 50 yrs. Currently we have the single location which we our expanding and is located @ 2001 East Burnside St. in Portland. We currently have 4 full time and 1 part time employees When we bought our cleaners we switched to the green earth cleaning system because of its environmental safety and the cleaning ability of the solution. We do our own shirts on a Unipress single buck, the dry- cleaning machine is a Realstar 40 #, the finishing equipment utilized is Unipress utility & legger, Hoffman hot head, Hoffman mushroom press, Cissel Suzie and a Cissell spotting board. We use the Prestige POS System We developed a website 14 months ago and we believe the exposure that it has given us, has more than paid for the site, which is www.tiptopcleaner.com. We have currently acquired approximately 25 new customers from the site and they have become regular customers that were searching for environmentally safe cleaning The best dry-cleaning show attended was clean show 2003 We are members of the ODCA   2001 E. Burnside Portland, OR 97214 9 503 234 4101 Fax 503 230 0330 Visit their Website Vendor Recognition Business Killers Michael Huard gave us a great presentation on "Business Killers" and also had a booth for Mass Mutual Financial group for information on Family Business & Retirement Planning. Covers Etc & Kleerwite Chemical Lisa Thornton our Covers Etc Represenative is also our new Kleerwite Chemical Represenative here in Oregon and Dennis Hart Vice President of Sales came out to support her in her new endeavor as well. Lisa managed to escape the photos so in this one you'll find Denis Hart (center) speaking with Kathey Butters President Elect and Jack Anchick Towne & Country Cleaners (White City). Imagine Cleaners Online - Website Design, Email Marketing, My Profit Keeper and CleanSuite Point of Sale Software. As Dry Cleaner Owner, District 3 Director, Webmaster and Newsletter editor, I was behind the Camera most of the evening, and didn't get a picture of my own booth, but Brian Olson 45th Ave Cleaners snapped the photo above of me, and I snapped this one of him while he was checking out CleanSuite Point of Sale. Peterson Equipment Company came with a very nice display and while I didn't get a picture of them at their booth I did catch them taking a brief break later on. Prestige Point of Sale Kishor Patel and Sunil Kumar had a very busy booth and an excellent display. Sunil owner of Prestige Cleaners also did a fantastic job of Role Playing a business owner dealing with an irate employee during our morning presentation by the Bureau of Labor and Industries. Taylor Boiler & Equipment Company Jeff Tazelaar our newest Allied Trade member , whom we profiled in our April Newsletter showed up with a great display and was a big hit at convention. He's on the right in this picture talking Boiler's with Michael O'Connor of Continental Cleaners, Beaverton. And last but not least we had our ODCA Booth setup. This gave everyone a chance to purchase in person some of the items that you can purchase in our online store. It also gave everyone time to renew early and receive a valuable bonus. If you renew before December 31, 2004 you'll receive a $25.00 Costco Cash Card and a $20.00 Cleaner's Supply Certificate in your membership packet and Allied Trades save $10.00 on their renewal. You can renew via PayPal on our site, or print our form from the Join Page. Visit our Allied Trades Page..... Employee Gift idea's for the Holidays Visit the ODCA Store Quick Links... Register Now Last Month's Newsletter More About Us Contact Us Services ODCA Store email: webmaster@oregondrycleaners.org phone: 5419991493 web: http://www.oregondrycleaners.org