MARCH/APRIL 2018 5 MOMENT WITH MARY L et’s say you are at a party and you run into friends you haven’t seen in a while—maybe for- mer college friends, neighbors, or work col- leagues. And the first question naturally would be, “What have you been up to?” And how many times have you heard the response that indicated nothing had changed? “I’m pretty much the same person.” How sad. Who wants to talk to the 55-year-old high school quar- terback whose lifetime highlight was the winning sea- son he had in 1963. Isn’t it a lot more fun and interesting to talk to someone who has lived fully, gone on to do different things, evolved and grown into the person they are today? I think so. These same scenarios happen with businesses, and it’s not good in those cases, either. No matter how successful you are today, if your business is not changing or adapting, it will eventually catch up with you. It is probably easier to make changes when your business is stagnant because the impetus to make changes is there—you have are real fiscal reason to make the changes. When things are going well, I admit it’s harder to make changes. Why fix something that isn’t broken? Because eventually it’s going to break and that never happens when you’re prepared for it. As an industry, we want to be in the position of telling everyone we’ve evolved and changed, we’re not the same old industry. DLI wants to be that interesting person at the party who has grown into a new and inspired version of themselves. When I meet people at conventions or trade shows, I can’t wait for that inevitable question, “What’s new?” Because then I get to chat about all the changes we’ve made. We strive to never rest on our laurels, to consistently bring you new and different offerings to help you along your own path to staying relevant. In this issue you will find the first bulletin in a new series called “Laundry Logic.” We all know drycleaning piece-counts are down for any number of reasons, but primarily because the business world has become more casual. People are not wearing suits and ties except maybe for weddings or funerals and even then there are exceptions. One possible course of action is to branch into wash-dry-fold, or more laundry work. This type of work is different than what you are used to getting as a drycleaner. In many cases, the work itself is not only different - employee skill sets and customer mindsets are different, too. The “Laundry Logic” series will explore many nuances and hopefully expose you to new opportunities. I’d love to hear what you think and, as always, please let us know what we can do to make sure we constantly inspire anew! Mary Scalco What’s New? Mary Scalco Plenty!