Just Getting Caught Up

I just hit a milestone — 30 customers. As the business grows I’m finding less time to write about it. The first week of May has gone much better than expected. I’ve already received multiple orders from the two apartment buildings that I made deals with. In addition I have orders coming in from the Sheraton hotel in downtown Dallas.

Even though I’m getting busier, I don’t want to let this blog get away from me.

Here are the things I’ve done recently and why —

• I stopped advertising on Instagram altogether. They were not generating as many conversions as Google advertising, and I don’t have the budget for both. I’m beginning to understand the importance of the map search engines for local companies.
• I made a decision to go after hotels that don’t offer full service laundry on the premises because of the high demand I am getting from hotel guests. I would like to approach even the hotels that do offer laundry service. Once I have a nice process of pitching down I will probably go that route. Right now I’m focusing on hotels that don’t view me as direct competition.
• I mapped out the nearest 50 or so hotels. The best hotels for me to approach are middle of the pack (3-star) such as Best Western, La Quinta Inn, Holiday Inn, etc.
• I called 5 of the nearest and got the names of the General Managers. Deciding on how to approach these people took me some time. At first I wanted to just email them but so many emails get lost because they are considered spam. I want to make the right first impression. So I decided to mail physical packages directly to the GM’s by name.
• I deleted the specials and blog pages off of my website. I’ve known since the beginning that this blog wasn’t meant for my customers anyway. This blog has a different purpose than the website and it is a distraction. The specials page was superfluous as well since everyone pretty much receives the same special most of the time.

Looking Ahead

I’m satisfied with the results of my efforts to get into those 2 buildings and seeing how well it works only motivates me to continue to pursue more buildings, especially high rises with lots of elevators.

Right now my focus is to knock out the work to approach the 5 hotels I have targeted. Then I will plan approaching more luxury apartments. I’ve found hotels are good commerce for my business for the following reasons —

• Demand — People at hotels are much more likely to need laundry service than someone with a washer and dryer.
• Supplies — Since most hotel guests will not be repeat customers, I don’t provide them with free laundry bags or other promotional items, which saves me money.
• Access — Hotels are so easy to deliver to. Just park in valet and say you have a delivery.

They do have their shortcomings as well. As I said it is hard to retain hotel customers because most of them are here temporarily. I have a plan of action to knock out these 5 hotels asap.

My biggest concern in all this going forward is getting swamped with the laundry and having to outsource it. My plan now is to go out of my way not to do that. Keeping all the work in-house means hiring an employee. An employee will cost roughly the same as outsourcing, according to my preliminary calculations. But having an employee will give my company a lot more control over the quality of our service.

It’s almost essential to have a commercial space to work in and I have a feeling that will come before the employee out of necessity. Basically what I’m saying is that as soon as the business grows to that point, I will need a loan or investment to get it to the next level.

Updated To Do List

1. Thank you card to Mosaic front office .
2. Write Hotel Letter.
3. Fix flyers & print at Fedex.
4. Send packages.
5. Scope out coffee shops — Find bulletin boards.
6. New Google Ad set when this one expires. Get a new promo code
7. New feather logo circle background transparent feather & the word.

This story is part of a series documenting the journey of a 2016 Dallas startup called Feather. For your reference here is the Table of Contents for the series.

Previous Story: April 2016 Report

Next Story: I Don’t Have the Courage to be a Salesman

Follow me more closely on Snapchat!

Thanks for reading!