Running the Bases today with Keith Ferguson from Cleaners Max - a complete and discount dry cleaner in Rockville, MD. Keith shares his path toward entrepreneurship over the course of his career. Learn how his past experiences have prepared him for his current project as the owner of a dry cleaning shop in Rockville.

At 61, Keith dove into the business start-up pool at a time when people are thinking about the horizon. Not Keith, he’s felt the fire of entrepreneurship and owning his own business for most of his life. He’s had a different path and varied experiences, but it all focuses on connecting with people, delivering a great service and building an incredible team.

Learn more about Cleaners Max, the Rockville Dry Cleaner at http://cleanersmax.net

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Running the Bases with Small Businesses

Cleaners Max - Rockville Dry Cleaner

Randy Rohde 0:05

Running the bases with small businesses. I'm Randy roading, and I have a passion to work with small businesses. And I love baseball. So I thought, hey, let's bring them together. So every episode, I sit down with local entrepreneurs, Business Builders and small business owners to talk about their wins and whips, their tools of the trade, and to give actionable tips to other business managers

will cover the bases with entrepreneurship, operations, sales, digital marketing, innovation, plus a little fun baseball Talk. Thanks for joining us today. settle in, grab your Cracker Jacks and you know what they say white ball.

Oh righty, hey, thanks Gary.

Now, the guy's name really isn't Gary. I don't know who he is, but he's kind of fun to have around though. Hey, thanks for joining us today running the bases with small businesses. I'm Randy Rohde and today we have the dry cleaning King all the way from Rockville, Maryland, Keith Ferguson, Keith, how are you doing, brother?

Keith Ferguson 1:20

I am doing well. Thanks for having me. Keith, you have you're a

Randy Rohde 1:27

little bit different than some of our past guests. Where you are a relatively new business owner so you've been in business for about 18 months or so. With your business, it's called Cleaners Max. So when I said the dry cleaning King literally you have a dry cleaning business. I'm anxious to hear a lot about the business from you and I'm sure some of our listeners probably don't even think about dry cleaning. So tell us a little bit about what is Cleaners Max give a little background.

Keith Ferguson 2:00

Well Cleaners Max, we're a full service, dry cleaners established around 2004 gone to two owners and deferred we are a discount cleaner. And so we provide a quality cleaning at a discounted price situated in the heart of Rockville on a very busy thoroughfare. We're very visible and you drive down the rocker pipe. There we are. And so I took over this business November the 15th 2018. It's been quite an experience over the last 18 months. I enjoy every moment of it. I'm there six days a week, totally enjoy my team. We've got some long-established customers, people who I've not met before in this and you know, I've been coming here since 2004.

Randy Rohde 2:58

So, Keith, give us a little bit of your background what got you to this place today?

Keith Ferguson 3:05

I worked in healthcare for about 18 years at a well renowned pediatric institution here in the Washington DC metro region. And after being there for 18 years and having achieved a number of successes, managing and directing people and projects and things of that nature, one day I decided I wanted to transition into something completely new. Retail became sort of the next step for me. Now, had I done any retail prior to that big bold shot? No. And I say no, probably boldly because the only real retail experience I had had was food retail experience in high school. But there's certainly nothing, you know, the scale that I was just about to leap into.

And so, that opportunity presented itself with brick Borders. And I started there as a bookseller and I recall that interview way there Regional Director or some of you have ever worked in retail what, what makes you think we've been successful? And my response to that was, you bring your ability to connect with people and to interact with people across cause to serve businesses. And then you kind of learn the specific business and the ins and outs of it as you go and sure is willing to take that chance to take that opportunity to learn and to grow. That's kind of where that started. And it quickly developed, as I, you know, became a store manager, and then became a district manager. And then I said, Well, let me kind of broaden my horizon even more and so I kind of drench it into the big box. And that was Kmart. And again, getting an opportunity to, to manage people to work with customers to kind of understand and put things together in place to make the organization or winner after came on days, Barnes and Noble. And, again, there I was a store manager for about three years and then finally decided, let me really follow my passion, my drive, and that is to become a business owner.

Now. along all along the way, I've always had the desire to own my own business. I looked at the investment of hours that I spent in each of those organizations I just previously mentioned. And I thought what if I were to invest all of those hours and all of those may be into something that is mine, then I certainly would feel more so thrilled and more enriched by it. And my wife and I, we looked at a number of businesses are interested in. I always kind of wanted to look at the restaurant business, and what that would look like and I recall having conversations with my best friend or, you know, writing into a restaurant, you know, it's mine and we can interact with customers and greet them and go to the bar and have a beverage and celebrate our successes. Yeah. And I actually, Randy did seriously pursue restaurant A few years ago, and we came very close to making that purchase. But as we took the deeper dive into the finances of the numbers, we saw it as an unprofitable venture. And we backed away. Now you asked the question, why? Dry Cleaners, personally, and this may sound trivial and silly, but it's true. And my wife will tell you that I took everything to the dry cleaners, the slight old project dry cleaners like literally all my clothing went to the dry cleaner. Everything went to the cleaners. And so,

Randy Rohde 8:05

so you're, you're like, You're, you're like your own best customer.

Keith Ferguson 8:10

Exactly. Exactly. So like, you know, I went to lunch.

So we looked at that, and And literally, there was a company in which as a franchise model that we reached out to and we took a trip. My wife, my son, and I to Ohio to their headquarters and met the CEO and the key players went through an entire day of examining the model. We had the FDD which is the Franchise Disclosure Document. The one thing that we had not done, which is what typically happens is that we did not walk with the check for their franchise fee. And there's a reason behind that. We still had the FDD document in review with a franchise attorney, general attorney wanted him to comb through to make sure that we were taking the right steps to acquire this, this business. And at the end of his review, he indicated to us that it was not something that we would want to pursue. And so we walked away. Still gaining some knowledge about the industry.

And then the bug came back. Hey, Keith, you know, you've really got to follow your dream. Follow your passion of owning and controlling your destiny. Right. And, of course, I had a lot of inspiration from my best friend. He's been my best friend for 15 years. And so he owns his own business and he would, from time to time, just drop words of encouragement that you've got to do this. You've got to create that legacy for your family and continue to drive to make that a reality. Right, right. And so the fire just kind of got a little brighter. I guess it goes to show that you're never too old to realize your passion and to fulfill that dream, because it is I'm 61 and for a lot of folks, probably saying, hey, shouldn't you be on the other side of the mountain, we're just kind of cruising down. But I'm just still full of energy. They're roaring and ready to go and just excited about being a part of this thing. Right.

Randy Rohde 11:08

Right. I'll tell you through all of that there are some great lessons there that I'd love to touch on, you know, kind of briefly one was, you know, through all of the experiences that you've had through life, you know, I think I would applaud you and I think there are probably many, many, many people that are in business for themselves today and or who want to be, we're very similar to you and that you felt kind of that edge that that internal fire I think is the way that you described it, which is a great term and, you know, to be to own your own destiny to create something that build a legacy. I know our last guest on the show, that's something that they talked about that they wanted to have a legacy something for their family if they wanted to do but it was too give them options. Right? And yeah, yeah. And so I love that.

And I and I also, I think there's a great lesson here as well, when you talked about, you're methodical around it. So you really dig in and try, you know, not just look at it emotionally like and let that drive you that I want to own my own business. I want to do this thing, but you really, you know, by your experience, like, Hey, I looked at something almost dove into this restaurant, wait, and after digging in, we're like, this isn't right. You looked at another opportunity through a franchise, you're there. And then now this isn't quite right yet. And then finally found this thing. And, and I think that that's a good testament. And it's a great lesson because sometimes, you know, we can get driven by the emotional side of it. At the end of the day. It's still a business decision that has a lot of risk that a lot of businesses fail and you've got to make the right choice. Because if we aren't going to leave that legacy, you know, it's gonna last right?

Keith Ferguson 13:04

That is correct and speak a little bit further. We did a lot of research on this business. And then was very forthcoming with all he had interested in peccable Records and then provided just a plethora of information that help support and make the decision to acquire the business. Really one sound mind as opposed to just running on that emotional fumes. Something else I should mention, Randy, I often had questions and what it would be like to start over money from scratch. And it would take a huge investment of capital because you know, you've got to run a month, 2, 3, 4 a year, a year and a half, before red becomes black. You've got to establish yourself and whatever the community would be decided. That's where you're going to get to know, make your home. And while the franchisor will do all the marketing and that kind of stuff, you still have to get people to your door. And I kind of wanted at the end of the day, I kind of want a business that had revenue already running through its range, and then I could take that revenue and ramped it up,

Randy Rohde 14:51

right. So I think that's a great step. Hey, Keith, you know what time it is.

Keith Ferguson 14:58

And it's time for the search. Last

Randy Rohde 15:03

time for the seventh-inning stretch. Alright, so we're gonna lead into this. Let me ask you a couple of questions. So I know you're from Trinidad. Did you grow up with baseball?

Keith Ferguson 15:16

No, we grew up with cricket. That's a great question, Randy. Yeah, I grew up with cricket. right over to nine.

Randy Rohde 15:25

Yeah. Well, this isn't running the basis with cricket here. So. So do you like baseball? Do you like baseball?

Keith Ferguson 15:34

Of course, I love baseball.

Unknown Speaker 15:37

There you go. All the Nats there. Yeah. So let me ask you a real quick question. If you could play any position on the field, what would that be?

Keith Ferguson 15:44

I'd want to be in the outfield.

Randy Rohde 15:47

There you are. You're kind of long and lean. And you know, you could fly around the center field. You could I could see that.

Keith Ferguson 15:54

Sure. Yeah.

Randy Rohde 15:57

Yeah. There you go. All right. All right. Well, very good. That’s our little seventh inning, little seventh inning stretch there. We're getting back into it. All right.

Randy Rohde 16:08

So now you have the business. And now you're kind of focused on you've acquired this business it had, as you said it had revenue kind of flowing through his veins already. Knowing you and knowing your banker, they're like, hey, make this thing work. What are you going to do now? How are you going to grow this thing? So what has been your focus then? You know, as this new business owner, I guess give me some ideas and share if you can kind of what your thinking was around strategy, how are you going to, you know, drive growth around this business?

Keith Ferguson 16:45

So that's a great question as well. And, you know, I touched a little bit on interacting with customers and really worth the opportunities that I recognized in interacting with my customers, while the business had revenue running through its veins, there was a tremendous amount of money left on the table or money taken off the table, depending on how you want to look at it, but what I mean by that is that there was a key element missing from this business that created a bit of customer erosion. And that had to do just with management style, the previous owner showed to what not just the customers but also towards the customers and so I would have customers literally tell me stories of their cold shoulder interactions with a previous owner, and they still kept coming back because of the love they have for the staff and how much they felt, just an element of loyalty to them because they appreciated the level of work and the quality of work that they did. And they didn't let the experiences that they shared with me that they had with the owner to deter them. That wasn't always the case with others, others just kind of decided to leave. And so, what I was able to do during my initial purchase and just being there was just literally being there, right up front. Being able to talk to your customers kind of let him know. You know, like, I think it's the movie 48 hours. There's a new sheriff in town, right? Like that, you know, but it was just to give them hey, there's a new face. To this cleaner. There's a new Captain You know, that's manning the shipping. And I think they appreciated that the fact that I'm a people kind of a guy, and when I connect with people, and so because of that, I think they felt comfortable coming back, as well as sharing Dry Cleaners kind of tend to connect with customers about a mile or so radius, maybe a couple more miles. And you know, I have customers coming from five miles away. I have customers who tell me, you know, I pass others, others meaning other dry cleaners, right? But I come to you. I have customers that come to me from 30 miles away, because not just the quality of the service that they receive in terms of the end product, but also the connection that they have, if not with me, certainly with my team and ended team as a team, but has been there for a while. And so develop relationships. Right?

Randy Rohde 20:06

Yeah, let me dig into that a little bit. So, you know, knowing you, and you've said as well and earlier that, hey, you've got the ability to connect with people and you can that's a transferable skill, regardless of what that business is. And, and knowing you personally, I know you connect and you know, you're a great guy, you're not always going to be at the counter. Right? You've got, you know, you've got a full business to run and not just the time you can do it a counter and connect with customers, how do you ensure that your staff is kind of doing the same thing that you want to have done, you know, so that they're acting in your absence, but in the same principle that you would be acting and treating clients or customers so

Keith Ferguson 20:56

that’s a great question. So one They, you know, I get them to model the behavior that I display that they see, because I'm right there with them right there beside them. But also we talk about what great customer service looks like. And so it's not just telling them but also observing them in one might say, Well, yeah, you're around, so you're around and they, they're not going to act any different. But that's when I have the benefit of my video cameras that allows me to be able to go back, take a look at interactions and take a look at what's going on. So that I can like there's no trust but verify the expectation that they've seen me sat there, meet those expectations as well. And I have to tell you, yeah, there are times when a customer may be dissatisfied, it's not 100% perfect world, they will always defer to me, even though I've empowered them to make some decisions, they will always say, hey, Hefe, which is Spanish for boss, you know, we had x, y, and z and this is what I did, did I do the right thing would let them know which share my perspective, but I empower them. And that was something that they didn't have before so that it was always phobia about stepping up and making a decision. And even if they made the wrong decision, I'd say hey, I'm glad that you made this decision. Now, let's look at it from a different perspective surely learn? Yeah, I think what I've done is empowered them. And so they don't feel like oh, you know, something terrible is gonna happen because of this experience. Right? Right.

Randy Rohde 22:50

Oh, it's a great game plan that you get there because you're laying out your model. You coach. You observe them doing it. You'd come back and coach again. And then you observe and encourage impairment. So like, hey, you're gonna be okay. Don't worry, I want you to make the right choice, you can do it.

Keith Ferguson 23:11

And that was something that I learned from my previous position as my previous teacher position as a store manager because that was the model that this organization used for training and developing, you know, so I brought it right to my doorstep.

Randy Rohde 23:29

Isn't it great? how all of that stuff and the years, the years have gone by beginning to prepare us for where we sit today. It's amazing how life works that way.

Keith Ferguson 23:40

Yeah. Yeah.

Randy Rohde 23:43

well, that's good. All right. So let's kind of move so now you're talking about growth. So what are you doing now to kind of get the word out the market? Cleaners Max is here. Yeah, you say you get people to come in 30 miles away, you must have some pretty darn good service, but But I think more traditionally though, it is a much more very tight concentric circle right there, of where people are driving to get their dry cleaning. So how do you try to maximize that visibility?

Keith Ferguson 24:15

So we do have a website. We do have visibility as well on Facebook, and of course, we've got our Google presence. Those help us we ask our new customers, how did you hear about us and their responses are varied from a friend or I was driving by, you know, I looked you up on Google or Yelp. Right, right.

Randy Rohde 24:45

So are you what are you thinking expansion, maybe another location?

Keith Ferguson 24:49

Funny, you should ask that question. I have had two different people. Actually one is a client of mine even before the divorce attorney He owns a building in DC. And in that building is a dry cleaner. The couple that was there, he said they're in their 70s. They're just prepared to walk and he thinks it's a great place to just having a big drop location. Just Sure, sure, right. My plant would be a plant where we do all the work and then we just have the garments delivered. And so I'm just kind of waiting. I think the whole COVID situation has put a pause on a lot of those kinds of conversations because of the uncertainty of how things grow. And then, about six weeks ago, my accountant and I toured another facility. Again, the same thing the folks are behind on their, on their rent and they're ready to walk into the landlord is eager to put Someone in place, I have to be obviously very deliberate and how I approach these because their significant investment of not just time but also money required me getting another people getting a driver. So I've got to really think through the logistics of it and really put the pen to paper to ensure that at the end of the day, it still becomes a profitable venture and not boring. That leads to too. Yeah, yeah, yes. That's also something that is certainly on the table in terms of exploration.

Randy Rohde 26:46

Okay. All right. So here we are, we're coming down to the bottom of the ninth here. So as a rookie, I'm gonna call you a rookie in your own business building entrepreneurship at this point, but You've got an incredible life experience behind you working through various other kind of corporations now ultimately your own now what kind of advice would you give to other want-to-be Business Builders and as they're contemplating, you know, jumping in and, or for folks that are even where you are right now, you know, just in the, in the first couple years of grabbing their business what are some thoughts that you could share

Keith Ferguson 27:31

A great question, my thoughts would be never give up on the pursuit of your dreams. I am 61 and I never gave up. You can still do it. You have that passion, you have that drive, just go get it, your homework, your due diligence, but ultimately, do what follow your dream and don't let age, don't let other obstacles that may pop and they will, don't let folks influence you otherwise, surround yourself with people who are go-getters and can provide you, you know, the good advice in my case. You know, I had my best friend who's been in business for many, many, many years, and who I can always bounce things off of. And even recently, he visited me and went back to his home in Florida and says, You know, I think I want to I want to dry cleaners too. But I would say, follow your dream, follow your passion. Don't be deterred. Surround yourself with people who can provide you the sound advice, and you can do it. Yeah, they can happen. That's good.

Randy Rohde 28:46

I love that. All right. So Keith, Hey, thanks for being on the show. If people want to find you, how do they connect with you?

Keith Ferguson 28:53

A number of ways we are on Facebook. Cleaners Max. We are on the net CleanersMax.net they can call us 301 762 4200 and we're located in Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD. Come on over and we promise we will give you the best service that you've ever had. I love it

Randy Rohde 29:18

because it's not just the best service possible, but the best you've ever had from any dry cleaner.

Yes. I love it.

I love it. All right. Well, listen, Keith. Again, thanks for being with us today. I really appreciate it. It was great having you on the show. And thanks everyone, as well for joining us today. And as you would with any great ball game. Hey, tell your friends all about it. Right. Share, review, and subscribe.

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