Diving Into Franchising With Help Of Franchise Adviser

York Daily Record:

While other dry-clean companies require owners to simultaneously manage day-to-day storefront operations, one local couple focuses on the service end of the industry.

In April, Miriam Hammond and her husband, Sean, acquired the rights to develop a service franchise called 1-800-DryClean in their Lower Windsor Township home.

The franchise is built on the idea that families are busier than ever and need the convenience of free pickup and delivery of dry-cleaned clothes.

“We are strictly pickup and delivery… We charge no delivery or pickup fee to the customer,” Sean Hammond said. “Quality, customer service, that’s all that we do… We specialize in that, so we’re the masters at it.”

The Hammonds, who have two children, said they decided to go into business a couple years ago.

Then they met Lou Lavetan of York Township, a franchise adviser who brokered the placement.

“He gave us some options,” Miriam Hammond said. Of those options, which included a mobile car-dent repair service, the dry-clean pickup and delivery service seemed the best fit for their lifestyle, she said.

So they learned more about the franchise and later signed a contract that stipulated they would follow a plan outlined by 1-800-DryClean.

Read full story.

Photo: Bil Bowden / Daily Record-Sunday News.