Transition and Growth - Universal

Bob Carpenter, New Service Concepts of Zanesville, OH , has been attending Universal Unilink conferences for years. After participating in the Transition and Growth Focus group, Bob gave a report to the members. Here are some of his remarks.

My partner Tim Andrews and I have been coming to Universal Unilink Conventions for several years now and we always take away a lot of good information and meet a lot of good people. This year proved to be another great opportunity to network with other laundry owner operators, both within the meetings and outside in social settings. The amount of information that I can glean from the life experience of others is incredibly valuable to me and my business.

This was not always the case. As owner-operators we had taken the stance that we could not afford the expense or time to attend. Once we finally “pulled the trigger” we saw first-hand the value of attending and we have been coming back each year since.

In our focus group with other laundry owner operators, we discussed a lot of the common issues that affect our business: how we can increase revenue and cut back expenses to raise the bottom line. We had some interesting discussions on topics’ ranging from insurance and workers compensation to increasing fuel efficiency in our fleet vehicles. The conversation was lively and covered a lot of ground with many expressing opinions. While we all have unique situations and disagreed on some issues, we all agreed that we should do more to encourage other members to set aside the time and make a commitment to participate next year so that they will have the same benefits that we enjoy. We in turn, will benefit from their unique perspective and knowledge.

I have decided to encourage fellow Universal Unilink members in my area to attend next year and I would encourage all past attendees to do the same. As we bring in more members to share and interact, the value that we all gain will grow exponentially. We truly do achieve more together.