By Linley McConnell

Let’s be honest: training is probably sitting at the bottom of your to-do list. When you’re putting out customer service fires, repairing a press, or scrambling to replace a presser who walked off the job, continuous training rarely makes the cut. Machines process the work, but people make the magic happen.

So let’s think beyond the machines. Here’s how to make training work for your business, whether you run one counter or a mega-plant.

Set Yourself Up For Success

Before we dive into the suggested training ideas, it’s important to get clear on timing. The best time to train is exactly when it feels least necessary: when you’re slow. Training gaps usually rear their ugly heads in the busy season, but it’s not an effective time to train.

Instead, flip the calendar. Treat your slow months as your training season. For many plants, that’s the summer lull or the quiet weeks after the holidays. The Blue Jays don’t learn new plays in October; pitchers and catchers report to Dunedin in February, weeks before Opening Day. Your team deserves the same runway.

Put this into practice:

• Block it on the calendar now. Pick your two slowest months of 2027 and book recurring training sessions before the year fills up.
• Cross-train while you can. A slow week is the perfect time to teach your counter staff to bag and assemble, or your pressers to inspect. When someone calls in sick in peak season, you’ll be glad you did.

No budget? Swap plant tours.

Invite a fellow non-competing owner or operator to walk your plant and give you critical feedback. It costs you a morning and a coffee, and you’ll both leave with a list of ideas.

Editor’s Note: For further ideas on ways to train that don’t cost money, see our previous article, Do You Know What You’re Doing?

Bring in an Outside Eye

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your business is let someone outside it take a hard look. We all like to think we know best, but none of us can see our own blind spots, especially in a plant we’ve walked through a thousand times. An annual review from an outside consultant can transform your operations.

To get the most out of a consultant:

• Ask for a plan, not just a report. Years of bad habits won’t be fixed overnight. Ask for a phased training plan with clear milestones: what your team should have mastered at 30, 60 and 90 days.
• Narrow the focus. Feeling like there’s too much to tackle? Pick one area, whether that’s finishing, spotting, assembly or customer service, so you can concentrate on what needs the most attention.
• Get a referral. Lean on your industry associations, like the Canadian Fabricare Association (CFA) and the Drycleaning & Laundry Institute (DLI). DLI now offers custom on-site training, sending instructors into your plant to work on your equipment and your production challenges.

Look Beyond Our Industry’s Courses

DLI offers an excellent slate of industry courses. But also consider training outside our industry.

• Sales. Hiring a business development rep for your route or commercial accounts? Platforms like Coursera and LinkedIn Learning, or continuing education courses at your local college, can give them a foundation in prospecting and closing.
• Customer service. Some of the best service training comes from hospitality and retail, industries that obsess over every guest interaction. Borrow their playbook for your counter.
• Health and safety. Lean on government resources. And if you’re a member of the CFA, you’ll have access to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), which offers support.

Put Technology to Work

It has never been easier to build training documents and standard operating procedures (SOPs). You don’t need an HR department to get started. Here’s a simple way to start:

1. Create a shared training folder. Set up a Google Drive (or similar) with a folder for each department: counter, spotting, cleaning, pressing, assembly, delivery.
2. Record, don’t write. Tools like Loom let you screen-record or film a process while narrating over top. Have your best presser record how they finish a silk blouse, or your counter lead walk through tagging a Canada Goose parka.
3. Let AI do the typing. Hate writing? Use the voice dictation feature in an AI tool to talk through a process, then ask it to turn your ramble into a clean, step-by-step SOP.
4. Build as you go. Don’t try to document everything at once. Every time a question comes up or a mistake happens, add a resource. In a year, you’ll have a library.
5. Make it findable. A library no one knows about is useless. Walk every new hire through the folder on day one, and post a QR code linking to it in the break room.

Come Together

And don’t forget to focus on your culture. In most cleaning businesses, there’s a quiet tug-of-war between the front and the back: sales wants volume, customer service wants quality, and operations wants efficiency. Training is one of the best ways to remind everyone they’re on the same team. Pick one idea from this article, put it on the calendar for your next slow stretch, and build from there.

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