nization instead of more of a licensing organization– I even had to convince myself and my partner of it because we both grew up in the business and we were indoctrinated with the same old licensing philosophy for all of our lives.” Ultimately, though, Godfrey believed that the licensing relationship wasn’t helping Comet Cleaners maintain its good reputation. “When my dad put these people in business, he put a sticker on the front door that said: ‘This Store is Independently Owned and Operated.’ So, that sent a message to them that they could get to do whatever they wanted to. Somebody might sell the store to another person and a lot of times they wouldn’t even have to cross paths with us. I just took over two existing Comet stores; they used to belong to my uncle and he put them in back in the ‘90s and sold them before COMET CLEANERS AT A GLANCE COMET CLEANERS he passed away in 2003. So, the stores had been in the hands of this other manager for 14 years and they were nasty and filthy; they never cleaned them. And what I try to teach people in the dry cleaning business is that cleanliness is next to godliness. You’re telling people to bring their dirty clothes, but if you bring them into a dirty environment, I don’t see how your custom- ers are going to believe that their clothes are going to be kept very well. So, we wanted a true franchise organization where the franchisee is a true partner and you’re always involved with them, and you’re always in their stores helping them, and you have an incentive to keep them profitable, and keep them happy.” When Godfrey and his partner, Chris Ball, began transferring licensed units to franchised ones with standardized systems and branding in place, he knew that some people weren’t going to conform. But they were fine with peo- ple opting out. “When Chris and I took over from my dad, we probably had over 300 stores in the system,” he says. “But we also knew we had some people out there that weren’t going WHAT: A dry cleaning franchise company WHERE: Arlington, Texas WEBSITE: www.comet cleaners.com