Honesty — This economy has our industry in a tailspin that has probably not been seen before. We are all struggling.
Openness — It is in times like these that new products develop as a by product of the bad times. These my friends are very bad times. We have decided to hold an online conference event. It is our hope that this will save our company money, your company money and the client money and time. It is not just in our industry but it is in every industry… people just are no longer going to trade shows.
So my friends in the industry, are you open to new ideas such as the one we are presenting?
Finally there has to be willingness. There is and has been willingness for me every single day for the last 11 1/2 years now to want to pick up a phone and see how you are first. See how your business is and how I can really help you move it along.
I am doing that again in the worst economy of our lifetimes and I am doing it honestly as I always have done. Are you willing to come along and lead with me and innovate with the changing economy?
August 17-31st be a part of something totally new and different that is going to not only reach more than 28,000 people but may expand your business to other parts of the world.
In the meantime, have a great summer, keep the faith and try to do the next right thing!
We have some absolutely wonderful people in our industry and many of them were at the International Window Coverings Expo in Atlanta last week. A show that used to take me three and half days to walk took me just three and half hours last Friday.
This is no ones fault. There is no one to blame. The people who put the show on– our competitor– did the best with what they have had to work with and should be loudly applauded and commended.
Three of the largest booths this year were B&W Window Fashions,Alkenz USA and Somfy and they too should be commended for their efforts. They stepped up and committed to a presence in the industry’s largest show in a rough economy. Rowley Company went from their traditional 10×40 at the front door to a 20×20 and used the space to introduce their new Finestra Decorative Hardware collection line acquired when they bought Resin Solutions back in September. The hot hardware company right now judging from feedback around the industry was Helser Brothers who won a product innovation award this year in Atlanta. Trend Fabrics had Jacqueline Smith at their booth, which drew a crowd, so our industry as a whole continues to make a strong effort to promote their products and new product lines.
There were also some new companies not seen before at this show such as Stewart Filmscreen and Golden Way Textiles.
So the good news is there was a show, albeit small and the more good news is that existing companies are still trying to leave an impression and the best news of all is that there are new companies on the way with new product offerings.
Here is to a great second half of the year and remember we will be providing Solutions for 2009 in Jacksonville, Florida August 27-29th.
Did you know that mortgage rates are at 40-year lows? Of course you did!
Did you know that the real-estate market is depressed? Of course you did!
Did you know that what goes down has to come up? Of course you did!
So before it does, wouldn’t it be a smart idea to tell your dealers to start promoting your products through Realtors and Mortgage companies? Have them do a ride along in their mailings. Start demanding that they start now as spring is upon us.
Did you know in order for them to want to do this, that they need your encouragement and your back up and that you need to set the example as the supplier?
Just got off the phone with one of my clients who said he was on the road all over the west coast. He reports that he made 25 calls and sold only 2 sample books. Moreover, he also reported that while he was traveling he stopped to see a client he had not seen in six-months only to find out that they bought from his competitor.
This is why we cannot stop being in front of one another. This is why we go to work!
Keep at it everybody and the first step should be to run an ad in the April issue of D&WC Magazine.
Of all things I was glad to hear in President Obama’s speech to Congress last night; it was that there is going to be a flood over time, of some $800 billion dollars into the nation’s economy. I was glad to hear that this is going to happen relatively quickly. I was glad to hear that the tax cut we are supposed to see will be there as soon as our checks on April 1st.I also heard a positive President with a positive message in an uncertain time. We need that right now and I don’t care what side of the aisle you are on. Whether you really believe it or not, President Obama came right out and said that he was for the small business owner. The people that own most of the businesses in this industry are small.
It is imperative that we start by having a more positive attitude toward our industry, housing starts, branding and promoting a positive image for this industry and specifically to your own companies! Bottom line is WE CANNOT AFFORD NOT TO SUPPORT ONE ANOTHER! We are Americans and WE CANNOT QUIT!
When President Harry Truman asked Dean Acheson to be his Secretary of Sate in his second term, Acheson told Truman that he feared he was not qualified. To this Truman responded that it was undoubtedly so, but to this he could say the same for himself or any man. The question was not whether he was qualified but whether he could do the job?
As you can probably tell, I am now reading the Truman biography by David McCullough. The night before I read this, I asked my fiancé; Amy, if she ever thought of world leaders on the spot and the pressures that they must feel when called to meet the demands of the world. She asked why I would compare myself to them and I told her that because that is how I feel. I feel the weight of the world on my shoulders right now. She looked at me quizzically and said, I don’t know, dear.
So I am reading the book later that night because I cannot sleep and McCullough goes on to say that Truman used to muse that there were probably a million men who could make a better President than he, but that is not the point. He, Harry Truman, according to McCullough’s book, was the President. “I have a job to do and the rest of you have to help me,” Truman said.
I am no President that is for sure, probably would be a horrible politician at best. But I am honest. So the call to action here is this: we as an industry and we as a Magazine have a job to do. The times in which we toil in are treacherous, at best but whether it is yes, we can! Is not the chant, when I pick up the phone and I call you, will you do it? We like Truman need each other to succeed in the here and the now.
You may remember that Draperies & Window Coverings used to produce a Post Card Deck as a separate mailer twice each year. We did so once in the Spring and once in the Fall. Due to the rise in postage and handling and the charges we would have had to pass on to our advertisers, we suspended this campaign.
Over the last few years since our last post card deck, I have had past participants ask me to bring it back. Only when I tell them the cost, do they squint and say maybe not. Then I was told a story by one of my loyal advertisers that she was STILL getting calls on a post card that her company ran from 2002. When I heard this and realized six-years had passed, I thought about the impact that our magazine has in this industry and the impact that a direct mail campaign could have in an economic slow down.
I thought to myself you wouldn’t be able to mail to 27,000 at 7-cents each anyother way?
So as a reader, do you like the post card deck?
As an advertiser for roughly 7-cents each, is it worth us bringing it back?
I invite you to comment and let us know your thoughts.
Since 1981, D&WC has been the voice of the Window Coverings industry. We have been through recessions before and in fact we started in one. We have been around for 28-years because we listen to our readers and our advertisers. So we are asking what you would like to see us do first with the post card deck and then, if you have any other ideas, feel free to let us know.
Today is the official end of the holiday season and whatever it is that you celebrate, Happy or Merry Whatever it is. But I hope above all you are like me and celebrating that you like me, are still six feet above ground today.
I read a couple of books over the holidays and one of them was Einstein by Walter Issacson. It told of the struggles Einstein went through to prove his theories of relativity and his self worth.
For all his genius, Einstein even struggled against the establishment who would not award him the Nobel prize for anything other than Photoelectric-effect. NOT relativity!!! You know how he was found dead? He was found dead still trying to improve on another theory! He was found passed away with a pen, and a pad of paper with mathematical equations on it. He never stopped fulfilling what he believed he was put here to do, which was solve problems in math and science. Even when people thought he was nuts! Are you going to stop? Hopefully someone out there is telling you that you are crazy for not stopping. If they are, you are headed in the right direction.
That brings me to the next book I read and my answer to why you are not nuts!
I read Stumbling On Happiness by Daniel Gilbert. His whole point was this: We are constantly “Nexting” up in our minds based on our past experiences. I call this the squirrel cage. Where we are always predicting what is going to happen next and we are obsessively preparing for it. Then when we get there, despite all of our preparations, we are really not all that happy anyway because when we finally get to wherever there is, it aint all that its cracked up to be anyway.
So while I was away, I took a step back and I said to myself, “Self, you really need to slow down and be happy right now. I know I really enjoy and love what I am doing with my life right now. So as long as that is the case, I will emerge successful and I will provide for myself and my family.”
Conclusion: I love what I do which is selling advertising and booth space for Draperies & Window Coverings Magazine. I love promoting your businesses and making introductions from one of my contacts to the next to further grow your business in hopes you can help me grow mine, which you do. This makes me happy. I am no Einstein but I could totally see myself passed out somewhere when I am in my 80’s still trying to help myself grow as a person by still trying to help someone much younger than I at that point grow their business and appreciate the 11-12 feet that they have above the ground for one more day!
During the depression, people who belonged to groups and banded together came through those times with much greater success and grace than those who tried to go it alone.
A great way to band together is to make your plans to exhibit or attend the D&WC Southern Designer and Workroom Conference March 12th through the 15th in Jacksonville, Florida.
It is the 12th largest market in the United States and it is warm weather at a time when everyone is sick and tired of the cold. And when you get confused because you simply don’t know what else to do with yourself as you stare at yourself in the mirror looking for ways to improve yourself and your business as inexpensively as possible, this my friends is the best avenue to that.
I urge you to make that step for yourself as a person first and as a business leader today to improve yourself and put a down-payment on a booth or pre-register for a seminar track. You will feel better that you have done something to make yourself better and more marketable.
Most of all, you will come together with your peers and competitors and they will all be there. They will be telling your story. No longer will you be looking in the mirror at home all alone; all by yourself! You can sit across the table at our networking functions, in a seminar, on the trade show floor and you will still see yourself in someone else’s face and hear yourself through someone else’s voice. But together we can move an industry forward. If we stay home, we can’t.
Hate to bring this up at a time like this but, “Who is John Galt?”
We are all watching every dollar we invest. We are all keeping a watchful eye on our return on investment when we invest that dollar. In two weeks Draperies & Window Coverings Magazine will host its Eastern Designer & Workroom Conference. It is a conference that will give you the attended the information and ideas that will give you the edge through the first half of 2009 on your competition and on the marketplace in general and don’t forget, you are there to have a good time!
The D&WC Eastern Designer and Workroom Conference has three separate tracks. One for the Designer, one for the workroom and a business track. Each track is broken down into a beginner, intermediate and advanced level and there are a total of 61 classes throughout the weekend taught by 21 of the most experienced and well qualified instructors that our industry has to offer.
When not in session, there is an opportunity to enhance your business through tools in our D&WC bookstore and on the trade-show floor where as of September 10th, we have 45 exhibitors waiting to meet and discuss how they can help improve your business.
So when you think about whether it is prudent to go to a show especially in the fall with the Holiday’s coming up behind us in this economy, those who are in the know and are ready to meet the challenges of the next year, will be far more suited to come out of what is an economy on a slow but steady rebound.
If you don’t market yourself, if you don’t learn about your business and yourself and network with other industry leaders like yourself now, when will you? Your competition can stay home and wish for things to get better you can come to the D&WC Eastern Designer and Workroom Conference September 25-28th in Springfield, MA and start making them better.
