For more than a decade, the National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association's (NLBMDA) Cost of Doing Business Report has been the definitive source for lumber dealers to gauge the success of their businesses against the rest of the industry. Fresh off the presses, the 2007 Cost of Doing Business Report analyzes, in a comprehensive business model, the factors responsible for the success of dealers of all sizes. This latest edition in the long-standing series has been compiled from the critical 2006 fiscal year financial data, provided by dealers nationwide who participated in the confidential survey.
The central principle of medicine is first do no harm. Over the past several years, legislation that would provide health care coverage to all Americans has been gaining momentum in state houses and in the halls of Congress.
At the heart of every successful association--or for that matter, every company--are people who think in terms of "we" instead of just "me." The key to reaching that status is not to develop your employees to think as you do but to build a bridge that connects people, even dissimilar people, to work together on areas of common interest--to create a community.
Materials Handling Adhesives & Sealants Hot Finds/Interior Products
In October, as I was preparing for our Industry Summit meeting in Scottsdale, Ariz., I came across a survey that shared that builder confidence regarding housing starts was up. The interesting part of this survey is that it had been eight months since builders had felt this same optimism. I wondered whether this optimism would be shared by the Summit's attendees, an eclectic group of large, mid-size, and small dealers from across the United States.
