Do you do take-offs or create truss and floor plans electronically based on building plans that you have to buy from the contractor or architect? So does Mathew Hall Lumber in St. Cloud, Minn. But now it has found a better way. Recently, Mathew Hall started asking clients if it could download the building plans, usually at no cost. At the same time, it bought a flat-panel TV with a huge screen–one big enough to show an entire page of the architectural drawings. Now it can do all its work without going through mountains of paper. And with a big-screen TV typically costing $2,000 today and a set of plans running locally for around $100 each, Mathew Hall figures it can recoup the cost of the TV after just 20 plans. Plus, consider this: If the Twins return to the playoffs this year, Mathew Hall will have a great way to show the games during after-hours events.
