Like your house, your business projects an image to potential buyers. When they come to see your business for the first time, your “curb appeal” can attract a buyer to your business — or cause him to walk away from it.

Little did Caitlin Skaggs know when she applied for a job posting at Wiseway Supply’s showroom that she would become what she now laughingly refers to as a “plumbing and lighting snob.” 

Each year at the AIM/R annual conference, manufacturers and reps discuss best practices and industry trends in a session called the Rep and Manufacturer Roundtable (RAM).

With remodeling activity expected to stall in the first three quarters of 2020, it’s time for showrooms to get creative about how they bring in new and existing clients. 

I often use parallels when I’m describing the physical appearance of a showroom and the culture of the company. It’s typically easy to see the differences between a high-performing showroom culture and one that is not by walking in the front door.

We were excited to be in Seattle recently for the 18th annual Decorative Plumbing & Hardware Association (DPHA) conference.

Globe Union is one of the largest suppliers of plumbing products in the world. Headquartered in Taichung, Taiwan, it oversees an impressive 5 million square feet of manufacturing, assembly and distribution facilities located on three continents and in nine countries. 

It seems that recession talk always greets the arrival of a new year. It is not as if anything changes as far as the economy is concerned when the calendar flips to a new year, but it seems to be the trigger for people to take stock of their decisions and assumptions regarding the next year. 

For Patrick Gentry, owner and president of Holland, Mich.-based T.A. Gentry Supply Inc., the key to success is simple. Rely on old-school conventions. It’s a business acumen that’s not fancy, but it works. 

According to reported research, books are rapidly disappearing as a source of reading pleasure as well as in-depth information on a great variety of subjects.