Do more with less!

Softwood Plywood Siding

Hordwood Ponels

Composite Ponels

Thermolly Fused Melomine

Engineered Wood Producls

Green Build Producls

For more informotion on Roseburg's Mixed Products, go to Roseburg.com or coll l -800-245-1'l 15

Roseburg's mixed roilcor ond lruckloods ore cl very unique opportunity io order direct from one compony. order os little or qs much os you need. Mixed units such os lumber, plywood, podicleboord, specioliy ponels, engineered wood producis (including FSC RigidLom" LVL) ond green products ore oll ovoiloble. our only requirement is thot you fill ihe truck or roilcor.

Thoi,s right! Do more wiih less. whot on opportunify to control cosh ond invenlorytwo things ihot meon so much right now'

Serving building products retailers and whotesale distributors in 13 Western states-Since lg22

VOLUME 87, NO.8

Sowlng l3 Westom Stator, lncludlng Alarka.nd H.w.ll

(Sistet publication Buitding products }igflst seves the East)

PUBLISHER Alan 0akes (ajoakes@aol.com)

PUBLISHER EMERITUS David Cuiler

EDII0R David Koenig (dkoenig@building-products,com)

ASS0CIATE EDIToR Karen Debats (kdebats@buildi ng-pr0ducts.c0m)

COI{TRIBUTING EDITORS

Dwight Cunan, James Olsen, Carla Waldemar, Jay Tompt

AD SALES MAIIAGER Chuck Casev (ccasey@building-prodfcts.com)

ClRGUtATl0l{ Heather Keilv (hkelly@building:products.com)

ADMINISTRATIOI{ DIREGTORAECBEIARY Marie 0akes (mfpoakes@aol.com)

How to Advertise

Colhct our advedlslng otticos l0r rales:

WEST, MIDWEST, S0UTHEAST; Chuck Casey, Newport Beach, Ca.; (949) 852-1990; Fax 949-8520231 ; Email ccasey@building-products.com

N0fi-TIIEASI: Paul Mummoto (N.J.); (732) S99. 8102; Fax 732-899-2758; Emait fiu'mm6too@ comcast.net

IIow to Subscribe

Contact Hsather at (S4g) S52-1990

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$INGLE C|)PIES: $4 + shipping; Back issues (when available), $5 + shipping www.building-products.com

The Merch?nt Maoazine (usPs 796-560) is pubtished moritrrtl, at lsoi cimlii -0r., -sii. liri. iriiiip"rhtiiiii', trl szooo-lozz by cutler Prblishing, Inc. Periodicals Postale paid. at Newpdrt Eeaah C;..'and aoditionai poii riiiidii. rt-ti in i,ioependenly- owned Dublication for the retail. wholcsalp ind distrihrtinn tevplc nf iho r,lmn", ,hd h,,irdin^ ^r^/,,^+. 66.1^.^ azz

0y uuner Inc Peno0rcals Postage paid 8each, Ca., and post ofiices. lt is in indepenOenlty- publication the retail, wholesale and distribution tevels ot ine tLimnir ano tuitoi'ng irc"jJiti ii,iilii'r'in t3 wesrern states. c0pyright@2009 by cutler Publishing Inc. cover and entire contenis are turry proteciidai-a riilsi;;il; ieproduced in any,manner withoul written permission. All Rights Reserued lt reserves the right t0 iicepi oi rejecl inv ioiior:iir oi aovertrsing matter, and assumes no liability l0r materials furnished t0 it.

Resolutions for the New Year

As I write this column, we are just weeks into the New Year, yet my resolution to lose a modest 5 lbs. (which incidentally only takes me back to preChristmas) may already be a lost cause. I am heading next week for the Crab Feed in Eureka, Ca., and hence starts the merry-go-round known as show season. It seems to me impossible to lose weight when I am constantly eating and drinking at event after event. C'est la vie, but someone has to do itl

So like every year when I promise to do something and quickly fail, I remind myself that I am only human-well, that's my excuse and I am sticking to it. However, I wonder how many of us make business resolutions? If not, this may be the year when you need to make some and then keep them.

If you are the leader of a company, division or department, this is perhaps the most challenging time you have ever seen in your lifetime. The stakes for the future are high, as every day you have to fight to avoid adding to the mounting statistics of closures and layoffs across our and other industries. This year will have great challenges and, more importantly, deep uncertainties, which to me is the biggest issue that the economy has to face before turning around. When you do not see a clear path ahead, it impacts your total behavioral thinking, until you can see what is round the corner.

Granted, in a market that's down

407o or more from its peak, it can be difficult to see that there are srill opportunities out there. But there are! The manufacturing, wholesale and retail landscape is changing daily. Companies are going out of business at all levels, and while none of us like to see such upheaval, it does create opportunities for whomever is left. Both retailers and wholesalers will see some of their suppliers evaporate and will need to find new suppliers.

I hear from my manufacturing and wholesale contacts about successes with new product lines they have developed or taken on the past year that have literally allowed them to survive. I hear from others about responding to market requests for modified products that in a better time they were too busy to consider. I see others launch aggressive market campaigns against their competition-and winning. It is a state of mind.

So what are the business resolutions I would make? First, I suspect there is not a company still standing that has not taken defensive actions in the recent past. You have had layoffs, cut spending, held pay, etc., etc. Those moves were necessary, but when you turn all your thinking internally and see everything around you as doom and gloom, you are missing out on the opportunities that remain.

Obsessing on what may happen, as opposed to obsessing on what you need to do to stop the spiral is counter productive and self destructive. Make a resolution to remain market focused.

Ferret out new products, new marketing ideas, and stay focused on the customer. You need to have constant visibility. Out of sight, out of mind!

I am a great believer in keeping my eyes wide open and my ears to the ground. I constantly look at the industry around me. I want to know what my competition is up to. I want to see what customers they have or don't have. I want to understand how they are pricing. I want to know who is going or gone or likely to be out of business above and below me in the chain. I want to understand products competing against mine that are succeeding. What is it my customers are buying from another supplier? If I had a competing or better product, would they buy it from me? So my resolution would be to find ways to improve competitor intelligence and to listen, leam and act!

Now if we have learned anything from the banking and Madoff debacles, the question of whom and what we can trust should be top of mind. Business ethics seem to have sone out of the window in many indusiies. Let ours not be one of them. Your third resolution should be to have zero-tolerance for anything unethical. Take time to lay out what is acceptable and what is not. Leave nobody in doubt that you will do everything possible to protect your customers and your company's reputation.

Lastly, with all the doom and gloom around, make a resolution to celebrate, when you have a reason to celebrate. Sometimes it is felt that you shouldn't celebrate anything when everyone else is suffering. Actually, it is the opposite. In this atmosphere, we all want to feel good about ourselves. Any reward need not be lavish, but what a crime it is not to build morale when opportunity presents itself. Have deep resolve and belief in the future. This year will be tough no doubt, but do the right things and you will survive.