What Will the Outstanding Be?

By Jack Dionne

This is collection time for the retail lumber business.

For elwen noonths the retailer of building materials has been engaged in trying to SELL.

For the past thirty days to some exten! and for tfie next thirrty-one days in almost frenzied fashion, most of the managers o,f retail lurnber businessesr in the United States rvill be engaged vvholeheartedly in the garne of co,llecting.

When the last day of December _draws near, one of the mornentous questions to the average retailer is, "What :unount of outstanding accounts shall I carry into tlre New Year?" And his suprerne effo,rt is to cut down, that volume as much as is humanly possible.

Among the line yards this is particularly'true. Individuals who run their own yards may not make so strict a p,oint of cutting down ftheir outstanding accounts, although every man who closes his books on the first of the year *'ill do so to sorne extent at least, but withj the line ya.rds itl is vital. Most. line yard firrms have been in behind their managers for thel ,last thirty days,, urging and assisting them in the work,of getting in the oash before the first of the year.

Most line yard firms check their managers against one another, and one sf the points by which line yard men judge their{ managers is by the success they have in their collectio,ns. There are two vital elements, in retail lumbering, selling the goods, and collectirng the mon€y, and THIS is collection time.

Among well versed retailers it is conceded that ten percent of ,thE year,s business is "par''' for a lumber yard rnanager; that the man who closes, his year with not over ten percent of his year's volume of business on his books, has done naighty well, and that fifteen percent is good.

It is said that the average yard is well above fifteen percent.

So the question before the retail industry for the next month will tre, "What shall the 'outstanding be?"'