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I have a very optimistic view of the coming year, I feel very positive. This is totally opposite to how we all felt at the beginning of 2009.
Customer confidence seems to have rebounded pretty well, and there were good signs of that at the back end of the year just gone. Christmas and Boxing Day sales figures show huge improvement for high street retailers which is also another positive indicator. There now seems to be a bit of momentum in the economy now, which will hopefully provide the double glazing industry with a good start to the New Year. However, this prolonged cold snap could become a bit of a problem. It’s a well known fact, no matter how well you sell the benefits of warmer windows; consumers will not go out and buy while the weather remains this bitter.
At the very end of last year we also received word of lower rates from our manufacturers which would kick in at the beginning of this year. So from the word go we will be pushing these to make sure we can sell our products as competitively as possible. Again this is something that was much more difficult to obtain at the start of 2009. Installers were crying out for reduced rates to remain competitive, but manufacturers were struggling themselves. I maintain my opinion that our industry has done a lot better than was expected. Despite many companies falling prey to the recession, the number is half of what many thought it would be. The number of insolvencies this year will be a lot less in comparison to 2009.
2010 is going to be the year of opportunity in this industry. Conditions will remain tough, but, with consumer confidence returning, and less competition now, the chances are there for businesses to cash in and make good money this year. They just have to grab them; I know we will be straight away. Just need that snow to bugger off!
As with the start of every New Year, resolutions are made. This one is no different. I have personal targets and company targets. I have set myself a personal target as to how much money I want to earn this year. I have set myself a higher conversion rate target this year, as well as a higher level of revenue. These are vital if me and my girlfriend want to get to New York for New Years Eve this year!
My other resolution is to stop my anonymity. I don’t know when this will be. I have become used to not being known, it sort of feels like s safety barrier. I’m still in two minds really. On one hand it feels like an achievement to have got this far without being outed, on the other, no one knows who I am, and it would be nice for people to know who was writing this! RCG has invited me to write a guest post on his blog, and I was going to use that to show everyone who I was, but I think I’ll use this blog to do that. I’m not snubbing RCG though!
Another of my resolutions is to drop the .blogspot format and get myself a proper website hosting for this blog. I know there are problems for people wanting to leave comments. So for now, those of you wanting to leave a comment, please persevere, I know you probably have to type the comment twice to leave it. Just copy and paste what you’ve written to save time on posting a comment. I do try and reply to all comments that are left.
Looking forward to speaking to you all during 2010. Have fun!
