A Personal Reflection on Life and Loss

Life has its ups and downs. We can all rejoice about the good things we have experienced in life. As a kid, you may have done special things in sports or celebrated academic accomplishments.

Read More

What Do You and Your Company Represent?

I’ve recently had a revelation. For many years, I have worked to build up a significant online presence for my PPAI-award winning, content-driven program, FreePromoTips.com. Our industry database for our e-newsletter is 50,000 and we have a strong social media reach. I’ve shared about this before, but that isn’t the point of this commentary.

Read More

How Does Amazon’s Business Model Affect Ours?

Our evolving industry business model continues to be a hot topic. Recently I started wondering how an online purchasing mentality, I’ll call the Amazon click-to-buy world, affects our industry. It begs the question, are we (aka distributors) really needed? It’s getting easier and easier for end-users to buy online or direct from suppliers.

Read More

Suppliers, Where Are You? Distributors, Where Are You?

I am hardly an expert in the area of social media. In my personal online life, I will post pictures of my cute, but very weird dogs and family outings. I’ll occasionally “check in” at restaurants, since it’s important for my “friends” to know I’m eating well and hanging with the right people that I “tag.”

Read More

So You Think it’s Fun?

Having just returned from some early-season trade shows, I am in awe of the commitment my industry colleagues have to help us build our business. I wrote about this some time ago in a commentary entitled, “A Salute to Our Industry Heroes.”

Read More

I Could Have Slept In But Why Should You Care?

Something strange has happened to me. On a recent three-day holiday weekend, I had the opportunity to sleep in. But I didn’t. I attended a concert at the Hollywood Bowl Saturday and started early Sunday packing meals at our church for families in Haiti. I was looking forward to sleeping in on the holiday Monday when my wife told me our runners group was going out at 7 a.m. What would seem like an automatic “no” has become a much easier “yes” for me.

Read More

Tending Life’s Garden

One of the things I enjoy doing is taking care of the flowers on my front porch and tending to the few houseplants I have. I enjoy the color they bring to the home entryway, and people often comment on how pretty the flowers look.

Read More

Where Are Trade Shows Going?

In our first article on What’s Happening with Trade Shows, we covered the SAAC Show, a strong regional association event, in Long Beach, Calif. There were a couple of anonymous comments bemoaning that the article featured links to product videos from some interesting items we found at the show.

Read More

What’s Happening with Trade Shows?

Full disclosure here—and I’ve said this before—I love trade shows. There is no better way for distributors to connect with their supplier partners. Suppliers have the opportunity to connect with new prospects and to strengthen relationships with current customers. There is no question, however, that the dynamics of trade shows are changing. It’s a big topic that I will address in two parts.

Read More