Masonry Magazine September 1964 Page. 20
Maximizing Profit
(continued from page 16)
and social skills his operation requires. Those who were in growing smaller communities felt that expansion in their localities was rapid enough to enable them to compete with business in larger centers. Those who were successful in stagnant smaller communities were aggressive, and in fact, served a much larger area in a highly specialized way. They appeared to have assessed reality, the effects of external forces on their communities, and to have adapted to these changes. Those who were unsuccessful in the larger cities were generally critical of the failure of their community to attract more industry, and also complained of too much unionization, of excessive chain store competition, ete. Those who were successful also displayed a greater mastery of the technical skills of buying, selling, organizing work efforts, and so on. They were more resourceful in meeting problems, always seeking a new approach if the first course of action proved unsatisfactory. They bounced back after business setbacks, trying new procedures and marketing methods and other means of recovery. Those who were less successful showed less resilience. They became demoralized more readily than their successful colleagues, and tended to complain rather than act.
In summary, the man who makes a profit is the one who does the most with what he has, using every tool available including the use of cost records and adapting himself to the changes in his environment and ways of doing business. He can have a bad day and wake up the next morning ready to "go get even" again.
Now, let us take a few minutes to look ahead and try to summarize the economic predictions for the years to come. Most long-range predictions are predicted on the basis of population increases, and for those of you who have read the various educated guesses that have appeared in most of the major magazines, realize that the southeast area, with the exception of Florida, will show a relatively small increase in population over the next ten years, probably being less than 10 per cent. For the next ten years a 60 per cent increase in building activity over today's volume is foreseen. Also, most economists predict for 1965 a continued area of prosperity as we have seen during 1964. I, personally, feel that from a contractor's standpoint this will be true, although from a retailer's standpoint there will be a slowing next spring, due to most taxpayers owing Uncle Sam a small amount of money, which will cause a hesitation in personal spending. All in all, from our standpoint, I feel that the next ten years will present an ever expanding amount of construction. How this will affect the mason contractor is yet to be seen.
I have saved for my last subject an area which I feel will cause radical changes in your way of doing business.
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MASONRY. September, 1964