The human body needs oxygen. Cut oxygen off, and the body suffers, then dies.
Imagine for a few moments how you would respond if the local city or county were to come to your businesses location. An official has a legal notice in hand and serves it to you. They are shutting your location down, due to a change in the law. If that happened, you would likely react vigorously! You might organize your:
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Suppliers
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Employees and contractors
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Customers
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Family, friends and associates
asking each to stand and support you in having the shut down notice lifted. You would argue your case to the powers that be. You might call your association, or hire an attorney for support. You may try to make the case to some of your business associates and customers as to why this is in their best interests that your manufactured home business location not be shut down.
Our manufactured home shipments are thankfully rising nationally, so why am I talking about a shut down? To dramatize a point, that the time to organize and act on a time sensitive issue is now! Because the threat to your enterprise may be almost as harmful as the example above. Here's why.
The 'oxygen' supply for many businesses is financing. Cut it off, and it many may as well pad lock the business. But what if you just cut financing off by 1/3, 1/2 or a little more? Wouldn't it be a slow, oxygen deprived death for many businesses if it happened that way?
I know, I know how weary people are about even hearing the names of Dodd-Frank and the SAFE Act. But we finally have a piece of legislation in HR 3849 that could make a difference in making Dodd-Frank and SAFE livable for the industry lenders – especially chattel lenders – who make the loans! HR 3849 will also make it easier for manufactured home retailers and communities too.
If you are a manufactured home retailer or community operator you can't afford NOT to engage your U.S. Congressman and Senators on this vital issue!
And like the shut down notice example above, you should line up the support of those who you know that can help you in this effort.
Contact your business peers who are not politically engaged, and let them know how important this issue is for them. Talk to your employees, and show them how easy it is to call or email their U.S. Congressman and Senators (find yours at the link to the left).
Get your family, friends customers and associates to sound off too!
Let me close on the note of manufactured home retail or MH Community "customers."
Imagine for a moment that you sold someone a home in the last year or two. You know that Dodd-Frank and SAFE – if un-amended – will harm their homes value, or even their ability to access financing. If you were the customer, wouldn't you want to know so you could act by calling and/or writing your Congressman and Senators? Of course! And isn't it possible that some would be miffed if they were not told?
Use this following link to a separate webpage on a manufactured home owner oriented website to advise your residents and customers that they need to act. Take five, and get familiar with that MH home owners webpage, and then share it with your customers. A simple email with a link to 'check this out, because it is important to you' might be just the ticket to getting numbers of home owners engaged on this subject.
Don't look back and say, coulda, woulda, shoulda.
Under the Alerts and Resources link on our MHProNews.com home page, here is your contact list for Congress and the Senate and other elected officials. For your own sake, please pick up the phone, or send an email with this link on HR 3849. Do it today, now if you can. By getting HR 3849 passed, the business or job that you save may be your own. Financing is the Industry's oxygen supply. Please, work to protect it.
As a footnote, Mississippi and Oklahoma have their entire congressional delegations on board! If they can do it, you can too.Kudos to those who made that happen, and to all who have their Congressman as a co-sponsor to HR 3849. You get yours done. I have mine done. Together, we can do this. ##
Post by
L. A. 'Tony' Kovach
www.MHProNews.com
www.MHMarketingSalesManagement.com or www.MHMSM.com
Innovation – Information – Inspiration for Industry Professionals
Office – 815-270-0500
latonyk@gmail.com or tony@mhmsm.com
http://LATonyKovach.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach
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Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right. – Henry Ford