History is often seen as a series of ‘great events.’ While great events obviously occur – the Stock Market Crash of 1929, the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Invasion of Normandy, the attack on the World Trade Center, the sub-prime bubble bursting in 2008 and so on – history is in fact made up of countless deeds that don’t make headlines or history books. In fact, it is numbers of individual actions or inactions that lead up to every ‘great’ historical event that ever was or will ever be.
So what does this observation have to do with manufactured housing?
Everything.
As I write this, we are at the end of July, August is upon us. We have five months left to do the everyday things that will effect the great manufactured housing turn-around of 2010! We as an Industry are up over last year in shipments! We have individually and collectively as companies and associations taken important steps that can move our businesses up, and those steps will move our Industry up!
When I wrote in the blog last Wednesday that ‘thousands’ of you reportedly wrote into FHFA to comment on the financing issue, what does that mean? That means that you, or someone like you, took the time to do an everyday thing.
Thousands – one individual event at a time – emailed or faxed FHFA. Throngs of you wrote or called your Congressman or Senators! Individual, everyday events that collectively can lead to more financing. In time that can lead us to still more sales, and that can yield good things for our customers, our businesses, associations, the Industry and our Nation.
Such seemingly small steps as sending a message into public officials, ‘those individual events,’ collectively can change the course of our Industry’s history!
Great things happen when a number of ‘little things’ happen first.
You and your team’s choices on the use of time and every day actions do matter. They are like drops of water that in time fill the bucket.
We have plenty of issues that our great Industry faces. We have demonstrated to ourselves as manufactured housing industry professionals and to public officials that we can mobilize thousands. Because we did this once in 2010, we can do so again. If we did this well once this year, we could do it even better next time!
We have another comments issue looming in August. We need to respond again. If you responded on the FHFA finance issue, respond to this HUD on-site completion issue. If you didn’t respond to the FHFA comments issue, here is your chance to be heard on what is truly another key topic for our Industry’s future. Please don’t let someone else do it, take the time to do it yourself, and then ask others to do the same. That discipline to act on these issues can lead us to a big benefit for more home sales for our industry.
Because individual actions matter, let’s do it again.
I will invite one or more industry pros to cover the importance of this on-site completion issue. Until then, please look at what MHARR has already provided us as the start of the understanding process.
Now let me shift gears for a few moments to another everyday issue that is a key part of the great Industry turn-around of 2010.
Some months back, our featured writer John Underwood made a statement that I think bears repeating. The turn-around of the Industry begins with the turn around and sales expansion of you and your firm! When your business is growing, so is the Industry! John also said that if we were doing a better job closing sales with the prospects we are already seeing, then we would be growing our businesses in a common sense fashion. John’s message bears re-reading; catch it here.
Our MHMSM.com IT and Production Manger, Bob Stovall, made an important point in his Cutting Edge in Online Marketing Blog recently that is related. Your people are spending time during working hours surfing the web. For most companies, it happens daily. Why not use that fact to your company’s advantage? Why not encourage or reward your team to spend that time getting to know their industry better? Why not encourage people to take advantage of all the free resources here at MHMSM.com?
As I write this, July is winding down. Our statistics tell us that nearly 1000 people a day are logging onto our site, that would be nearly 30,000 logins by professionals like you a month! Why are they – or you – here? Because our readers see value! They see news and views they can use! Leaders are readers. Learners are earners!
Some day, we will look back at 2010, and see how our everyday acts added up. The great turn around of 2010 is a series of modest, everyday events. Revolutions start with a few, and then those numbers grow.
You will look back someday. Will you look back with pride that you and your team did the everyday things that added up to make a difference? Will you do so with the knowledge that common sense daily disciplines resulted over time in a great outcome?
Vince Lombardi, or any great coach or leader, started their success stories with the basic daily drills. They started with the facts and the pep talks that challenged and encouraged their teams to give and be their best!
History is a great teacher. We can learn from our own experiences and from those of others. We read books or articles, or listen to podcasts, precisely to learn from others! To be inspired by another! We don’t want to be all alone. We instinctively know, we need others in order to be a success.
Innovation – Information – Inspiration for Industry Professionals is our tag line. As in our new book, The Manufactured Housing Revolution, over 500 years of experience by Industry pros can only help you and your team! Being involved in associations, but also being involved here daily, that can only help you and your team!
But it can only do so to the extent that you get and stay involved in The Manufactured Housing Revolution! Take the daily steps that make a difference. Read an article, then apply it’s lessons. Listen to or read Factory Built Housing Industry News at Noon and daily Manufactured Housing Market reports, and see what it may mean for you and your business.
Great events start with a series of modest ones. If we want the great event to have a lousy outcome, then we should waste our time on meaningless or less important stuff. But if we want a great outcomes, then we should do those little daily steps and drills that lead us over time to fantastic victories!
Thank you for being here, and for asking your associates and friends to be here too at MHMSM.com. We do it all for the factory built housing industry that we ourselves work in and serve daily. We do it all for…
…you. # #
L. A. ‘Tony’ Kovach
Manufactured Home Marketing Sales Management Industry Trade Journal
www.MHMarketingSalesManagement.com or MHMSM.com
tony@mhmsm.com
847-730-3692
