Flush with cash and highly successful, the behemoth Exxon Mobil does not know what they sell or who their customer is. Of course I am not qualified to make such an outrageous statement, but this is my blog, dammit, and I can pontificate if I feel like it.

The Roofing and Sheet Metal Contractors Association of Georgia (RASMCA), some Georgia roofing contractors, and an Atlanta television reporter have gotten together to put some light on the dangers of dealing with unscrupulous individuals putting themselves forward as roofing contractors.

Spring has got to be my favorite time of the year. This despite having spent the first 44 years of my life in Florida where they say the seasons are barely detectible. Fact is, when I lived in the Sunshine State, spring was still my favorite time of year.

I have been on a rampage trying to kill the fax for years. And I am not so feeble that I can’t remember being on a rampage to get my boss to buy our first fax back in the early 80s. If you do not recall, the fax machine changed everything once it hit that “tipping point” where everyone in business had one. It was great and we could hardly wait to get one.

Heard a new one the other day. Seems a commercial roofing contractor, confident of having won a sizable retrofit roofing project (over $1 million), was surprised when a large national contracting firm slipped in with a lower price coupled with the offer of 24-month financing.

The news that two mega-builders, Centex and Pulte, are moving toward a merger was not surprising but could signal a new direction in the homebuilding sector.

I spent a few hours last week visiting with the owner of a third-generation lumberyard in Atlanta. His claim to fame was having outlasted a number of yards that had already succumbed to a residential construction market that evaporated over the last couple of years.

Have you been wondering where all the money is coming from to fund all of these 4LA’s (four-letter acronyms) the government has been cooking up lately? The TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program) and ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) will be funded by taxpayers, but especially the guy or gal looking back at you in the mirror every morning as you prepare yourself to go to work in your roofing business.

I have long been a proponent of setting goals, measuring results, celebrating successes and changing things around to meet emerging challenges.