Kim's Blog

I wish I had a Crystal Ball…… [Part 1]

At the end of each year, I sit down and do several things to prepare my company for the upcoming year. One is list out goals for the company and for myself. Another is to create a sales forecast. In the final weeks of 2008, as I was trying my best to prepare a 2009 sales forecast, I found myself wishing for one thing - a crystal ball. So many variables are making any sort of prediction near impossible.  Is anyone else having a hard time?
When everyone was riding the high economy a year ago, who would have predicted it would crash down so hard?  It seems a predication is more of a guesstimate at this point.  So I decided to first write down the things I do know - especially about my company - and then predictions would follow.
The first aspect I was sure about is that we are a quality – driven company. We are not the lowest price on the street. But we are focused and understand our industry as we are almost all former educators. As they often say, you get what you pay for. Our bids have been rejected on projects before because they were too high, only for the client to come back to us later to ask us to fix the work of a “cheaper” competitor.  With all the variables out there, I still know my company - and my employees - strives for the highest quality out there. Quality comes in all different forms. But as my VP of Operations Kathy Bretz says, “You can have time, you can have quality or you can have price. You might be able to get two but rarely all three.” One way I know this to be true is that we have repeat business - over and over again - due to the quality we provide.
Reassured that I was finally able to put my foot on some certainties, I was able to come up with a few more. Check back for part 2 tomorrow.