Industry Voices

I read Tony Kovach's recent Masthead blog post with some fascination. Because the upcoming elections are on my mind too. Many of us feel that we are watching something slip away. Many of us want to make sure that we continue what was started in 2010, when the House or Representatives was retaken by 'tea party conservatives'.

I did a post on LinkedIn recently, asking questions about the impact of the Nanny State on manufactured housing professionals. Here are a pair of the statements, quoted below verbatim, with the initials of the person who made the comment:

“The industry is, I agree, significantly over-regulated. Often intentionally, exemplified with the number and types of superfluous disclosures to prospective residents our legislature seeks to add, and also as the unintended consequence of legislation targeting others (SAFE Act as to sale of park owned homes, Red Flags, Safeguard Rules, Patriot Act, etc.)” TD

“The problem is that sometimes we get what we "wish for" – the HUD Code. Many manufacturers in the industry wanted HUD regulation to avoid regulation by each state. Tony is correct – the largest shipment year was 1974 – the year before the HUD Code, but, there were other factors at work as well.KR

Here are some quotes from historic leaders and masters on this subject of Liberty.

“Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.” Ben Franklin

“If we are together nothing is impossible, if we are divided all Will Fail.” Winston Churchill

“The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.” Thomas Jefferson

“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person by person.” Mother Teresa of Calcutta

“Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.” George Washington

“Only our individual faith in freedom can keep us free.” Dwight D. Eisenhower

“Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always in vain.” John F. Kennedy

“To be free is not merely to cast off ones chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” Nelson Mandela

“The history of freedom is never really written by chance but by choice.” Dwight D. Eisenhower

We have so many things that can inspire us Americans. One of the countless examples is Abraham Lincoln, who suffered defeat after defeat in his personal career, only to keep coming back through dogged persistence to accomplish his goal.

Lincoln is famous for three reasons one his election in 1860, two his struggle to hold the Union together in the Civil War. But Lincoln is also famous that his life was riddled with failure and he overcame it time and time again. Here is just a small sampling of his failures;

1831 Failed in business

1832 Lost his job

1836 Had a nervous breakdown in bed for 6 months

1843 – Ran for Congress and lost

1848 Ran for re-election to Congress and lost

1858 Ran for US Senate and lost

1860 Ran for President and won.

The question – how many failures can you endure and carry on? The answer that Abraham Lincoln gave with us with his life example is to keep on keeping on until you accomplish that worthwhile goal.

Great things can be accomplished by team work. Pulling together can happen professionally as well as politically. That is why associations and parties exist. One thing is certain, "United, we Stand. Divided, we fall."

There is no need for perfect unity, nor is it possible. America became free of England not because everyone stood together! They became free because enough stood together to make it happen. Some say that perhaps 1/3 of the people were engaged in the effort and supported independence.

So don't think that just because there is opposition that we are thus 'doomed to fail.' YOU be a part of the solution. Gather others of like mind. Share the truth well, and some will accept it. That is how you get 'enough.'

The same can be true for us now as it was for the American Rebels at the time of the Revolution, as we work to reverse a long string of legal and regulatory setbacks to our liberties. We can do it. We are Americans. Amer-I-CAN.

The economic times give manufactured housing professionals an in unprecedented opportunity. Lower incomes means more people than ever before are looking for affordable quality homes in America. But we won't accomplish it unless we get some regulatory and legal hurdles out of the way.

This is the election that we had better work hard to win. If you haven't already seen and shared this political cartoon linked here, please check it out and send it to your mailing list.

http://www.manufacturedhomelivingnews.com/2012-06-25-16-14-30/purely-political/37-the-5-facts-for-voters-to-consider

Doing so can do two amazing things. One, it can get more people thinking and engaged.

Two, it can get more people looking at the manufactured home lifestyle in a positive way.

Those are two things that can help you and your business. Together, Let's do this! Liberty – personal freedom – is worth working for, always. ##

Posted for
Tim Connor

Marketing & Sales,Website,AdvertisingandMHSpeakerTrainer- Manager

MHProNews.com = The MHIndustry's#1 News, Tips and View you can Use© resource.

MHLivingNews.com = Free resource to enhance MH HomeOwner Satisfaction and MH Image Building

These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this latest rounds of the federal experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation. ##

Submitted by
Larry Hahn

Editor's Note: You can see a political cartoon related to the topic above at this linK;

http://www.manufacturedhomelivingnews.com/2012-06-25-16-14-30/purely-political/37-the-5-facts-for-voters-to-consider

Every new home builder – whether you are a modular home builder, manufactured home retailer, community, developer, a stick builder or other kinds of pre-fab builder – has had one or more “customer from hell.”  Once you’ve signed the contract and the house is in process there’s little that can be done with one of these buyers except consulting a lawyer who will probably tell you to complete the contract you signed and forget them after your warranty period.

Easier said than done!

So how do you avoid these people in the first place?  It’s not as hard as you would think. They usually fall into certain categories.  The biggest problem you will have is turning one of these down if you’ve got nothing on your plate and you’ve got to get some work. 

Here are the types of new home buyers to avoid:

• I need another quote:  This prospective home buyer wants you to draw floorplan after floorplan and quote everything.  You will never quite get it right but eventually they will give you the OK and sign a contract only to be your worse nightmare during construction because you “just don’t understand what we want.”
• Selective hearing:  Having this type for a client is bad; very bad.  During the quoting phase, they only wanted you to lowball the price.  You got the contract but now they want changes that they say you said were included.  You didn’t but that doesn’t matter now.
• The legal eagle: The threats are real.  Anything you do seems to provide a reason for your buyer to contact their lawyer.  Instead of talking to you about a problem they go to their lawyer first.  Now you have the customer from hell and the lawyer he rode in on.
• I’m unavailable:  Have you ever had the client that can’t be reached when there is a decision to be made?  You call, you get voice mail.  You email, it goes unanswered.  Your texts are ignored and just when you are about to give up, they call wanting to know what the delay is.  Where’s the rifle?
• Micro-manager:  We’ve all had this client.  I once had a buyer move a travel trailer onto the building lot and lived there while we built his house.  He was under foot and a master of questioning everything.  My subs hated him, my workers hated him and eventually I didn’t even want to go to the job site. 
• Gossiping Guy:  This guy will speak sweet nothings to you when you’re face to face but will talk to all your subs and employees trying to get some dirt about you that they can gossip about to anyone that will listen.  You usually don’t find out about this until the house is almost finished and someone says something to you about it.  95% of the time, the gossip is false but the damage is done.
• The bargain hunter:  Hopefully you will not sign a contract with this buyer until you call their bluff.  No matter what price you quote for the house, they claim to know someone who can build it for less.  The best response to this bluff is, “This is a fair price.  If you can get your house built cheaper, go for it.”  It is better to lose them before the contract is signed.
• Never-happy guy:  Occasionally you’ll run into buyers who aren’t happy no matter what you do.  Changing their attitude can be difficult – sometimes impossible.  As long as you do what is in the contract, your conscience should be clear.  Their never-happy attitude could stem from a variety of things: maybe their very busy or afraid of being scammed by you or their simply shy.  Do your best and treat them with respect – the rest is up to them.

All of the above could be signals that you have a customer from hell. Spare yourself perdition's flames, and just say no on the front end! Do it before the deal is signed, so hellfire and brimstone don't come your way. ##

Gary Fleisher 
modcoach@gmail.com
http://www.ModularHomeCoach.com

New York Times Columnist, Tom Friedman,  wrote a thoughtful column about the hard truths leaders around the world seem unwilling and unable to tell their own citizens.

Citing problems including the “global credit crisis, the jobs shortage and the need to rebuild Arab countries from the ground up,” Friedman writes that their solutions require “extraordinary leadership that has to start with telling people the truth.”

Unfortunately, Friedman concludes, “that is not what we’re seeing from leaders in America, the Arab world or Europe today.”  A shame, says Friedman, because telling the truth is not only the right thing to do but it also binds people to you and results in their own positive action.

Smart, seasoned gents, like successful manufactured home community owner, attorney, finance expert and consultant Marty  Lavin have been telling us for years: 'MH, we are dying.  Wake up, smell the coffee and take the cure.'

One of Marty's many columns on manufactured housing is linked here.

Marty Lavin has communicated in part:

• some will make money,
• we may see FEMA,
• oilfield boom related or other upticks,

but as an industry we are dying.  Marty has written for us at MHProNews.com, not because he was looking for a new client, but rather because he cares enough about the industry to tell the truth as he sees it.  That's a giving-back form of leadership.

Last year, IBISWorld named MH retailers as among the top ten dying Industries in America, along with:

> DVD, Game & Video Rental

> print publishers

> photo finishers and others. 

Maybe someone with an MH factory may think, it is a shame, but that's ok, I'll sell to communities or developers.  Maybe someone else reading this owns a community and thinks, that's okay, I still have 70%-80% physical occupancy…

…but the point is that if we fail to think of appendages of our industry as important or of value, we could in fact lose even more of the Industry in the process.

Ladies and gents, whatever you do in MH – even if you are profitable – there are warning bells that call for rapid change.   It's great that we've seen a 9 month rise in shipments, but to make that rise long term, business people like yourself will have to take concrete steps, or risk their future in our industry.

Until you fix – at least in your firm in your market(s) – what 's wrong in manufactured housing, sooner or later, you and your business will go the way of the buggy whip.   Who says?  Smart guys like Lavin and others.

Not because we don't have the best housing value in America, but in spite of that fact.

Until we get to the root cause of our issues, we may see bright spots here and there, but overall, individual businesses will be faced with decline.

There are reason why Tony and his team of expert writers and sponsors have built the largest audience of its kind in the industry.  A key part is telling the truth.  A willingness to put the facts or opinions out there, and openly take public or private comments from readers.

When a mistake is pointed out on MHProNews.com, guess what Tony does?  He corrects it, thanks the person for pointing it out.  With thousands of pairs of eyes on his pages daily, that’s a rare form of transparency and accountability. ##

Posted for

Tim Connor

Marketing & Sales, Website, Advertising and MHSpeakerTrainer.org Manager

MHProNews.com = The MHIndustry's #1 News, Tips and View you can Use © resource.

MHLivingNews.com = Free resource to enhance MH HomeOwner Satisfaction and MH Image Building

See some of our client Testimonials here

Connect with me on LinkedIn, send an invite to connect to:

Tim@MHMSM.com

704-895-1230

I'm so tired of reading and hearing the same ole worn out posts, articles and talk about how to fix our ailing industry. Can't we start using some imagination and common sense?

Don't you realize that there are 10,000, that's right ten thousand "BABY BOOMERs" who will be turning 65 years old everyday for the next 20+ years? Do the math: 10,000x360x20. I think that equals right around 73,000,000 or so. Don't you? Or do I have enough 00000's?

Come on guys and gals. If we can't make hay where the sun don't shine we need to stick our heads in the sand in the Sahara. Right now is probably the best time in the history of our manufactured housing industry. You think the 60's were great? You ain't seen nothing yet.

Anyone with any sense in their thick skulls and a few dollars in their hip pockets that can't see this avalanche coming needs to go down to their closest used car lot and apply for a job as a lot boy because you don't even deserve to be a sales person.

There's a tidal wave, no, a tsunami is coming.

Forget about all those run down, worn out, antiquated ole trailer parks with the plastic Flamingos stuck in the ground at the entrance. Let's start thinking about the future by using the past as our model.

Remember the 60's when they used to go out and buy a hunk a land, throw up some pedestals and some 12×60 foot concrete slabs and place a couple a doublewides and a single wide model in front of the entrance? Then viola…open the pearly gates and let the land rush begin?

Well, happy days are here again. Do you think us "knees and hips are gone" retires are going to be able to continue to work that property, climb those darn stairs, to get to their 2nd story master suite forever?

I don't know about you, but my knees have been replaced and I'm running on pure Titanium. My back ain't what it used to be and my eyes see 4 steps for every two. Not a good thing. I no longer need my two story, one acre spread with all the trees, pool, painting, planting and tending to property.

Show me a nice modest little one story with a pond and a few ducks quacking in it, along with a place to store my RV. Or put an "ADU" in my backyard so's I can keep my happy home and share the big house with my family and I'll be a happy camper.

Are you getting it yet?

Bottom line is that the Baby Boomers are the biggest and wealthiest demographic to come along in the history of the USA! We're sporting 1/3 of the USA's economy and will be spending about 1 trillion a year or so for a long long time.

That's $1,000,000,000,000. Do I have enough 0000's to get your attention? So why all the doom and gloom. Let's get this show on the road and quit all the belly aching.

I'm not suggesting that we re-create the same ole rag tag "trailer parks" of years past. What I'm saying that if RE developers (and I are one) can go out and develop beautifly upscale site built communities then why can't the MH community?

There's so much land out there waiting to be developed. Thousands of already approved parcels that went to moth balls in '07 because of the downturn that are ours for the taking. All we have to do is us a little imagination, ingenuity and put some to the 3 trillion dollars sitting on the sidelines looking for a place to put to work.

Come on. Remember the mantra of the "Field of Dreams;" "Build it and the will come?"

John Arendsen

CEO, Founder & Owner

TAG Real Estate Sales & Invest,

On The Level General Contractors &

Crest Homes Manufactured Home Dealer & Developer

(Editor's note: in every monthly issue of our Featured Articles, 6-12+ articles we receive are not published – at least at that time – for a variety of reasons, including logistical ones. That is what happened to this article for June. But when the following news item linked below about Facebook came up, we felt this article was worth sharing on Industry Voices, our thanks to MB, please enjoy.http://www.cnbc.com/id/47674474)

The handwriting was on the wall when Warren Buffett said – before Facebook's (FB) over-hyped IPO – that he wasn't going to buy; certainly not at the start. GM had just pulled 10 million in annual ads on the FB site. FBs own public offering statements indicated that the advertising model was not working yet as planned. Some experts think the true value of FB might be under ten dollars a share, not in the thirties. But some buy into hype. It had less to do with NASDAQ's errors – as serious as those were – than the simple fact that FB was overpriced.

But what's undervalued?

Manufactured housing.

Why?

Failure to properly promote! The failure to create millions of Raving Fans!

The proof is hidden in the FB experience.

The hype about FB came in part as a result of millions of raving fans.

You have tens of millions of potential customers today and tens of millions more tomorrow for manufactured housing. Those Manufactured HomeOwners have to become believers. MH Owners have to be so happy, that friends tell friends, and then businesses like yours grows like crazy.

What are you going to do about it? ##

Posted for
Michael Barnabas

According to Statistical Surveys, a provider of objective industry data, Texas' new manufactured home retail sales were up 29 percent for the three months ending March 31 over the same period last year. This follows on the heels of a flat Q4 2011 when compared with Q4 2010. Texas also ranks first in national shipments to retailers through March 2012 with a 20 percent share, and number one in units produced with a 27 percent share according to the latest MHI Monthly Economic Report for March 2012. 

While great news for the industry, an ominous threat lies ahead as the young Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) begins rule writing for implementing Dodd-Frank and the S.A.F.E. Act.

On behalf of the membership, the TMHA Board approved taking an active part in the federal arena, where this will all play out, at our May 18 Third Quarter Board Meeting. 

I have been in the industry 43 years – the spectrum of consequences we face from this new regulation is something never witnessed.   

Some examples:

• New rules could potentially force lenders to discontinue making lower balance loans such as what we typically see for single section home-only loans, and result in an exit of lenders.
  • One of the largest industry lenders estimates 40 percent of their loan volume is under this threshold.
• These new federal rules would also certainly impact retailers, manufacturers and communities.
  • While MHI introduced an industry-supported bill in Congress (HR 3849) to reduce regulatory burdens that impede access to affordable manufactured housing financing, the likelihood of this passing anytime soon if at all in our deadlocked Congress is slim.
    • We have been told this directly by those that should know and have extensive knowledge of the current national legislative climate.

Experience has shown it's much easier to influence the writing of a new rule than it is to change a rule once it's written. TMHA is not going to sit on the sidelines to see what happens.

Your association has several key resources that, if combined with that of MHI, fellow state associations and industry members, will see that manufactured housing has direct input in the federal rule writing process:

1. First, our large, informed and dedicated member base understands the dynamics of our business model and that it relies heavily on portfolio lenders.
   • While mortgage lenders in the traditional housing market produce loans, sell the servicing to another party and look to the government through Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac to take the risk of loss, our lenders do none of that.
   • MH lenders originate loans, service their loans and take the hit on any loss.
     • This requires different loan pricing, fees and loan origination systems than previously envisioned by those writing the new federal laws and most likely the officials charged with writing the rules.
2. Secondly, our seasoned board and Executive Director DJ Pendleton will give us a voice in this process.
   • DJ brings a strong academic and professional background as an attorney coupled with industry experience, allowing him to understand the new laws, rule writing process and nuances of guiding the consultants we will require to help ensure the industry is heard.

Finally, through conservative fiscal policy, financial support from members over the years and God Bless our Texas economy, TMHA has the financial resources to commit in coordination with others to support this effort in D.C. While no one can guarantee our success, we will at the very least have a voice at the table.

Sincerely,

Ronnie Richards
Chairman
Texas Manufactured Housing Association

For those old enough to remember, there is a song called, Getting to Know You. Ideally, that is what happens between customers and companies, but that is another topic for another time. Today what I want to share is the dramatic value of being and sharing 'in the know.' Why professionally knowing – and sharing – is so critical.

Compared to many industries, manufactured housing is rather small. But the potential is unbelievable. As I have said before, with over 60 million boomers retiring, that market alone has huge potential value to manufactured housing. MHProNews.com Featured Articles, Tony Kovach's Masthead blog or the Daily Business News carries economic forecasts from time to time. So you can see and know what is happening, what experts think, and you get a shot at information that is USEFUL to your business.

Tony, the featured writers, the association leaders and experts who provide insights and information along with the growing MHProNews.com team provide you with a one-stop-shop with the most factory-built housing Industry News, Tips and Views You Can Use ©.

It's GOOD for YOU.

• It is good for owners.
• It is good for executives.
• It is good for managers.
• It is good for associations.
• It is good for rank and file (wouldn't it be great if all the owners, execs, managers and rank and file knew all the good information that was on these pages? Think about that for a minute. Do you want to have informed or uniformed team members? Make sure your team is reading here a 10-20 minutes daily too).

This is also good for advertisers and sponsors. What do advertisers need? More eyeballs and ears from their target market! More decision makers and influencers. I'd observe that companies that don't advertise here and cheating themselves and their tens of thousands of potential customers – there is no larger business to business audience of its kind anywhere in MH history – but that is not the point of this article, so another time.

What I wanted to say is that we not only need facts and figure, we need to know people. People who are in the know on 'whatever' the subject of importance to you.

People have to get to know people. That 'getting to know' may happen instinctively in moments, or it may happen over time. Once they get to know you, they can feel comfortable with listening, learning, leading, following, telling, doing, sharing or whatever the case may be.

I've written thousands of articles and dozens of books over the years in my work with companies in 23 countries, and have worked with some 200 firms in the housing and construction industries, ranging from modular and HUD Code builders, pre-fab, log homes, panelizers, suppliers, etc. All have a need to know.

All have a need to share too.

Tony reminds me that before he launched MHMSM.com (being re-branding as MHProNews.com) he had 3 conversations. The first was with his wife. 8 minutes into the conversation, Soheyla was in. I'm learning that she does quite a bit behind the scenes, and you know what they say about behind every good man is a very good woman.

The next was with Bob, who has since gone on to other projects, but who Tony said he spoke to for about 10 minutes before he said, “I'm in.” Bob did the initial IT/WebTech work that is now ably carried forward by Joe Geller, who has delivered this wonderful new site's look, resources and feel.

Next, for some reason, Tony called me. We spoke for 12 minutes, and I told Tony I was happy to contribute articles on management, sales and of a reflection/inspirational variety. No doubt Tony had other conversations too, lining up the original writers, later lining up reporters and sales people, getting associations involved, etc.

When I want to talk to Tony these days, it is not as easy today as it was shortly after he first launched. Tony speaks with people from coast-to-coast and beyond our borders too about factory built housing. He is the 'face' of MHProNews at national and state conferences and trade shows. But this is NOT the Tony Kovach show.

This site is a team effort. The team includes:

• You, as an owner, executive, manager or professional reader,
• You, as a sponsor,
• You, as an association,

all of you – all of us who care about factory built housing and its future! - are part of the team too. Knowing matters! Sharing matters too.

When I read this column of Tony's on communications, and this one on the importance of trade shows, gives you a tiny sense of what is taking place here. Another writer said that an industry can not be better than its trade publications or media. Wow, what a thought. So the critical need for this trade media becomes ever more clear.

As I reflect on how this factory-built housing trade media website looked a little over 30 months ago vs. how it looks now, it was a modest start at sharing and knowing. It has blossomed into a professional resource that many associations encourage their members to read regularly – I know – because I've seen their messages.

A number of associations share their news with MHProNews.com, those that don't should.

Having a one stop place to learn and share has tremendous value. They say the rising tide raises all ships. Well, not exactly true. If you have tightly anchored your boat (by anchoring your thinking) and the water rises too much, you'll eventually sink. But to the degree you participate in getting to know and sharing, you grow.

In Israel, there is the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. Why is Galilee 'alive' and the Dead Sea dead? Because the Dead Sea has no outlets. The water that flows into the Dead Sea stagnates, and so life dies. When any of us cease to learn AND when we cease to share and care, we too stagnate and eventually die. That happens for people, that happens for organizations too.

Tony asked me to reflect on why sharing is as important as knowing. Look around here, look at what has happened in 30 minutes, and you will have your answer. At Louisville, it was motivating to see crowds of professionals younger, older and in between getting together by the hundreds to learn and share. The same thing happens here digitally every day.

While you read this, dozens or hundreds others are on this site at the same time as you, and in the course of the day, thousands will have come to this site. By the end of a month, well over 100,000 visits from pros like you take place.

Hey, while I'm plugging readership and sharing, I hope you check out the Words of Wisdom and my latest post Five Keys to Turning Your Business Around in a Sluggish Economy.

Growth results when those who share get together with those who you want to get to know. When we raise each other up through proven knowledge and experience, we truly all benefit and advance. ##

Posted by
Tim Connor
704-895-1230

Every business professional wants better results. In 30 years of working with companies – many in the factory-built and log housing arenas – I've yet to see a client or prospect say, "We want to sell less and lose more money next year." That would be absurd, the CEO would be replaced or a mental institution would be called for such top leadership thinking. Business people want to grow results, period.

The question then becomes how do we get results? What are the things we must do differently to achieve our organizational targets? Who do I have to involve to get my goals done? What are the costs? What are the potential rewards? What are the risks? And so on.

I attended the informational/educational seminars at the Louisville Manufactured Housing Show last January. The array of practical business building topics was a solid. I didn't hear anyone say, gee I wish I had not come. Yet it rained all day on day one of the show, and snowed on day two. Nearly 1100 attendees from manufactured home retailing, land-lease communities, developing and installation were there, along with hundreds more who came to engage those professionals with their products and services. People drove or flew in from many parts of the country. Homes were sold. Products and services engaged.

It was a fine example of everyone involved winning.

Knowledge is power. Goal and solution orientation. A willingness to adapt to be more successful. These are among the keys to success.

Certainly Dennis Hill's office does a great job of organizing and running events like the Louisville Show. But let's not forget the role that Tony Kovach and the MHProNews team played, because certainly the Midwest Manufactured Housing Federation (MMHF) member state executives didn't forget their role. I've seen the positive comments on Tony's linked in profile from those execs. I've listened to people acknowledging his work on this trade media website.

For 2.5 years, Tony's MHProNews (MHMSM.com) online trade media website has gotten results for the Industry and his clients. Award winning retailer Doug Gorman said Tony is one of the best go to guys in the Industry. Hall of Fame award winning Dennis Hill and the MMHF execs have applauded Kovach's work. The seminars at the Louisville Show were all organized by Tony. I also sat in this year on a some training sessions on marketing and sales that Tony was doing for some retailers via webinar. The material was terrific, but more important, the client company was getting results.

Tony has been exploring ways we could deliver more training to more companies and their team members. I'm told that various states are keenly aware of the need and thirst for business building education. Tony will be at the Texas Manufactured Housing Association's (TMHA) event on August 19-21, presenting on How to Get More Customers with Cash or Good Credit. Now I imagine that many readers aren't in Texas, but would like to have quality business building information and training by multiple professionals like Tony and others. Well, I've been throwing out ideas to get it done Tony. A plan is being formed. When Tony gets involved in a plan, factory built housing pros should take note and listen. But before talking about the plan, a survey of the landscape is in order.

I've watched and worked with companies in this great industry for decades. What has often baffled me is that some things just don't seem to change. Some of the same old things keep plaguing manufactured housing.

For example, the subject of tornadoes.

How many times do we have to hear from the weather man that if you 'live in a 'mobile home,' you better run for cover or you may die.' Crawl into a ditch if you have to, but leave that mobile home.'

Isn't it beyond odd to tell people living in manufactured housing that they are safer outside then inside in a windowless room, say a bath or closet? Haven't these same TV weather men shown us video footage of cars and tractor trailers being carried up by the winds? Haven't they shown us photos and videos of leveled houses – and I mean conventional site built buildings – where the people inside we're carried off by those winds? Do they really believe that you are safer outside in a ditch, waiting to get sucked up by the winds than inside?

That's Absurd! But it has gone on for decades! Why? Because there needs to be a systematic approach by the Industry to solving the problem, that's why. If you don't like the results, you have to do something different.

With state association budgets at record lows in too many cases, there is only so much an association executive can do, their plates are full. But what can be done is to form a task force in every state to reply to the media – on behalf of the Association and it's members and under the guidance of the Association – to answer each and every time that negative news happens.

But what answer should be made that would help manufactured housing? What should the goal of such a task force be?

Glad you asked.

Every piece of bad news is an opportunity to engage the media and turn it into an opportunity for free – and positive – publicity. Hollywood stars have the mantra, there is no bad publicity. The very biggest companies turn negative news into a positive, all by engaging the media. They have the budgets for it, but guess what? If you start to turn media lemons into lemonade on topics like tornadoes and manufactured homes, you will sell more homes and you will have the bigger budgets too.

I've been talking with Tony about having a mix of online training and live events. The online events could be started in short order. They could tackle topics like engaging the media successfully, something Tony and others in this industry can talk about first hand.

We could do management, marketing, sales and other subjects online too. Ways to build your business without even leaving your desk, just an internet connected PC, laptop or tablet computer and a good telephone line.

I've been nudging Tony Kovach on this training and event topic for some time now. Because we need someone like him that can get the word out, and provide the promotion and audience we would need, and can connect with the various states that would want this for their members.

Think about this. How would you like your business to double in the next year? How many customers and sales are you missing that you ought to be closing?

i read what Tony Kovach writes, and MHMSM.com (MHProNews.com) has gone from 10,000 page views a month on this site two and a half years ago when he launched to over 800,000 page views from last month. Do the math, and you'll see that its is 8000% growth in 2.5 years. Doug Gorman, Dennis Hill and others are right. Tony gets results!

And that power can get you results too.

Watch for updates. Get involved. Don't let old patterns trap you. We could start with a topic like how to change negative tornado stories into positive publicity in YOUR state or market. We could start with a topic like change management, something I do. We can cover those or a vast array of topics from your favorite speakers and writers, because MHProNews.com has the platform and audience.

That audience is made up of smart business people like you. When you read this far, it is because you are ready to get results.##

Post by
Tim Connor, CSP
tel:704-895-1230
tim@timconnor.com