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(3) Agility. You can react quickly to competitive changes and spot trouble more quickly than the giants can.

As part of our anniversarY, we are looking for pictures to use as part of the special year celebration. If your company has an old photo of your yard, personnel, machinery or of the general operation in the lumber industry and you would like to share it with us, please send it to MSLDA headquarters.

Along with the picture please include some general information about the company, approximate date when the picture was taken and a general overview of the firm. Any other information will be appreciated.

Old photos will be returned to you in the same state in which they were received by us. So why not share Your history?

Comments on our late winter seminars have been favorable, Those attending felt that the presentations were helpful. Possibly the best comment of the day: "The seminar opened mY eyes to many subjects and ideas that I would not have thought of in a million years."

Thot's How lt Goes!

bn't let the hassles of being small (tight cash, manpower problems, high purchasing costs, low market profile) keep you from capitalizing on the strengths of your firm. Because you're small, you enjoy at least five competitive advantages:

(l) The personal touch. Where product and price differences are minimal, personalized attention is a prime competitive advantage.

(2) Motivation. If your people have a stake in the action, then profits and losses have more meaning for them. They'll work longer, harder, with more personal involvement.

(4) Less bureaucracy. Problems can be grasped more readily in your firm than in sprawling corporations, Decisions can be hammered out and results checked more quickly.

(5) You're unobtrusive. So it's possible to try new sales tactics, introduce new products and blow it without attracting undue attention, opposition.

To survive among the giants: Never compete head-on. Instead, remember the following: Aim at specialized market segments. Large companies concentrate on the average customer-often bypassing segments that must have specialized attention. Carve out your own niche.

(Source: "How to Maximize the Strengths of a Smaller Business," Business Perspectives, Dec. 1980.)

"Certainly we carrY whatchamacallits. You'll find them in the doo-j iggers sections. " The Merchonl Mogozine

.Fge ATTITUDE in washington, I D.C. has chaneed! OR HAS lT?

On March l0-l I a gr-oup of 22 Northern California dealers journeyed to Washington to attend the 9th Annual Conference with Congress, sponsored by the National Lumber & Building Material Dealers Association. After nine years of visiting our respresentatives in their Washington offices we are on a first name basis with many.

We have been told that the attitude of our leeislators has chansed from liberalism to fiscal restraint. As we visited those Congressmen we had visited in the past we did observe more concern. Most Republicans are ready to approve the Administration's plans and a few conservative Democrats will do the same. The concern of all of us is over the tactics that will be employed by the die-hard liberals.

As an example, Sen. Alan Cranston has stated that in the previous Congress, the Republicans were able to block some bills with their 4l votes and now that the Democrats have 46 Senate votes they can block anything. On March 17 the Senate took up the first of the specific spending savings proposed by the President. Gamesmanship by the Democrats to let the April I, milk price support stand resulted in a failure to kill the increase which costs $150 million next year.

Before'tabling the vote Alan Cranston boasted, "The Republicans gave us fits last year with 4l members. We are prepared to give them fits in spades (this year) with 46 members." Every Democratic member then voted against tabling the motion.

House Speaker Tip O'Neil has stacked the deck in appointing Democrats to the House Ways and Means and the House Rules Committees. Both are key committees and do not reflect the 56%o to 44s/o ratio of Democrats and Republicans.

It has already been reported that the President's tax proposal is dead. The bottom line will obviously be business as usual by the liberals. They are showing that it is not the interest of the nation, the unemployment, the inflation nor the high interest rates that concern them. It is whether or not they will have enough votes to be re-elected. It may mean giving away the farm to buy the votes but that seems to be ok with them.

While the rest of us hope that everyone will get behind the president's plans and give them a chance to work, it is obvious that a few key Congressmen are going to prostitute the system to insure that the proposals do not work. Thus they can show that they have the solution and we go back to increasing all of the federal handouts.

For a few weeks after the elections there was a certain amount of fear in those elected officials still in office. They clearly stated that the mandate of the people must be followed but now that the smoke has cleared, they have settled back in their plush offices, all but forgetting what was mandated at election time.

The only course of action open to us until the next election is to write or call and tell them we expect them to reduce govern-

(Please turn to page 37)

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Jessell's direction the computer has really started to mature. "It only takes a short time to get a system going, but it takes time for us, as managers, to realize the real potential of the system and make real use of it," said Jessell.

"A good example of what the computer can do for you is our redwood uppers," said patterson. ,,I had always known we moved a lot of redwood uppers and at a good margin, but it wasn't until I saw reports coming out of the computer that I realized what a profitable item they were. When you say inventory control, you usually think of inventory reduction, but in this case we kept increasing our inventory and our margins to see where it would take us. We're now selling three times as many uppers at a better margin and turnover. There are many areas in our business that are like that. With the computer, we now have the information and make effective use of it."

"I think the most important thing to do besides picking the right system is to get your people enthusiastic about it. Then be prepared to work hard and be flexible because some of your pet theories are going to be disproved. There's nothing like having the computer side with an employee's point to improve morale, enthusiasm, and productivity. "

Lease, Buy Guidelines

Guidelines to deciding whether to lease or buy an office copier are based on volume.

Usually a low volume copier should be purchased. Care should be taken to buy from a dealer who has an established reputation for proper service of machines. Medium-volume copiers should be purchased if amortization can be achieved in three years or no more than four. Even the most durable copier can be worn out in that time by constant use.

High volume copiers should be bought when the price exceeds $10,000 only if usage reaches 30,000 to 40,000 copies a month. If usage is lower, outright ownership of an expensive copier cannot be justified.

andsome plankflooring proaides an ideal setting for any iaterior design. Its charming traditional early America as easily as the attiactiveness of an Old World pegged floon Virginia Hardwood Company features the most ertensiae selection of pl.ank flooring in the lVestern United States. If it's planh flooring you want you,ll find it here.

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