EDITORIAL
When nothing is left but the business
One Tuesday morning, he gets in to the office around 6:30, turns on the coffee and gets ready for the day. By 9:00, he notices that the bookkeeper, Hillary, hasn’t shown up for work. ...
Financial ancient history vs. right now
Contractors, even if they know their numbers, do a bad or non-existent job with budgets and cash flow projections. The vast majority of them make a profit of 1% or less a year. That was the message that the Quality Service Contractors heard from consultant Gary Elekes, a former contractor himself with a business degree from Ohio State and an accounting degree from Roosevelt University. ...
D.C. energy efficiency world gets murkier
As reported on page 1 of this issue, the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have picked a certifying body to test and certify workers for the federal Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) and home energy upgrade industry. ...
FORUM
PERC, ASFlow provide drainline carry research update at WaterSmart Innovations
The Plumbing Efficiency Research Coalition, known as PERC, provided an update presentation on its activities and those of their partner organization, the Australasian Scientific Review of Reduction of Flows on Plumbing and Drainage Systems (ASFlow) Committee at the 2011 WaterSmart Innovations Conference in October. Both organizations are working on research programs that seek to investigate the impact of reduced water flows in sanitary drainage systems resulting from reductions in water use from plumbing fixtures and fittings, appliances and commercial and institutional equipment....
PHCC's National Grassroots Network System a true player on Capitol Hill
PHCC is providing expanded grassroots services to its members. This includes monitoring and tracking industry issues on a daily basis, and if need be, mobilizing members to advance a piece of legislation or regulation....
Will you have the right to exist?
It is said that you can put a frog in a pot of water and put it on the stove to boil. The frog will die without moving not knowing that he can jump out and not realizing the water is hot until it is too late. That might be a metaphor for the HVAC service industry. The independent contractor is the frog in the pot of water and the stove is on....
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
To comment on an article, email Bob Mader at bmader@penton.com
Letters to the editor
I think that the time frame for acceptance of residential sprinklers will be much shorter than your sprinkler industry sources say (cite issue and page). They are looking at the systems through the eyes of sprinkler contractors, and are not considering the cost advantages of making the sprinklers part of the cold water distribution pipe. ...
Letters to the editor
Not to be critical of Mark Eatherton’s work as I have been reading it with enjoyment and sharing his articles with my staff, students and industry colleagues for a long time. But in the early stages of the multi-part series on combustion......
Letters to the editor
DAMARISCOTTA, MAINE — I read with interest your blog and commentary on this "murky" subject in the current issue of CONTRACTOR (July 2011, p. 58 and at http://bit.ly/jEELiE). ...
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