I've Got To Stop Advertising

You see, I have this ad in US Glass that says I am a consultant. Some calls lead to valuable contracts, but many strange phone calls come as well. Some people ask weird questions and some companies want help with the next greatest invention in the world. The most interesting call in a while came this week. Here is how I remember this call.

Paul: Hello.

Phone: Hello, I am calling to speak with the glass consultant, Paul Bieber.

Paul: This is Paul, can I help you?

Phone: Yes. Can I be assured of your complete discretion on a very sensitive matter?

Paul: Yes, of course. If you are calling on a consulting program, we will sign a non-disclosure agreement and a confidentiality agreement.

Phone: OK. My name is Mark Sanford, the Governor of South Carolina. I ran into a little problem in the last couple of weeks and need your help.

(My mind was racing...this is the guy who visited his girlfriend in Argentina when he was supposed to be hiking!)

Paul: OK, Mark, what can I do for you?

Mark: Paul, I did my homework on you. You worked for George McGovern when you were a kid, so you know politics. And you know glass, so I need your help. Here is my problem. I want to build a glass house so people won't throw stones at me. That is kind-of-a-metaphor. You see, I don't want the press and my political enemies taking cheap shots at me, and you know, if I have a glass house, they won't bother me.

Paul: Mark, I think you have this backwards. It goes: if you live in a glass house, you shouldn't throw stones. Not that people shouldn't throw at you.

Mark: I have been very confused lately. Well, I have a plan B. Can you help me change all the windows in the governor's mansion to one-way glass so no one can see me and then my girlfriend can come here from Argentina and visit me?

Paul: Well, Mark, I can help you write a spec to get the right glass, but...you have to consider that at night, if you have the lights on, people and cameras can see in, but you can't see out. Is this a problem for you?

Mark: Thanks for this tidbit. At night I plan to keep all the lights out anyway, maybe we'll just use candlelight at night.

Paul: OK, Mark, do you want safety glass as well? Or energy-savings glass? Or maybe even cutting-edge photovoltaic glass?

Mark: No thanks, I am not interested in those things, I just want to preserve my privacy. I am an elected Governor, but I am entitled to have a private life.


Paul: But Mark, you have to set an example by using low e energy saving glass. This is the future for us in the glass industry. You should show South Carolina's voters that energy savings is important to you. Low e doesn't add much to an overall replacement plan, so let's go ahead and spec that in.


Mark: OK, then let's go with plan B.


Paul: Mark, I'll get you the right glass, but you've got bigger problems than this glass installation. There isn't a glass shop that would honor your purchase order right now...you might disappear again when they look to get paid!

Mark: That's OK, I did my homework on glass people. They will beg to get a high-profile job like this. Maybe even some of them will pay me! If I do have to pay, no one will call for at least ninety days, and then I will create a punch list, and tell them that one window leaks, and it will be a year before I will have to pay. That's when I'll tell them about the retainage.

Paul: Don't you think that will leave a poor impression of you with the glass shop?

Mark: I don't care. I'll hire a glass shop from North Carolina, where they can't vote for me anyway!

I left the phone call with some slight apprehension. If he wasn't going to pay the glass shop, I knew he wouldn't be paying me. I sent him a note, thanking him and an invoice for payment in full, in advance. If I get a check mailed with an Argentinian stamp, I won't be surprised.

The Glass Industry Horoscope

You have been asking for this for years. Begging is really more like it. So, here it is, your glass and metal industry horoscope.


Aries (March 21-April 19) You are a great communicator, except when you owe money to your tempered glass fabricator. Spend more time with your family, with your business, with your relatives, and with your religious life. So what if you don't get any sleep. Tough it out. You should sell more picture frames.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) You have great people skills. You should meet each and every customer who comes into your shop. If you are on the road, keep a video camera at your store so you can watch who walks in on your portable SmartPhone. Don't trust the clerks in your store. Ever. Get rid of the drug-addict kid on the screen table.

Gemini (May 21-June 20) Why are you in the glass business? You used to own a vending machine route and then bought a glass shop. Go back to selling Dr. Pepper. Learn from your experiences--maybe you can invent a coin-operated machine that will clean the inside of an IG unit. Be sure to shop around when you buy IG units.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) You will have a great month of July in business, unless you plan to close for a month because of lack of business. Cancel your vacation plans and be prepared to work 31 days in July. If you don't have a great month, start a career as a columnist and blogger for US Glass.

Leo (July 23-Aug 22) The only Leo I knew in the glass business was Leo Karas of Boston. He ran a great glass business. Unless your name is Leo Karas, don't do business in Boston, ever. If your name is Leo McGillacuddy and you are in Poughkeepsie, don't go into the glass business. Pay your worker's comp insurance this week, even if it is not due.

Virgo (Aug 23-Sept 22) You are the leader in the glass business on the west side of town, but you are getting your brains beat in on the east side. Such is life for a Virgo. To sell more on the east side do what every business person should not do...lower your prices to the point that you will put yourself out of business. This will be a successful strategy for you.

Libra (Sept 23-Oct 22) You need to relax more. Since you are loosing money for every hour you are open, you will save by closing from noon to 3:00 pm every day. Continue having all of your family on the payroll, paying them for these hours even though you will be closed. You business problems will be over by the end of the year. That's a promise.

Scorpio (Oct 23-Nov 21) Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow. If you break this streak, your whole life will be upset. Continue paying all bills late, return phone calls no earlier than two days, and answer your email only once per week. You have proven this works for you. Don't change now...your business path is set--don't try to change it.

Sagittarius (Nov 22-Dec 21) The Sagittarius has a split personality. Tell your customers one thing, but continue to do something else. You will keep everyone off balance and keep them guessing about you. Your competition is worse off than you, so don't worry, be happy.

Capricorn (Dec 22-Jan 19) Let the inner child in you come out to help your business. Start writing all of your work orders in blue crayon. Sign your checks in red crayon. Always use blunt nose scissors, and be sure to use Elmer's white glue when setting glass. Silicone is for grown-up use. Be sure to put the phone books on the seat of the truck so you can see over the steering wheel.

Aquarius (Jan 20-Feb 18) Wake up early every day this week. You are the bird that is catching the worm. Contractors who call you before 7:00 am and ask if your crew will be at their job site will appreciate your personal touch on the phone when you tell them the tempered came in without the holes.

Pisces (Feb 19-March 20) All Pisces people should spend Wednesday going fishing. Close the business and encourage all of your employees to join you...the ones that do should be told that overtime will not apply today.

Do You Have A Polaroid Camera?

Yesterday I was at a party for a friend's son who just graduated college and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the US Army. There, we were talking with a gentleman who had worked for Polaroid for over twenty years. He was telling us about a company that, at their peak in the 1970's, had over 30,000 employees. Polaroid instant cameras came out in 1948, and were the technological wonder of the 50's and 60's. Imagine, an instant copy of your picture...no longer waiting a week for your pictures to come back to the local drug store. What an invention. What a stock. What a company.


Oops. Bankruptcy in 2001, and again in 2008. 30,000 people working there.


Knock Knock...didn't anyone see that digital cameras and home printers would take over the industry? Where were the leaders and future thinkers of this once great American success story?


Let's go to our industry.


What is our Polaroid. Is it the single glazed residential window? Is it the jalousie? Is it the glass shop that doesn't do heavy glass tops?


Knock Knock...what is our future? Plastics will replace glass? (I don't think so.) Portable tempering machines you can bring to a job site? (I'd buy one) Ten years ago would you have believed the windshield repair market would be so big? (I laughed when I first heard it) Glass that will generate electricity (you better bet on this one) or what...?


If I knew for sure, you can be sure I would be investing in it. Right now the only glass investment I have is the new windows I put in my house which have saved me thousands of dollars in their first year. So, that means energy-savings is the future. Whether you bet on vinyl or aluminum for windows, make sure the glass is high-performance low-e.


People who sold their Polaroid stock at its peak made a killing. If you sold Google at 600, you were a hero. It is easy to look back. What you should be doing is: take some time, read magazines, go to trade shows, talk to your customers and you vendors, and make your predictions about the future.


Your business depends on it.

How Do You Drink Your Coffee?

Sounds like a silly question...sure...black/with cream/with sugar/with sweet-n-low/with skim milk/with splenda/cappuccino/double shot/mocha/Starbucks/hot chocolate/decaf/Lipton/fair trade...and so on.

Hundreds of varieties, stores, flavors.

If something as simple as coffee in take-out cup can have this many variations, why do you, as a glass shop owner and manager, offer glass in so few flavors and types.

So many flat glass shops say they don't do auto glass. Sure, you don't have to do it in your shop, but if a customer calls you, say yes. Set up an agreement with a local, reliable auto glass company to do your referrals. Have them do the job, you bill the customer and pay the auto glass shop. Let the auto glass people work with the insurance company; this is its own specialty. This way you keep the customer, and make a couple of bucks.

Set up this type of arrangement with a screen shop as well. You can also work with a reputable picture framer the same way.

What?--you don't do storefronts over a certain size, or any second story work? Set up an arrangement with a glazier who does. You can only come out ahead if the glazier you chose for your affiliation does good work. Your customers will appreciate you as a one-stop shop.

And this goes the other way, too. Go to the local auto glass shop, or the screen fixer-upper. They get calls for IG unit replacements, get their business and you have a great two-way relationship.

I know of only a few glass shops who are qualified to do bullet-resistant glazing properly. Most shops say "NO" when they get the question. You should say "YES", and you will have your BR division call the customer right away.

In big business this is called 'strategic partners', and it sounds so business-sexy. In my glass shop, this would be called smart business.

Let's Open The Mailbag

I am showing my age...it is not a mailbag, but an e-mail account...does anyone in the glass industry twitter? Why?

Here are some of the questions recently received, and my wonderful, absolutely dead-on answers. (Yes, I am still on those wonderful pain medications from my surgery...can't you tell?)

Question from Pete in Cincinnati: "What should I be doing now to get ready for the turn around in the economy?"

Pete, the single best thing you can do is upgrade your employees. There are many GREAT people out of work, all looking to show an employer how valuable they can be. Take a serious look at each of your employees, and if they don't measure up, talk with them, lay out a short-term path to improvement. If they do improve, you win. If they don't improve, then swap out employees. Your other employees, those that do their job well, will appreciate your actions to improve or change the laggards. Don't feel bad about putting a person out-of-work in this economy. You gave a chance to improve, and now you are hiring a person who does want to work.

Question from George in St. Louis: "Shower doors have been great for us--but what is the next big thing in glass?"

George, if I knew this for sure, well...you know. But my gut feel says energy-savings is the best course for any glass shop to specialize in. Whether it is building a LEED building, or installing low-e in every job, green construction is the next big thing. Study the trade magazines to learn more, read bid documents carefully and read every article or web site about energy savings and glass that you can get your hands on. This is the future...the only question is when does the future become the present. Probably a year or two more, but start getting ready now.


Question from Louise in Texas: "My husband and I own a medium size glass shop, with six glaziers and four shop workers. We have downsized in the last year and feel we are now at our core of employment. We can't afford to give any raises, but we want to do something for our workers. Any suggestions?"


There are a couple of things you can do. First, communicate to your crew about the situation. The fact you are retaining them and they get a paycheck should be enough for most people right now. With raises out of the picture, let's look at your benefits. Do you offer a 'Flexible Spending Account' for your people. This costs you nothing, once the set-up is done, and gives both you and the employee a tax savings. You both benefit. Talk with your insurance broker or labor attorney to learn more about this, and also ask about a section 125 cafeteria plan. There is not a single employee who does not like this benefit, and again, it costs you next to nothing, and can even save you money.


A question from Sandy in Brooklyn: "Somebody told me that next year a new glass cutting system is coming out that will cut tempered glass. Is this possible?"


Sandy, you live in Brooklyn, go buy a bridge; there is nothing that I have heard of like this.


A question from Elaine in Fitzwilliam, NH: "Hey, Paul, when are you going to get off of that computer and help me around the house?"


Oops, I've got to go now. Keep those cards and letters coming.