We Will Survive!

What does it mean to be a survivor? Is it living through adversity....not giving up even when hit with problem after problem? What events must one live through to qualify as a survivor? Is being a survivor just doing what needs to be done? Is a survivor simply someone who makes the most of their resources and opportunities? Is a survivor just someone who stays empowered?  Simply, YES! Think about what most companies have gone through the past few years? The economy has made everyone act, think and manage differently. Unfortunately there were too many companies, many were our customers, that had to react to the woes of the major down-turn. AI is still here and growing strong as are many of our customers. Through these past few hard years, all of you have found that using a wholesaler has been the best avenue to take to keep your overhead down, production sound, without sacrificing quality by being forced to buy cheaper products due to rising costs. Many of you are long time customers, but we have gained many new friends. We hear time and time again how satisfied you are with your products you have received from us.  Now many of you are growing, getting busier and noticing your schedules getting full, but still continue to use us. You realize that you can get a quality sign or awning, keep your overhead down and feel secure that you can put that profit to better use. For instance, not having to react next time the economy gets hard. We are all not out of the woods yet, but it is good to see many of you getting back in the swing of things and glad we can continue to be your friend in success.  
In order to get better in 2012, what have you done to raise your Standard from 2011? If you repeat everything you did in 2011, you will never grow or get better. In February at our 'State of the AI', the annual Year-End meeting, we looked back at our successes and looked at where we fell short. After patting each other on the back and giving thanks to you, the greatest customers on earth, we set goals for 2012. We have set goals based on our 2012 theme of Survivor: OutGrow, OutPerform & OutLive. We share this with you because without you there is no AI, and no survival story. We have made a promise to ourselves to raise our Standards. This means OutGrow ourselves, our bad habits, our shortcomings and become a better vendor, a better employee and most of all better people. Second, we vowed to OutPerform ourselves. This means better sales, better service, better drawings, better products and outperforming our Standard of 2011. If we do all of this we WILL all OutLive the competition, just like we have this past economic downturn. We have made this commitment to be better, have you? Have you challenged yourself, your employees, your customers to be better? The better we all our and commit to that challenge, the better chance we ALL have to OutLive the competition, OutLive poor profits, OutLive our old Standard.
Knowing that we are not out of the woods yet, look deep inside and ask yourself, what can I do better. If you are really honest with yourself, you will find that you always have room to up your Standard. Find the little things that help you reach goals and make those better. If you do that, your goals are an absolute success. If you need help or want to pick our brains to see what we are doing to get better, just give us a call or shoot us an email. Who knows maybe you can give us some valuable tips too. Either way, we are all growing together and we have our sites on a BIG and successful 2012 - Outgrow, Outperform, Outlive!