Positivity Key in these challenging times!

The below post was one I started on LinkenIn but found I was going way-over the maximum amount of characters, so I have transferred it to my blog post and will share it on Linked-In this way. Thanks for reading...

We here on LinkedIn are generally the better ones about realizing what is needed in these challenging times. I think it all just comes down to being an optimist and keeping a positive attitude. I am no stranger to tough times having gone through a couple serious ones in my lifetime, but I always tried to look past it and that has served me well. Networking and mingling with other's of the same positive attitude is key as well. So I thank all those that I have corresponded to or have read my posts as well.

My current negative challenges like many other's seem to be simmering down these days as the outlook from many seems to be getting better as many see a light at the end of this pandemic tunnel. It has caused a great amount of uncertainty in the market and from spending consumers. Some industries have seen it as a boom, other's as total destruction. For those I am saddened.

The biggest example to me of destruction of an industry is the movie theatre industry. I personally still love to go to the theatre to watch the latest movie in all its glory in surround sound, THX, with all the bells and whistles. Now I know that industry was already suffering long before Covid hit as they attempted to figure out how to get their dwindling watchers to come into the theatre and pay their ever increasing ticket prices. For me to take my girls out it was easily a $70 dollar expense for tickets, and maybe a soda and some popcorn. But I also looked at that as a way to get out of the house and enjoy some time with my girls and add a little excitement to see that latest creation on the big screen. Many people were just fine steaming the new movie a few months later on their big screen TV at home.

I hear during covid that big screen TV, surround sound, theatre rooms have been going ballistic with orders for the building of and installing of premium tech equipment to this end. To me though, their will still never be the same as going to the true Big Screen Cinema and seeing it in that environment. Watching a movie with the other fans who are also there for the same reason. Even when Covid is over, and Theatres re-open, how many will actually do so? Many have gone out of business already due to this. Maybe this will bring back more of the smaller family owned ones, I wonder. I expect we are going to lose over 50-60% of our cinemas across the USA sadly. I hope I am wrong.

So that brings me back to industries that have boomed from this pandemic. As I mentioned construction of home theatres has gone through the roof, but really so has all home projects. Several Construction Foreman's I know have been telling me now for over 9 mths they are backlogged several months on job request for home repair, as well as home upgrades. All those people stuck at home are now forced to see more of those issues they wanted done on their homes, and so goes that industry spiked way up!

Other industries like the RV and Boating industry are seeing skyrocketing orders for their product with the manufacturers not being able to keep up. I recently wanted to get hooked up with a trailer maker to stock both PWC and Flatbed trailers at my store, only to find out most aren't even taking on new dealers, or tell me they are so backlogged they either require huge orders to become a dealer or are only making full size boat trailers right now since that is where the money is at for them and they are way behind the demand.

The Bicycle industry is also going through the roof with most dealers telling me they will get weekly orders in only to have all those units sold with 48 hrs. I also met two guys locally who had started up a chain of those clinics for employers to send their employees too for drug testing. Well guess what, their sales and business have gone way up now with Covid-19 also being put in place for testing. Crazy.

Then comes my industry, the Powersports Industry. Which is also way up currently with demand far exceeding supply. Supply being an issues due to logistical issues from Covid as well as supplier and production issues. I recently consulted with a company which understood why their would be a increased demand for ATVs and Side By Sides with all the families trying to find something to do together that was safe in social distancing, but they couldn't understand why 2-Wheelers would also pick-up in sales, especially on-road 2-wheelers. So I had to explain to them why even street bikes were also hot in sales for the same reason. They could get outside and go places without fear, on a product that brought joy and excitement to them in these scary times for many of them. They could also still meet with other groups of riders and still be safe. Nothing safer than riding in the open air!

Now my other industry of interest that I have been long in preparing to launch into is the publishing industry. Now that one has also been going through an evolution over the last decade as consumers change their way of reading from paper to digital, Covid has also put a kink in that world with printing production issues and paper supply issues, plus with many people not wanting to actually go to a book store, digital reading has skyrocketed. This will be an interesting one to watch going forward. I am old school and still hope to to go the traditional route of finding an agent, who then in turn will find me a publisher. But many are going for the new Amazon type digital source and creating their own book and self-publishing. There are attributes to both which I won't go into here.

But no matter what industry you are in, their are solutions to being profitable. One most remain positive for both your customers and fellow employee's and staff members. Everyone is hearing so much negative these days, if they come to work and only feel positive vibes, that pushes them up as well, and your entire team will feel it. I am not saying this is easy, especially for those industries crashing right now with no exact end in sight to the pandemic for many. But think forward and evolve with the needed changes. For my Powersports industry, there was much negativity before Covid about volume discount dealers and small margins from many, now Covid has eliminated this issue for all of them as well as helped the OEMs get healthier by eliminating all of their old stock sitting in warehouses that they had just one year ago.

But many customers are frustrated not being able to get what they want and when they want it. You know, we live in the NOW era of getting anything you want delivered to your house yesterday. When the buyers are told no, now you have to wait, they aren't use to that. Many thought it was a gimmick. Now most know it was not. But we had to evolve and find solutions to the current issues at hand. Which for us was lack of new inventory to sell on the floor. So I stepped up buying clean, late-model, low-mile inventory to fill the void. Now my store is more used than new, which I am not a fan of, but it has opened my eyes to the larger potential sales and profits of used units to be carried on the lot at all times. So even when new units start to look plentiful again, I will continue to also focus on the used market as well.

So bottom line do your best to think positive and look at solutions that will create opportunities for you. If not, maybe it is the time to get out of your current industry and jump ship to one that is benefitting from the current market. The world is ever changing as most of us already know, we just got to not only keep up with it, but also stay ahead of it! No easy task, but hey, don't we all like challenges?

Nuff Said. Cheers and here is to everyone being healthy, safe, and profitable.