Success at every age

September 1, 2022  |  Editorial

There is a ritual (some would say a bad habit) where each generation complains about the generation that comes after it. “Young people today are (lazy, selfish, self-involved, distracted, demanding, impatient…fill in the blank).” Some young people are sometimes those things. And some older fol…
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Adaptation

July 1, 2022  |  Editorial

If we humans are good at anything, it’s adapting to change. You might think I’m talking about pandemics, but I’m actually talking about business in general. Running a business means continuously adapting to forces both within and outside of your control. It’s about remaining flexible while h…
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Spreading the word

May 1, 2022  |  Editorial

Are your marketing efforts attracting the types of clients and projects you’re interested in? If not, how should you go about it? The first step, obviously, is creating quality projects. And then you need to get the word out to your desired clients. For Midwesterners like myself, tooting our own h…
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Success: Despite and because of

March 1, 2022  |  Editorial

The marine fabrication business often seems like a business of nothing but problems. Supply chain bottlenecks, a lack of employees, demanding customers and too little time to address the ever-growing waitlist. But it’s also a business filled with problem solvers. That’s the beauty of working wit…
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Control Issues

January 1, 2022  |  Editorial

If 2020 was a rollercoaster, 2021 was more like a Zero Gravity amusement park ride where spinning forces beyond anyone’s control pinned us to the wall making movement impossible. Businesses experienced a centrifugal maelstrom of surging customer demand, labor shortages, price increases and supply …
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Community connections

September 1, 2021  |  Editorial

With or without COVID-19 restrictions, many fabricators spend a lot of time alone. Aside from interactions with clients and employees, fabrication work itself is often performed solo, either onboard or in the shop. Given the solitary nature of this profession, finding ways to make industry connectio…
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Efficiency artists

July 1, 2021  |  Editorial

Marine fabrication businesses are an interesting mix of custom and ready-made. On the one hand, much of the work is manufactured to order, and each project requires unique tweaks and adjustments to the design and fabrication processes. But there are also times your shop becomes a mini factory and th…
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Gentler negotiations

May 1, 2021  |  Editorial

I watched an online presentation recently about how to keep your personal feelings from intruding on professional situations. I followed it with a discussion about how to deal with difficult people. I was trying to keep myself calm during thorny contract negotiations with a publisher over a book I w…
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