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50 • APRIL 2012 • WORLD FENCE NEWS NEW E/Z SLIDE BOTTOM TRACK™ Moving from employee to boss continued from page 48 2" Heavy Duty Aluminum Track "It's like the gate is floating on air." – Orlando, Florida INTERNATIONAL GATE DEVICES, INC. IGD slidegate.net 1-800-557-4283 (GATE) Fax 610-534-9682 Looking for something? Need to know in a hurry? Use the World Fence News FenceLine product locator service! 1-800-231-0275 in the U.S. & Canada. give respect to earn it for yourself. When a mistake is made, acknowledge that a mistake was made and work with the employee to correct it rather than berating him or her, which rarely, if ever, works. Try to teach them to understand the mistake that was made and how best to prevent such a mistake from happening again. Fourth and finally for this discus- sion, let people know when they have done a good job. Employee recogni- tion is so very important these days; people who feel that they are being recognized for doing a good job will certainly continue to try to perform at top levels. We have touched on a lot of ground in this series and these thoughts were crystallized for you with the help of certain newsletters and various studies with which I have come into contact over the years. I hope these thoughts will serve as a guide for you to use to create your own map for your journey into the business world. If it does, I hope also that this new path will allow you and your business to realize that PROFIT IS NOT A DIRTY WORD!™ World Fence News contributing editor Jim Lucci is president of Man- agement Motivational Associates of Freeport, N.Y., and for many years has written a monthly column on business management and issues which affect fence company owners and managers. Guardian Fence Suppliers issues challenge to check out AFA membership, and backs it up with action Dear fence industry friends: We're writing this as an open letter to all past, current and future members of the American Fence Association to share our thoughts and perspective on some of the trends we see in the econ- omy, association membership, educa- tion, participation in our annual trade show and what we at Guardian Fence Suppliers are going to do to hopefully make a difference. The economy has affected our in- dustry tremendously, as we all know. The days of quoting large develop- ments and new home construction projects as fast as we can answer the phone has come to a screeching halt. Construction in general, as touted by all the economic indicators and forecasts, will take anywhere from an- other 3-15 years to rebound in each of its individual market segments. Let's face it; in the construction At Western Tube & Conduit customer satisfaction and quality are the first order of business. Our Fencepost and Fencerail production is ISO-9001:2008 certified - and our products are manufactured to meet all the applicable state, federal, industrial and regulatory specifications and requirements. While we regularly stock standardized products and sizes, we are happy to provide custom dimensions as well. All our Fence products are galvanized with high purity zinc. We use high frequency welding (ERW) to turn the highest quality strip steel into tubing, and then a continuous hot-galvanizing process to zinc-coat the products smoothly and evenly. A zinc-rich interior organic coating, a chromate conversion coating, and a clear exterior organic coating provide the complete finish package that gives them superior protection against the elements and long life as a result. Gal-Z serves customers looking for shaped Fence tubing as well as corrosion-protected mechanical tubing. It can be purchased in squares and in rectangles, and it provides excellent environmental durability while also fulfilling the need for strength and weldability. phase of any project, fence is one of the very last phases and one of the first to be cut back when money runs short. The fact that so many of us have man- aged to survive these trying times is a testament to our dedication and re- solve. It's put food on our tables, roofs over our head, provided employment for our employees, clothed us and pro- vided a reason to get up and go to work each and every day doing some- thing we love. One consequence of the poor economy is that membership in the AFA has dropped since 2006-2007. We are a mom and pop, family busi- ness industry. In these trying times everyone has taken a long, hard look at where every dollar is being spent in our daily operations and made cuts and concessions. It's inevitable that it would affect our membership roll call in a negative manner. The good news is that, as an association, we haven't lost percentage numbers comparable to the national average of other trade associations. He is a major contributor to the Fencer's Field Report which appears monthly in World Fence News. See the ad for Management Motivational As- sociates in this month's issue of World Fence News. contin ued on pa g e 52