The Masthead

“Those who do not know the past are condemned to re-live it.”

- George Santayana

Let’s jump into four topics today.

1. & 2.

Where have all the philanthropists gone?  Warren?  Sam?  Kevin?  Joe?  Where are you when the RV/MH Hall of Fame needs you now?  Or are you waiting for the dramatic last moment, when the banks come knocking on the door of Manufactured Housing History?

A call came in yesterday from a regular reader who has been so busy he didn’t read the news we posted some two weeks ago.  The RV/MH Hall of Fame is in trouble.  They need you now, because by the end of the month, it could be too late.

We have tips that new lenders are looming on the sidelines. They could be visible in weeks/months.

We have word as well about how current lenders are working on new programs.

More lending is good news!

But can we ignore our past?  If we don’t defend it, who will?  If we do not learn from our past, how are we to avoid past errors?  How are we to learn from past glories?

We watched ‘Louisville’ die, and with a super effort by many, this year that show retuned in phoenix-like fashion.  But we must protect and promote our associations, our events, and our trade shows such as Tulsa, OK and York, PA!

But if we want to create a good Image with the home buying public, we should protect and promote a resource such as the RV/MH Hall of Fame!

Need to enhance or create a legacy?  The RV/MH Hall of Fame could be your ticket.

Need a tax break?  I bet your accountant can make the RV MH Hall of Fame work for you in some form or fashion.

Maybe we need a fast fundraiser for manufactured housing industry history!  The clock is ticking…

3.

Manufactured housing news.  Modular homes news.  Panelized or Prefab home building news.  Stock market and business reports.  Governmental, associations and other news items that impact your business.  Events and trade shows that should be on your calendar. You will find all that and more right here every business weekday on our Daily Business News Blog.  There is no other known single resource or site where you get as much news, views and inspirational items as you get right here at MHMSM.com.

You will find MHARR news and MHI news reported uncensored here.   You will find state and other Associations news here, too. The Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform – MHARR – is routinely active in releasing manufactured housing news items, as is MHI – the Manufactured Housing Institute – both based in/near Washington, DC.

It is surprising how often rank and file employees in our industry do not know the names of these groups, much less the RV/MH Hall of Fame.  Almost everyone knows Car and Driver Magazine, but how many know that  our Manufactured Housing Trade Journal MHMarketingSalesManagement.com  (MHMSM.com for short) is now about double or more the size of readership of any other Industry publisher, print or electronic?

While there are estimates by one trade group that our MH industry has 100,000 people employed in it, we believe that number is closer to five times that size in MH alone.  Half a million people is small by some industry standards.  But that is still a lot of votes!  That can still swing an election.

Each of those 500,000 individuals ideally ought to be a true believer in this Industry!  If you are not encouraging your team to read or listen to news and views, like our News at Noon podcasts, it is like turning them over to be trained by often hostile forces, and hoping for the best.

Invest in your people!  Invest in your business and industry!  Have your staff sign up for our free news, inspirational and training items and podcasts.

Have your team read or listen here.  37,044 did in January.  Well over 200,000 page views take place here at MHMSM.com monthly.  That means a lot of eyes and ears for advertisers or those seeking sponsorships.  But being the largest trade media resource that we are also means we could easily be five times bigger in readership!  In fact, we are more than double the size of where we were a year ago.  Where will we be next year?

That is up to you and other Industry Pros like you.  You need to read or listen – and do not keep it a secret.  Your staff needs to read and listen here, too.  Invest in 10-15 minutes a day of reading and discussion on news items, featured articles or inspirational posts, and you will not believe how much stronger your team will be in 90 days!

4.

News tips.

We get our news often right from the source.  Sometimes it is official and from inside a press or media office.  Sometimes it is from a competitor or a tip.  If a source wants to be credited, we provide that credit.  But more often with news tips, a source wants to share news without their name being shared.

Either way is fine with us at MHMSM.com.

When you see news happen, you can shoot a video and email it to us or send a link.

You can email us a message about the information.

Every true news organization or trade publication has to have tips and sources.  We do.  That source can be you.

Finally, we are seeing more posted comments again, and welcome them.  We get a steady stream of messages and calls that never see print, on questions, comments or suggestions.  We welcome them.  We also welcome guest writers for feature articles or Industry Voices Guest Blog posts.

Thank you for being a reader here at MHMSM.com.  Thank you for caring about the RV/MH Hall of Fame.  # #

Executive Summary:  no excuses, just do it.

Starting months ago, we at MHMSM.com have addressed publicly and privately the issue of chattel/home only financing for manufactured housing.  We certainly have not been alone, as other publishers such as The Allen Letter, MHARR and MHI, and Chattel Finance News have as well.  With some 60% of all manufactured home sales being closed as chattel contracts, it is a total no brainier for our industry to stand up TODAY and be counted on this critical topic now pending before the FHFA!

MHI has asked for your response, have you done so yet?

Imagine that it is your message that will put this over the top with the Feds  Don’t delegate, or hope someone else does it, you do it, today, right now, please!

MHARR has asked for your response, have you done so yet?

Some experts say that this step alone could double manufactured housing industry sales.  Don’t you want and need that doubling of sales too?!

Besides our own individual MHMSM team messages to the FHFA, Congressmen and Senators, plus our routine and special emailings, I have personally called or emailed dozens of individuals to get them to act.  Some have large email lists, such as Greg O’Berry, Ken Rishel, MHI, MHARR and I just emailed Jerry Rouleau, to ask him to do the same if he hasn’t already done so.  Others are more modest in their size, but each are important to this great industry.  Since I and my associates have done this, since organizations and their leaders have done this, I can look you in the digital eyes and say, please, right now, today, you do it too!

MHC Giant Hometown America has responded, have you done so yet?

Just do it, no excuses.  Think doubling my business if I do this.  Use a format supplied, or write your own, but just do it.  4 total messages – FHFA, Congressman and 2 US Senators – today.  Then reach out to your email list and ask them to do the same.  Today!

Ken Rishel of Precision Capital and Chattel Finance news has done so, have you?

I also won’t kid you.  If the FHFA modified favorably it’s position, we would still have more to do.  First, we would want to work with the FEDs to make sure that their program would be a success!  Industry leaders have ideas on that topic, and I do too.  What we don’t need is another bubble, another avoidable Conseco-gate meltdown.

The MHMSM.com team members have written in, we are asking that you do too!

The more to do would also include working with private investors, ala program’s such as those that Ken Rishel teaches and promotes.  We don’t need to put all our eggs into a single basket.  We do need to work with as many avenues of financing supply as we can obtain, and then work with those lenders – private or publicly backed – to make sure we don’t let some ne’er do well shoot our Industry’s foot off with short sighted/greedy business practices again.

It is all about win-win.  Lenders must win, Retail Customers must win, individual business must win, and if the Feds come on board, we better protect them and let them win in this too.  Once you have written the FHFA, see links below, and your Congressman and US Senators, then call or email your circle of influence and get others to do so too.

As a last thought, while I would urge action today, if you saw this message for the first time on July 23 or afterwards, do the same thing then too, even if it is a day or so past the deadline!  Congressman and Senators offices will still take note, and based on a heavy volume of replies, my bet is that so will the FHFA.  But don’t delay.  Act, please, now!

No excuses.  Do this for the sake of your own businesses, your own customers, for the sake of your aunt, uncle, mom or pop.  Once done, keep that up, but reach out to alternative private investor chattel loan plans such as award winning Precision Financial has or others of good repute.  We can have the chattel financing that our customers want and need.  But only if enough good people like yourself…

…just do it.  No point in crying in your beer, when you can act and win!!  Thank you! # #

L. A. ‘Tony’ Kovach

Manufactured Home Marketing Sales Management or MHMSM.com

Tony@mhmsm.com

847-730-3692 or iPhone 832-689-1729

————-> for examples of how others have written or commented on this, please go to…

http://www.mhmarketingsalesmanagement.com/blogs/industryvoices/

and to:

http://www.mhmarketingsalesmanagement.com/blogs/industryvoices/it-is-time-to-stand-up-and-be-counted/ Ken Rishel, Precision Financial

http://www.mhmarketingsalesmanagement.com/blogs/industryvoices/transcript-of-letter-from-mhi-executive-vp-thayer-long-to-fhfa-general-counsel-alfred-m-pollard/ Thayer Long, Manufactured Housing Institute

http://www.mhmarketingsalesmanagement.com/blogs/industryvoices/gses-duty-to-serve/ Greg O’Berry, Hometown America

http://www.mhmarketingsalesmanagement.com/blogs/industryvoices/action-alert-action-needed-by-72210/ MHI Call to Action

http://www.mhmarketingsalesmanagement.com/blogs/industryvoices/mharr-comments-on-grossly-inadequate-dts-rule/ Danny Ghorbani, MHARR ##

We are in that time of year when graduation exercises occur.  The dictionary says that to ‘graduate means to advance from one level to another.’ The process of graduating is – as the root of the word implies – gradual.  We may have a flash of insight, the ah ha! or oh, no! -moment as George Allen has put it.  But usually growth is gradual, be it personal or professional graduation.

At www.MHMSM.com we are graduating!  You may notice it gradually or through that ah ha experience!  We will continue all of our Industry News and Views you can Use.  We will soon enhance our news coverage through the use of a special Industry focused ‘beat reporter.’  Plans for the first of two exclusive www.MHMSM.com Factory Built Housing Industry Reporter will be implemented soon.  Our reporter(s) will go beyond the press releases of companies, government officials and associations.

We at MHMSM.com are graduating by bringing on board an Exclusive Reporter to bring you "Industry Insider" news. Graduation hat photo shop by Tony Kovach, photo courtesy of bdwaydiva1

You’ll get exclusive news stories and interviews here you won’t find anywhere else.  You’ll be an Industry Insider with our www.MHMSM.com Exclusive Factory Built Industry News & Reports. Industry Insider News and Reports will be available to registered users, in written and podcast formats!  Don’t be the last to know what’s happening in our industry! Sign up now.

We will soon unveil our first reporter’s name and contact info on our trade journal’s masthead, found on the about us page.

Get Exclusive reports from our Journalist, Industry Insider news you can use, sign up today at MHMSM.com. microphone photo by visualdichotomy

When you have news to share, you can call or email our reporter, who may also be calling you or your organization for information, insights or perspectives on key events.

Knowledge is power. Information precedes knowledge!  The more you and your team know, the more you can grow.

MHMSM.com will soon present exclusive news you won't find anywhere else. Get 'Industry Insider' reports here written or by podcast. Sign up today. 1 read all about it photo by lincolnpurvis

www.MHMSM.com Exclusive Factory Built Industry News & Reports.  Sign up today.  We will bring you even more news and views you can use.

Get the broadest, farthest views and insights at the Factory Built housings Industry's #1 news and views source MHMSM.com. mount damavand photo byhamed saber

Join the 24,680 readers who came here to www.MHMSM.com to read 102,388 page views of Industry News and Views you can Use in May 2010.  When thousands of industry pros are logging on weekly – and many who’ve taken the Silver Bullet Challenge log on daily! – that many people can’t be wrong! Thank you for being in this special rank of thinkers, leaders and readers who surf here for Innovation – Information – Inspiration for Industry Professionals.

Join us for our graduation to exclusive reporting. Our thanks for your reading and to all our fine writers and team members who make this the largest and hottest industry wide trade journal in the factory built housing world. ##

The name practically says it all.  Take the best of the past. Unite that with today’s technology and marketing.  Offer every segment of manufactured housing a well deserved boost towards a brighter future! Announcing the Virtual Louisville Housing Show ©!

Kentucky Expo Center In Louisville, previous home to the venerable Louisville Manufactured Housing show. The new Virtual Louisville Housing Show © will create better results for less and with greater ease for all.

The Virtual Louisville Housing Show © will be a new vehicle used to create a sustainable business model for wholesale and  retail manufactured housing sales.  Financial, insurance, suppliers, support and all other segments of manufactured housing are invited to ‘exhibit!’  All industry members are invited to attend – and unlike the past – today’s technology can literally make that possible. Modular and pre-fab home building are naturally welcome too for…“THE Factory Built Housing HOME Show!”

Associations, marketing firms and others with INdustry INtersts will be provided robust opportunities to participate.  Here comes YOUR Red Carpet treatment!

www.MHMSM.com presents Your Red Carpet to royal Manufactured Housing Sales in 2010

More information will be found in the new February 2010 issue of www.MHMarketingSalesManagement.com coming online later this week.  For now we will say:

• More customers for all segments of the INdustry, wholesale and retail
• Dramatically lower costs,
• Higher ROI,
• Regionalized INdustry image building,
• Exhibiting,
• Social,
• Educational, inspirational and other presentations,
• Fun
• Time savings
• Speaking opportunities
• and More!

The time for the INdustry Turnaround is NOW.

You are reading about it here first and exclusively.  The  Manufactured Housing INdustry’s road ahead for the 2010 Turn-around will include the Virtual Louisville Housing Show ©.

Projected Rising Sales Curve for Manufactured Housing in 2010

For more info on the Virtual Louisville Housing Show©, see the MHMSM Home Page

Stay tuned and be a part of this bright future!##

In this time of reflection, as one year winds down and another is ready to dawn, the desire to recognize and honor the service of others bubbled forth within like a fresh spring. It is easy to begin with those whom we know: parents, teachers, role models in your business or profession. Beyond those note worthy’s are our nation’s service men and women – who have set aside months or years of their lives (or laid down their limbs and lives…) to protect the borders, patrol the skies and seas which make us as free a people as any on earth!

There are our law enforcement officials. Movies, books or news accounts may give us a glimpse into the lives and sacrifices that our military, police or fire fighters make to protect us…and far more important than their pay-checks and pensions are the sincere thanks due those who do their jobs well. We Salute you!

Turning next to our industry!

It is difficult to truly imagine all that a few noble souls do in Washington and in various state capital’s around our great land in their work of advocacy, lobbying, education and more that makes the day to day of our manufactured housing businesses more doable! You know who you are…and so, with deep thanks,

We Salute You!

Then there are those who volunteer to serve on boards and committees. One of many such individuals who comes to mind shares about a month out of the year of their time – involved both locally and nationally – to make this a better industry. How many more like that noble soul are there that makes what you and I do possible? What word of thanks are enough?

We Salute you!

Coming closer to home is you.

As a Manufactured Housing Industry professional, you’ve invested education, time, energy and money into yourself and your operation. You’ve survived the melt-downs. Some of you have even thrived during these challenging times. For those who have succeeded and for those still on the path…take heart! “Winter is followed by spring! It is always darkest before the dawn!” By doing a bit more, learning a bit more, reaching out more…day by day, your time is coming. You won’t allow the downturn to put you down and keep you down. You won’t let your education, time, energy and money to go for naught!

You do what it takes every day.

Then you get up, and do it again.

We Salute you!!

Let’s also be candid and clear. For many, the next 12-24 months is ‘do or die’ time. We don’t have another 10 years to turn this industry around. Many independent HUD Code factories would have already closed if not for Canadian orders and all sorts of gymnastics. Sure, some HUD Code and modular builders will make it for years…but we dare not lose all those independents who in some cases have fought the good fight by building good homes for less…for a generation, two or three!

As I talk with and read messages from industry pros and various leaders from across this land, it is obvious that for many (for all…?) it is a time of crisis and decision. It is do or die. When someone faces economic death, it is not lightly that one lifts up a lamp and says, “Don’t give up! Make the needed adjustments! Fight the good fight! Keep on going!”

Quitters never win, and winners never quit. We may fall – or get dragged down – but the next move is always the same. Get up! Be smarter and more engaged than you’ve ever been! If what you are doing is working great, keep it up. But if what you are doing isn’t getting the job done, bring in the talent and line up the resources that will get it done for you.

I don’t want to re-write here what was said elsewhere in articles or posts like

Short and Sweet – Just how easy the Industry Turn-Around Could Be: http://www.mhmarketingsalesmanagement.com/featured-articles/189-short-and-sweet-just-how-easy-the-industry-turn-around-could-be

Optimist vs. Pessimist:
http://www.mhmarketingsalesmanagement.com/blogs/tonykovach/optimist-vs-pessimist/

TWO WORDs
http://www.mhmarketingsalesmanagement.com/featured-articles/192-two-words-the-case-for-why-the-hud-code-home-industry-can-survive-and-prosper

Synergy and the 7 Habits of Highly Successful People: http://www.mhmarketingsalesmanagement.com/featured-articles/191-synergy-and-the-7-habits-of-highly-successful-people

Be Open to Change:
http://www.mhmarketingsalesmanagement.com/blogs/tonykovach/be-open-to-change

and
Excuses:
http://www.mhmarketingsalesmanagement.com/blogs/tonykovach/excuses/

But suffice it to say, that those who DO adjust, who DO turn the corner are looking at the brightest possible future, because the economics and demographics of the country are very good for our Industry!

Let me also salute the many volunteers who write for us. Some do so with no interest in being hired or to get a fee for consulting. Others naturally want to let you know that they are open for business and offer the tools and experience needed to make your business sing in specialized areas! Please thank them, with your reading, with your messages and posts, by sharing their articles and when appropriate by calling on them for their services.

Now let me close on the note that we all hope for…the positive one.

We have a number of initiatives being prepared and lined up for 2010 here at www.MHMarketingSalesManagement.com Each of these in their own way we hope will contribute towards increased sales for retailers, suppliers, community operators, developers, more housing production for builders, shipments and service work for consultants and other industry professionals. We want to see more homes built, transported and set, more loans closed, more policies written, more services done – just as much as you do.

When the year 2010 winds down 12 months from now, if we are looking at increased new home shipments for the industry, no one person or organization will be able to claim to be the white knight. It will be a group effort! Good men and women like yourself will do the doing at your place, just as we will do the doing in ours or for those whom we do work for in this industry.

What we hope at www.MHMSM.com  to provide in part is a unique online platform of innovation, information and inspiration for industry professionals. One of the things that makes this Factory-Built Housing Trade Journal special is that each of us are in the trenches. We aren’t spouting some theory…

…we get our checks the old fashioned way. We earn it. Through marketing, sales and management! Through taking risks, facing the challenges, shrugging off the naysayers and enjoying the thrill of seeing the efforts pay off.

We want to thank all of you who pass along our articles, web address, blog posts and more to others – a big reason we have moved ahead so rapidly is due to readers like you.  We Salute You!

We thank you too for your calls, posted and emailed comments.   We appreciate your feedback, and encourage it.  For those who tell us about similar ideas floating around out there, I think it is grand!  First, it is a big planet, and we are bound to have some similar ideas.  Some may seek to imitate – that’s okay – it is the most sincere form of praise.

Some will keep on doing what they’ve always done – that’s okay – it is their life, and they have to live it.

Some will climb aboard…you are welcome!  Bring an associate, or bring your entire list of industry connections!

But make no mistake. The long-hoped for turn-around won’t be the work of one or two, or even a few. It will be the work of many, many thousands – like you! – who make this industry the best value in new homes out there!

“No man is an island.” John Wayne and other hero or heroine movies can be great, but the reality is that each of us needs others. The higher the horse, the further the fall off of it. If you don’t want to fall, team up with the right people and resources, let others help you get your balance, put you on the path and do what it takes.

So when a year from now, we all look back and measure what has been accomplished in 2010, we can say…we did it! We each played a role, we each did our part.

It is do or die.

We will either act out of fear, ego or firm faith in our future!

Which will it be for you?
Here comes the year 2010…We Salute You!

###

A recent magazine article by Dr Ranit Mishori pulls together some interesting health facts about people who are optimistic having better health than those who are pessimistic. Citing numerous studies on groups as large as 100,000 people, optimists suffered 16% lower rates of heart attacks, among other findings. Okay, what does this have to do with the MH industry, your business and you?

Arguably, the optimist is much better positioned in business as well. The ‘doom and gloom’ of pessimism tends to negate the notion that we can influence our own destiny and thus improve our business, image, sales results or what have you. The optimist by definition approaches a challenge with the ‘can do!’ attitude, while the pessimist is waiting for nebulous marketing conditions to ‘improve’ and for people to come rushing to their doors.

Personally, my approach is a blend – I want to deal with realities that I face, but then deal with them from the perspective that this issue can be handled and resolved; so what is the best way for me to approach a specific issue?

So one can be an optimist and still admit that its raining! But the optimist doesn’t deny the rain, he simply looks for an umbrella, rain coat or some other solution.

We can’t deny that our industry is still trending down. All the shipping statistics still point to that direction. What we can do is ask ourselves, what can I do in my market, given my resources to make a difference? Or can I draw on other talents, other resources to help me improve my business and results?

Solution orientation vs. doom and gloom! If you practice looking at the solution, that too will lead to more satisfaction, a better bottom line, and as the doctor might say, fewer heart attacks as well. ##

Let me invite you to connect with me at http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach – industry connections welcome!