What a roller coaster it\u2019s been in the past few months \u2013 record high gas prices, then dropping to lows not seen for a long time. A dollar at par, then dropping like a stone, the stock market falls, then record increases only\u00a0to fall\u00a0again.<\/p>\n
The bailout in the U.S. with amounts that are simply nothing short of staggering, a housing market in the U.S. that is in complete turmoil. News last week of more layoffs in the auto sector then this weekend the reports that by June of next year GM will run out of money without government intervention. Many say the U.S. is in a recession and for us in Canada that is a serious concern.<\/p>\n
The U.S. is our biggest trade partner and if the U.S. economy is in trouble that affects our economy and past history has been that whatever happens in the U.S. is surely going to happen in Canada within year to 18 months.<\/p>\n
The news is a daily concern, I admit that I don\u2019t really understand much of it, but I do know that it is troublesome. Many suppliers in our industry will be increasing prices in 2009 if they haven\u2019t already, and UPS has announced rates will be increasing in 2009. This will only be the beginning of price increases that affect both\u00a0our business and personal lives.<\/p>\n
While many businesses will be looking for areas to cut back on, labour costs, material costs and major expansions will be put on hold, all expenses will be reviewed and budgets adjusted to deal with economic conditions. The news is not all bad \u2013 particularly for our industry.<\/p>\n
What the economic downturn in the 80\u2019s and 90\u2019s taught us is that our industry actually holds it own. I\u2019m not suggesting that we won\u2019t be affected but wherever there are cut backs there are also opportunities for us in this industry.<\/p>\n
As companies cut back on their mass advertising budgets we can provide an advertising medium that is far more targeted and effective. With corporations re-evaluating elaborate company functions, the best alternative is to provide employee gifts \u2013 another opportunity for our industry.<\/p>\n
Where companies may cut back on entertainment expenses the need to enhance relationships with clients will become even more important \u2013 this is a major opportunity for our industry.<\/p>\n
We all know that things will get tougher in this industry but with every new challenge comes new opportunity \u2013 just remember that old saying “When the going gets tough \u2013 the tough get going”!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What a roller coaster it\u2019s been in the past few months \u2013 record high gas prices, then dropping to lows not seen for a long time. A dollar at par, then dropping like a stone, the stock market falls, then record increases only\u00a0to fall\u00a0again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asi-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asicanada-asicentral.com\/FredLeslie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asicanada-asicentral.com\/FredLeslie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asicanada-asicentral.com\/FredLeslie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asicanada-asicentral.com\/FredLeslie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asicanada-asicentral.com\/FredLeslie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/asicanada-asicentral.com\/FredLeslie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asicanada-asicentral.com\/FredLeslie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asicanada-asicentral.com\/FredLeslie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asicanada-asicentral.com\/FredLeslie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}