PPB October 2018

I remember that NALC, and the financial analysis and projection well—one of the most valuable, and insightful industry conferences ever. Tariffs and additional price increases on import items (and some U.S. ones as well) are already putting pressure on the bottom line. I look forward to talking more about where the industry is now, and what best practices we can all adopt to help in this more volatile pricing situation we find ourselves in. KIPPIE HELZEL Vice President of Sales CPS/Keystone Line Erie, Pennsylvania PPAI 111040 Looking Ahead To Industry Sales Growth Released in August, the PPAI/ITR Economics Market Outlook Report for the second quarter of 2018 identified industry sales up 5.9 percent compared to the same period in 2017 but the forecast shows that sales growth will slow into at least early 2019. This is exactly what the Harvard professors at the 2014 PPAI North American Leadership Conference (NALC) predicted, and they believed, and still do, that our economy is too mature to sustain significant ongoing measurable growth. With the Trump trade wars, it will be interesting to see if the forecast slow-down is affected. JIM FRANKLYN Vice President of Business Development Swag Promo, LLC Alpharetta, Georgia PPAI 562712 Payment On Your Terms PPB ’s July issue shared a distributor’s question and peer solutions about specifying payment terms to ensure getting paid on time. With newcustomers I always get 100 percent payment at time of order, including any taxes and shipping costs. Years ago, I learned the hardway that each order is a customorder. Youmay ask, “Each order is custom?” Yes, whatmay sound like a simple pencil order for XYZ companywith their imprint is a customorder because no other business could use these pencils because they have XYZ company’s imprint. RICHARD DEBIASO Owner Richard’s Promotional Products Union City, California PPAI 288701 | OCTOBER 2018 | 9