DisTribute

Industrial Distribution Celebrating Centennial!

This year marks the 100th anniversary of Industrial Distribution magazine. The milestone will be marked with exclusive web features and in a commemorative September/October print edition.

Founded in 1911 as Mill Supplies, the publication started as more of a catalog and directory. Over the years the property has changed hands and titles, morphing over time to its current form, Industrial Distribution, published by Advantage Business Media, LLC.

Today, Industrial Distribution has become a vital information source for large and small distributors alike, with a bimonthly print publication and weekly
e-newsletters. Annual highlights include: The Survey of Distributor Operations, The Big 50, and The Industrial Distribution Salary Report.

“I know I speak for our entire staff when I say how honored we are to be associated with Industrial Distribution,” stated Anna Wells, Industrial Distribution’s executive editor. “A legacy this long-standing can’t be replicated. We’re proud to have the most storied and resilient brand in the marketplace, and we’re committed to continuing into the next hundred years with the same focus on timely and relevant information for distribution professionals.”

Special editorial content will stem from the property’s unique relationship with its readership. Some of the industry’s most successful distributors will be joining forces to create a signature piece created via in-depth interviews with key industry players. In fact, many Tribute customers have been featured in this publication, including Amazon Hose and Rubber, Connector Specialists, General Rubber Co., Rubber & Accessories and The Hope Group among many others.

“In addition to the feedback we get from our readership, we’ll also look to incorporate the unique insight of key suppliers,” adds Wells. “This group offers invaluable perspective on how their products or solutions can help address our readers’ critical issues. Obviously without these relationships and the support of our advertisers, the property wouldn’t be embarking on a centennial celebration.”

Industrial Distribution is part of Advantage Business Media’s Manufacturing Group, with sister properties that include: Industrial Maintenance & Plant Operation, Food Manufacturing, Manufacturing.net, Manufacturing Business Technology, and Pharmaceutical Processing. Picture: Jackie Robb Britt, CFO of Rubber & Accessories.

Keeping Your Computer Shiny and Clean

Have you taken a close look at your computer keyboard lately? How much dust, lint, hair, grease, and food residue is lurking around those keys? And what about those smudges on your screen or the increasingly loud noise of your cooling fan? A dirty computer is not only disgusting, but could lead to overheating and higher maintenance costs. Keeping your desktop or laptop computer clean can keep it running smoothly and extend its life.

For both desktops and laptops, start with these all-purpose tips from Microsoft.

If you have a desktop PC, try these steps (with photos) from Maximum PC to clean the exterior and interior.

For laptops, you can find basic steps here, courtesy of About.com. If you are feeling brave, try this article (photos included) from TechRadar to open up your machine for a thorough cleaning inside and out.

Ever spill your coffee or tea directly on your laptop? Use these tips from PCWorld immediately (with video) to save your laptop from the effects of a spill.

Do you have greasy spots on your keyboard or your laptop trackpad? Try a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to take the grease off. This article from Lifehacker explains how.

Apps to Manage Your Business Finances

Unless you're an accountant, managing your business (and personal) finances is probably not a duty you enjoy. But if you could simplify just a few tasks, and maybe perform them on-the-go with a slick app, it might ease the burden a bit.

This article by Anna Lindow form the OPEN Forum lists five online tools to help you manage your business finances:

• Expensify: Helps you namage expense reporting on your smartphone by uploading receipts, adding account information, tracking expenses, syncing with QuickBooks and creating reports and spreadsheets.
• Chargify: Simplifies recurring billing and online subscriptions.
• InDinero: Track your money with a real-time financial dashboard that pulls information from your bank and credit card accounts.
• FreshBooks: Online invoicing, time tracking and billing software.
• Teaspiller: Connects small business owners with the accountant that best meets their needs based on location, user reviews, experience, certifications, and specialties.

Another article from the OPEN Forum by Annie Mueller points out nine smartphone apps to help manage your money, including:

• Pageonce:  Account and payment tracking, including email and text alerts about upcoming bills, suspicious account activity, credit card limits, low checking balances, overdraft fees and more.
• Loanshark: A loan calculator and advisor to help you determine exactly how much in interest your loan will cost you, see the effect of paying an extra payment per year, and more.
• XE Mobile Currency: Provides live currency rates and a currency converter.

Can The Wording on Your Invoices Get You Get Paid Faster?

The FreshBooks company performed a data analysis last year to see whether the wording on invoices had any impact on the number of days to pay and the percent of invoices actually paid.

They found three interesting trends in their data. First, they noticed that being polite really matters! A simple “please pay your invoice within” or “thank you for your business” can increase the percentage of invoices that are paid by more than 5 percent. Additionally, politeness clearly resulted in invoices paid more quickly.

Second, using the word “days” as opposed to “net” produced better results. While the words “net 30” or similar may make sense to most business owners, this kind of wording may not be as clear to less business-savvy clients. They also found that most people seem to interpret “payable upon receipt” as “whenever you feel like it”. Using specific terms such as “21 days” seems to focus on a specific timeframe and may be more effective than asking for immediate payment.

Third, threatening customers with extra interest on late payments does two things. It gets you paid slower, but it also seems to ensure a higher percentage of invoices will get paid.

Keep in mind, FreshBooks' clients tend to be individuals or small businesses, and "your milage may vary". But it might be worthwhile to experiment with the wording on your invoices and see if it makes a difference.

In the TrulinX software, this wording is set up using Payment Terms Maintenance. The entry in the Description field will be printed on the invoice header. This field is only 40 characters long, but you might try inserting a "Please" or "Thank you!" there. Or, if you always use one standard payment terms method, try adding an additional comment to the invoice header or footer using Location Master Maintenance.

In the Tribute system, this phrasing is set up in program ZTERMS. You can print up to 4 lines of payment terms comments on invoices. You can also use OTCM to set up a special savings comment on invoices, if you offer customers a discount for early payment. The comment will state exactly how much money they will save if they pay the invoice by a specific date.

Join Tribute at the Eaton Distributor Meeting in Nashville!

This year’s EDM is approaching quickly! We hope you have September 11-14 blocked on your calendar. You will not want to miss this industry leading event! Where else can you see everything Eaton's hydraulics group has to offer and interact with distributors from over 40 countries around the world?

Tribute, Inc. has partnered with Eaton Corporation to provide distributors the tools to improve communication and streamline business processes with their supplier. Our distribution management software enables Eaton distributors to reduce purchasing expenses and remove costs & errors from the supply chain.

Our Work Order Management Module allows you to track costs by job, manage and route external fabrications (including external fabrications that ship directly to customers), and streamline your assembly operations. Want to find out more? Register to attend EDM workshop #11106C on Wednesday, September 14th at 8:00 am.

Visit us at Booth #2 to see why Eaton Corporation chose TrulinX’s Counter Store application for their pilot project, the Van Wert Aeroquip Express Store. This store serves three purposes: 1) test market new products 2) serve the local market with high quality products and services, and 3) illustrate to Eaton Distributors a “Best Practice” counter sale operation.

 

Our partner, WarehouseTWO, will also be presenting on Wednesday at 9 am: 11107C - Excess Inventory: How to Prevent, Identify and Reduce It.

Along with learning about the newest Eaton products, you will also have the opportunity to hear from Eaton leaders including Sandy Cutler, Eaton Chairman and CEO, Craig Arnold, Vice Chairman and CEO of Eaton’s Industrial Sector and Jim Meil, Chief Economist and understand their insights on the road ahead. Click here for details and registration forms.

We hope to see you there!

Are You Differentiating Yourself From the Competition?

A recent survey by Modern Distribution Management (MDM) found that the overwhelming majority of distributors have three things in common when it comes to positioning and messaging:

1. They deliver more value than their competitors for a comparable price
2. They place a large emphasis in their messaging on a handful of features: product selection, availability, speed of delivery, pre-sales technical support and professional sales reps.
3. They use informal methods for positioning and messaging.

 

In other words, if everyone is messaging on the same features, then nobody is really differentiating themselves.

Lyndsay Konzak, editor of MDM, blogs about the 3 Reasons Companies Think They Offer More Value Than They Actually Do. MDM has partnered with Jonathan Bein of Real Results Marketing in a series of distributor marketing articles. Bien states that all things being equal, it would be expected that 55-65% of companies would position around value instead of price. He lists three factors that contribute to this disparity in the distribution industry:

• Price Pressure
• Unclear Understanding of Value
• A Messaging Challenge

So what do you claim about your products? Bein says that distributors all too often make the same claims as their competitors and that those claims aren't always meaningful to their customers. Do these claims seem familiar to you?

• You’ve been in business in long time 
• You carry a zillion products
• You have fantastic post-sales support

In the article, What do You Claim About Your Product?, Konzak talks about why it's critical to explain how or why these statements matter. That at the end of the day, the requirement depends on the customer segment and that understanding your customer base better allows you to understand where you want to fit in the market.

You can read more about the results of the MDM marketing survey and learn how you can better position your company in MDM’s two part series: Price vs. Value: How Distributors Position Their Businesses (free for subscribers).

Good Go-To Resources for Distributors

There’s a wealth of information easily available on the web to help you navigate the tricky waters of distribution, technology, and running a business. Many industry publications and consultants offer free advice in their blogs and access to good articles. Here’s a listing of just some of our favorites:

Modern Distribution Management Blogs – Covering a wide range of topics

Fluid Power Talk – Hydraulics & Pneumatics’ blog by Mary Gannon

Automation.Com’s e-newsletter archives – topical information on automation

Flow Control Network - technical articles, new products & information for the fluid handling market

Pumps & Systems - Resource for Pump Users with technical articles and chat forums

Industrial Supply’s Archives - Articles by a number of authors and featuring experts Jason Bader (The Distribution Team), Frank Hurtte (River Heights Consulting) and Howard Coleman (MCA Associates)

The Supply Chain Management Review’s Blog

Modern Materials Handling Blog

The SMB Research Blog – Ideas & Insights on IT & Technology for Small-Medium Business

The Marketing Maven Blog – The Industrial Supplier’s Guide to Online Marketing Success

Duct Tape Marketing by John Jantsch – Simple, Effective and Affordable Small Business Marketing

Jim Pancero’s Sales Blog – You Can Always Sell More! Sales tips

BNET - an interactive business network

NSBA.biz - The latest news from the National Small Business Association

Small Business Trends

You’re the Boss – The NYTimes blog on running a small business

Smart Business Network - Success stories from folks in the trenches

Best Small Business Podcasts

Podcasts are a great way to pass the time during a long commute, while exercising, cleaning, or any number of everyday activities. Why not use them to enrich your business brain? Podcasts can enhance your professional growth and allow you to consume new business information in a casual setting.

Author Trent Hamm recommends several business podcasts in this article for the OPEN Forum. Among his favorites are:

• Automate My Small Business: Offers advice on techniques for automating specific aspects of small businesses, from routine marketing requests to office management tasks.
• Marketplace: A re-airing of the Marketplace radio program from American Public Media.
• Wall Street Journal: The WSJ offers a variety of daily and weekly podcasts, as well as video podcasts.

The Small Business Trends website also compiles an annual list of the 100 top business podcasts. The winners are grouped into categories such as "Leadership and Management", "Marketing and Sales", and "Tax and Finance". You can browse the entire list of podcasts here.

And each month, Modern Distribution Management (MDM) and the Manufacturers Alliance (MAPI) team up to provide an Economic Update podcast that gives the latest economic information from leading economists.

Speed Up Your Computer's Boot Time

It may only take a minute or two to boot up your computer, but it can seem like ages. There are many techniques for speeding up your PC's boot time, but some of them are more controversial or risky than others. Thanks to this article from Gizmodo writer Whitson Gordon, here is a list of reliable tips to help your machine boot faster:

10. Tweak Your BIOS
9. Clean Out Programs that Launch at Startup
8. Delay Windows Services That Run at Startup
7. Change Your Boot Menu's Timeout Values
6. Disable Unused Hardware
5. Keep Your Antivirus Running and Up to Date
4. Remove Unnecessary Fonts
3. Upgrade Your RAM
2. Give Your Computer a Static IP
1. Install a Solid State Drive

Click here for the entire article with more details on each technique.

You might also find some of our older blog posts helpful for more tips on speeding up your computer:

Tips to Speed Up Your PC

Five-Minute Fixes for Windows PCs