As we’ll see from our interview with William Montgomery, director of national accounts for Hydrolevel Co., not many companies can claim to have started out quite like Hydrolevel did.

How have changes in your products led to a reinvention of your distribution process?

I would like to know — in this great country of ours, which continues to be ours to keep, improve or destroy — why can’t we all try to work and understand our neighbors and get along for the good of the country and world we all get to live in? 

Nobody has to tell you how difficult it has become to find the “right people” to employ. Barring a recession, it doesn’t look like the situation will get any better soon.

Like your house, your business projects an image to potential buyers. When they come to see your business for the first time, your “curb appeal” can attract a buyer to your business — or cause him to walk away from it.

I often use parallels when I’m describing the physical appearance of a showroom and the culture of the company. It’s typically easy to see the differences between a high-performing showroom culture and one that is not by walking in the front door.

Globe Union is one of the largest suppliers of plumbing products in the world. Headquartered in Taichung, Taiwan, it oversees an impressive 5 million square feet of manufacturing, assembly and distribution facilities located on three continents and in nine countries. 

There is no getting around it; every once in a while, we all get in a rut. The main reason it happens is because of routine, with people moving through most of their days on autopilot.

Finding ways to market your plumbing business during the holidays can be a challenge. Consumers are inundated with advertising this time of year, so home service businesses might have a hard time penetrating the noise to get their messages across.

For the past 11 years, I’ve owned Blue Planet Plumbing, in Asheville, North Carolina, but I entered the plumbing trade at the early age of 17. It all started in 1992, on a hot summer night after clocking out at 2 a.m. after working a 17-hour shift at a popular chain restaurant for minimum wage pay of $4.25 an hour.