How's business in your industry?

ours is doing fairly well, all things considered. this past year was a complete train wreck with a perfect storm of bad things in our industry [fresh fruit trading] (us west coast port problems, severe shipping line delays, product getting dumped in the middle east crashing the market, food safety scares for apples, etc). from Nov. 2014 until about May 2015, all i did was fight fires. everything has turned around a bit though and it appears that we will end the year in decent shape.

HSV256 said:

Whether you're a business owner, salesperson or industry worker, how is business going?

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huge shift to the Cloud going on and making things weird but this industry (IT) has been weird the entire time I've been in it

Like Jon (IT as well) we are constantly having to adjust to quickly shifting paradigms, but right now we are having to turn down some types of work to be able to properly service our existing customers.

A lot of our clients are taking some big losses, and the ones who aren't losing money are getting fined millions by the gub-mint.

The downstream impact hasn't hit my company yet, but it's only a matter of time I'm afraid.

hollisx4 said:

A lot of our clients are taking some big losses, and the ones who aren't losing money are getting fined millions by the gub-mint.

The downstream impact hasn't hit my company yet, but it's only a matter of time I'm afraid.

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I have to know, what industry is this?

My industry (arcade games) has been hit hard by nothing less than constant improvements in technology. Upright video games are quickly becoming a thing of the past as the games are now playable on laptops, tablets, smart phones and now watches. No longer do people have to go to an arcade and drop a quarter into the machine to play the game.
Jukeboxes have all but disappeared thanks to personal MP players, Ipods, etc.
The majority of the pinball machine manufacturers have jumped ship in favor of casino gaming machines. There are still a couple around, but the quality of the newer games is lacking, to say the least. Never in my 40 years did I ever see a "steel" plate break so easily.
I spent 40 fantastic years in the industry and benefited greatly from it. I am now retired and am no longer a part of that industry, hence I am no longer effected by the coming transitions. As far as I'm concerned, i couldn't have timed my career, and it's end, any better.

Bama Reb said:

My industry (arcade games) has been hit hard by nothing less than constant improvements in technology. Upright video games are quickly becoming a thing of the past as the games are now playable on laptops---snip---

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Wow - didn't know you were in this business, Reb. I bought an upright "Asteroids" machine years ago and it sits in my office right now defective. I haven't had time to get it fixed but it was working perfect for a couple years after purchase. I have a new circuit board but again haven't had to time work on it. It's always been my fav. game to play and I was really good on it too!

Banker here. Not too bad. It would be better if the Fed would raise interest rates.

In in landscaping and it's going well - people always need help with their yards.

I'm a small operation with very little overhead too so doesn't take much to pay the bills.

We're doing a makeover right now on the oldest church in the area....St. Paul's Episcopal. Interesting work!

92tide said:

ours is doing fairly well, all things considered. this past year was a complete train wreck with a perfect storm of bad things in our industry [fresh fruit trading] (us west coast port problems, severe shipping line delays, product getting dumped in the middle east crashing the market, food safety scares for apples, etc). from Nov. 2014 until about May 2015, all i did was fight fires. everything has turned around a bit though and it appears that we will end the year in decent shape.

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I'm a private label broker and we represent a couple of companies that import products (but not much). Earlier in the year it was a nightmare with the West Coast ports shut down over the Longshoreman's strike. We got through it and business for the most part is pretty good at this point.

Some CPG companies are continuing to consolidate and get gobbled up and that's creating problems on the manufacturing side. Production facilities are being closed/consolidated and we are seeing allocations becaise producers can't meet demand. In the meantime we're struggling looking for alternate suppliers. In nearly all cases there are maybe two or three suppliers available to produce private label and there's a lot of obstacles to overcome in taking new business to someone (packaging, design, minimum quantities, location and freight costs, etc.)

On the personal side I've gone through two restructurings since 2010 as companies are outsourcing more and reducing staff. I promised my wife after our third move last year since 2008 that we wouldn't move again. So I have to find a way to make this work (Charlotte, NC area).. I've lived in worse places, for sure.

ValuJet said:

I'm a private label broker and we represent a couple of companies that import products (but not much). Earlier in the year it was a nightmare with the West Coast ports shut down over the Longshoreman's strike. We got through it and business for the most part is pretty good at this point.

Some CPG companies are continuing to consolidate and get gobbled up and that's creating problems on the manufacturing side. Production facilities are being closed/consolidated and we are seeing allocations becaise producers can't meet demand. In the meantime we're struggling looking for alternate suppliers. In nearly all cases there are maybe two or three suppliers available to produce private label and there's a lot of obstacles to overcome in taking new business to someone (packaging, design, minimum quantities, location and freight costs, etc.)

On the personal side I've gone through two restructurings since 2010 as companies are outsourcing more and reducing staff. I promised my wife after our third move last year since 2008 that we wouldn't move again. So I have to find a way to make this work (Charlotte, NC area).. I've lived in worse places, for sure.

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ouch. that has to be tough.

that west coast non-sense screwed everyone, but i think the folks importing got it worse than we did since the whole thing started just before the holidays.

we got stuck holding the bag when delays/scheduling problems caused bad arrivals or dry runs.

Bazza said:

Wow - didn't know you were in this business, Reb. I bought an upright "Asteroids" machine years ago and it sits in my office right now defective. I haven't had time to get it fixed but it was working perfect for a couple years after purchase. I have a new circuit board but again haven't had to time work on it. It's always been my fav. game to play and I was really good on it too!

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You have a PM

The number of proposal requests are up and fees are inching upwards, too. A few of our clients have realized that some of our competitors that used to undercut us on bids was doing it by providing crappy product. So, competition on more complex work is down. Things are looking up. Thanks, Obama. :wink:

As usual, being an overweight male stripper, business is not good. I can barely afford to oil myself up and that's sad considering oil prices are so low. I also have holes in many of my underpants, so even when I get tips I often lose them. I just love what I do so much, though, and can't see doing anything else.

Been retired for a little over a year...have come to the realization that work pretty much sucks...don't have to get up at 4:30 AM to feed the horses anymore, though, so I've got that going for me...

My industry has been in consolidation mode over the last 20 years or so. My company has been an acquirer, so things are generally going well in my opinion.

92tide said:

ouch. that has to be tough.

that west coast non-sense screwed everyone, but i think the folks importing got it worse than we did since the whole thing started just before the holidays.

we got stuck holding the bag when delays/scheduling problems caused bad arrivals or dry runs.

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Lo and behold, not long after I posted about all the restructuring changes I got an e-mail that our business is being put up for bid in October. Enough of this foolishness. As a boss once told me years ago, always keep your resume updated.