All this talk of the 40^th anniversary of Woodstock must be giving me flashbacks.  (You MUST know I’m kidding)  Anyone remember Grace Slick belting out the words “feed your head” in White Rabbit?  What are you feeding your head lately?

Have you ever been so close to your dream that you can touch it with your fingertips, but can’t grasp it in your hand? That’s how I feel today after being forced into a situation where I must take this website offline for a while.

I can’t think of a more frustrating position than to be in a situation where you have a fabulous idea, a solid business plan for getting the job done, but limited technical expertise and funding to see the dream become a reality.

In the past 15 months, this website developed a life of its own. The positive comments I received every week was humbling in one way, but heartwarming in another. Each happy reader spurred me on to invest more time and effort into providing a genuine news site unencumbered by corporations seeking to expand their empires or milk an operation for every penny of profit.

Fifteen months after starting RV Industry News, do I still have the dream to develop a group of RV-related websites? Absolutely. Despite the fact that competitive sites have sprung up all over the Internet in the past three years, it has only confirmed what I knew in my heart that the industry needed. I am more motivated than ever to pursue my dream, and intend to begin that journey anew as quickly as I can.

I’m sure everyone has heard of the 80-20 rule which simply states that 80% of your profit comes from 20% of your customers.  This rule was first formed back in 1906 when an Italian Economist Vilfredo Pareto observed that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population.  Since then, this rule has been applied successfully to many different business theories including RV parts sales.

Sunny days are certainly in store for the folks of Elkhart County, Ind., after U.S. Congressman Joe Donnelly proudly announced the federal government would spend $6.6 million in the county that currently has the nation's third highest unemployment rate.

Spread out over the county's 197,942 residents, that will average about $33.34 per resident.

That's the kind of attention and help cities get when a U.S. president flies into town to feel the pain of local residents.

The audacity of the announcement is that the federal government doesn't even trust Elkhart city and county officials to spend the stimulus money in a way that will do the most good for the community.

When the economy is booming, everyone naturally becomes a little complacent.  In an RV dealership, F&I is often the first thing to slide.  Perhaps you’ve  said to yourself “I’m too busy to offer financing to every customer.  I may lose a few sales and earn a little less profit on each deal, but who cares?   Maybe I’m selling fewer service contracts than I should, but so what?  I’m making money.” 

There is so much going on today, it's hard to know what to blog about first.

I guess hearty congratulations are in order for Country Coach, which announced this afternoon they will resume operations soon. Apparently, the firm was able to work a deal with Wells Fargo and their lead investor to breathe new life into the company. I understand founder Bob Lee also had his hand in the deal. Either way it is great news for the RV industry and thousands of people in Oregon are likely doing cartwheels this afternoon.

The dealer anger in this country is the worst I have ever seen. They are caught in the middle of an economic storm that threatens to destroy everything they have built due to no fault of their own. They can't acquire new inventory because they can't get floorplan financing. They can't sell existing inventory because they can't get retail loans for buyers. They have to fix the units they sell, but can't pass on those costs to bankrupt manufacturers.

I did see that union thugs in Pennsylvania were able to intimidate management at FTCA long enough to extract annual wage increases, incentive pay, a new pension plan, 10 paid holidays, shift differential pay and better health insurance in a down economy. Let's hope they sell enough Coleman trailers to pay for all the goodies the workers receive as units trickle down the assembly line.

Finally, can someone in Flori-duh tell me whose business it is how much water Lazydays founder Don Wallace and his family use every year? A Tampa paper published the names and addresses of the public water utility's top residential users.

Where has this country gone in demanding the public release of the names of water users, people who receive corporate bonus money, companies that buy private jets or firms that plan elaborate rewards for the people who bring in most of the company's money? We used to celebrate achievement and honor achievers.

have a challenge for those of you willing to accept it.

I would like you to guarantee that you will be in business -- or employed -- on May 17, 2009. Once you make that guarantee, if you can't pay a bill or you bounce a check before that date, I'll take you to court and seek everything you own.

Such is the folly American businesses have to deal with in complying with yet another silly federal law -- the WARN Act. WARN stands for the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. It's a federal law designed to "do something" to help employees when their companies close or when the firms must make mass layoffs.

In reality, I know of no business owner or manager who can guarantee today that their company will be in business 60 days from now. And, once they are faced with absolute defeat to the point they must announce a closure or mass layoff, chances are very good the owners and managers have done everything within their power to keep the firm open and the staff employed as long as it can.

Very few employers wake up one morning and announce they are shutting down the company for the helluva it -- just to watch the pained expressions on the faces of dumbfounded employees. But, we have a federal law that requires employers to look into their crystal balls and ENSURE, under penalty of law, that employees will remain on the job 60 days from now.

I am 48 years old and since I lost my very first job at age 16 I have known that there is no such thing as a secure job. It's a lesson some people apparently will never learn.

I purchased a 35 ft. motorhome so I could travel around the country providing sales training and selling my products.  There is nothing better than doing business out of a motorhome.  The salesperson knew what I did for a living and what the motorhome was to be used for.  I even had my company name stenciled on both sides of the motorhome with bookcases inside for my products, so the salesperson did qualify me enough to understand what I did for a living.

The positive part about an economic recession is that it forces every one of us to look in the mirror and make some long-awaited decisions. We trim the “fat” to make our businesses stronger, leaner, and well prepared for the race ahead. In a quick down-turn, we make the easy decisions: tighten up the advertising budget, delay a few purchases, and slow our hiring. But when the ebb of the market extends beyond a few months, the decisions get harder and it really forces everyone to look beyond the spotlight items, combing the P&L with a magnifying glass and an alternative way of thinking to find ingenious ways of saving.

One of the largest expenses dealers fail to look at is the time and money spent on maintaining and upgrading their server...