Adios 2021, Hola 2022... For most of my career, I have taken the week between Christmas and the New Year to reflect on the previous year and plan for the next.  Let me share a few thoughts…   Ten questions that demand answers Our mission as distributors, and those who work in distribution, must include this Top 10 : 1.     How can we make life better for our customers in the next year? 2.     What can we do today that makes it harder for our competitors to attract our customers? 3.     What might we do in the future to attract new customers? 4.     Precisely why do our best customers buy from us? 5.     Which customers drain our profitability and how might we move them into a positive revenue position? 6.     Are there new products we should be selling that we are not currently selling? 7.     Is the productivity of our team better or worse than our competitors? 8.  ...

Winter had just spread its frosty mitt across Iowa.  For the first time since late February, the thermometer was pointing to the low teens, the winds howled with the force of the Polar Jetstream, and the cold bit through my clothes as I stumbled into my office.  It was late into the evening as I sat down at my desk to review some client projections for 2022 and add comments to their business plan.  I was nose down to the computer when I was startled by a bang and a crash coming from the roof of the office.  A word of explanation, the River Heights Consulting office is an 1871 house located at the top of one of the high bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River in Davenport Iowa.   150-year-old construction is known to creak and sometimes break.  I jumped up looked out the back door to see if house parts were laying on the ground.  There was nothing evident, so I resumed my work.  Seconds later,  I heard an expected, perhaps even autho...