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Posts
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Good point on putting the camera into the phone. Don’t look at me, not my forte, asking me for an original thought is futile. I am very good at seeing and implimenting others ideas, though.
Okay, coming together now, fabnet quality countertop association covering all materials. Solid surface association taking care of solid surface. Peas and carrots as Forrest would say.
Al, I was on the phone with Andy tonight for awhile talking about what I had posted about. We discussed what an association would do.
One of the items was, what do fabricators need from an association? Obviously the most important thing is product awareness. This would take articles being written, spots on tv shows like HGTV, and so forth. These kinds of things take alot of money, manufacturer’s would have to support this. Let’s look at Dupont, they sell granite, quartz, and solid surface. Naturally they are not going to have a tv spot talking about how granite stains, or that seams in quartz are noticable.
Manufacturer’s can however support an organization to say these things to promote one of their products over the other because it would be indirect, not actually being said by them, but being supported financially by them.
The key is to get the manufacturer’s on board, it’s a win-win for them and us, they face no liability, and we promote their products, or at least one of them
Hi Jon,
I sent you an email. Did you receive it? (Im just just looking for a simple yes or no concerning receipt). Some of my emails never go thru, Alot sent to me never seem to make it here. (thats why I have many email accounts) and multiple phones. Its a perrennial problem with the Inet in certain places. Anyway, just thought I would ask.
Have a wonderful day,
Best Regards,
Lenny
What am I going to do? This I guess is the question. The answer is simple. I will try to provide to the FabNet members anything and everything that will help them build their business and the industry. I have an open mind, but don’t want to do something for the sake of doing it. Let’s have a purpose and a goal.
There are many things I do that I do not advertise here because at times, letting the cat out of the bag just makes for a huge disappointment when it can’t be done.
Paid vs Unpaid association. MySpace doesn’t charge for membership. Neither does Yahoo or Google. But they influence the marketplace because they have people participate on their sites. Participation means those who contribute, volunteer, read, advise, and sign up. Numbers are everything and influence comes with an increase in membership.
Where is the money going? Money is going to pay commissions, advertising, hosting, expo expenses, office supplies and other items.
My longterm Goals? Double membership. Strong Website with vendor and manufacturer support. Raise revenue to pay for promoting the industry (ie, studies, articles, professional help)
Committees – Bring most enthusiastic members together to decide what is best for the industry, not the FabNet. We have to focus on the industry because we all pay the bills making countertops. The FabNet is not in business to support a high paid Director and a huge staff.
What am I doing to help? I work about 5 hours a day on FabNet projects. Some are for member services, working with other association to see how and if a partnership is appropriate, talking with vendors and manufacturers to gauge what is needed in the industry, search for articles on the internet that let us know what is going on, lots of website maintenance, moderate the forum, Tips of the Trade articles, How-To articles, Product reviews, and much more.
What am I getting out of this? Not the money. Will I ever get paid? Sure, I hope to make a small salary to supplement the time I take away from concentrating on my own business. I really just enjoy helping others in the industry. I will continue to take the time to help either on the forum, by email or on the phone. The bottom line is that I just enjoy everything I get out of the FabNet.
Many of you have received phone calls discrediting me and my dedication to the FabNet. I am sure you have also heard stories about how I am somehow not honoring my word. If you are waiting for me to tell my side, it will not happen in an open forum. If you want to question my integrity, loyalty or commitment please email me. andy@thefabricatornetwork.com or call me at 714-393-5282.
All I will say is that if what I have shown to all of you in the past two and a half years is not enough, then I guess I will just have to work that much harder to convince you.
Thanks for participating and keep the thread going. The only way we will ever figure it out is to hash it out together.
Thanks Andy for the Update on Fabnet. I have not received any calls discrediting you in any manner, but then most dont call me due to the outrageous long distance charges.
Anyway, best of luck on all your endeavors. I am pleased to be able to help out on a very few in some small way, and would be even more pleased to be involved in future assistance. I really admire and appreciate the wonderful resource to the industry FabNet is. Please dont change a thing, you are doing all the right stuff!
Best Regards,
Lenny
Hi Guys,
I always enjoy a good debate and this thread certainly qualifies. Since I have an opinion about everything and never hesitate to share it, I will chime in on this one. I don’t expect agreement, just conversation.
I don’t understand the advantage of turning FabNet into an association. Having been involved in the first Solid Surface Association, and watching ISSFA’s ups and downs, it became apparent that when fabricators and manufacturers pay dues, they start asking, “what have you done for ME lately?” Since it is impossible to please everyone, someone is always unhappy.
The only thing FabNet cannot do is promote Solid Surface through magazines, newspapers, etc. But what it can and has done is so valuable, why spoil a good thing?
We are long past the days when the manufacturers are going to spend a lot of money building a brand of solid surface. It is a commodity, like it or not. Now the fabricators have to step up to get the word out. Certainly, this is a good place to exchange ideas about how to do that.
Linda
P.S. Just so everyone is clear, anything I post is my opinion, not Andy’s.
Im not so sure paying dues makes us more of an association than not paying dues. That said, I think FabNet CAN speak for the industry when sending out news releases. Perhaps each of us should start a local “chapter” of FabNet so fabricators can get together and learn/speak with each other. Perhaps we could use Fab Net as a clearing house for speakers on topics of interest to our fabricators.
When we started the local chapter some years ago, we went to all the distributors and got them on board. They would pay a fee (think it was $300) to sponsor a meeting. For this they got to display product and got 3 minutes to speak about their products, most did it to support the industry. We charged $20 and gave everyone a dinner. We had good local speakers on topics of interest. How to collect your money/filing leins etc. The registra of Contractors, Advertising etc. These were well attended and supported. It was interesting to see which distributors wouldn’t support us… most did.
If we had local meetings, in conjunction with the online forum we could spread the word. I agree with Andy that the more people we get to register here the more clout the FabNet will have. As more people sign up he can also charge more advertising fees, thus allowing him to do more. Some of those fees could be putting together articles, programs. etc. Im not so sure we need dues paying members to make a statement.
This can continue to be a grass roots movement and have a major impact. Any other thoughts?
Hi Wags,
Im up for local chapters or people posting in a loosely held Inet society of businessmen i for the mutual benefit of surface fabricators at large.. But I think that is Andys and Fabnets call. If Andy gives the word I will mobilize the troops in China.
B Rgds to All,
Lenny
Wags,
I don’t disagree with anything you said. If the need is there (and it’s starting to appear that way) than there will be an audience. With audience, there is mambership. Good enough to have a voice, in my opinion. Good enough to get noticed.
Wags why don’t you become be the first to make a chapter? You seemed to have the tools in place. You could be the barometer for others to follow.Wags,
There was some discussion on previous posts about how much money could be raised with dues and what how that could be used to promote the industry. I agree, dues don’t make an association, people do.
One way to promote solid surface is to make this site the “go to” place for information. If good articles are posted on the home page, perhaps they will begin to be picked up by reporters that are searching for information. Articles with a catchy headline and 1st paragraph might be picked up in searches more quickly. Also, we live in a society with a very short attention span. Short, concise and to the point articles with pictures attached might help. SO…………….who are the writers out there that have always wanted their own by-line?
Another idea would be for part of the photo gallery to be more consumer friendly. Good, magazine quality pictures that inspire homeowners and designers to choose solid surface. Also, pictures that could be used for print articles. I know this is an industry site, but it could be mentioned on consumer forums as a source for information. Who has great pictures and how can they be posted without using too much space?
Linda
Dear Linda,
Having analyzed in great detail sites.
Here are the sites ranked in order for go to info…
1.) FAbnet
2.) Len Smiths excellent Geeks
Look down
Look down further
A little further dowen
ah at last..ISSFA site.
Laughingly,
Lenny
I will look into getting a chapter up again, informal. All we had last time was a checking account to pay the hotel for the room. I’ll be speaking with my accountant and lawyer in the next week and will run this pass them. Andy I will also call you to let you know what Im doing.
Perhaps the first Topic should be, Fabricator Network and the future of the Solid Surface Industry.. ummm. Andy, Arizona in the fall is a great place to visit. 🙂 …
Well, at least we are talking about it.
Local meetings sound fine if they were few and far between. It is one thing to squeeze in a few hours after work, another to find time and travel somewhere. Plus, what is there that I can’t find here? Surfaces was fun, meeting you guys, but local guys aren’t going to get along that well and will they really help out a competitior they face all the time? Most of us here in okc know each other, will trade names of the deadbeats or loan a tube of glue once in a while, but helping build their business might be stretching the relationship.
Has this worked well in the past when it was tried? Why did it die off?
Raising cash seems to be an upopular idea, why? I would be the first to be against a high paid staff, but being able to hire someone part time, even outsourcing some research on what is available in the way of studies could be done with a few grand. Maybe being able to pay for some of the expenses or giveaway prodcuts at the next Surfaces show. Even putting together a booth with some knock out “Jon” style work for KBIS might be done for ten to fifteen grand.
Joining and paying dues or at least paying a small amount when joining would give us a war chest. Keep it cheap if need be, $25.00 would be plenty. Later if special needs arise, people would pay more if they saw their past cash spent carefully.
Any of you guys ever participated in one of these type sites? Might be a template for a response based organization, an association if you will, that would be cheap, easy to use and effective.
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