To Spend Or Not To Spend?

If you've got a few grand knocking about but don't know whether or not to spend it, then the Bank Of England won't have made it any easier.


At the beginning of the week the Bank Of England were saying that to help prop up the economy we all need to be going out and spending more. Half of me likes that idea and half of me doesn't. The half that doesn't is because I myself is doing what the majority of the country are doing and that is getting rid of any debt. For me it's a credit card. Admittedly it's not a massive bill, but I want it gone. Once it has disappeared then I'll have more money to spend (or save) on what I want.


On a national scale the amount of money being re-paid in comparison to loans being taken out is dwarfing the latter. People have finally got the picture that at some point the money they borrowed to go spending has to be given back at some point.


The other half of me which agrees with the B.o.E does so because I rely on the public to be in the buying mood. I need them to keeping buying windows and doors to keep putting a wage in my pocket. If they stop buying, I, as well as everyone else, stops earning. So yes the public need to keep on spending.


What we need is a good balance. People can go out and spend, but they need to reign it in enough so as to leave enough money left to help pay towards bills and loans. What we don't want is the country lurching massively towards one option or the other.


My advice: buy your windows and doors now before VAT goes up and George Osbourne cripples the country with pay freezes and spending cuts!

Deadline Day Looms

Thursday is the last day (as I'm sure many of you are aware) that the current Part L and F legislation is applicable, until the changes are implemented on Friday. There are many blogs, forums and websites which try to explain how to comply with the new regulations. I however will not do that. The relevant organisations have made it that complicated, confusing and have clogged the whole process with way too much literature and paper work.

I still believe that confusion will remain throughout the industry for weeks after October 1st. Policing the changes and making sure they will be implemented will also remain hard work. I just feel that these are such wide and blanketing changes, that FENSA, GGF, BFRC and the CLG were always going to struggle to implement the new rules effectively.

So, enjoy Thursday's last confusion free day!

It's That Time Of Year Again!

For those who have been installing energy rated windows for the last couple of years, you will be all too aware of what this post is all about. Condensation.


When we started selling energy rated windows, one of the selling points was the fact that you could cut out a lot of the condensation on the inside of the windows. 'Great', we all thought, then 'bugger', soon afterwards. Providing the weather conditions are right, and the property is situated in the right place, energy rated windows actually condense on the outer pane. So as your customers wake up to a nice crisp winter morning, they can't see a thing!


Problem is there isn't much we can do about it. We now have to fit them by law, so there is no way to get round that. It also becomes increasingly harder to say to the customer that these reduce condensation, when 4-6 months of the year they might be steamed up on the outside! So what do we do?


We can either risk telling the customer upon demonstration of the windows, risking the cowboy competition saying that theirs don't and allowing them to get one up on you. Or, fit the windows, knowing that weather conditions won't always be conducive and it won't always happen (providing it's not a long cold winter like the last one!).


One thing to say to any customers that might ring up and complain is that it is proof the windows are doing their job, keeping your heat in, and the cold out. It's a funny problem, and one which I don't think anyone could even see coming.

A Tale Of Two Halves

Plimsoll's newest window and door industry report tells a tale of how our industry is prospering at one end, while the other is very much in the mire.


According to the report, of the 999 companies studied, 362 are worth a third less than a year ago. This is where further consolidation may come, as the report also says that 400 companies have managed to increase their value. It is these 400 companies that will either force the other 362 companies out of business, buy them out, or force them to restructure.


Those who run their ship well, will find that they are able to add value. We ourselves have improved greatly compared to last year. We've expanded our product range, tweaked the showroom, got two good websites up and running, and we are reaping good rewards. And others are the same. They've managed the difficult times well and are now recovering well from the recession.


The industry is still to go through two main stresses before we can make any sort of analysis of how well it has coped. The October spending review is coming up and that will finally tell us where the axe is going to fall with the cuts. Then there is the rise in VAT in January. Once we get to the summer of next year, then we will be able to sum up how well the industry has done.

Who's Put Their Prices Up?

Putting prices up is a decision companies don't take lightly. With every price rise, the likelihood of winning more orders diminishes, or is at least made harder. 


The industry has been creaking all year from the pressure of price rises. PVCu polymer prices have gone up, polycarbonate prices have gone up 3/4 times already this year, as has glass and panel costs. The question posed then is: what to do? 


Companies can do one of two things, absorb it and let it eat into their profit margin, or pass it on to the customer. If it was up to me, I would be passing all price increases on. Absorbing costs and lowering margin is just plain risky, and it doesn't make good businesses sense. Profit margins are there for a reason. Businesses and people aren't in business for the good of their health, they are there to make money - so pass the prices on.


People are always going to need windows and doors. That's a fact. I also understand why companies absorb costs. They are worried that if they increase prices they will lose business to their competitors who haven't increased theirs, letting it dwindle away their profits. I say just sell your products well. A price, if it's higher, can always be justified if there is good reason, that's why we're salesmen. 


So it's time we all started running our businesses properly, tell the buying public that we live in a world of higher costs now, and start selling our products at the right price!

How Many Names Have You Got?

If you've read my last post you'll know how unfair it is that Anglian actually have 6 different companies/company names. If you've read my last post and have multiple company names yourself then you'll probably be indifferent to this post!


Anglian Home Improvements seem to have six registered business names. One can only assume that these are fall-back businesses just in case their core businesses in the home improvement sector fail. To me this seems highly unfair, as a business that have gone bust in this industry usually deserve to go bankrupt. This is just a way to play the unregulated system, where the big boys stay employed, earning lots of money, while bottom of the ladder staff are laid off from other businesses and customers lose their guarantees.


The practise in unethical, and highly unfair to those companies who trade under one name, without shadow businesses. This does however showcase one thing. If companies set up other businesses for those 'just in case times', does it not show that they don't have full confidence in their main business? To me if your running your company well and are profitable, you won't need to add other businesses names.


Going back to Anglian again, it would be interesting to know how many of those six businesses are up for sales. Is it just the home improvements businesses or is it all 6? Could anyone in the know fill us in?


In extreme cases like this I think are are grounds for restrictions, purely on business ethical grounds. Anglian seem to be a bit like a hermit. When the shell of their current business doesn't do it for them anymore, they can always move home into another business, leaving the old shell and it's customers with no protection and no guarantee.

Registered Businesses

I'm not going on an Anglian rant here, but I've just done a check on Companies House and look at how many names/businesses Anglian Home Improvements have registered:


1. Anglian Home Improvements Limited
2. Anglian Home Improvements Green Power Limited
3. Anglian Home Improvements Group Limited
4. Anglian Home Improvements Insulations Limited
5. Anglian Home Improvements Solar Energy Limited
6. Anglian Home Improvements Solar Thermal Limited


3 are registered in Norfolk, 3 are registered in East Kilbride.


I wonder how many are up for sale!

The Future Of Double Glazing According To Me

This is probably going to be a bit of a long one but bear with me on this one...

This is the way I see the double glazing industry in the future.

Doors

After recently changing composite door manufacturer we have seen a HUGE increase in the number of composite doors we're selling. I can also see that these are the future for residential doors. Composite doors have so much more character, owing to their wood grain finish and the range of styles they come in. They've managed to give the consumer the extra choice, rather than just choosing between plain white panels with different glass options.


I believe that the days of the plain white panelled door are over. Obviously the odd one will still be sold. There will be some out there who won't like composite or engineered doors and will still opt for the plain white panel option, but there won't be many. Panelled doors are also expensive for what they are, often when we price for panelled doors vs composite doors panelled doors come out more expensive! So it's a no-brainer to see that composite doors are going to start to rule the residential door market.

Windows
Despite the recent cock-ups of the GGF, BFRC and FENSA, I still believe WER will be relevant. Instead of companies using the certificates to show compliance, companies will be using them to help clinch sales. Companies will fight for contracts based on the energy efficiency of their windows, as well as quality and price. 


Colours I think are going to become a mainstay of the industry, but I believe some colours will fall by the wayside while some will become more popular. Cream, black and white wood grain will become a favourite, while odd colours like grey and green will be picked very rarely.


In terms of materials, PVCu will remain the main material of choice. Timber and aluminium may see slight increases, but they won't be enough to dislodge PVCu from the top. Factors like recycling, energy efficiency and maintenance will determine that.


Conservatories/Orangeries
Conservatories will never recover to levels seen in 2004, where 270,000 were installed. In fact over the next 10-15 years they may go altogether. What I think will replace them are orangeries. With the tough economic climate, I don't think installation levels will reach the heights that conservatories did, but maybe 50-100,000 a year might be a good level once they become established.


Industry
I still think there are a lot more businesses to go bankrupt. Not the most positive outlook, but there are still many companies teetering on the edge, and if the October spending review dampens what has been a good recovery for the most part of this year, it could push them over the edge into bankruptcy.


There are still too many manufacturers and there are still too many installation companies. The market in my opinion is still saturated and the ones likely to go are those that aren't that old, haven't switched their energy efficiency heads on and who are still focusing on cheap products rather than higher quality at a higher price.


The industry now needs to move away from selling poor quality products and move towards the higher end of the market. If we all do this we may be able to shake off the 'cheap and tacky' tag the industry made for itself.

Using Your Company's Green Credentials

As companies we have a responsibility now to become greener, become more self sustaining and do our bit to help our environment, plus it saves us on our fuel bills!

But, how many of us actually use it to help sell our products? And do the public really care?

For a few weeks, on every demonstration I did I talked to the customer about what we recycle and the steps we have made to limit what goes in our skip and what goes on to landfill. And my honest opinion is that it meant very little to the customer. Of those who went ahead with me I asked them why they chose us, not one of them said that it was because of what we do to help the environment.

The general public I believe are still not tuned in to being more environmentally friendly. The responses I got from my customer when I talked to them about it were numb at best. All customers are interested when buying windows and doors is the quality of the product and price - not what we do with their old frames and glass. And you can see why. Why would they be bothered about their old windows when we'll be taking them out in a few weeks and they aren't interested in the first place?

It's going to be a while before the consumer starts becoming more interested about what companies do with their old windows and doors. So for now, those who own businesses need to start making the changes necessary to help reduce their carbon foot print, and hopefully over time it will become more interesting to the customer.

BBC Says PVCu Windows 'Compounded' Fire Problem

I direct you to this link and urge you to watch the report. Once you get two minutes in you'll hear a comment from the BBC reporter explaining that the PVCu windows in the building that was on fire 'compounded' the problem.


Over the past year, the PVCu industry has come under attack so many times. One such incident that springs to mind was the tower block of flats that caught fire and how the PVCu windows in the building were blamed for spreading the fire. The BBC later distanced itself from that claim, can't remember if there was an apology - probably not!


You would think that in this day and age, when the country has had PVCu windows fitted for the past 30 years and more, that the myth of PVCu windows helping fire spread would have disappeared, but obviously not. People, and reporters are more likely to just rely on old rumour, rather than check their information accurately. 


My guess is that this is going to stick with the PVCu industry for quite a while, so whenever this sort of thing pops up we will have to continue to fight against misguided rumour and old-wives tales.

WER May Have Been Doomed From The Start

Whenever new initiatives are introduced, usually some market research takes place to see if the proposed idea is worth rolling out. So, when I found the following report published by Reuters in mid-March of this year, I started to question the strength of the foundations of the WER scheme:

(Reuters) - British consumers are still thinking about the price of the electronic goods they buy, rather than saving energy, according to a survey commissioned by energy-saving technology manufacturer Energenie on Monday.

Only 16 percent of British consumers said energy efficiency influences their purchasing decisions, whereas 60 percent said price was the main factor, according to research conducted by consultancy Vanson Bourne.

Out of the families surveyed, 73 percent of thought they were doing enough to be considered environmentally friendly and most claimed to have energy efficient devices in their homes.

But out of those, 81 percent had energy-saving light bulbs but much fewer had adopted other energy-saving measures such as double glazing, cavity wall insulation or energy-saving dishwashers or washing machines.

"Using energy-saving light bulbs is a great start, but it is a very passive way of reducing household energy consumption. What this proves is that for people to do something, it has to be simple and easy," Alan J. Tadd, managing director of Energenie, said in a statement.

The research also found that 43 percent of people do not switch electrical appliances off at the mains and one fifth of men admitting they were too lazy to do so.

What this report suggests pretty strongly is that as a nation we are still very far away from making any real effort to create a greener environment for ourselves. In fact it's pretty sad that such a large proportion of those interviewed thought that by having energy saving light bulbs they were doing their bit.

So back to the windows perspective. With the Great British public still so turned off to the idea of being energy efficient, was the WER scheme ever going to work? The evidence suggests not. The BFRC recently said that less than 10% of our industry had actually embraced the WER scheme. And as the report above suggests, only 16% of the buying public consider the energy efficiency of the product when purchasing. So what hope did we have of ever making WER a success? We have been trying to sell it's advantages to a public that just isn't interested, and is being sold by and industry who was never really behind it in the first place!

Let's Do This Properly!

Last time I did this I was getting systems companies and manufacturers all mixed up. So I'm doing it properly. The simple question I put to you is this: Based on product quality, service, reputation and price, who is the best profiles company?

The choices (and there are more this time!):

Aluplast
Deceuninck
Duraflex
Eurocell
HL Plastics (Liniar)
KBE
Kommerling
LB Plastics
Profile 22
Rehau
SAPA (aluminium only)
Selecta
Spectus
Swish
Synseal
Veka
WHS Halo

I'll leave the poll on till the end of the year, and we'll see who comes out on top!

I'm More Of An Afternoons Person

I don't know about you, but I don't really like morning appointments.

The thing with morning appointments is that you always seem rushed. I get into the office just after 9 (probably should get in earlier, but that's the advantage of being self employed!), have breakfast while planning out the day ahead, then by the time I've done that I'm back out on the road to my first appointment. Problem is I'm still not 100% alert in the mornings so when I get to the customers house I'm just about ready in my head!

I much prefer afternoon leads. I've had chance to catch up on any paperwork that needs doing. I'm not rushed to get out on to the road. I'll have probably done a showroom demo so I'm in the swing of things and in my rhythm of speaking. I tend to speak better and more fluently in the afternoons after a demo or two.

But when it comes to evening appointments I'm on fire! I've had a full day of talking product, I'm in my selling rhythm and chomping at the bit to get going.

I guess I'm a bit like starting a car on a cold morning: bit spluttery at the start, but once I get going I'm relentless!

The End Of Low Low Prices!

On the way home yesterday I was listening to an interview on Radio 5 Live. As far as I could tell the interviewee was some form of economist or business expert (I joined the program half way through so I missed the introductions!). What he was explaining was that over the past 18 months freight, and the costs of freight, in all sectors varying from food to clothes to all sorts of good, has risen quite sharply.

Now as these prices have been going up, manufacturers have been squeezing as much as they can out of their suppliers to try and off-set the rises in transport of goods. But, as the business expert was explaining, this has now reached saturation point, and businesses are going to now have to make the choice of either starting to let it eat into their profit margins further, as they have already been doing. Or, to pass the costs increases onto the consumer, and hope that their customers will appreciate their quality of goods and understand why they have had to raise their prices.

This situation is also going to be exacerbated twice in the coming months. Firstly because of the upcoming spending review. If people's buying confidence suddenly starts to wain, then sales of all goods are going to suffer. Then a second squeeze is going to come in the form of the VAT rise to 20% in January. Now we in the window industry are all quite sure that this shouldn't make much of a difference to the buying public, but the business boffin being interviewed seemed concerned that with retail prices going up, spending being cut back and VAT on the rise all combining, perhaps we need to be worrying just a little.

So, it's time for Primark to stop selling T-shirts at £2 as we all know it's not sustainable. Pasties from Greggs may go up to a £1. And from a window industry point of view, companies need to stop selling windows so cheaply and start to rebuild their margins again!

Gone are the days of genuine 'low low prices!'

Double-Dip In Construction Could Cause Window Problems

An article published online at http://www.ggpmag.com/ explains how the construction sector is looking like it will be the first one to enter a double-dip recession. Construction is a big sector in this country, and when it entered recession the first time it had a big impact.

This is a cause for concern for two reasons. The first is that as a general bell-weather, if construction is down, then the rest are likely to follow, and when that happens consumer confidence is affected. One thing that dragged the country out of the mire the first time round is that people carried on spending their money (to a certain degree), which meant money was still be moved about the economy. Hopefully they will have the same bullish attitude if we find ourselves in the same position again.

Secondly, and more specifically, if houses aren't being built, then windows and doors aren't being made and installed. Big names like Persimmon and Barratt Homes buy thousands and thousands of windows and doors every year. If their order book suddenly starts to look at bit thin, the national companies that supply these companies are going to find their order books shrinking in size too.

The third thing to consider is the wider impact, beyond the double glazing industry. If houses aren't being built, builders aren't building, plasterers aren't plastering, electricians aren't doing their first and second fixes. No carpets are being bought, nor are tiles, bathroom suites etc etc. You see my point? When the construction sector falters, so does all the other related industries and sectors. Construction is a lifeblood to many companies, so lets hope if it does start to suffer the government will support it as much as they can afford.

National Companies Good For Smaller Businesses

Many in this industry at some point envisage a national company going bust, many would like to see them disappear altogether. And you can see why, if they go, then there would be more appointments for everyone else. But I think otherwise, and here's why...

Scenario: Mr & Mrs Jones are thinking about replacing their windows and doors and while watching TV they may see and Anglian or Everest advert. Mr Jones says: "hmm, why don't we get Anglian round to give us a quote?" Mrs Jones says: "Yeah go on then, but we may as well get a few other quotes too."

Nine times out of ten customers always get at least two or three quotes before making a decision. They get a national in, usually just because they know who they are and have seen them on TV, and the other 2/3 are made up of the regional ones and a local one. This is what I like to call the breeding effect. One TV advert from a national company can then lead to the customer looking around at other companies, without the other businesses spending a single penny on advertising to secure that lead, it was done for them by the TV advert kicking them into gear! If the nationals suddenly disappeared, then the advertising would go, then who would be there to peddle the public into getting quotes? At the moment smaller business feed off the consequential 'looking around' effect.

Another good reason why the nationals need to stay is for their sales tactics. They're absolutely dire. Safestyle, Anglian and Everest still use the old hat hard-sell tactics in a big way. The consumer is much more savvy to this sort of thing, so instead of falling in their traps, they are becoming annoyed and disgruntled and end up showing the rep the door out of pure frustration and anger! Lovely! So in comes the local company with the pressure free service, much more pleasant and relaxed, and 100 times more likely to win the order than the national company ever was.

You see, nationals have played a big part in our industry. They have helped other businesses attract leads without spending big money on advertising, and they've helped others win orders by pissing off the customers in their own home! So, long may they stay, they're doing all of us a great service!

What Will Happen To Anglian?

There are usually two main reasons as to why a business is put up for sale: 1) The owners wish to cash in and make a tidy profit or 2) It is costing them more to keep the business going so they need to offload it. Which of those two do you think is the most likely. I'd like to say I think the first, but with the way the industry had suffered over the last few years, that seems highly unlikely.

So lets pick apart the second reason. Two years ago Anglian was snapped up by it's lenders after they failed to meet their financial obligations. When lenders take on a business they lent to, one of their main targets is to re-finance and see if they can get the business back on the right tracks. If they manage to do that, the lenders quite often keep hold of the business for a while to see if they can make any further profit out of it. But as I've already said, this seems unlikely right now. After such a short stint of ownership, the lenders have put Anglian back up for sale. The reason? We don't know as of yet, but I speculate that the lenders were faced with such a large task that it wasn't worth putting any more of their resources into the recovery plan, so will have tied any loose ends and have now put Anglian in the market place. 

The big question is who will buy Anglian? Will private equity firms be interested or will a trouble recent financial history put them off? My opinion is that Anglian needs a competitor to take it over. It needs another company within the same industry who can successfully run it. I don't think private equity firms will show enough dedication to make a success of it.

There will be some out there, mostly competitors and the odd disgruntled customer who wouldn't mind in the slightest bit if Anglian didn't get bought and was allowed to just drift off into the distance and eventually disappear. From a business point of view, one less national would do us smaller installer businesses some good. But from a personal point of view, we have to remember there are thousands of people associated with Anglian who rely on them to make a living. More redundancies is would be the worst outcome

Bent Industry Organisations

I have tried desperately myself to keep optimistic about the WER scheme and it's enforcement on October 1st. But after finding out what I have over the past 48 hours, I've lost all faith I had in it. The more the BFRC's plan has unravelled, the more it looks as though it has just been a money making scheme from day one.

When WER ratings were introduced, this looked to be a great new selling tool. It would help companies differentiate themselves from their competitors and try to boost sales. The industry had a shiny new toy, yet most didn't want to play with it.

Then, at the beginning of this year, the BFRC announced the option for installers to register their products in their own name so they could obtain an energy ratings certificate with their name on the top. Obviously there was a price to pay, hundreds in fact. So as you can imagine, there wasn't a massive uptake from that initiative. But there was never going to be. Having an installers name on a WER certificate was never going to have any selling advantage.

So, come Summer, we had the Part L decisions to digest. And lo and behold, the decision makers thought it would be a novel idea that for installers to show energy efficiency compliance, they HAD TO HAVE one of these WER certificates. How handy is that!? Just weeks after the BFRC announced the option to put installers' name at the top of their certificates, it's suddenly announced that it's now law, and we would have to pay for it!! Who's been scratching who's back I ask!

Still, we seemed to handle that OK, and just got on with the business at hand. But a few started to look at the science behind it all, and how the BFRC had come up with their results. Champion of this was Kevin Ahern. His main quarrel was with how the solar gain factor was calculated, and especially how north facing areas were factored into their equations. But, after repeated requests to Giles Wilson, his questions returned unanswered. This for me is where this whole scheme started to unravel, and quickly. The whole credibility of the scheme was brought into question and the very fathers of the scheme couldn't come out and defend it.

This rumbled off for a while, and was replaced with the short, sharp rejection of the DGCOS - another ombudsman scheme a tired, clogged up industry didn't need. But before long Part L changes were the main topic of discussion - mainly doors this time and how they were going to be passed. We thought that doors 50% glazed or more had to have a U-Value of 1.8 or less. Hence the rush and panic to get all the industry's doors tested in time.

Then, over the weekend on the GlassTalk website, Quorn Conservatories received this letter from FENSA:

Compliance Against a Minimum U Value
a) Simple Method


If you are installing a PVC or a timber and the frame is fitted with sealed units which make use of soft-coat Low E Glass, warm edge spacer (minimum 16mm) and 90% argon gas, Then FENSA will consider without further evidence that the U value of 1.6 has been achieved i.e there will be no need to provide further evidence to the consumer or to the FENSA inspector, providing there is no evidence to suggest that our assumption is incorrect. (In timber windows the depth of the frame from front to back must be a minimum of 70mm).

Up until this, we were all under the impression we had to either have a WER certificate showing a C rating or better, or a similar piece of paper showing a U-Value of 1.6 or better. But according to what FENSA have said above, we don't need any sort of paperwork to prove this, we just have to let them know we are fitting windows to that standard if they want to drop in for one of their checks.

So, where are we now? Basically, thousands of companies have spent thousands of pounds testing dozens of products to obtain certificates to show compliance, only for FENSA to tell us right at the very last minute that we don't need all that!

What message is this going to send out to all the clowns and cowboys in this industry! They are still going to be able to get away with fitting a load of old shite, passing it off as efficient and get away with it. While others have been playing to the supposed new rules and gone down the certification route, for it all to be a waste of time money and resources.

BFRC, GGF, FENSA - you should all hang your heads in shame. You've conned money out of the companies that you were supposed to be helping. I've been in this industry for just over four years full time, and have heard about some of the things that have gone on in our proud industry. I kept faith in industry bodies that everyone was saying were corrupt, but I ignored them, and it turns out foolishly. Your actions and handling of this whole episode show a complete lack of understanding about the industry you represent. The industry was never ready for this sort of upheaval, but you knew that. You knew that if you made certification law, installers would just simply hand money over to line your pockets.

All I can say is well done. You've managed to piss off an entire industry, and to alienate it even more. If you were to tell me a million times that what I have just alleged is wrong, I still would not believe a single word. You've lost yourself a member of the younger generation that will one day soon take the place of those in position now.

Anglian Up For Sale

Press release from Reuters, brought to my attention via Quorn Conservatories on GlassTalk:

ANGLIAN OPENS WINDOW TO SALE


Home improvements firm Anglian Windows has appointed accountants KPMG to manage the auction of the business, which analysts say could be valued at as much as 140 million pounds. A sell-off would mark the second time that the business has changed hands in two years, after it was acquired by its lenders when it failed to meet its financial obligations. Already Anglian, which is expected to be on track to deliver earnings of 20 million pounds in 2010, is thought to have attracted interest by numerous rival companies and private equity investors.

How much confidence in a business can you have? They are now up for sale for a second time. For what reasons, I'm not sure of yet, but they'll surface soon enough. The interesting bit is going to be which company will swallow them up. By guess is that a bigger, rival company could be in a position to do so. I also think that a competitor will do a better job. These private equity firms who just buy up businesses rarely have the expertise that a company in the same industry do.

This could provide some interesting blog posts for a bit!

Double Glazing Blogger Has His Own Facebook Page!

I've finally got round to getting my own Facebook page!

I now have to decide something. Do I stick to Twitter updates? Or do I start to use Facebook as a means of updates? Well, I'll probably stick to both. I've made some decent progress on Twitter, so it would be a waste to just stop using it. But I will use both social media networks.

I won't be putting full blog posts on my page, but I will be able to expand on some of my thoughts and feelings which I can't do on Twitter due to the 140 character limitation. I may also be able to be a bit more honest on there. I'm hoping a few industry peers will add me as a friend, and it's unlikely any customers will do the same, so I may be able to be a bit more frank than I am on here.

My Facebook page is: www.facebook.com/glazingblogger

L-Day Is Approaching

It's is less than a month now until the changes to Part L become law, and most seem to be well on their way for making sure their windows meet the new minimum standards. But what about doors?

From October 1st doors must have a U-Value of 1.8 or less. This applies to doors that are 50% glazed or over. So that would encompass French doors, sliding patios, bi-folding doors, full glass or half glazed doors etc. There hasn't been much mention of doors up till now, so is it completely obvious to everyone? When all the worry at the beginning was focused on the energy ratings windows and an equivalent U-Value, I think we may see that shift to the doors side of business.

One of my big questions is this: how is this going to be policed? Take FENSA for example. Each company registered with FENSA has to have 3 spot checks per year on their installations. That's not a lot, and it gives installers plenty of room to sneak an installation through which flouts some of the rules FENSA are supposed to make sure they follow. So who is going to check that a pair of French doors has a U-Value of 1.8 or better? There are many companies out there who probably haven't as yet got themselves ready for the changes, either by choice or by laziness. What about the cowboy companies who don't give a rats arse and just bung any old door in?

What I don't want to see happen is the effort made by all the decent companies out there, who have conformed to the changes, go to waste when others are ignoring the new rules and getting away with it.

Anonymous Whistle Blower

Roughly a week ago I was sent a private e-mail, from which I had to collect from a website which specialises in private e-mail. In it this anonymous person said that he had loads of quality lead data and information, and wondered if it was something I was looking to buy, or if I knew if there was any market for this sort of information. Naturally I stayed away and responded coolly towards it. 

However, they also went on to say that he was a very disgruntled sales person who felt he had been back stabbed, and that the company he worked went back on many promises they made to him. He went on to explain that he worked for a company based in the North, which had various branches throughout the North of England, and that once he had stopped working for them, he would come out in force and basically name and shame them, highlighting poor practices, how the business was run etc.

I advised him that this was a very slippery road to go down. I've been in trouble myself with this blog writing about things not half as serious as Mr Anonymous was proposing. Whether or not he goes on to do what he said he would, remains to be seen. If he does, and he's given no indication of when this might happen, then we could be in for some serious talking points.

Or I could have just been lead along all the way and was just trying to be caught out by a competitor! Either way I'm leaving well alone!

Month In Review: August

August carried on where July left off. August turned out to be one of my best months, as well as one of the best so far this year for the company.

Lead levels have been very healthy, again boosted by our new website getting more exposure now. More importantly conversion rates have been good. Providing I sign up who I expect to, I'll have achieved a 66.6% conversion for August, which can't be bad!

One thing that we have all noticed here is that a few people are now starting to talk about the 20% VAT rate that's coming. A few are wanting to ensure that any home improvement work gets done before the rise in VAT comes into force. We thought that people would just let it slip by without giving it much thought, but I think that the closer we get to the end of the year, the more we are going to see people trying to rush jobs through before January 4th.

Has August been busy for everyone? I know it can be a funny month sometimes, due to the school holidays being in full swing, replacing windows and doors isn't on the top of everyone's list.