I certainly hope you had a joyous Christmas with family and friends. This time of year is such a very special time and I hope each of you had the chance to enjoy that time together with the people who are such a significant part of your life.

The New Year is upon us and it is traditionally the time we look forward to the coming year and what it holds for us. I just read an article on msn that declares 2011 home foreclosures were at 1.9 million last year. That was 34% better than 2010 and the best we have seen, since 2007. My first reaction was wow! After reading that, things are looking better, just not as bad as it seems. Wrong! The one thing that I am certain of is that economists are like weathermen. They never agree on the forecast and are usually wrong.

When I first graduated from college I worked for my dad at City Ready Mix Co. in Plant City. I told him we needed to forecast so we can plan our budget. His response was, "son I look out the window and if there are trucks in the yard, we need more work. If they are all gone, we have enough work, and if customers call and say we are running late, we may need to buy a truck." So, there you go - budget planning during the 80's. Since we were very successful, I think there was some value in that simplistic method.

I recall an airline commercial several years back where this CEO had a meeting with his key people. He was telling them how they lost an account for failure to stay in touch on a personal level. Afterwards, he sent everyone out with plane tickets of course to see accounts and reestablish that personal contact. I think there is some value in looking back at how we used to do business. Walking the yard each day and being part of the day to day function of our people. Visiting with our customers and doing what we can to reestablish those personal relationships is so crucial to the future of our companies. We must be cognizance of not letting all the modernization in how we communicate with each other move us away from that level of personal contact.

One of the key components of FICAP is a personal relationship with our customers. That is why we can hold ourselves up offering something that has become so hard to find in the business world today. A close level of personal contact is something our members understand is the key to their success in the past and certainly in the future.

Our general membership meeting this month will be on Credit Card processing and all that entails. This is one area of our Accounts Receivables that has changed, drastically. Hopefully, Rudet Fountain from United Tranzactions can shed some light for us how we can best utilize how we accept credit cards for payment. Mr. Fountain is traveling from out of state to be with us on his dime so let's be there to support his efforts, as FICAP offers our members another outstanding chance to become better educated on this aspect of our business.
 

I look forward to seeing each of you on the 31st.  

Preston Sparkman

President of FICAP

Vice President of Sales

Quality Companies