The Dadson Diaries Would Like to Thank...

Last year, The Dadson Diaries listed that we were thankful for the new M&Ms dispenser and those that donate to the 'Keep it filled' fund. Unfortunately, those donations have stopped coming in and Mr. M&M has been empty for a while now. With that, we feel it's only appropriate that we come up with a couple new things we'll be giving thanks for this year:

• Our Accounting Department for coordinating a Thanksgiving potluck and our company Holiday party. Anyone who helps facilitate interdepartmental mingling and the consumption of tasty, holiday-inspired food is great in our book.
• The new Ricoh network printer. This thing prints multi-page documents lightning fast and with exceptioncal color and clarity -a godsend for anyone printing pages and pages of pictures that the boss took at a jobsite.

And, as always, we're thankful for our customers, who continue to instill us with their confidence, and all the FCD staff that helps keep those customers satisfied.

We hope you enjoy all that your Thanksgiving has to offer. Don't be afraid to eat too much. You can always burn off those extra calories by battling the masses to take advantage of those crazy sales on Friday.

Are You 'Hot' or 'Not'?

MSN.com reminded me yesterday that it's that time of year again and I'm not talking about the beginning of the holiday season or the dropping of the temperatures outside. What I'm referring to is that time of the year when People magazine indulges its female readers with its "Sexiest Man Alive" issue, which hits newsstands tomorrow. Invariably, this led to lots of talk of the cover guy -- Hugh Jackman won the honors this year -- as well as speculation of who else made the list. That was yesterday.

Today's MSN headline reads "From Hot to Not." Of course, now comes talk about those former sexy men that have let themselves go. Most weren't a big surprise -- Nick Nolte, Mickey Rourke, and Val Kilmer to name a few. What was a surprise was how quickly some of these guys had fallen from dreamboat status, including Wesley Snipes, who just 3 years ago was a featured Sexy Man but is now facing a 3-year prison sentence.

That just goes to show how quickly things can fall out of favor. This phenomenon isn't limited to celebrities either. It happens to businesses all the time, but the good news is that we can all avoid the "Hot to Not" decline with a little effort. People can exercise, dye their hair, get face lifts. Business, in a way, can do the same.

The key is to constantly reevaluate your business. Noticing a decline in customer satisfaction, market share, sales? You can either ignore the problem and become a "Not" or you can address it. Maybe people find you to be outdated. A store remodel, new product packaging, or a product line revamp might be just what you need to get back to being "Sexy."

News From F.C. Dadson's Construction Consulting Team

Since opening up shop earlier this year, our construction consulting program has found traction with F.C. Dadson's retail and franchise clients. Recently, our construction manager unburied himself from the blueprints and contracts to clue The Dadson Diaries in on some exciting additions being made to the department.

Seems our construction consulting clients have expressed interest in FCD becoming more "hands on" with their build out projects, and we've responded by adding preconstruction services and on-site support to our line-up of available services. Some new perks of the program include:

• Optional preconstruction services (i.e., estimating, scheduling, determining constructability)
• Contractor coordination and oversight
• Site visits by our Director of Construction
• Assistance with punch list completion

And these new services aren't the only growth our construction consulting program has seen the past month. We also added two new team members including Kyle McManus, a construction industry veteran and our new Director of Construction, and BJ Beier, a paperwork whiz and our new Construction Assistant.

Despite the shrinking economy, F.C. Dadson's construction consulting department is growing. To find out more about our construction consulting program, call Angie Borchardt at (800)728-0338 or email info@fcdadson.com.

The Greener Side of Wall Street's Bail Out

When I woke up the other morning to find snow on the ground, I was forced to come to grips with two things: 1) winter is coming and 2) the year is almost over.

A few months back, I posted an advanced warning to those of you looking to make every-efficient improvements to your spaces: do it before the end of the year or lose out on tax incentives. For those rushing around trying to find funds for last-minute projects, I'm happy to report that relief is here -by way of the Wall Street bail out plan.

Now you might be thinking, "Ok, Dadson Diaries, the bail out might make it a little easier for me to find funding for these improvement projects, but that's not helping the fact that there's only a little over a month left in 2008!"

Turns out the bail out plan, titled the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, includes a little thing called the the Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008. You can check out the link for the full scoop, but here's a little bit of it I think you time-starved, money-strapped business owners will enjoy:

"Extension of Energy-Efficient Buildings Deduction. Current law allows taxpayers to deduct the cost of energy-efficient property installed in commercial buildings. The amount deductible is up to $1.80 per square foot of building floor area for buildings achieving a 50% energy savings target. The energy savings must be accomplished through energy and power cost reductions for the building's heating, cooling, ventilation, hot water, and interior lighting systems. This bill extends the energy-efficient commercial buildings deduction for five years, through December 31, 2013."

Also, here's a brief article on the topic that's currently featured on the BusinessWeek website.

Green Building LEEDing the Way

For the last Dadson Diaries post, I wrote about publicizing unique materials and practices. Now, I doubt that my entry sparked this conversation, but it appears that some of the top retailers and restaurant operators are choosing to make known their environmental initiatives through this article on the New York Times' website.

While the United States Green Building Council's LEED for Retail is still in the pilot program stage, that's not stopping a growing number of retail and restaurant operators from seeking either particial or full LEED certification. Good news for retailers (what with all the energy savings and good karma) and even better news for Mother Nature.

For fixture manufacturers like F.C. Dadson, this LEED certification wave has implications as well. Not only are we seeing more and more requests for green materials, but this has the potential to change the way we run our businesses, affecting everything from the suppliers we use to how we produce and deliver our products.

I guess it sort of equates to the retailers' decision to build green. Is the initial investment worth it in the long run and can we afford the upfront costs? If today's focus on the environment is any indication as to what tomorrow's retail and restaurant operators will value -and most would predict it will be, the majority of us in the supply chain will have some serious decisions to make.

My Unusual Paperweights

A few months back, our construction manager was researching recycled glass countertops for a prospective client F.C. Dadson was wooing at the time. We didn't end up winning the business, but we were left with a lot of really neat looking countertop material samples -two of which ended up on my desk.

Not really sure what to do with my Vetrazzo samples (one in Charisma Blue and the other in Bistro Green), I just let them sit there. They got caught in the shuffle of daily paper work. Since then, many people have asked me about my "paperweights," sparking conversations about how cool it is that something like beer bottles can be recycled into something that beautiful.

Anything to start the conversation, right?

If you're a business using unique materials or practices to create your products, your retail space, or your displays, why not bring them front and center and to the customers' attention? My recycled glass countertop samples inadvertently became conversation pieces. Imagine the buzz I could have created if I would have publicized my unusual paperweights.

Are You a Scuppie?

While our server was down for maintenance this lunch hour, I took the time to tackle the pile of yet-to-be-read magazines that have been cluttering up my desk for the last few months. The first one I opened -the August 2008 issue of Display & Design Ideas- began with an interesting question: are we green yet? Editor RoxAnna Sway then launched into the relative greenness of retail compared to other industries. It was all interesting stuff, but what really caught my eye was mention of the word "scuppie" in the second to last paragraph of her column.

Wondering what the heck a "scuppie" was, I checked out the website Ms. Sway listed. Waiting there was a wealth of information, courtesy of Chuck Failla (author of the forthcoming The Scuppie Handbook), that will enlighten any visitor to what a "socially conscious upwardly-mobile person" is and what they believe in.

According to the website, a "scuppie" is:

1. "A person who desires all the best life can offer and strives for thos goals in a socially conscious manner.
2. One who is dedicated to the pursuit of peace, happiness and cash (not necessarily in that order).
3. Someone 'green' -- i.e. one who understands to love of money does not preclude the love of nature...and vice-versa."

While I wouldn't necessarily call myself a "scuppie," I'd say it's definitely applicable in today's society (I can think of at least a handful of people who would qualify). Think you might be a "scuppie" or intrigued by the "scuppie" lifestyle? Check out www.scuppie.com for more than a canvas tote's worth of info to get you thinking, delivered with enough wit to make you smile.