Coincidence?

Is there anything worse for a writer than staring at a blank page and feeling an echoing blankness of mind rather than the reply of a creative spark? It’s a Monday-kind of feeling, I think. After a few days of rest and relaxation, getting back into the groove of an article may take more than a strong cup of coffee and Wilco jamming on the CD player. Sometimes it takes a coincidence to jolt you wide-awake and back into the swing of things. Like this morning, when I was pulling together links for today’s USGNN.com, I stumbled across this story, “Allied Glass Products Shows Off New Showroom in Davenport.”

As those of you who checked out last week’s blog know (and many thanks, Jim, for your comments!), I’m currently working on an article about showrooms for our April issue. It was refreshing to read this morning about yet another company that’s in the process of expanding its showroom to account for the interest consumers have in coming in to see products rather than relying on a catalog alone. Clearly having a showroom is an important factor even for those companies that already offer a variety of services. (And knowing we’re on the right track with this article is great motivation!)

According to the article from the Quad-City Times, this glass and glazing company works mainly with contractors, which brings up a question I’ve been pondering. If part of your business handles installation, but you’re selling to contractors that do installations—does one part of your business compete with the other? Or does it just help you to cover your bases, by handling commercial installation while selling to people doing residential installation? Let me know your thoughts by shooting me an email at mheadley@glass.com.

Speaking of expanding one’s offerings, we have a new addition to our blog line-up. USGlass publisher Debra Levy is now blogging at http://usglass.blogspot.com/. Be sure to check out her latest blog … and keep your eyes on USGNN for another new addition on its way later this week!