Introduction

摘要

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." We owe Charles Dickens for writing at the start of his novel "A Tale of Two Cities," a description of the current situation in which the U.S. cleaning business/market finds itself. That means you. Suppliers are the business. Customers are the market. It is both the "best and worst" of times for all of us!Today, the United States cleaning business is generally not strong. Exhibitors at a recent major cleaning trade show reported considerable dissatisfaction with the number of attendees, versus previous shows, and their weak financial interest in making apurchase. Some asked me why business was weak. And yet, without meaning to sound like James Carville or another surrogate for the Clinton Administration, the United States economy is enjoying a continuing growth cycle, which has lasted nearly a decade.How can these two observations be simultaneously correct? The quick answer is that we don't have the right information.We will attempt to answer that question more fully in this column, and show you how you can profit from it. That's the overall purpose of this column. We aim to help you profit when you are involved with cleaning problems.