In the United States, more than $150 billion a year is spent on advertising. The number alone is nothing, but what if $120 billion of that was knowingly wasted?

In my last blog, I introduced a partnership BNP Media forged with BirdDog Jobs, a career center specializing in the skilled trades. Today, we’re pleased to announce another partnership.

For the last two years, more than 13+ million U.S. workers have been unemployed, many for very long stretches.

This week I attended the last National Association Oil Heating Service Managers Show in Hershey, PA. Actually, it’s not the last show for this fine organization, but it will be the last show by that exact name.

The mitigation is done, but our restoration job continues. It is interesting to see this process through, as my dear friend ICS columnist Steve Toburen says, "the customer's eyeglasses.”

This is no major flood or restoration job by any stretch of the imagination but even I was surprised at just how much remediation is involved from the seemingly benign water leak under my kitchen sink. 

Construction and maintenance pros, do you have what it takes to takes to excel today? I'm not talking about aggressive cost cutting or crazy-efficient management techniques. Chances are you are already doing those things.

Al Levi could have packed it in, gone to Arizona, and led the good life. After all, he sold his contracting company back when the economy was still vibrant.

Last week I spent a couple days at the Coverings Show in Las Vegas. Usually, I’m very focused at trade shows on meeting readers or advertisers and talking about their specific interests.

The last two years remind me of running in the San Diego Marathon. It was a brutally hot event. At the starting line, race organizers distributed salt packets and issued dire warnings to slow our pace – or face the consequences.