Economic Stimulus Package - and the Fence Industry

Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (“Act”). President Obama signed the Act into law on February 17, 2009. The Act provides a series of direct spending and tax incentives for individuals and businesses to jump start the U.S. economy. This $787 billion Economic Stimulus Package includes provisions related to the construction industry.

Here is a good outline of what the Stimulus package can mean to contractors from a CPA firm. http://www.rubinbrown.com/content/view/1298/101/

How does this affect the fence industry? In this weeks FenceBids, we found three bids dealing with the Fence Industry (FenceBids - March 6, 2009). All the jobs were in South Carolina. So the money is beginning to flow.

The government has also launched a new site http://www.recovery.gov/ on this site you can see the breakdown by state where the money will be spent.

What are your thoughts on the stimulus bill? Will it help? Let us know what you're thinking

FenceTech 2009 - Impressions

Fencetech has come and gone for another year. I was curious to see what the people were seeing out there with the economy the way it is.

First things first -- the show. The show itself was certainly less crowded then in the past. However, talking to many vendors it seems many of the contractors left the family and crews at home and came by themselves. So most of the vendors, originally apprehensive, seemed pleased at the end. The vendors were talking to the decision makers, with fewer distractions .

There were certainly some down times, but all in all I was pleased with what I saw. There were obvious changes, a lot less and smaller hospitality suites, certainly new products were released, but it seemed to be fewer than normal. I will have more on the new products in the coming weeks.



Conversations -- The people I talked to were generally more upbeat then I would have expected. As one person said, "We're not quite recession proof, but we're close. When the economy is good we're keeping the dogs in; when the economy is bad we're keeping the crooks out." A lot of the contractors who have been doing commercial work all along, say they are seeing a lot more residential contractors competing for commercial work.


As I said there were exciting new products introduced that I will give you more infomation later.



But right now,

What did you think of the show? Let us know.

Blogging from FenceTech 2009

I'm heading down to New Orleans on Tuesday to FenceTech. No doubt a lot of the people reading this will be there too.

To say it's been an eventful year, both in the country and specifically the fence industry is an understatement. I'm looking forward to hearing the speakers, seeing the new products, talking with old friends, and generally find out what you're seeing out there.

I already know that a few familiar faces won't be there due to the economy.
Anyway, I'll be down there blogging away, I'll have my video camera, if you want your 15 minutes of fame.

So if you have a new product, or a story or an opinion that you would like to share, let me know. I'll be at booth #775.

- Gene