It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Or so the song goes… With 2023 now almost in the books, it is time for all of us to take a much-needed holiday break. But first, let’s talk about the year now ending.
See my 2023 Holiday message…
I have been working on closing out the books for the fiscal/calendar year, a process that always forces me to look back on the year in review. For many, 2023 brought a bit of a mixed bag…a little bit of the good with a little bit of the bad.
To some extent, we’re still in uncharted waters…none of us has any experience maneuvering the choppy waters of business coming out of a global pandemic with its unprecedented supply chain issues. We’re all kind of learning as we go along.
But the diminishing supply chain issue was definitely a mixed blessing. Finally, goods were flowing again…that’s good! But many of us had the unfortunate experience of having many of our backorders shipped all at once, while our sales were moderating. This brought challenges for many integrators, and a pause in many vendors’ sales as dealers were forced into a process of “destocking.”
Destocking refers to dealers suddenly stuffed with inventory that they used to fulfill new projects, rather than consistently ordering items from their suppliers. For some integrators, it took them all year to right-size their inventory…that’s bad!
But for Strata-gee, we continue to see our reader base expand. Starting at the end of 2021, where Strata-gee was unique in its independent coverage of a COVID-impacted CEDIA Expo, we began to see an escalated pace of subscription sign-ups that frankly kept increasing throughout all of 2022…AND 2023.
Frankly, our numbers are blowing my mind! Thank you to all of our new subscribers! I promise to continue to work hard to earn your interest.
So Happy Holidays everyone! Set work aside and enjoy spending time fully engaged with your family and friends! With 2024 just around the corner, I can’t wait to tell you about some new initiatives coming from Strata-gee!
Ted
Thanks Ted. I have enjoyed your newsletter this year and appreciate your thoughts on our trade. I still owe you some thoughts on the rep biz. That can be my New Year resolution!
Thanks Glen!
Your thoughts on trends in the Rep business would be a GREAT present to Strata-gee readers. So I really look forward to that.
Happy Holidays!
Ted
I wish you a great holiday, always enjoy reading your prose and look forward to every issue. Congratulations on a well-deserved, ever-expanding subscription list.
Thanks David!
Let’s hope the list stays “ever-expanding”!
Hope your holidays are going well!
Ted