I’d like to think I’m patient and open-minded, slow to anger and judge, at least until I get all the facts. I’d like to think I’m like that, but apparently I’m not . . . at least not when it comes to actions or potential actions of Congress. Boy, how easy is it to react fast to that! (Read More…)

Today, let’s forget about political sound bites and address an enemy more calculating than Al Qaeda and more sinister than Iran. I mean spam and e-mail. I mean I can’t wait to receive my daily offers to get my free credit report, start eating healthier, help a scam in Nigeria or enlarge a certain part of my body! (Read More…)

It’s been 7½ years in the making, but last week the 8 Great Lakes states ratified an interstate Compact that will create unprecedented protections for the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River Basin. The eight States of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin will now send their Compact to Congress. (Read More…)

No small businessman knows better than a boat dealer how difficult it has been to provide health insurance for employees. The costs have been nearly unmanageable. But after living through many brutal premium increases in recent years, the tables appear to be turning and there may even be a price war at hand in the health insurance business. (Read More…)

Talk about time flying, it sure doesn’t seem like this Dealer Outlook blog should be marking it first anniversary today, but it is! (Read More…)

We’ve known for some time that failure to get Congress to pass the “Clean Boating Act of 2008” (S. 2766/H.R. 5949) by September 30 would result in a nightmare for boating. But, until now, we didn’t really know how disagreeable the prospect would be if all boaters faced unprecedented EPA and, probably, state permitting requirements for their incidental, overboard water discharges. Today we know and it’s ugly with a capital Ug! (Read More…)

Last July, my good friend Bing O’Meara (publisher of Lakeland Boating magazine) penned an editorial he called “A Simpler Time.” It’s a piece I just can’t forget, perhaps, because it contained some genuine truth about what we are still offering our boating customers every day we go to the dealership. (Read More…)

The presidential election is still four months away, but I’ve already heard more than I can take about poverty in America. Now, please don’t get me wrong – I know there are poor in our country and we should be sensitive to that. But if we continue to listen to the constant exaggerations by candidates, it will do a negative head trip on us! (Read More…)

The push by some manufacturers for dealers to carry only one brand of boats received a major setback recently. The announcement by Brunswick Corp. that it will stop producing 4 boat lines brings into sharp focus whether it’s in the best interest of dealers to embrace a one brand business model. (Read More…)

“Turn more corn into ethanol and we’ll solve our energy problems!” Sound familiar? That was such a politically popular “feel-good fantasy” we heard over the last couple of years. But the NMMA’s president, Thom Dammrich, correctly labeled this knee-jerk policy “the greatest scam in America” as he often referred to potential problems that ethanol has presented for our marine engines. (Read More…)