days. While the US, United Kingdom and Dubai have suffered with much fewer housing starts and the Ukraine and Russia have stopped financing, he believes the demise of some companies will be good for the industry.

“As in every crisis, there is also a ‘clean-up’. Weaker companies disappear; it is survival of the fittest.”

For the record, he estimates Studor’s second half of 2009 will be better than the already satisfactory first half and the first half of 2010 will again be better than the second half of 2009.

Ballanco is also being creative with the way he is running his business, and is concentrating on his strengths.

“A few months ago, I attended a seminar given to business owners on surviving the recession. The presenter made some very valid points. One of his main suggestions was for every business to concentrate on their strengths. This made such perfect sense that I immediately put that into practice.

“As with any business, in good times we tend to take on all the work that is available. Some of the work would be classified as commodity type of work. In other words, any firm or company could do the work, and the profit margin is minimal. But, nevertheless, there is a profit.

“By concentrating on our strengths, we are doing what very few other firms can do. These are areas where we specialize. Typically, the profit margin is also higher for this type of work.

“It was also suggested by the presenter to not lower our fees or cost, but to charge the proper rate for our strengths. Again this makes perfect sense for running a business. Work in an area of your strength and charge what is proper. Don’t cut your fees.

“Since applying this strategy, we have seen an upturn in our business. The phones are also ringing for this type of work. Within the past two months, there has been a significant increase in the income to the firm.”

Ballanco believes that undercutting on costs will spell further disaster for the industry. While it is easy to cut costs to get work, the long term ramifications could be catastrophic because businesses cannot survive on consistent losses.

“It is unfortunate that some developers and owners see an opportunity to get something for nothing,” Ballanco says.

“We must make sure that we never give away what we do. We need to continue to charge the proper rate for our work. Profit is not a dirty word. It is what keeps a business in business. The plumbing community must stand together in demanding adequate profit for the work we do.”

Like Arnold, Ballanco believes the US is one of the worst hit markets, particularly the residential market which was over built.

Questionable loans to people with poor credit history and loans which have been defaulted on, means that many residential units have gone unsold and therefore even less residential construction is being rubber stamped.

“It is anticipated that it will take at least another two years, possibly three, before the residential market completely turns around in the US. This has hurt the design side, contractor side and manufacturing side of the plumbing profession,” Ballanco says.

There is an upside, with an upswing in health care and education buildings.

“Even in a global financial crisis, people need proper health care. The younger generation still needs a quality education,” Ballanco says.

“Hence, these areas tend to not be as impacted by a recession. Another market that has seen an upswing has been the energy industry. Oil refineries are currently under construction. Other energy markets are also doing well.”

However, Ballanco believes the news is grim for the US construction industry for at least the next 12 months.

“It would appear that in the United States the recession is coming to an end. It appears that the end of the recession will occur by the end of the last quarter of this year.