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REM
THE
J1UJIC TIRADE
V O L . LVII. N o . 5 Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman BUI at 373 Fourth Ave., New York, Aug. 2,1913
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The Trade Goal—Net Profits.
I
T is always easier to locate problems than to work out direct answers to them. If the problem
of selling could be eliminated from business we would be approaching reasonably near the
millennium. But We cannot solve our problems by ignoring them—by simply passing them
by, leaving them rest until next week or next month. We must face them sometime, and the
sooner the better; nor can all of us working alone solve the big, common problems of any industry.
It is largely by discussion and exchange of views, of experience and by co-operation along
broad lines that we can make progress most rapidly.
The problems of this particular industry are not larger or smaller than those which affect other
industries, for the problem of selling is one which always confronts the manufacturer and merchant
in every line.
Now, selling is a very elastic term.
It is easy to sell, but to sell at a profit—that is another matter!
Real selling means a disposal of goods at a profit.
It is easy to give goods away—it requires no intelligence to do that—but selling factory prod-
ucts at a profit is a job for good salesmen and good business men.
It is the net profits which count.
It is very pleasant to say that a man is building up a great volume of business, but the final
test, after all, is in the net profit. That is the prime object for which we are all engaged in busi-
ness enterprises.
In the piano industry the dealer's problems are the manufacturer's problems, because if a dealer
is not doing the business so that he is making a net profit he does not become a profitable outlet for
the manufacturer. Hence it is of the greatest importance to the manufacturing end to aid the retail
department in disposing of their products at a profit.
Manufacturers can unquestionably aid the fundamental strength of the industry by encourag-
ing correct business methods—by discountenancing those plans which savor of business instability
and the utter disregard of the net profit end of the game.
The manufacturer is naturally anxious to have a good dealer represent him.
Now, a good dealer cannot remain a good dealer long unless he can make money—unless his
business will show a net profit.
Either he will get out of the business, or he will drift along for a time, only to fail utterly in
the end.
There is where the manufacturer's influence comes in—to impress upon the dealer's mind the
fact that he is in business to make money, and that he should conduct his enterprise with an eye
always to the net profit.
Methods which tend to throw an atmosphere of insincerity and doubt upon business dealings
reflect upon an industry, and they should be eliminated.
There are to-day a good many men who are fooling themselves with the idea that they are
doing business on profitable lines because the volume of trade is large, and they are not worrying
whether they are making money or not. In fact, they are not scanning the net profit situation as
closely as they should.
The trade-in problem js a big one for the industry, and with the advent of the player-piano
(Continued on page $.)