Month: October 2020

In the 4th Quarter 2019 issue of Welding & Gases Today, we debuted a new feature called “Search Engine Trends for the Gases & Welding Industry.” This feature is designed to help readers understand the terms and searches that are ranking highly in Google Trends. Part of developing a comprehensive digital marketing campaign is understanding how customers and potential customers are using the Internet to find your products and your website. The graphs and information below all come from Google Trends, which analyzes the popularity of search queries in Google Search across various regions and languages. The graphs scale “Interest…

by Mike Marks and Dan Horan,  Indian River Consulting Group As practices continue to shift, there are two trends distributors should be paying close attention to in today’s market. One is understanding the role of technology, and the other is attracting and retaining talent. Attracting and Keeping Talent Recruiting qualified talent is no easy task. There is always a generational tension between the way “things used to be” and “how it is today.” The tensions between mature leaders and young professionals remain the same. Distributors must revisit their recruitment strategies to reflect these different perspectives. Training and education opportunities must…

The federal government has updated its extensions of a number of COVID-related waivers.  Many of these affect GAWDA member companies and their commercial motor vehicle drivers. Emergency Declaration. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has further extended its emergency declaration through December 31, 2020; this exempts drivers and carriers from the hours of service regulations and all of 49 CFR Parts 390-399 when transporting certain emergency relief products in response to COVID-19 crisis.  The exemption applies to transporting: medical supplies and equipment related to the testing, diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19; supplies and equipment necessary for community safety, sanitation, and…

The other day, I unpacked a box from storage and came across four old iPhones. I replaced them because the batteries stopped holding a charge, they started running slow, and because I really wanted a better camera and larger screen size. The decision to upgrade my phone was relatively easy; but what about the decision to replace a website? Below are six reasons why you should replace your website. 1. It’s over three years old. As a general rule, a website should be replaced every three years. In that time, the technology available to give your customers and prospects a…

There is a school of thought that COVID-19 has not so much created new business trends and norms, as much as accelerated trends that were already coming. One of those trends is the importance of having a comprehensive digital strategy. With state and local governments across the country shutting down businesses and unnecessary travel, it became paramount for customers to be able to find distributors and buy goods and services online. While not universal, a very common theme among companies who were forced to shut their doors for good was that they did not have a strong and strategic plan…

By Steve Guglielmo, John Ospina, Abydee Butler Moore, Bob Ewing, Gary Halter and Robert Anders We have spent 2020 celebrating GAWDA’s 75th Anniversary. We have shared fun memories, reflected on GAWDA’s founding, its road to independence and everything in between. But 75 years is not the end of GAWDA’s story. Not by a long shot. As we near the end of 2020, we asked GAWDA’s current President Abydee Butler Moore, Executive Director John Ospina, and the next three presidents in line, to answer some questions about GAWDA’s history and what they expect to see as we continue our march forward.…

Oxygen Service Company was founded in 1959 as Wagner Welding. The company was founded by a group of owners including Bill Lund and Bill Huber. In 1965, the ownership group decided to go their separate ways with Lund and Huber taking full ownership of the company and rebranding it as Oxygen Service Company. More than 60 years later, the foundational tenets that Lund and Huber put in place still carry through today. “I think the philosophy that our original owners had has carried through the 60 years of being in business,” says Ryan Diekow, President and CEO of Oxygen Service…

Knowledge management and succession planning are both vital to the continued growth and success of our industry. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than one-third of the U.S. science and engineering labor force will turn over in the next 10 years. Coupled with economic growth, that retirement rate is projected to create more than 511,000 job openings in science and engineering fields. While the gases industry represents a small portion of the national figure, those statistics hold true for Compressed Gas Association (CGA) committee participants, as well as our industry at large. As Hector Villarreal, President…

COVID-19 has impacted all of our businesses in some way, shape or form. What lasting impacts will this experience have on our industry and the regulatory agencies that oversee it? By Steve Guglielmo, Tom Badstubner, Marilyn Dempsey, Michael Dodd and Rick Schweitzer As we enter the Fall, it seems like we have lived with COVID-19 for several decades, not six months. We have moved on from this being a novel threat to dealing with the reality of this being a part of our day-to-day lives. As we experience this “New Normal” and continue to work toward getting back to where…

Weldstar Company, headquartered in Aurora, IL, is announcing their newest store in Kenosha, WI. Weldstar Company 5416 46th Street Kenosha, WI 53144 Phone: 262-771-1177 Fax: 262-771-1178