Every time a new tariff is announced, companies start scrambling. Purchasing managers demand new quotations. Executives order their teams to find another country. Suppliers rush to explain why their prices are changing. Everyone reacts, but too few people stop long enough to develop an actual sourcing strategy. Tariffs matter. They affect PCB pricing, total landed […]
How The Cheapest Board Can Become the Most Expensive Board You Buy
There is an old saying that price is what you pay, while cost is what you live with. Nowhere is that more accurate than in the printed circuit board industry. Too many companies still purchase PCBs by placing three quotations side by side and automatically choosing the lowest number. On the surface, that looks like […]
AI Is Eating the Electronics Supply Cha
Artificial intelligence may live in the cloud, but there is nothing light or invisible about the infrastructure supporting it. Every AI model, data center, high-performance computer, and advanced server requires a staggering amount of physical hardware. That means printed circuit boards, advanced substrates, laminates, copper, components, connectors, power supplies, cooling systems, test equipment, manufacturing capacity, […]
20 Lessons in 20 Years — A Career in Common Sense
By Dan Beaulieu, for the 1000th edition of “It’s Only Common Sense” The Long Game of Weekly Truth-Telling One thousand columns. 20 years. The first edition of It’s Only Common Sense was published on September 5, 2005- Twenty years ago the first 10 columns were monthly. But then on July 31st, 2006, the column went […]
Avoid the Comfort Zone: The Dangers of Staying Stagnant in a Changing World
We all love the comfort zone—it’s safe, familiar, and predictable. But in business, staying too comfortable can be your biggest enemy. The world is constantly changing, and if you’re not adapting, you’re falling behind. The comfort zone may feel good, but it’s a dangerous place for any business leader. It’s only common sense: if you […]
Invest in Yourself: The Most Important Resource in Your Business is You
Most Saturdays I take the time to invest in myself. It’s kind of like a personal webinar day. I usually have a couple of books I’ve saved for the day. There are times when I go and watch some videos that are germane to the topics I am studying that day. I will take a […]
Why You Need to Learn to Say No
Why is it so hard to say “No”? I must admit that this is a problem I deal with all the time. I am a people pleaser, many of us, nay most of us are people pleasers, we like to say yes, we like to try to help people, especially when they are offering something […]
The Power of Consistency
Why Showing Up Every Day is Half the Battle Woody Allen said it best when he said that half of being successful in life is just showing up. It’s being there every day in that tortoise-beats-the-hare kind of way. Consistency is the secret sauce that sets successful companies apart from those that struggle. It’s not […]
Pay Your Bills!
When Will Big Companies Start Paying Their Bills on Time? Okay it’s about time that someone talks about this! Let’s address a truth that PCB and PCBA providers across America know all too well: there’s an alarming and frankly disturbing trend with our customers—especially the larger ones—not paying their bills on time. For the industry’s […]
More Great Business Ideas From Breaking Bad
Cruising around YouTube the other day I came across a ten- year reunion of the cast of Breaking Bad. What a great show! So I went and found it on one of the streaming channels and started rewatching it. Then it struck me that years ago I had done a column about business ideas from […]