Greetings!
A wise person once said “there’s always time for the things you put first”. Priorities matter and priorities show most clearly in what actually gets done. Here at the shop we put our client’s priorities first, and we think you recognize that in the service and advice you receive. On another note….Over and over, Congress has shown us their priorities in the most cynical and corrupt ways. Just this month they managed to gut a law barring Congressional insider trading in under a minute! TARP bailed out Congress’ friends and funders, but homeowners got the shaft. The sequester was an immutable law of nature until congress critters noticed the its effect on their air travel, and then magically found wiggle room for the FAA to shift funding. In the meantime, housing, education, food assistance, disaster relief; indeed, all the programs that matter in the lives of the middle class continue to languish…
The American people, on the other hand, seem to prioritize the American people. Some quick statistics- there are over 960,000 public charitable organizations and almost 98,000 private foundations in the country; non-profits account for 9.2% of all wages and salaries; public charities reported over $1.5 trillion in total revenues in 2010. This may restore your faith in human nature, but unscrupulous people are there to tear it down again. Many charities are lean, efficient, and fanatic about helping their respective causes, while others are little more than fronts for fraud. In one of our Feature articles this month will help you find which charities spend your money as you’d want it spent, and which ones you should avoid. Your generosity can make a real difference in people’s lives, but only if it gets to the people who matter.
While we’re talking about generosity I’d like to thank all our clients for the way you’ve supported our shop through the years! Your word-of-mouth recommendations of our shop to your friends and family account for more than half of the new clients we meet every month. If you can, though, I’d like to ask you to prioritize that support even more. For a long time, the other major source of new clients for us had been KPOJ. The loss of the station hurt Portland deeply on many levels but here at the shop it’s meant a huge decrease in new clients for us. The January-to-June period can be our slowest period, and without the steady flow of new clients this year it has been exceptionally difficult. Please, if you like what you’ve found at our shop, go out of your way to tell a friend. Write a review on Yelp or Angie’s List and share your experiences with us. Having a few more people become part of the Tom Dwyer Automotive Services family would certainly make things easier for us to maintain the high standards you’ve come to expect from us.
Rest assured, you and your vehicle will always be our first priority!
Take Care and Make a Great Day!
