When I first began writing about the plumbing and heating industry in 1998, succession planning was an issue because many owners of contracting businesses weren’t looking ahead to retirement, especially those who owned smaller shops.

Whoa — is the end of this year really around the corner? Maybe, maybe not. As Winston Churchill once said: “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” I’m sure that explained everything very well.

Last summer, when we were roasting in that July heat wave, Ron Friedman, Ph.D, wrote a brilliant article for Psychology Today magazine. He titled it, “Want More Productive Workers? Adjust Your Thermostat.” This grabbed me by the lapels and gave me a good shake, of course.

When we reach this time of year, it seems that everyone is talking about resolutions and how the next 12 months can be the greatest year yet. Conversations tend to focus on budgets and goals; we revisit mission statements and the values that our companies represent.

As mentioned in previous columns, commercial building loans and their supporting activity are edging toward pre-recession levels. As of mid-year 2013, U.S. banks had issued just short of one trillion dollars in commercial real-estate loans, up almost 4% from a year earlier, according to official sources.

By now, you are probably tired of hearing about the new no-lead legislation. The days are counting down until Jan. 4, 2014, the effective date of the law.

I grew up in Cadillac, Mich. And no, it’s not near Detroit. My parents still live there, and I like to go back and visit — especially when the high-speed pace of Chicago gets to me.

One of the companies we represent was owned by Russ Geaslen. He changed the boiler industry as we know it by designing and patenting the primary/secondary piping of modular boilers in 1964 (Patent No. US3329343A). Russ was half genius and half mad scientist. Unfortunately, he passed on to the big boiler room in the sky in 1996. I still miss him.

It’s no secret I want to kill social media. I consider 72.3% of it a cocktail party with no end and even less point. Yet the remaining percentage has some viability for business. The more we experiment, the more we throw out the useless, the more I see a twinkle of marketing light at the end of the tunnel.