Now, more than ever, you need to have your finger on the pulse of your business. You need to know not only how you’re doing, but how you compare to those in your industry.

Tribute and  TrulinX software help you determine the state of your business with a wide variety of tools and reports to give you the up-to-date information you need. But how can you rate yourself against the competition?

Our industry is doing better with significant growth in the past couple of years. According to the 2012 FPDA Profit Report, the typical fluid power distributor showed an increase in Profit Margin (pre-tax) from 3.9% in 2010 to 4.9% in 2011 and an increase in the Return on Assets (pre-tax) from 10.9% in 2010 to 14.2% in 2011.

Typical FPDA distributors also showed a gain on Return on Net Worth (pre-tax) from 17.4% in 2010 to 19.9% in 2011 and Average A/R Collection Days fell from 51.5 in 2010 to 46.8 in 2011.

The Profit Planning Group  prepares the annual FPDA Profit Report for The FPDA Motion & Control Network. Some of the Critical Profit Variables include: Sales per Employee, Gross Margin Percentage, Operating Expense Percentage, Inventory Turnover and Average Collection Period.

Results are categorized by a typical distributor and a high profit distributor. Results are also grouped by lines of business, regions of the country, and a five year trend analysis is supplied. The appendix details the methodology used and is a great resource for determining vital business statistics.

If you’re in the hose and accessories market, you can purchase the 2011 NAHAD Industry Performance  Report through NAHAD (the National Association of Hose and Accessories Distributors) prepared by the Profit Planning Group. The report provides comprehensive guidelines for analyzing profitability based on income statements, balance sheets and operating data from participating firms.

The price is significantly cheaper if you’re a member of NAHAD and the information provided is well worth the price. NAHAD also provides Employee Compensation reports, with member-wide and cross-industry data.

The Measurement Control and Automation Association (MCAA) provides a 2012 Industry Market Forecast and an Operating Benchmark Report free for all participating members of the organization. The Operating Benchmark report is a unique source of operational benchmarks for providers of process controls, measurement and analysis instrumentation, factory automation systems and software.

The Power Transmission Distributor's Association (PTDA) publishes the PTDA Annual Report, which provides a concise summary of industry trends and yearly association accomplishments and their PT Distributor Performance Report offers insight into key operational, financial and productivity ratios for typical and high-profit distribution firms.

How are you doing in comparison to your peers? Now is the time to analyze your business and compare it to similar organizations in your marketplace to determine the steps needed to make it more competitive and profitable.