Sales gains outweighed the losses for those who responded to our survey this year, but the profit improvements didn’t fare as well.

More than a quarter (35%) of those surveyed anticipated a 1-9% increase in gross sales this year compared with last year. Some 17% predict no change in sales, while almost 16% expect gross sales to be 10-19% higher this year.

Almost 66% expect sales to improve in 2019 versus this year.

It was disappointing to learn that 30% of responders did not see a change in profits this year over last year, but more than a quarter saw an increase of 1-9%. Unfortunately, almost 16% experienced a decrease in profits ranging from 1-9%.

Make sure you’re tracking all of your costs so you can adjust your prices accordingly and watch those profits go up. (See pricing charts on pages 24-25.)

However, almost 48% of those surveyed had a profit margin in the double digits.