Are you lucky? Many people look for luck. Millions buy lottery tickets. Many others roll the dice or gamble in other ways. Are you looking for luck in your business?

Some people believe in looking for luck. There are dozens of rituals peope do to get lucky. Otehr people look for opportunities. They say that luck is when their preparedness meets an opportunity.

We recommend getting prepared. One way to do that is to look at the trends that can be seen in this year Some trends are:

Rising prices: The American Dollar has fallend a lot against other currencies. That will cause prices to rise here while making our goods cheaper overseas.

Interest Rates will move. We have the lowest interest rates that we have had in 40 years. That can not continue forever. It makes sense to lock in these rates for as long as possible (or pay off debt).

Equipment will change. Here in the terminal business, the internet based terminal is the hottest item available. Why? Because it moves the cost of the connection from the service provider to the

merchant. That can mean big savings to the service provider. At the same time, people will still be able to make money by using old equipment in new ways.

Management and software tool costs will rise. Sure, people have moved development to India, then China, and now other parts of the world. But that offshoring does not move the most expensive part of getting software: trying to figure out what actually is needed and making all parts of the solution work together.

Cost cutting will continue. Life is always a tension between spending on the possibilities and cutting costs. We have not seen the last of the effects of the Internet Boom. The Internet will continue to affect our businesses. For example, Voice Over IP is moving from the large companies down to the small ones. Internet conferencing and logistics management are still moving through our economy. The Internet has made the world an open market far faster than any treaty could and opened us up to competition from around the world.

2004 will be a year of many challenges. We can be your partner to manage the challenges. We hope that you will enjoy this year

Dave Randolph,
President, Prairie Trail Software
1-800-618-4199

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