Eleven years ago, a prominent marketing executive asked me where I thought my company would be in the year 2000.

Not having my crystal ball (or computer) installed at the time, I shrugged my shoulders and gave her the best professional blank-stare I could muster. She could smell the wood burning inside my brain and knew that she had finally stumped me. Even if I had given her some slick sales and marketing mumbo-jumbo, we both knew that the ultimate loaded question always leads to internal head scratching. Where was my company going, and how the heck were my partner and I going to get there?

I'm happy to report that by taking some of the most unusual roads and least traveled paths, Target Coatings has survived just over 10 years of existence. When Joe Rowan and I started Target, all we knew was that we wanted to manufacture the best waterborne coatings technically available and sell them to the best clients possible. By doing so, we have grown into one of the nations best houses for the research and development of waterborne finishes. Many of our customers feel that our coatings supercede all other waterborne finishes in aesthetics and performance.

Now, with the flick of a switch and a few minor keystrokes, we are embarking on another less traveled path- B2B commerce. By doing so we hope to offer not just our own brands, but also a complete line of finishing materials, tools and equipment that will make the waterborne finishing experience a consistent, successful and profitable operation. Over the next few months you will see our new web-site grow into an electronic organism that will function as a unique source for knowledge, fact-finding and commerce. We invite all of you to participate in sharing your expertise in making the young science of waterborne finishing a success. We invite your knowledge and we invite your commerce.

So here we go. If you could only see the look on my face and smell that wood burning as I write this I think you would understand...

Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,

Jeff Weiss
Director