After graduating high school more than four decades ago, I went to work in a factory for a little over a year. Despite the passage of so much time, one co-worker remains etched in memory as a grotesque reminder that the good old days weren’t all they’re cracked up to be.

What should a person do when his files are bulging to the breaking point, and he’s too harried to organize his thoughts? I think the thing to do is dispose with narrative and compose a lazy man’s article like this one. Here are some business tips I’ve collected over the years. Some no doubt apply to your business.

If our economy had been growing at a rate of 20 percent a year for the last decade or so, most of us would be luxuriating in hog heaven right now. That’s apparently where a lot of heavy equipment thieves reside, because that’s been the growth rate for heavy equipment thefts since 1996, according to the Insurance Services Office.

Here is your government’s attempt to help people in need of assistance, which includes just about everyone except small business owners who provide the bulk of American jobs.

Here are some specific strategies to help you hold the line on what you need to charge in order to prosper.

Nobody’s perfect, but competent contracting companies make relatively few mistakes when it comes to working with the tools of their trade. What’s more likely to go are communication breakdowns that lead to problems in the field.

Your business is not an easy one to master. It requires technical know-how and capital investment, and competition swarms like stinging bees. But anyone has the ability to instill good customer manners.

Angie’s List is an Internet-based ratings and referrals organization that collects customer satisfaction ratings on companies in scores of home service categories, everything from plumbing to pet sitting to piano tuning.

Periodically I get calls from market researchers asking for industry statistics or for me to explain our industry’s lay of the land. One of them recently asked the question, “What are contractors like?” My initial response was to ask a question in return: “Which type of contractor?” Then I explained that the industry harbors different kind of work specialists, each with different characteristics and concerns.

In the ensuing 17 years, no other issue has pressed so hard upon contractors as the tight market for skilled labor.