With the credit squeeze and recession, the business environment has been volatile for business owners. As a result, it's been extremely difficult to manage inventory. Obviously, this is a dangerous thing -- given the costs of inventory (such as storage, financing, insurance, and so on).
The good news is that there are ways to deal with the volatility. So let's take a look.
Supplier Negotiations: Go back to your suppliers and see if you can negotiate better terms; that is, a longer time to make payments, or even see if you can work on consignment.
Leverage Technology: No longer is inventory management technology just for large companies like Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and Dell (NASDAQ: DELL). In fact, there are a variety of top-notch small business solutions.
Look at Phitch. To make things easy, you can import data from your QuickBooks account. From there, you'll get recommends and reports on how much to order and how much to keep. You can also compare the qualifications of suppliers, looking at things like pricing and volume discounts. And, if you're running low on supplies, there are alerts.
However, a key to Phitch is that it uses a sophisticated formula to derive the real economic profit of your decisions.
Outsourcing: Building a warehouse is usually a waste of time and money. After all, in a volatile economic environment, it's probably better to have a flexible arrangement.
How? Well, try outsourcing. And, one of the top operators is Shipwire.com.
The company has a global network of Class A facilities (3 million square feet). Thus, you ship quantities of supplies to these facilities and Shipwire handles the storage, management, fulfillment ,and return services. In fact, the company handles real-time shipping optimization, which can be a cost saver.
Moreover, the system integrates with many online shopping carts and payment systems like PayPal (you can check out a recent piece I did on the topic). In other words, Shipwire handles many details behind the scenes.
"With services like Shipwire," said Damon Schechter, who is the CEO of Shipwire.com, "a small business can get Fortune 500-like supply chains. The costs are also affordable."
For example, minimum for 16-cubic-feet is $30 per month.
Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-04-2009 @ 10:18AM
Dwight said...
This is dumb a 16 square foot area for $30.00 per month. Do relize that works out to 22.5 dollars a square foot. For storage. Wow I need to rent my buildings out to that company I would be making 13-14 K per month and I could make up all my losses in the stock market and refinance my entire compnay pay off all my property in 3 years
5-04-2009 @ 1:11PM
Russ said...
Proof read.
This article is clearly an advertisement. Not relevent to the small business owner, and big business already has these type of systems in place.
5-04-2009 @ 2:51PM
Kate said...
I agree, this is an advertising article. We ship nationwide daily and it's cheaper to operate out of your own business, verses renting space at shipwire.com. Plus you have hands on control of your product.
5-04-2009 @ 3:27PM
John said...
I agree with the comments that big businesses have had these systems but I disagree that this article is an advertisement or not suited for small business. To me it boils down to in-house capability or experience.
Shipwire seems like a nice way for small business to implement a regional/national/or global supply chain distribution strategy. While it may be cheaper to do out of your own facility, one has to consider skillsets, delivery times, drain on their limited resources, etc....
Phitch also seems like a nice way to optimize inventory as it works with QuickBooks - the most popular software platform for small business.
To me author is writing about how small business can have big company capability at small business prices.
5-05-2009 @ 1:24PM
Jason Switzer said...
This is a must watch for any Affiliate out there working online today.
Here is a quick video on the company being touted as the Worlds Largest Affiliate Program.
http://www.motionbox.com/videos/3097d4b21a1fe8cbbe
To get more details on how to get involved is an Affiliate ot just to shop on the site.
Contact Jason Switzer
619 631 4277
jsfinancialgroup@gmail.com
You can register for free to check out the site at:
http://www.onlineshoppingcommunity.com
“The Dubli business model is going to change the dynamic of the buying public forever.”
5-06-2009 @ 8:48PM
shipwire said...
Thank you for your comments.
Our plans include a LOT more than just square footage. They include handling, packaging, storage, etc. Our pricing is online at http://www.shipwire.com/pricing.
Nate
http://www.shipwire.com
P.S. Thank you Tom for taking the time to write this article.
5-07-2009 @ 6:46PM
JK said...
INVENTORY IS A KILLER ESPECIALLY IN TODAY'S ECONOMY. I RECENTLY STARTED MY OWN BUSINESS WORKING FROM HOME WHICH REQUIRES NO INVENTORY. IN FACT, I DON'T DO ANY SELLING EITHER. ONE THING I DO TAKE PART IN? EARNING A WONDERFUL INCOME. YOU CAN TOO. I WOULD LOVE TO HELP YOU. CUT AND PASTE ENTIRE LINK BELOW. http://www.MeyeVision.info?site=ColumnsCustom