Running your business involves a lot of moving parts. From making your product to marketing your brand, you are constantly on the go and there is no time for problems with controlling your inventory. Fortunately, managing your stock can be easily accomplished by putting into play some basic steps. Here are some tips on how to have better control over your inventory.
Contents
Invest in Great Software
The best thing you can do for your business is to invest in a great software system that includes inventory control aspects. For those in the jewelry industry, jewelry pos is one example of a great product that provides inventory management, as well as many other features that are client focused. Using quality software will enable you to keep track of your inventory both online and in person. You can store relevant information from month to month for tracking and planning purposes. Your software system will be your most useful assistant for storing numbers showing what, when and how much of your product is moving. This kind of useful, accurate data will help you keep your sales geared toward what your customers are buying.
Feature Monthly Overstock Sales
When you find yourself with too much of a product because of trends in your market, one way to easily control the excess inventory is to hold an overstock sale. This can be done every month so that you will not have extra products on hand for more than 30 days. Use your marketing tools to get the word out to your customers so they know this is a feature. You can put the sale in your newsletter, as part of an email chain or posted on social media. Engaging your regular forms of communication with your clients can be a great way to easily draw them into your website to shop for the featured overstock items of the month.
Have an Alternate Plan
Worst-case scenarios are a nightmare but should be planned for. It is a great idea to have the information about your inventory backed up so that if there is a malfunction, you have an alternate source of your stock numbers. This should be discussed with your software provider. It is not a bad idea to have this information on a thumb drive or other type of physical material, either. The last situation you want to be in is not knowing what you have available for your customers. You also don’t want to lose their information or history. Having an alternate plan for how to keep track of your inventory will give you peace of mind when disaster strikes.
Budget Time for Review
As an artist and as a business person, you know that time is a precious commodity. Just as precious is keeping track of what is and isn’t selling. Budget time for inventory review as part of your control system. This will give you the space in your schedule to focus on this aspect of your business so you will make decisions based on facts. Once you know what is selling, you know what to plan more of. You can also use this time to put together your featured overstock item of the month. Time for review needs to be budgeted into your calendar so that it is not overlooked or forgotten. Without the review information, you will not be able to make informed choices for production moving forward and you chance wasting money, time and resources on items that will not sell.
Making your product is the fun part of your business, and while controlling your inventory is not as exciting, it is necessary to keep your customers happy, supplied and engaged. Managing your inventory is also important for the financial success of your company, regardless of size or service. Investing is great software, offering sales and budgeting time for review are all ways you can keep your business moving forward.
