As a small business owner, one of the most important factors in managing your operations is small business stock control. But what does effective small business stock control look like and how do you achieve it?
What is small business stock control?
Stock control, or stock management (or inventory management) is the part of your supply chain management that aims to have the right products available in the right quantity at the right time. Effective small business stock control will reduce the cost of carrying excess inventory as well as maximise sales and profits. An all in one business management software solution that includes inventory management will help you to achieve this.
The benefits of inventory management software
Finding the right all in one business management software that integrates your stock operations with your POS and accounts, will enable you to:
- Reduce costs, optimise cash flow and increase your bottom line
- Track and measure your inventory in real time
- Help with sales forecasting
- Prevent product shortages and surpluses
- Allow for inventory analysis from any location and device
- Be accessible from your POS system
- Improve warehouse organisation and human resource management
- Enable multi-location management across stores and warehouses
Strategies for small business stock control
Once you have the right all in one business management software in place, there are some strategies you should incorporate into your operations that will ensure you have real control over your stock.
Forecasting – accurate forecasting is vital for effective small business stock control and your all in once business management software will give you the means to achieve this. You will be able to base your projected sales calculations on historical sales figures, year on year, taking into account seasonal demand, marketing trends, promotions and so on.
FIFO – stands for first in first out and is particularly important for businesses that deal in seasonal or perishable products such as food, flowers, or cosmetics. It’s also a good consideration for non-perishable goods because the longer stock sits in storage the more likely it is to get damaged.
Stock take – your annual stock take is still vital to ensure that you have the stock you think you have and that it’s all where you think it is. Stock take season is much easier with mobile barcode scanning.
Value – categorise your stock by value and make sure that you have particularly tight inventory controls on your high value stock.
Results
Efficient small business stock control (or inventory management) will save your business money in the long term by avoiding having excess stock that you can’t sell and then therefore your business makes a loss. It will also help you to make money because you will have less missed sales opportunities due to the unavailability of stock. We all know that if an item isn’t available and a customer wants it now, they will simply buy from a competitor and you wave goodbye to your sale.
FAQs
Are spreadsheets a good way to manage stock?
No. Spreadsheets need to be manually updated which means time is required for data entry, human error can occur and you won’t understand your stock in real time, the data is almost always “old”. Finally spreadsheets do not integrate with your POS or accounting functions.
Isn’t inventory management for big companies?
No. For small businesses it can be even more critical that stock control in efficient. Foresiight’s market leading all in one business management software ProfiitPlus is customised for the needs of Australian small businesses across a wide range of industries.
I’m expanding from one store to two, is now a good time to consider inventory tracking software?
Definitely. You’ll need to manage your stock across multiple sites and potentially multiple managers. Spreadsheets can’t do this. You need a system that manages your stock levels in real time to ensure that stock is always in the right place at the right time.
Further Information
Follow the link for further information on Foresiight’s market leading all in one business management software ProfiitPlus.
