So we've had to have a big clean out.
Being a small business we are constantly watching sales and trying to target new market and retain our existing clientele. We watch our staff costs and look closely at what is selling and watch what we spend. We need to monitor our budgets and meet costs, to make sure we can maintain a good business.
One of the things we have realised we have let slip, through this process, is how much stock we have held on to. It has been amazing seeing the type of stock that is still around. We found stock which was: discontinued, returned, faulty, old, no longer required etc etc. As the items have been stored one by one they seem small and unimportant, however when you mass their total, it is quite a substantial amount of money and a lot of time to sort through everything.
We are not relaying blame to staff even though we were unaware a lot of the stock had been "put away", we as business owners should have kept track. At the end of the day staff don't outlay any money towards stock, so their interest in the value will normally not be comparable to yours.
Now we are in clearance mode and trying to salvage and on-sell what we can, discount other products and unfortunately dispose of some too. This is a frustrating task that shouldn't have to happen, however it does.
So my big tip to myself and to other small businesses (possibly big businesses too) would be to occasionally take note of your stock piles. Even though you have staff to do this and stocktake gets done every year, go and see what is laying about YOURSELF and see if you can reduce the amount of old, unwanted, discontinued or damaged stock is on-hand, and try and minimize the damage.
