The POP! of a Light Bulb

The POP! of a Light Bulb

I've been asked so many times the last few months of setting up my business, "What was your biggest hurdle in setting up your business?"

Like most small businesses, everything starts from an idea and as most small business owners know, implementing that idea to form a tangible product is less than fluid. However, it's not the paperwork, the arduous task of setting up a personal brand through social media, or even the never-ending battle to find clients. I was very fortunate to start a business that has low overhead costs. My mentor whom I work with now was extremely kind to introduce me to some of the best clients I could ask for. It wasn't the process that was hard, it was getting over my fear of the unknown. Every time I came across something new that I never heard of or knew existed, I hesitated. "Do I really need to do that!?" Every step in the process of starting my business was like this, I was faltering. I hadn't faced a challenge like this in over a decade, a task that subjugated me to think on my toes and act fast every waking second.

The countless hours staying awake to figure out a process, the countless cups of coffee to keep my attention sharp. 

But through all these endeavors, I found something new about myself; I enjoyed it. It's said that an entrepreneur quits their 40 hours per week job to work 80 hours per week. They weren't kidding… Yet here I am at 3am, sleepless yet again, to add more personality to my business and unveil more of who I am. How can someone sane put themselves through this? Needless to say, my love of my new business is an obsession to make perfection, a calling to make every facet polished makes it worth it. My biggest hurdle wasn't starting my business, it was learning more about myself.

Counting on Your Shrink

What comes to mind when you hear the work shrink? Do you vision a psychologist or an object becoming smaller?

To most business owners with inventory, the term shrink may want them to see a shrink. The actual definition of shrink is a loss of product outside the normal sales cycles shown as a numerical difference from point of sales software tracking and physical inventory counts. This could be a person with sticky fingers, an employee not properly trained, or even perishables beyond their expiration.

From multiple articles online on the topic, you will see the national averages of what business studies have found in regards to shrink types. The highest percentage factor of shrink came from employee theft between 35-45% while a very consistent 36% was from shoplifting. Of course, there are other factors to look into.

As I grew my experience as an Inventory manager, there was something that stuck out to me. Most cases of shrink were not from theft but from poorly managed inventory. In most cases, the reason something was missing was from not training the employees on situations where they were not able to find an identification number (UPC, EAN, Part number, etc.) of a product and made a foolish assumption or guess in the point of sale system. The other side of this was how employees were aware of their surroundings. Most people are trusting and wouldn't give a second thought to most of their customers, however, a shoplifter can easily be thwarted by a friendly and attentive employee checking in continuously and monitoring the sales floor.

As you begin your analysis of your inventory counts, keep in mind what the affected items are and focus on those areas. The biggest asset in shrink prevention is properly training your employees (or even yourself). If you have any questions in regards to your shrink, or inventory as a whole, shoot me an email at jonathan@jpvirtualconsulting.com or give me a ring at (480) 630-5885.

Below are some great articles to read and learn more about what you can do and how to take action. This way you won't have to see that shrink.

https://www.rgis.com/tips-insights/how-to-reduce-shrinkage-in-retail

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2019/01/31/inventory-shrink-cost-the-us-retail-industry-46-8-billion/#6ca13ee76b70

Inventory: Asset or Liability

Have you ever asked the question, "Is my inventory an asset or liability?"

Inventory technically is an asset to answer your question. Because you paid for the said inventory, there is value to it for your business and this constitutes it as an asset. Even the small office items and knickknacks not getting sold can be considered inventory depending on how you run your business. However, depending on the situation of your inventory, it can feel like a liability. Having too much or having a high attrition rate can devalue your inventory as an asset. With that said, you can mitigate attrition with a regular cycle-counts of your product and completing a complete store inventory every six months to a year. This will balance and give you a more enriching knowledge base of your inventory. Tune in next week to learn more about inventory attrition and how to mitigate it.

We at JP Virtual Consulting can help you get on the right track by helping you with setting up an effective inventory plan and execution of cycle-counts. Check out our inventory services here: https://jpvirtualconsulting.com/inventory

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to send us an email at jonathan@jpvirtualconsulting.com

What are You Counting On?

Hello everyone!

Thank you for joining me in Free Content Friday! The next few weeks we will dive into the inventory operations of a small business. To save you time, each of these articles will be short and sweet. If you have any questions beyond the article itself, please shoot me an email at jonathan@jpvirtualconsulting.com or give me a ring at (480) 630-5885.

I hope you enjoy the article and those to come.

Sincerely,

Jonathan

Owner
JP Virtual Consulting

When was the last time you did a full inventory of your product?

Inventory is a dynamic metric of every retailer or product specialist. Small business owners with a product are heavily impacted by the cost, quantity, and shrink. How do you keep it straight? Do you rely on your point of sale system, a third party, or have you made a system or process yourself? However you do it, having a very thorough knowledge base of your inventory can make or break your small business.

As some of you know, inventory is one of my favorite operations of a business. Here you can see and learn so much beyond the basics of the business your in. You get insight into others' thought processes, how they see the industry and the ingenuity behind each product. It's a fresh take on the daily thoughts we typically have as business owners. However, without proper management, inventory can also have a painful bite at the end of the month if your counts don’t match your inventory's database. Inventory reconciliation can be a time suck, but it is worth taking the time to ensure an accurate count. There are many great resources out there to help you begin your journey in managing your product. There are people out there (like myself) who love doing these tasks and CAN SAVE YOU THE TIME so you can focus on profitable business actions or maybe on more free time? Wouldn't that be nice?

We at JP Virtual Consulting have an extensive and very successful background in helping businesses. Visit https://jpvirtualconsulting.com/inventory to see what we can do for you and your small business.

However you decide to take on your inventory, here are a few questions to ask yourself:

1. Where do I start with reconciling my inventory?
2. Does my point of sale system do an inventory analysis?
3. What is the value of my business's product as a whole?
4. How much of my product is aging past six months?
5. How much of my product becomes shrink?

If you have any questions on these topics or need assistance in completing your inventory's reconciliation, please send me an email at jonathan@jpvirtualconsulting.com or give Jonathan a call at (480) 630-5885.

Welcome!

Hi There!


Thank you for taking the time to visit my new blog. Here shortly, I will be posting weekly blogs every Friday on topics that bring new insights, practises, and strategies for the sole proprietor or single owner LLC business. Feel free to visit my website and social media pages attached below. Send any inquiries to the email attached. Thank you and have an awesome day!

Best Regards,

Jonathan

Owner
JP Virtual Consulting
jonathan@jpvirtualconsulting.com
jpvirtualconsulting.com

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