Friday, June 14, 2019

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.

Friday, June 7, 2019

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.