As a small business owner, if you work with products, then you already know the importance of inventory. Inventory is everything. Inventory is so important because if you don’t have something the customer is looking for, the chances of making that sale go down really low. This can be a big problem for a lot of small business owners who can’t hold a lot of their own stock and have to order more of it consistently just to keep up.
Backorders can also be a real problem and small business owners might not have enough staff to keep up with the demands coming in. While this is admittedly a good problem to have, as business owners should always strive toward selling everything they have in the store, there are a few ways to prevent this type of halt in business from getting out of hand.
Get a Warehouse
Now, you might feel like a warehouse is an unnecessary step at this point. After all, you have to rent the warehouse and keep it stocked. However, if you consider the benefits, you might see why it’s actually a worthwhile element for your business to invest in. For instance, suppose one of your customers needs a certain product from you but you are sold out of that product. If you have a warehouse full of extra stock, you can have someone constantly restock your shelves as you slowly run out of products.
Organising Your Warehouse with Pallets
You can even organise your warehouse based on item popularity and plan to have more of the popular products than the less-popular ones so that you’re not wasting space. Now, one of the best ways to organise your warehouse is to use pallets. As your business gradually expands and you find yourself selling internationally, you can send pallets to France or anywhere else in the world. Pallets are very useful because they can allow you to ship out your products in bulk, which makes the entire shipping process easier, more cost effective, and more profitable.
One important thing to remember is that loading and unloading takes time in the warehouse. You can choose to do it yourself or you can hire a few people to do it for you. But you need to make sure you have room for incoming stock without risking blocking off outgoing stock. This means you need to make sure your warehouse manager is being careful with where his or her team places the pallets for shipping. If some pallets are going to your store, they can be in one area. If some pallets are going overseas, they can be stored in another area. This process can continue until you develop a system that works best for you and your business.
One risk of getting a warehouse is that you need to make sure to be doing enough business for it to be worth the investment. As you continue to grow your business, always be checking to make sure you’ll be ready to get a warehouse when the time comes, because when you start doing more business you’ll definitely need it.
