Having your own business is a good thing, and may even be the start of a more prosperous undertaking that will provide you with the success that everyone dreams of having. Businesses start small, like baking cakes and cupcakes from your own kitchen, eventually having to buy a
When you first started your business, you could possibly track every purchase, every order, every sale and when to order another batch of materials. But as your business will grow, you will have difficulty catching up with all the details of your inventory and your time and energy would be depleted in this area rather than focusing on how to grow your business.
Thus, even with a small business, it is important that you have an inventory management software in place that will also grow with your business.
Taking stock of your inventory and accounting it manually can work with a small business but not when it becomes bigger and you try to expand your business like develop new products or open new selling methods such as the online platform.
Manually accounting for your inventory is a definite headache, it is prone to errors and you spend so much time checking and rechecking since you have to manually check every order, every purchase, and every existing stock. Even if you use software like Excel and other data entry management program, you still have to do it manually, and this is still not error-free.
On the other hand, having a wms software can take the guesswork out of managing the day to day operations of your business and be able to spend time in developing products or markets.
But before you could do that, you should be able to ensure that your inventory is right where it is and can readily accommodate the demands of the business. Some businesses shy away from investing in inventory management software as it is expensive and would probably need an upgrade of your computers and other hardware, but the investment is worth every cent once you discover how much it can do for your business. For some businesses, like rentals, it’s a must-have. There are tailor-made solutions for rental company software, as well as other niche-specific products that help you run your business much easier.”
Imagine being able to check a product or raw material and with just a scan of its barcodes or QR code and you would be able to know when it was purchased, it’s batch number, how many of it is left in your inventory and even sends an alert as to when it should be reordered.
All of this information cannot be collected automatically by a spreadsheet, and there is not a person who could painstakingly just enter the information in your spreadsheet all the time. But despite the initial apprehension, many businesses are realizing that well-designed inventory management can push their business into the next level.
Moreover, most inventory management software is now designed to coordinate and communicate with other systems in your business like your accounting software, your business performance software and other reporting and data analytics software.
With this integration of systems, you will be able to keep track of all the things that are happening in your business, from inventory to sales even when you are out convincing an investor to put money in your business, and you could present to them real-time data in your phones or tablets. Also, this would enable you to plan for and delegate resources on products that are of high demand and to not lose resources on those that are not moving fast enough.
The inventory of any business is actually where the capital of the business owner is tied to, and if there is mismanagement of the inventory, then the business might be unknowingly using up resources that could have been spent on the more profitable products of the business.
It is a reality that businesses need to strategize and diversify its resources to be able to realize profits and to keep the business growing. However, when you do not have accurate data on your inventory and the specifics of your sales, then it could also spell disaster for the business.
For example, your cupcake business sells more chocolate cupcakes compared to the other variants, hence it would make sense to stock up on chocolate products as this is used more often and actually realizes more profit than the other products.
If for example, you do not have accurate data on the use of your chocolate products, then you might run out of stocks and this would also mean an unnecessary loss of profits because instead of being able to sell chocolate cupcakes, you have to order and wait for the delivery from your supplier. We know that even a day without any sales would be disastrous for the company.
Accurate data can only be had with the use of an inventory management software, and with the different inventory software out there, it is also quite puzzling which one would be best for your business. In choosing the right inventory management software, the most important thing to consider is actually its size and the ease at which it could be used and integrated into your existing business.
There are software that can run in your phones and tablets and coordinate with your own network or systems. It is easy to use with only a number of tutorials and must have a very good and responsive customer service that would assist you in integrating the management software to your business.
Moreover, you should choose a program that is specialized to keep track of various products rather than having just one general program, like a portal for managing stocks, managing sales, and managing orders.
At the same time, the program should have an excellent system for tagging and organizing inventory, and it should work with your existing system. If you want to grow your business a bit easier and speedily then get an inventory management software that will work for your needs