
Inventory Management 101: How to Manage Small Business Inventory
It’s important to evaluate your business on a regular basis to ensure that you’re on track to succeed. One of the most integral part of your business is inventory management.
How has your small business’s inventory management panned out? Have you had the right products available when you needed them? Did you lose out on business when items were out of stock? Or did you lose money due to excess stock?
In this article we discuss basic inventory management techniques, explain what to look for in good inventory management software, and go over some best practices for managing inventory.
What is inventory management?
Inventory management is the part of supply chain management that aims to always have the right products in the right quantity for sale, at the right time. When done effectively, businesses reduce the costs of carrying excess inventory while maximizing sales. Good inventory management can help you track your inventory in real time to streamline this process.
By effectively managing your inventory you can have the right products in the right quantity on hand and avoid products being out of stock and funds being tied up in excess stock. You can also ensure your products are sold in time to avoid spoilage or obsolescence, or spending too much money on stock that’s taking up space in a warehouse or stockroom.
BusyVendor inventory management would:
*Reduce costs, improve cash flow, and boost your business’s bottom line
*Keep track of your inventory in real time
*Help you forecast demand
*Prevent product and production shortages
*Prevent excess stock and too many raw materials
*Allow for easy inventory analysis on any device
*Be accessible right from your retail point-of-sale
*Optimize warehouse organization and precious employee time
*Offer quick and painless bar code scanning to speed up intake
Allow for multilocation management, tracking inventory across several locations or warehouses