Stock – A Short Story

When our family tech shop first started out, it was co-managed/owned ““ by what effectively was Ying and Yang of stock control (and we’ll leave the names as such to protect the guilty!). Ying’s approach was to buy nothing. Anything a customer wanted, over around the £20 mark, they had to order. You’d come in to make a purchase, ask for the part you wanted (e.g. monitor, hard drive, CDROM etc.) and have to leave a deposit and go back for your component in a couple of days.
Yang was the opposite. Anything and everything he could get his hands on, he did. However, Ying was the financial backer, and therefore was the one who got to say yes or no to new stock.

You can imagine which one was the richer of the two? But you can also imagine the appearance of the computer shop, with little or no stock ““ luckily it was small. However, imagine how many customers left without being able to get their hands on what they needed, and went elsewhere?
One Ying left, Yang had a free hand with whatever stock was purchased. This meant that the shelves were overflowing, quite literally with software, cartridges, components, cables, stuffed toys from travelling sales reps, lighters, etc etc. The place was overflowing with stock. However, once the main sellers had gone, as Yang had spent all of the capital he had on rubbish and little needed junk, he had no cash for any more stock, and customers now had to come into the store, order and PAY for what they needed, and then come back in a couple of days when their component had arrived.
A starting point for your own stock holding is listed below- and again, “˜discuss’ this item to pass on your own hints and tricks, and any comments you want to share with other or newer techies ““ we want the benefit of your experience.

1. Buy what you need, and keep your eye on what is coming up, going out, or any fluctuations in the business.
2. Try and adopt a “˜just in time’ approach to your stock, unless there is a definite market for an item, in which case, try and buy some stock in bulk if it saves you money.
3. “˜Just in case’ buying doesn’t work that well with computers because of the speed of developments ““ so be up to the minute but carry small numbers.
4. How much of an item do you sell/use? Keep track of this and it will help with your buying decisions.
5. Can you get anything sale or return?
6. Remember that stock you have in your shop is potentially cash in the bank ““ don’t buy it if it’s just going to sit there.
7. Be careful of damage and theft ““ it will cost you money
8. Be insured ““ a way of avoiding problems if the above happens
9. Take a moderate approach
10. Look back at each month and see if you used what you bought- and if so, could you have sold some more if you had them? If so, stock a little higher.