Hey Small Business Owners...What are you doing to ride the storm out?

[mililo4cpa]

Originally Posted by IA_Chiefs_fan

4. Keeping inventory at a separate location is something we've discussed but decided against. We stock > 15,000 SKUs and there are hundreds of best sellers and we often sell bundles of multiple items. I think we'd lose so much shit and run out of inventory to fulfill some orders at the main location. Plus space is limited at our secondary site. I really feel like our best course of action is to be able to respond quickly when someone gets it. We'll still have people at the remote site who can take orders and provide ETA's to the customers.

5. For the past few years we look at a rolling average of the past year to determine how many of each SKU we sell per day. We exclude periods when we had no stock available. Then we just set a goal of how many days worth of each SKU we want to have in stock and it tells us when to place an order. We can change that goal for a specific vendor or product if it can take longer to receive or is frequently on backorder.

6. We're very up to speed on the UI benefits and will do that if needed. I'm hoping that I continue to need my full staff. We'll see.

7. Actually, I'd say that at least 80% of our customers have already visited our website that day or are on it when they call us. Our stuff is very specialized and they typically have a SKU or application for us when they call. I'm not at all saying you're wrong that reaching out to past customers is a bad idea, I just don't think it's as important in our situation as it is in others. Again, I agree that this wouldn't hurt and could help. I will have a couple employees do this on slow days.
We have Dynamic Pricing that updates every day based on competitor's prices and stock status.

8. Okay. I've got nothing to lose by talking to my lender. Thank you for putting it in perspective.

I've got key employees who I'm comfortable discussing it all with. My wife is a good sounding board as well. I may have more questions for you. I truly appreciate your time!

I really need to wrap my brain around all of the different loan programs. It feels kind of overwhelming and I just haven't had time to dive in.

Thanks, and keep up the good work! you're doing better than most of the business owners I'm dealing with! Anything you need, I'll be more than happy to talk about.

P.S. The loan situation is confusing as he;;...I've read so much and heard so many things...keep pushing every day, and there will be answers that come!