{"id":512,"date":"2015-09-09T02:31:10","date_gmt":"2015-09-09T02:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/?p=504"},"modified":"2020-10-05T15:47:39","modified_gmt":"2020-10-05T20:47:39","slug":"4-tips-for-inventory-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/4-tips-for-inventory-management\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Tips for Inventory Management"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chances are, doing inventory isn\u2019t the most exciting part of your job \u2014 but that doesn\u2019t make it any less important! The key to maintaining a regular inventory practice is to avoid common inventory-taking pitfalls and develop a system that works well for your small business. To help you do so, we\u2019ve compiled these tips:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1. Make Detailed Projections<\/strong><\/h3>\n

With the cost of warehousing and product depreciation, it’s easy to spend too much on inventory. Old inventory can be hard to move, and you may end up marking it down, selling to discounters or shipping it to liquidators.<\/p>\n

To remedy this situation, create some strong projections of how much supply you’ll need and when you’ll need it. The best barometer for doing this is by looking at what you’ve sold in the past. Also consider seasonality of your product: Do you usually see a spike during summer or during the holidays? If you can identify and quantify patterns for your inventory, you\u2019ll be much better off.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2. Use Bar Code Scanning \u2014 and Count Regularly<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Once you know how much you need, you have to make sure you have it on hand. Opportunities for a miscount are everywhere: receiving, order fulfillment and in some cases, theft. To stay on top of your inventory at all times, use a bar code scanning system to help eliminate data entry errors. You should also choose a few items each day and compare the recorded inventory to the actual count.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3. Prioritize the Items that Matter Most<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Taking inventory can take up a lot of time that many business owners simply can\u2019t afford to give. If this rings true to you, focus your efforts on the items that matter most. Generally, 80% of demand will be generated by 20% of your items. These will be your \u201cA\u201d items. Spend most of your effort on them; projecting, reviewing in-stock position and reordering as frequently as necessary. Consider the next 30% of your highest-selling items the “B” items \u2014 they\u2019ll typically generate about 10% of sales. The slowest selling items you stock will be your \u201cC\u201d items. They account for about half of your inventory, but only generate 10% of sales.1<\/sup><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

4. Have a Backup Plan<\/strong><\/h3>\n

What would you do if the computer you use to track inventory was badly damaged or stolen? In many instances, a removable USB drive is a suitable backup plan for saving critical data. Software such as Norton Ghost or Symantec Backup Exec can also keep your inventory data secure \u2014 and it’s not a bad idea to send a backup copy of inventory data to another person (such as a business partner or accountant) every month.<\/p>\n

References<\/p>\n

1 <\/sup>Girard, L. (November 2, 2011). Five steps to painless inventory management<\/em>. Retrieved September 8, 2015 from http:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/article\/220631<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chances are, doing inventory isn\u2019t the most exciting part of your job \u2014 but that doesn\u2019t make it any less …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":506,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[611,609],"tags":[101,102],"class_list":["post-512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-optimizing-your-small-business","category-small-business-finance","tag-inventory","tag-inventory-management"],"yoast_head":"\n4 Tips for Inventory Management - Headway Capital Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn about tips for inventory management and develop a system that works well for your small business.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/4-tips-for-inventory-management\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"4 Tips for Inventory Management - Headway Capital Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Learn about tips for inventory management and develop a system that works well for your small business.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/4-tips-for-inventory-management\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Headway Capital Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-09-09T02:31:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-10-05T20:47:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2015\/09\/155-HC-How-To-Do-Inventory-Management_1a041.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"792\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Eddie Rybarski\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Eddie Rybarski\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"4 Tips for Inventory Management - Headway Capital Blog","description":"Learn about tips for inventory management and develop a system that works well for your small business.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/4-tips-for-inventory-management\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"4 Tips for Inventory Management - Headway Capital Blog","og_description":"Learn about tips for inventory management and develop a system that works well for your small business.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/4-tips-for-inventory-management\/","og_site_name":"Headway Capital Blog","article_published_time":"2015-09-09T02:31:10+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-10-05T20:47:39+00:00","og_image":[{"width":792,"height":400,"url":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2015\/09\/155-HC-How-To-Do-Inventory-Management_1a041.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Eddie Rybarski","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Eddie Rybarski","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/4-tips-for-inventory-management\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/4-tips-for-inventory-management\/"},"author":{"name":"Eddie Rybarski","@id":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2b6667b01daf82bce002f31412e5ff4a"},"headline":"4 Tips for Inventory Management","datePublished":"2015-09-09T02:31:10+00:00","dateModified":"2020-10-05T20:47:39+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/4-tips-for-inventory-management\/"},"wordCount":470,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/4-tips-for-inventory-management\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2015\/09\/155-HC-How-To-Do-Inventory-Management_1a041.jpg","keywords":["Inventory","Inventory Management"],"articleSection":["Optimizing Your Small Business","Small Business Finance"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/4-tips-for-inventory-management\/","url":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/4-tips-for-inventory-management\/","name":"4 Tips for Inventory Management - Headway Capital Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/4-tips-for-inventory-management\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/4-tips-for-inventory-management\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2015\/09\/155-HC-How-To-Do-Inventory-Management_1a041.jpg","datePublished":"2015-09-09T02:31:10+00:00","dateModified":"2020-10-05T20:47:39+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2b6667b01daf82bce002f31412e5ff4a"},"description":"Learn about tips for inventory management and develop a system that works well for your small business.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/4-tips-for-inventory-management\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/4-tips-for-inventory-management\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/4-tips-for-inventory-management\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2015\/09\/155-HC-How-To-Do-Inventory-Management_1a041.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2015\/09\/155-HC-How-To-Do-Inventory-Management_1a041.jpg","width":792,"height":400,"caption":"4 Tips for Inventory Management"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/4-tips-for-inventory-management\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Optimizing Your Small Business","item":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/category\/optimizing-your-small-business\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"4 Tips for Inventory Management"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/","name":"Headway Capital Blog","description":"Your source for the latest news, tools, tips and resources to help your small business succeed.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2b6667b01daf82bce002f31412e5ff4a","name":"Eddie Rybarski","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/03\/Eddie_Rybarski-150x150.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/03\/Eddie_Rybarski-150x150.jpeg","caption":"Eddie Rybarski"},"description":"Eddie Rybarski is a Senior Copywriter for Enova International. Formerly a multimedia journalist, his work has been featured in various local news outlets. Eddie received his certification for financial education instruction from the National Financial Educators Council.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/eddierybarski\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/author\/erybarskienova-com\/"}]}},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1563,"href":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512\/revisions\/1563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.headwaycapital.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}