Author: f1234fshamoun

Black Friday vs. Black Thursday !!!

Posted on by f1234fshamoun

 

 

It’s that time of the year again Black Friday deals. I never understand why so many people sleep outside all night to get something that is limited to very low number like five or ten pieces and the person there whose number eleven just got nothing but waited all night in cold weather. Last year I decided to try and shop at midnight I went to Macy’s waited in line for about two hours and when we finally got into the store I honestly didn’t find any good deals so I think it was not worth it for me to wait in cold weather for noting. I just wanted to experience it and I did but I don’t think I would repeat it again. Well I found this interesting article that talks about opening as early as 8:00pm on Thursday this year that means Thanksgiving will be cut short for a lot of people. Wal-Mart was the first one to announce that they will be opening as early as 8:00pm this year. And this is when competitors come in to place Sears also announced they will open at 8:00pm. Now Wal-Mart has to worry about their competitors and what they are offering to beat their prices.

Wal-Mart also announced that they will have enough inventory from 10:00-11:00pm for customers to get the same deal as they would get in store online. Now inventory managing will be a big part of this they will have to make sure that inventory will remain available and the numbers of inventory are accurate so that no problems will occur with consumers. Wal-Mart has to make sure that their entire inventory will come on time with correct amount to avoid any problems. The best way to make sure inventory is accurate is to forecast their inventory and make sure the demand numbers are correct. Some customers are already unhappy because they will have to cut their Thanksgiving with family and friends early to go shopping so that’s why inventory has to be done correctly so that customers will be satisfied. But what happens to those poor employees who want to spend some quality time with their family and friends on Thanksgiving Day? Now they have to come to work early but will the quality of employees towards customers be the same? Of course not employees will be unhappy and quality will go down. This is where Wal-Mart and Sears need to work on quality management system so that they will make sure their employees are happy so that customers will be satisfied and happy also. So maybe paying them double on that day will make their employees happier. So opening early is good but Wal-Mart and Sears need to make sure that quality, and inventory is in good shape for customers to be happy and for them to make good profit.

Do you think opening early this year is a good idea? And will quality and inventory be in good shape or will there be a problem?

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Inventory equals cash?

Posted on by f1234fshamoun

Just few weeks ago I didn’t know the importance of forecasting until recently I learned how important it is to forecast in any business. I never thought of inventory as being cash I just thought of it as a bunch of stuff, and materials. I found this article in Forbes magazine that talks about how inventory is your cash. It discuses how you are supposed to treat your inventory, and how you are supposed to track all your inventory so that you can gain more cash then losing cash and better business that will make your consumers happy.

Having a business is not just about buying and selling you have to pay attention to what’s coming in and what’s going out and in order to do that you have to track everything. My family has a business and when they are doing their orders they do forecast everything. First time I saw them I didn’t know what they were doing until recently when I learned about it more. It’s not about having a lot of inventory in your business you have to see how much was sold, how much you have in hands, and how much you think will sell that’s what you bring in. By tracking and forecasting your inventory it will save you a lot of money because you don’t extra inventory sitting in stock that will not sell. The bigger the business you have the harder it gets to keep track of your inventory so that’s why everything has to be monitored so save you money.

As a business owner you might think you are keeping costs down, but without using the right steps it will get very difficult so you must track the entire inventory to make the business grow. For example, if you own a business that sells fresh products you want to make sure that you get new products in everyday you don’t want to order to much and it will stay there consumers won’t be interested in shopping there anymore because they don’t see fresh products. By forecasting and mentoring everything that’s coming in and going out will help you get fresh products everyday and will help your sells grow and be a successful business. This will also help you with product life cycle if a product was selling a lot and then it slows down you don’t want to keep ordering it for your inventory and it won’t sell. There are many systems to help a businessperson to track and forecast their products. There are special computers that will help just putting the information into the system and it will automatically tell you everything that you have and need in your inventory.

What do you think about inventory equaling cash?  Do you think forecasting will help in having better successful business?

 

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidkwilliams/2012/10/13/your-inventory-is-your-cash-handle-with-care/

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