Business consultant Peter Drucker once said, “Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed.” As a retail business owner, if this statement resonates with you, chances are, you think a lot about how to best manage the time of your employees while they’re on the job assisting customers or managing areas of your retail business, such as inventory control. Time is money, as they say. So, how efficiently are you managing the time it takes to count inventory for your retail business? 

There is no question that inventory management is time-consuming. Unless you have a dedicated inventory management team in-house, and all the software and equipment necessary to manage inventory efficiently, perhaps a better strategy would be to hire an outside inventory management service to handle this vital part of your business for you, especially if your operations budget is tight and you’ve held back on investing in an inventory management software program. According to the State of Small Business Report, only 18 percent of small business owners use an inventory software system and 43 percent are either using a manual process or they aren’t tracking inventory at all.   

And yet, inventory control is key to business success. If you’ve been skimping on this area of your business perhaps a good time-management and cost-effective strategy would be to look outside for help. 

Peter Drucker also said, “Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.”  

An independent inventory management service is the perfect option if you’re short on time, manpower and the technology tools needed to perform accurate, physical counts. Their experience, efficiency and knowledge of inventory best practices will give you the edge you need to strengthen your bottom line.