Purchasing – unless that’s what you do – can be the area of business that gets forgotten and left behind; however, it is one of the most important areas to think about, especially when you run out of the things you need. When you run out of essentials you don’t plan what you’re buying and this can result in spending far more than you have to and you receiving goods that are of low quality.
If you don’t give enough of your time to organising your purchasing properly your costs could rise, you could be buying extremely low quality products for extortionate prices and you may not be getting a very good level of customer service compared to what you are paying and what you deserve. Rather than raising your prices or dealing with the fact that you are getting lower profits, keep your costs under control to get the best of both worlds.
In order to make wise decisions in the purchasing department you need to be sure that you’re only buying what you need, in the right quantities and of an appropriate quality. Purchasing when you’re in charge of a small company is much easier that when you’re in control of a large company. Even as a small business grows however, it is unlikely that the owner will be able to handle all of the purchasing orders and many appoint a purchasing manager, to take over for them. Big companies however, generally have a purchasing department so that as much thought and detail goes into the purchasing of new materials and supplies as goes into the rest of the business.
If your business is small you may not need a full time purchaser so you may wish to train up a current employee to take the purchasing off your hands alongside their other duties. Your team of purchasers or your single purchaser should have great communication skills in order to be able to communicate clearly with clients and able to get the best deals available for the lowest prices. Although it may be hard to imagine there is much more to purchasing than placing and receiving orders. Your purchasing manager will have to work out exactly what the company requires accurately, put the order together, choose an appropriate supplier, make sure the goods are of a high quality, make sure the order is complete, pay for the order while staying within the company’s spending guidelines as well as checking and distributing the order on arrival. As you can see, their job is not as easy as it first seems.
Purchasing is one of those things that you need to be accurate in order to have a successful business.
Office manager and author of this article Paul Janes purchases his business supplies from www.officespot.ie.