Monday, May 14, 2012

Taking Inventory...

I have an admission that probably doesn't come as much of a surprise to most people: I don't like taking inventory. Does anyone? However, as I'm considering how I want to expand Absolutely Kismet, I know I need to better know exactly what of what I have so I'm not reordering when I'm down to one or two items. Last week, I talked about expanding my wine charms, so that's where I started.

Over the last year and a half or so, I've been selling the alphabet wine charms and keeping track of the letters on whatever paper was handy to write on, then keeping all these scraps of paper together in my money box. I didn't even bother writing down the letters from my online sales because I can just look up the old sold orders, which is what I had to do today. It was not as quick and easy as I thought it would be!

Today, I went back through almost every sale I've made and documented the letters. I say almost because there were a few sales in the beginning where I have the sale recorded but not which letters were bought. Oh, to go back in time and tell myself to keep better records! (shakes head ruefully) ;)

Because I want to move more into larger custom orders, it would obviously be helpful to know the difference between needing to reorder when something is running low or letting a low number stand because it isn't very popular and isn't being used quickly. It might interest you to know that A, B, C and K, L, M are currently my most sold letters. Who knew? I certainly didn't!

Needless to say, I now have all of my letters documents and on a handy spreadsheet which says both how many of that letter I have in stock and how many have currently sold.

How often do you go through your supplies? Do you make notes of what's been used as soon as you use it?

2 comments:

  1. I'm bad with that! I also have half-written lists in different rooms, but since I don't relist, I don't worry about supplies. except when I find I have no wire, lol
    Debbi
    -yankeeburrowcreations

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  2. My inventory process is a bit different... Because so many of my pieces are different, and not always the same supplies, I have to keep track of what I made, how long it took me, what it cost to make and what I'm charging for the finished piece. I did up a big spreadsheet in the winter, but have not updated it since (aka adding new items or making note of what has sold). I should probably do that soon, and maybe even blog about it ;)
    ~Sunfire

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