Every aspect of your business can be rendered down to “touches” during your daily routine. Whether that is mouse clicks or key strokes or box taping, they all require time to accomplish. Finding ways to reduce those touches is key. Hopefully this information can help you do just that.
In the 2011 movie In Time, people were able to lengthen their lives and improve their existences by literally buying and selling time. Imagine a life where time was a commodity that gave you an edge against the world. The more you can leverage your time, the more money you’re worth. Quite the fantasy…or is it?
We each have our own estimate of our own worth. Unless you work for someone else, it’s often hard to put a finite number on that value. As entrepreneurs we know we give our businesses 150% each and every day, but how do you quantify that number? The only way I have ever found is by how much is in the bank at the end of the month. Unfortunately, that number is never as big as I hope it will be. So I promise myself I will work harder the next month.
According to business analysts, the only time you are actually making any money is while you are sourcing and creating new products to bring to market. The rest of your time is spent processing and managing that inventory, and working to maintain your client base. The only time you actually grow your business is when you can sustainably grow your product offerings.
What follows is a list of four opportunities in your daily processes where you can actually shave time and “buy” yourself some room to grow.
- Listing your products: Every item you list needs to be placed in its correct location and finished before you move to your next item. Whether that’s in its FBA shipment or in its assigned location in your warehouse, this is imperative. Going back later and labeling your items with tickets or stickers means touching the item twice. Each touch is about 10 seconds. At 100 items a day, that’s 16 minutes.
- Packing your shipments: Whether it’s packing the individual item, or building an inbound FBA box, set your schedule to pack once a day. Stopping every time an order comes in or the FBA destination changes is a time killer. Have a separate packing and shipping area, and go there once a day. Shifting gears back and forth between processes eats at your time. The illusion of “multi-tasking” is not a benefit. Each time you switch you lose approximately 3 minutes. Just doing it three times in a day and 10 minutes are gone.
- Repricing: Managing prices on your inventory is the lifeblood of your profitability. Unfortunately, whenever you have to jump on and “nudge” your numbers to remain competitive, it costs you time. On average sellers spend 15 to 20 minutes a day doing this. If you can set and maintain a consistent dynamic pricing strategy at the time of the listing, then you can ignore this time sink, when you set it and forget it.
FBA SELLERS: Having your goods reprice DURING TRANSIT is extremely important for your success. You want items priced correctly when they hit the fulfillment center not two hours later when your “app” rolls around to it. Fifteen minutes a day adds up.
- Software management: Switching between programs and apps can eat up your day. The fewer programs you have touching your business, the fewer places your attention is divided. How many people have keys to your home? How about your business? Do all the “key holders” talk to one another? Every application needs some level of access if they are going to “help” you. For every one of the programs, you have to understand what they do, and that takes time. Limiting the number of programs that connect to your business is essential to your time management. The more you have to remember and control the less time you have to do other things. Switching between programs takes about five minutes a day. Find a company that can do everything you need in one complete package to give you the most control of your business (for more information on this contact SALES@NEATOSCAN.COM with the code PROSPER2018 in the memo).
Even though we all work on our businesses seven days a week, let’s pretend we have a five-day work week. The total time savings from the four steps above is 45 minutes a day, or 3 hours and 45 minutes a week. In just one month, that math leads to 15 hours of time you have purchased by working smarter instead of harder. For the sake of argument, let’s say that only HALF the things above apply to your business. That is still one day more a month you can spend sourcing new goods to make your business grow. Twelve days a year you can use to improve the quality of your life and the size of your bank account. Time matters, so make it work for you!
Neatoscan has been a 3rd party Amazon support company for over 10 years. Our fully integrated Inventory Manager platform allows for ALL levels of your business to be supported in one application. From Repricing to Listing to FBA Shipment to Inventory Reconciliation, we cover it all. Designed for sellers BY sellers, we understand your business. We do not make money unless your making money, so stop paying different companies who have no stake in your success. Let us help you streamline to succeed. www.Neatoscan.com
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If you enjoyed this content, consider joining us at PROSPER Show, March 13-14, 2018 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. 
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