Effective stock management is essential to a modern salon. After staff, a salon’s stock is probably the next biggest cost to the business, and quite often it is something that is not managed effectively.
Premier Software Founder Robert Miles tells us his take on keeping control of your stock.
Take Advantage of Technology
Virtually any salon or spa software will include some element of stock control, and this is usually the most efficient way of keeping tabs on your current stock levels. Systems should let you set re-order levels and automatically deal with adjusting stock from the point of sale.
Automation, Automation, Automation
Once you’ve got your re-order levels set, it’s worth taking advantage of any automated ordering your system allows. Premier Spa, Premier Salon and Core by Premier all contain facilities to automatically calculate and produce orders based on your current stock levels, saving you the time of going through the shelves and ‘guesstimating’ what you’re going to need.
Your software should also have the ability to produce your purchase order in a format that can either be printed off and given to your rep, or emailed directly to the supplier.
Not All Product Lines are Created Equal
Pause for a moment – what’s your best selling retail line in your business? If you’re unsure of the answer, this is where your spa or salon software can help. Because everything that’s sold is automatically recorded, you can produce comprehensive stock reports and be up to speed with your business within minutes.
Failing to Plan…
Got a marketing plan in place for your products? It’s important to plan well in advance, combining seasonal changes, business information and data from your software – all alongside your own industry knowledge. Shelves full of summer stock are unlikely to be a big seller in the midst of November, so this ensures you’re ahead of your game.
Going Mobile
If you take a look around your business, you’ll probably notice at least a few of your clients peering into mobile phones and tablets, surfing the web while they wait – you might even be reading this post on your iPad right now.
Having the ability to use mobile devices to manage your stock is something that is now becoming more cost effective with the arrival of things like smart phones and tablets. These devices should allow the salon to do stock takings on a scheduled basis without it being a great big issue for the business.
Knowledge is Power
Like all things within business, knowledge is power and having the ability to quickly and effectively run reports on stock levels and stock sales is vitally important, and is the key to any successful stock management system. All data to run your business should be accessible at the touch of a button, having systems and processes in place to manage and react to this information are critical.
Got any other tips you’d like to add? Feel free to comment below.
