money money money

[greenoak]

dang.... we have bought so much spring product and its not selling yet....and our best seller i need to reorder...but we are on the edge of our comfort level for credit.... i need to get another 5000$$$ order of the mexican iron right away.... but all the bills from our big spring inventory are coming in right now and we are on our usual spring money crunch.... usually by now we have had 3 or 4 decent at least sunny weekends to sell garden stuff but not this year......this is kind of normal and im not worried about what we have bought...i am worried about being too dang low on our best thing for this time of year...our garden iron....
we are trying to talk ourselves into[me] or out of[dh] going ahead and getting another big order of iron ....???
we have great credit...because we are careful..etc etc .... but i want to jump out there and get more stuff...as in make hay while the sun shines.. . how would you look at it...

[Spider]

Ah! The seasonal money crunch! What fun! There are so many ways to handle it, of course, from not buying any more and just consider yourself lucky/clever for having picked such a winner this year and look forward to doing it again next year, to hocking the children and buying another load come hell or high water!

Frankly, I woud tend towards the first. Being greedy (even if you don't consider it greed) is not a good guide in business. I would wonder if another load would arrive so that it becomes a mid-summer item which doesn't sell as well. Still, there's the consideration of how much is this a 'fashion' item that won't sell as well next year.

Could one take a half-way stance? Order a small amount of iron so the extra debt isn't burdensome and the risk of weaker summer sales isn't onerous?

Could you even keep some iron back for demonstration purposes and take orders for later delivery?

Those are my thoughts.

[AaronConway]

I sure don't miss those between season crunches. I give you credit for doing it for so long. Trust your gut...it's obviously worked for you all these years.

Aaron

[greenoak]

thanks guys!! my gut is to buy it..its a sure sale.... unfortunatley the minimun is the 5k..... which for us is a lot.... but doable...
and luckily its not a fashion thing...is real basic, and we have had it for several years...etc etc...its seasonal but clear up to september...
we are getting ready for a big marketing effort on this too which makes it even more important..... dh knows all the bills so i have to canoodle with him on everything...he did agree to go for it this morning....
so its wahoo!!!

[huggytree]

i always take the conservative approach/low risk

i dont take any profit until the end of the year and i always leave enough in the company to survive for a few months if things go bad....

i did just bank a large amount recently because i had such a great January.....then i had an above average material bill at the end of last month....then everyone was paying late....i never get below $10,000 in reserves......i was at $2,000 and wondering if i was going to have to dip into savings......then $30k came in 1 week...i was loosing sleep and stressing when i was down to $2k.....its not a place anyone in business should be

dont get too far into debt....i have a builder w/ a $50k line of credit....he used the $$ to pay bills back and forth every month...he was a quick payer...then he spent all the $50k and now pays bills only when new cash comes in....he's out of business basically, but is trying to hang on...he has to dig himself out of a $50k hole now...he's a friend, but i may have to stop working for him......dont borrow $50k in iron

[greenoak]

5k...not 50 k.....
i dont want to be in a 50 k hole for sure..and i could get there easily...we are always close to that awful area this time of year..
in the old days if i sold a bunch i knew i had money...now with employees and payroll and gas bills etc etc...its so different....
wow....your money plot sounds really strong....

[huggytree]

i can owe $20k in materials each month if im going strong...it can make it hard to manage in the beginning of the year when i have to pay for materials this month, but not get paid for 30 days....last Dec. i was owed $60k......thats alot to float customers for a 1 man shop...it was awesome when it all came in

an average month is $8-10k in materials

[Steve B]

It seemed like a no-brainer to me ann. Pretty hard to be in business without taking risk - and, this one didn't sound too riskly to me since you have so much experience with that product.

[greenoak]

right..
..but it will push us out there a little too much...still i feel very confident...we have had a good spring even with no one around here out in the garden yet, meaning they arent thinking about our garden inventory.... ...its just been cold and dreary week after week...you just wish you could trade in 5 k of duds for the right inventory ....the duds are trikky....
risk is easy for me...like sending 5k to a guy i cant even understand very well.but everything felt right......and its turned out better than when we sent way more than that to a crafty english guy in liverpool.... for containers of furniture.... i really got some bad deals then..
.you do have to make judgements .

[greenoak]

luckily we had a fabulous saturday and a dang good monday... my big order is in process.
..i wish more folks on here dealt with inventory....the kind you haul around in trucks....it has a lot of problems .and it would be nice to hear someone elses take on buying and cash flow and inventory levels....i have tried to get lots of business folks on here to hardly any avail...
..i like my problems better than getting called out in the middle of the night to fix a heater tho or lots of other kinds of work...... .... i