Time wasters: what the store owner spends resources on

17.01.2023 14:12

Trade automation expert at Torgsoft

на що власник бізнесу витрачає свій час та гроші?

It is quite a common phenomenon when the owner of a small or medium-sized store performs both the role of the owner, determining the strategic direction of business development, and is an operational manager who has to solve a lot of issues every day. Often this leads to the dispersion of the manager's attention and deterioration of business performance.

What tasks does the head of the company direct his energy, time and money to, and how to redistribute the existing responsibilities in the store so that everyone is engaged in their own business, achieving high performance?

Why the owner is trying to comprehend the immense

There can be many reasons for this. The most common is the desire to save money on hired workers. And although now, in the military realities, this may be quite a reasonable decision, yet doing his job, a qualified specialist will allow the owner to focus on more important operational and management issues.

The second reason is the fears and distrust of the entrepreneur. The owner worries that the staff does not perform their duties in good faith, abuse their authority, steal goods, etc. And to reassure himself, he prefers to run the business himself than to entrust it to strangers. This type of businessmen have a chronic distrust of the world, which can be difficult to eradicate.

The third reason is that some managers are accustomed to controlling everything personally, in order not to lose their importance in the company, connection with the business, and to avoid mistakes from employees, which often have to be solved by them.

However, in order not to drown in the ocean of routine, minute-by-minute calls and messages, but to concentrate on global and strategic business directions, the manager must learn to delegate his responsibilities. Even if everything is rebelling inside, and you want to break into all work processes at the same time. The success of combining the roles of "owner-director" depends primarily on the ability to competently and effectively manage your own and working time.

What is delegation?

Delegation is the transfer of the manager's tasks to subordinates. If you delegate your powers correctly, you can scale your business and grow valuable specialists within the company. If you do not delegate tasks at all or do it incorrectly, the owner will sooner or later be overwhelmed - he will not have the time and energy to develop the business.

Let's analyze the main items of time spent by the store owner.

Selection of suppliers

This work is not daily, but it requires a lot of effort and time. After all, the profitability of the store depends on the choice of supplier, the quality of goods and delivery conditions.

Firstly, you need to determine the following criteria for choosing suppliers:

optimal price range of goods,
location of suppliers,
terms of cooperation, logistics methods.

Then negotiations with the selected partners are conducted with the obligatory check of the necessary certificates and permits for the goods. The transaction is completed by signing contracts, ordering a trial batch.

Therefore, the choice of suppliers is a painstaking work that requires managerial skills, analytical experience and the ability to defend their terms of the game. And such work often has to be done constantly.

Trade accounting

This stage of the trading business is the most voluminous and responsible. Here you cannot do without a systematic approach, because trade automation can significantly save money and time for both the manager and his subordinates.

Having accurate data on the movement of goods in the store, the owner can conduct an objective analysis and make decisions regarding:

The choice of suppliers for the store, the formation of orders and their transfer to work.
Methods of arrival, sale and return of goods, the shelf life of goods in warehouses in order to economically use warehouse and retail space and take into account the employment of employees.
Appointment and timely adjustment of retail prices for goods, taking into account the laid profit, financial accounting.
Control of warehouse stocks in order to minimize the possible subsidence of goods in the store, and as a result - "freezing" of working capital.
Control of cash sales and debts, timely movement of goods from the warehouse to the trading floor.
Keeping records of customers in the CRM-system, timely holding of promotions, sales, etc.
Formation of price tags and labels. Control over the completeness and accuracy of the information provided.
Conducting regular and extraordinary inventories.

The accounting program Torgsoft copes with these tasks best of all. A special person, usually an accountant or administrator, is engaged in setting up the program and commodity and financial control of the business.

Work with staff

The store owner, as a manager and employer, is obliged to control the work of store employees, especially sellers.

Errors during the acceptance of goods or receipt of money at the cash desk, calculations, weighing of customers, concealment and misappropriation of proceeds - these phenomena not only bring direct losses to the store, but also negatively affect the image of the retail establishment. And this leads to a decrease in customer flow.

A detailed analysis of each detected incident, resolving customer complaints, working with feedback - take time and energy of the entrepreneur.

Analysis of the usual work of employees is also important. For example, based on the data on the amount of revenue in different shifts, decisions can and should be made to reward or punish employees. On the other hand, this will be an additional motivation for conscientious employees.

This vector of trade is no less significant, and therefore it should be entrusted to a single person, an HR employee who knows all the subtleties and psychology of labor relations.

Control of finances

The ultimate indicator of the effectiveness of any business is profit. The revenue received can be striking, but a significant part of it goes to pay for goods, salaries, taxes, utilities, unforeseen expenses, losses from possible damage and write-off of goods. And also - for financial fraud and theft by employees and customers.

Therefore, pricing while maintaining the required margin requires constant attention. And if the goods are imported, it is also worth keeping records in several currencies, in particular the currency price list.

Usually, the control of pricing and the establishment of margin limits is the responsibility of the commodity expert or the operational/financial director of the store.

However, if there are no such positions in the store, this part of the work falls on the shoulders of the owner. In general, he is the main person in the company who is most interested in the financial performance of the business.

Unplanned work

In addition to all of the above, the store owner has to deal with unplanned or long-term issues that do not require an immediate solution.

Among the force majeure may be errors in financial statements, an urgent call to the tax office, a resolution of the improvement inspectorate to immediately improve the territory adjacent to the store, failure of commercial equipment, an accident in the heating or water supply system in the store. All this - again, time and money.

Other time eaters

There are other attention sprays that generally take away the time and energy of all people - messengers, social networks, chats. How much time do you spend in this or that mobile application? It is easy to track on modern smartphones.

Business owners are also people, so this "weakness" is also inherent in them. Be that as it may, the time that social networks, Youtube videos or communication in Telegram ruthlessly steal from us can be used much more productively for something much more important. And it's not even about business.

The solution

It is unrealistic to completely free the owner from worries and hassles. After all, business requires constant attention and control from the entrepreneur. But it is necessary to significantly free up time to perform the routine.

The solution is in trade automation. Modern means of automation of accounting and sales can significantly improve the results of the store.

Barcode scanners will provide full control over the movement of goods and finances, printers will print price tags and labels, fiscal registrars, receipt printers, data collection terminals will calculate costs and profits, significantly reduce the time spent on re-calculation and inventory, and the accounting program itself is even able to assess the professional qualities of employees.

With the automation system, the business owner does not need to "live in the store" to have complete information about its work. It is enough to go to the mobile application in the smartphone.

In Ukraine, a full range of services for the automation of trade enterprises is offered by the accounting program Torgsoft. The company's customers have the opportunity to choose the optimal equipment package for their store and the necessary program that will provide the owner with a comfortable and accurate business.

Програма обліку товару для інтернет-магазинів, крамниць, торгових точок, складів та виробництва

Thank you for your feedback! It will be published after being reviewed by a moderator.

Last name and first name
Phone number
Other contact information
Database type
Do you need a call and consultation from a company employee? Yes No Choose one of the options
I agree with Torgsoft's Privacy Policy. Please review Torgsoft's Privacy Policy. If you agree, please confirm below.