Quote:
Originally Posted by dan_ebay  as above, needs figures to decide. But not worth it imo, work hard yourself until you can hire someone to work 16 hours a week flat out packing |
This.
When I first started I was thinking about fulfilment centre option, but then I realised that "my own limit" has not been reached yet, not even close, so why would I want to find a company that will eat heavily into my profit, if I don't even have a fully clear understanding of how I should solve certain aspects of my operation.
The way I would grow and plan to grow is this:
1.Start at your own house, stay close to the stock and don't waste on storage.
2.Realise that you have grown a bit and see what your profit % is
3. Find a comfortable level and stay there for 2-3 months, just to make sure you can handle it.
4.Rent business premise for more stock, see how you can manage your time.
5.Hire somebody to help you, work with them, see if they understand the basics.
6.Trust them with parts of operation- Packing or shipping.
7.Slowly increase the stock levels, sell across more accounts.
8. See if your helping hand can handle the volumes, see what problems come up.
9.Grow and find a comfortable level again, stay there for a bit and then try to push again.
10. Hire another helper, or two and see if the first helper can "manage" them for you.
???
Profit.
Business growth is a lot like giving birth- You need to feel the right time, and then make a push. You can't rush it, unless you are some super savage who can take a trip down to the park and on your way there the baby just drops out.
Just feel it, see what you are capable of YOURSELF first, learn about your business so that when you actually have a chance to grow, you know where your weakenss areas are and whats the critical point about the whole situation.
I'm just about to move into business premises, just because she ****ing hates my **** being everywhere(Yet she doesn't mind the money, weird). Next step is to get Santas Little helper(hopefully some hot Uni student who I can have a thing with, just like in movies) and then finally find a solution where my original helper will take over the daily operations and manage couple of other little helpers and I can live in another country and travel to UK only when I restock or have some sort of critical situaion.
By doing so, you will have indeed your own company, with some employees and you essentially create your own little fulfillment centre. Difference is, you control everything and you can cover more aspects of business by doing so. You can delegate more and task people to do other things as well, not just pack and ship.
I'm talking inventory counts, photoshoots for new stock, maybe even opening a shopfront for regular customers just to bring more sales from different demographics.
Its all about growing your own model and reinvesting your profit into your own business, not paying a 3rd party for very basic service.
Thats just my take on it tho, what do I know.
Fullfillment houses : Less stress or Less Profit 
