Business Owners: How To Avoid These 3 Costly Mistakes

Managing inventory is one of the most time-consuming and labor-intensive task every retail storeowner faces. It is also one of the most crucial. To effectively manage your business, you need to know when to order products and when to pay for them. Adjusting pricing based on market demand and customer behavior is also critical. 

Having too much stock, or too little, is costly. According to the National Retail Federation, U.S. retailers lose $224 billion due to excess inventory and $45 billion from not having inventory in stock. 

With so much money invested in your inventory, you've got to stay on top of it. 

The right Point-of-Sale (POS) system can help you effectively and automatically track your inventory to save money and increase sales. QuickBooks POS was designed to help business owners avoid these costly mistakes: 

1. Buying too much and tying up your money 

QuickBooks Point of Sale has a report to show which items are collecting dust, costing you money in overhead. You'll also instantly know your best sellers and most profitable items with the built-in "Best Sellers" report — accessible with a single click. Once you know what hasn't moved for some time and what's selling well, you'll know which items to discount and which items to promote. 

2. Buying too little and losing customers 

Don't lose a sale because you're out of stock. QuickBooks POS will let set reorder points for your most popular items. You'll be automatically alerted when it's time to order more. 

3. Loading your stock room and not your shelves 

QuickBooks Point of Sale can help you make smart purchasing decisions by keeping track of the inventory you've already ordered, so you don't buy more than you need. 

QuickBooks Point of Sale was designed to make inventory tracking effortless and automatic. As you ring up sales, inventory data is recorded and stored so you always have accurate, real-time information about what's selling, what's not, what you have on hand and what you need to reorder. 

This new level of insight can lead to smarter decisions that will help eliminate unnecessary inventory expenses, boosting your profits. 

If you haven't seen QuickBooks Point of Sale lately, you'll want to look at their latest version, especially since it's being offered free for 30 days. For a limited time only, you'll get $200 off the POS software, a free credit card swiper, a bar code scanner, receipt printer and cash drawer (a $600 value). This special offer expires on April 18, 2014, and is good by phone only: 866-379-6636. 

Froim Entrepreneur