Most shops do not lose money on supplies in one dramatic way. They lose it in small amounts, every week, through ordering habits nobody has looked at in years. Here are the ones we see most often, and what to do instead.
Ordering in a panic
An artist says they are out of a grouping an hour before a session, someone drives across town or pays for overnight shipping, and the shop eats the difference. A single rush order never looks expensive. Twenty of them across a year is a real number.
Track how often you place an unplanned order. If it happens more than once or twice a month, the problem is your par levels, not your supplier.
Buying only what is about to run out
Splitting one order into three because each artist mentioned a different item on a different day means paying for delivery three times and losing any break you would get on volume. Group your needs into one scheduled order, and let people add to a running list in between.
Ignoring cost per use
Price per box tells you very little. What matters is the cost of the thing you actually consume in a session.
- Ink: cost per ounce, not per bottle
- Needles and cartridges: cost per unit, not per box of 20 versus 50
- Gloves and barriers: cost per procedure
Work these out once and write them down. Comparing two products becomes a ten second decision instead of a debate.
Stocking deep on the wrong items
Shops routinely hold six months of a rarely used configuration and two weeks of their most used one. Cash sitting in inventory you will not touch until next winter is cash you cannot use now.
Pull your last three months of orders and rank items by how often you reordered them. Stock deep on the top ten. Stock thin on everything else.
No single owner for ordering
When everyone orders, nobody is accountable, duplicates happen, and price changes go unnoticed. Name one person who places orders, even in a two artist shop. Everyone else adds to the list.
Letting dated product expire
Green soap, ointments, and sterile packaging all carry dates. Product you throw away unopened is a total loss. Rotate stock front to back when you put an order away, and never buy a year of anything with a shelf life.
Never checking the invoice
Prices change quietly. Substitutions happen. Short shipments happen. Someone should compare the packing slip to what was ordered, and to what you paid last time, before the box is unpacked. Five minutes here catches errors you will never find later.
Where to start
Pick two of these this month. The most common wins are naming one person to own ordering, and setting real par levels on your top ten items. Both are free, and together they remove most of the rush orders that drain a shop’s margin.
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