Working from home is a dream come true for some people because it gives them time to be their own boss. You work to your own schedule and you also allow yourself to have a personal life by working on your arrangements. However when it comes to running a business from home, if you sell products and have a manufacturer but no distributor, this is where you can run into issues. You have the ability to design products, have them made and then have them ordered from your online store. But now they’re just sitting in your home, waiting to be transported to the rightful customers. Panic can set in if you let it when you realize you have too much to ship off and don’t have the tools or a feasible plan to make sure this can happen. Not to worry, there are some very easy steps you can follow to start a smooth business.
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Packing, wrapping and details
Whatever you’re selling, it needs to be properly protected from the elements during the shipping process. Who knows where it will be and the things your parcel will go through on the journey to your customer. Make sure you have a good supply of bubble wrap at home. This will be the medium, or first layer of protection. For your larger items, foam is a good, absorptive material that can handle bumps and scrapes. Both of these packaging and wrapping materials are vital as someone working for the delivery service might unintentionally drop the product. Then through no fault of your own, you have an unhappy customer due to damage. It’s also wise to have a label printing machine with you so any destination details can be easily typed and stuck onto the package.
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Keeping digital receipts
Keeping receipts for all the items you have sold needs to be integrated into your workday just like every other task. However, writing down the number of inventory and correlating them to your sales shouldn’t be done by look or by hand. With a fixed mount laser barcode scanner, each item you sell can be clearly scanned, have its item number, price and date of departure put right into a digital interface. This interface can be on your computer connected with a dedicated program or perhaps even in Microsoft Excel. With this technology, you can keep track of every order that has gone out. This may also help you in terms of legal responsibility as customers who falsely claim that you did not send their item off, can have the evidence clearly shown against them. It’s also a good addition to your operation as you don’t have to write down items sold by hand. This can be a tedious task that slows everything else down – especially when you’re technically the only employee.
