Many times small business owners will hear about inventory management and immediately equate that to keeping inventories at low levels to improve cash flow. The “Just in Time” inventory philosophy that many businesses subscribe to has been discussed and expanded upon over the years. While it is important to not carry an excess of inventory which can tie up a company’s cash flow - for the small business owner this essentially mean their own cash flow- it is equally important to buy inventory in the correct size lots in order to maximize efficiencies and buying power.

At CMW many times we see customers who order product once a week or every ten days. While on the surface this may seem like a good cash flow strategy it leads to over spending on the cost of the paper and on the freight to get the product to the customer. In some cases, a customer will have an unexpected job which necessitates paying for expedited freight to get the transfer paper to their workshop in short order.

The preceding problem can be eliminated by taking a look at your previous spending pattern with your heat transfer paper supplier, hopefully CMW, and seeing just how often you are purchasing your heat transfer paper. For example, if you review your purchases and notice that you ordered 100 sheet of the Jet-Pro SofStretch on average three times per month for the past 3-months, you may want to consider ordering 300 sheets once a month. This way you pay freight and handling charges just once and you avoid any situation where an order needs to be expedited.

Inventory management is a key control area for both large and small businesses. Just as a company can have too much inventory which can eventually lead to cash flow nightmares, it can have too little inventory which can lead to higher freight costs and lost sales. For more small business tips look for our newsletter and see the coupon below which should help our customers who want to try to take advantage of this tip.