| Be careful not to be completely dependent on any one provider in the supply chain. If your partner and outsource correctly, you don’t have to have a “kingdom” of employees. When you are in hyper-growth, vendors need projections to keep up with your needs. You don’t have time to set up other suppliers. If you rely on only one vendor and your product is coming out of Hong Kong or China, what happens during Chinese New Year when the supplier is closed for 8-10 business days. You can end up with a 10-week backorder. Sometimes low supply can create exciting demand if your force can sell it, but you don’t want to lose sales because you can’t fill your orders. Create clear communications and growth expectations with your vendors. If your sales are doubling every 30-45 days, you have to have a 30-90 day plan. You need to plan ahead for things like phone systems, computers, etc. You will outgrow them. One company invested several hundred thousand dollars in computer systems every few months knowing that they would literally be throwing them out in 90 days.
|
