All your marketing efforts are working and business is starting to take off. Great! Then suddenly you find yourself unable to deliver what you promised. One of your suppliers has slipped and fallen on hard economic times and is no longer in business or cannot sustain the required flow of resources.
Keep an eye on the world behind you, especially those resources that you use to produce products for your customers. Resources aren’t just raw materials, but also your copywriter, graphic designer, printing company, the distributor who supplies your raw materials, or even the company that transports your products to your customer. When the person or company you’re relying on to get the job done suddenly disappears, make no mistake about it, it’s going to impact your business.
Nick Zubko of Industry Week wrote a great piece, 10 Warning Signs of a Supplier in Peril. This isn’t a fluffy concept to be vaguely aware of, but one impacting businesses around the globe. A business within my industry (too close to home) just went under when they were unable to source a reliable supplier due to changes in transportation requirements. Suddenly they were unable to deliver product to their customers.
If you’re in a highly specialized field with few suppliers, a suddenly lost resource will be even more troublesome. If you lose your supply resources, you’re dead in the water. Period.
As my driving and flight instructors said, “keep your head and eyes moving.” Know what’s going on around you. Make sure you’re communicating with your suppliers to keep abreast of their economic situation. Keep that 360 degree view in mind so that you can identify and react to a situation quickly … before it’s too late.
Photo Credit: Gaetan Lee on flickr
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