As a home stylist you have a creative talent. You understand space, textures and colours better than most and when a well styled property goes to market, you can really make a difference. But it’s important to remember that behind the creative you are running a furniture rental business. Having worked with home styling businesses of all sizes and attended industry conferences around the world, we have been given a unique insight into the results of good and bad inventory tracking. Whether your managing two hundred or two thousand items, there are three main reasons home stylists simply must catalogue their inventory.
1) You Cannot Manage What You Don’t Measure
As a home stylist, your assets are your furniture and each item has its own cost, value and potential. Your assets are only ever earning you money when they are inside a property and helping the homeowner achieve great results. If you don’t measure your inventory, how do you manage it?
As a comparison, consider how many successful banks don’t know exactly how much money they have on hand? Or exactly how much they have given to each one of their customers? Cataloguing your inventory only needs to happen once and you simply maintain your catalogue as you purchase new stock. Your data is yours to keep and will be with the business for life.
Business is a numbers game and you need to know your numbers. How many items you have, exactly where they are and the revenue you have made from each item is a must.
2) What’s your exit plan?
None of us know what the future holds. It may not be on your mind right now but it is important to consider – am I setting myself up for a successful exit? If you had to exit your business tomorrow for any circumstance, could you? Without an accurate inventory list and records of where your stock has been, it is hard to justify the value of your business.
A prospective business purchaser will evaluate how easy it is going to be for them to step in and run the business. If your inventory and systems are stored in your mind, and your leaving, you can expect the price of your business to be affected.
Viberent has worked with numerous styling businesses who have been able to successfully sell their business as a result of having a management system in place.
3) Time is Money
We are fortunate to live in a world that is connected. Advances in technology provides information quicker than ever and as a result, customers expect answers quickly. Needing to wait until your back in the warehouse and able to view your inventory to move a project forward can be the difference between providing exceptional service and not.
Viberents rental management system enables stagers to work anywhere, anytime and on any device. Style properties from the coffee shop or your couch bringing each room to life by flicking through photos of your available items. You can email quotes directly to your customers who can accept your terms and sign online! With just one click you can have your styling invoice waiting in your customers inbox or your picking slip ready for the warehouse team to start picking!
With Viberent you can spend less time on manual processes and more time bringing properties to life!!!
There is no time like the present to start cataloguing your inventory!