Month 3 – October 2012

One thing I noticed about most of the business project presentations last month was that they focused heavily on increasing total sales or gross profit margins. While I do understand that sales is the bread and butter of any type of business (especially in wholesale and distribution), I want to attack the other side of the coin.

I set up meetings with Sam, our purchasing agent, as well as John and Bernie who are buyers at other Hajoca branches. From them, I learned a lot about how we buy and each purchaser had his own little tricks and ways of doing things. I had worked a few different sales or sales related jobs in the past, but this was the first time I was getting direct exposure to the purchasing side of business. I think a common misconception is that buying is “easier” than selling. While the act of simply buying might be easier than selling something, it isn’t easy to buy well (i.e. obtain the best price, purchase optimal quantities, identify which items to stock, etc.)

Overall, the three meetings were quite eye-opening. I think I may have a pretty good idea of what I want to do with this information. I’ll write more about this next month, when I have a more concrete plan. And I would really like to thank Sam, John, and Bernie for all of their help.

Otherwise, everything is going well in the warehouse. I have a firm grasp of how things operate and I am ready to progress onto counter sales next month. Apparently the challenge of counter sales will be product knowledge as you’re often put on the spot to come up with a part or solution for the customer’s needs.