Goods Are Arriving, Now What?

Hi John,
I find your book is more and more helpful as I move forward in this process. Thank you.

One aspect I am having trouble with is finding a pick and pack warehouse. I have googled and called a number of companies and am having a hard time finding someone to take me on without $500-$1000 monthly minimum warehouse fees.

Our product is ceramic tableware and our initial order for the warehouse is about 11 CBM. We are shipping into Long Beach.

Any ideas?

Best,
Dave Harding
dave@inkdish.com

Click thru for answer...



Hey Dave,

The short answer is what do your competitors do? Do you have their catalogs so you can read their terms and conditions of sales (or review their websites?) the best approach is to copy them in terms and conditions. If they tend to say FOB Long Beach, then you are FOB Long Beach. If they say FOB Sparks, then you are FOB Sparks.

Many small businesses will start in their garage. 11 CBM is quite a bit as a starting minimum (I like the smallest minimums, and then do mini-deals over and over, avoiding volume deals. Safer and affordable.) 11 CBM will fill a wall in your garage.

I like Sparks Nevada, where you will find warehouses far more flexible, but you'd have to ship the goods 500 miles now.

So I see a bit of a problem, this should have been worked out by now (and could of, but I show how to do it perfectly, but life is more interesting than perfect.) None of this is fatal, just start studying how you will do it next time.

If you do not have a garage, rent one of those miniwarehouse places, 11 cbm will cost maybe 100/month and do it there...

Also, do yu have orders for all of this (I hope so...) wouldn't it all just be shipped out in a month or two? So $500 to $1000 and you never touch it? Are your margins sufficient to cover these costs?

Tell me more...

JOhn

.

Bookmark this post --- Email this post