The money missing from your bank account could be sitting three feet away from you in a cardboard box.

Inventory is money wearing a barcode.

And some of it has been wearing that barcode way too long.

Paul and I have made this mistake in our own business.

A larger order gave us a better unit cost. The product had sold well before. We didn’t want to run out. On paper, buying more looked like the responsible thing to do.

Lower cost.

Plenty of inventory.

No awkward sold-out message.

Then sales moved more slowly than we expected.

The inventory didn’t look like a problem. It was clean, organized, paid for, and sitting nicely on the shelf.

But the cash was already gone.

That money couldn’t pay for payroll, advertising, faster-selling inventory, or the next opportunity.

That’s what we’re talking about in Day 19 of 30 Days to More Sales.

Because buying inventory at a good price isn’t necessarily the same thing as buying the right amount.

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL HEAR:

• Why too much inventory can feel safer than it really is
• What Paul and I learned after making a larger purchase to get a better unit cost
• Why a full shelf can hide a cash-flow problem
• The simple number that showed us we were carrying too much inventory
• Why retail value isn’t the number I want you using for this exercise
• How sales pace, lead time, seasonality, growth, and safety stock affect how much inventory you really need
• Why Amazon FBA inventory may need to be looked at separately from inventory shipping from your own warehouse
• What you can do when you discover too much cash sitting in one product

YOUR ONE CLEAR NEXT STEP

Choose one product that feels a little heavy.

Maybe you’ve had it longer than expected.

Maybe the shelf seems unusually full.

Maybe another purchase order is coming up and you’re not sure whether you really need it.

Look at how many units you have compared with how quickly customers are actually buying them.

Then ask:

How much inventory do we really need right now, and how much cash is sitting above that amount?

Don’t start by discounting the whole store.

And definitely don’t place another order just because that’s what you normally do.

Get the number first.

Then decide what that product needs.

GET THE FREE DOWNLOAD

Inventory Cash Map

I created the Inventory Cash Map so you can see how much cash may be tied up in one product.

It walks you through a completed example first, then gives you the formulas and a blank worksheet to calculate how much inventory you have, how much you actually need, and how much business cash may be sitting above your current target.

Get the Inventory Cash Map FREE here.

When you join, you’ll get access to all 30 FREE downloads that go along with the 30 Days to More Sales series.

30 DAYS TO MORE SALES

This is Day 19 of 30 Days to More Sales.

For 30 days, we’re looking at one place your product business could be losing sales and giving you one clear next step to fix it.

One problem. One fix. One clear next step.

Find all Product Biz Made Easy episodes here.

COMING NEXT

Day 20: Know the Monthly Sales Number Your Business Has to Hit

Tomorrow, we’re figuring out the sales number your business actually needs each month.

Not the number that sounds exciting.

Not the number you pulled out of the air at the beginning of the year.

The number your business needs to hit before the month starts doing what you need it to do.

Because a sales goal isn’t very useful if it has nothing to do with what the business actually has to cover.

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One problem. One fix. One clear next step.