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This article appeared in ‘The Australian’ newspaper a week or so ago and it contains some encouraging news for all in the kids and baby retail sector.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that things are looking good for independent retailers in the baby and children’s retail industry. This can now be backed up by data from independent research house IbisWorld, which found that parents spend a whopping $1.14 billion on clothing their children. The best news for small to medium enterprises is that the majority of this is spent at small independent stores and those supplying to them. IbisWorld research found that the children’s market is highly fragmented with only 30% being spent at big department stores like Target, Myer, Kmart and David Jones. Even the relatively big independents like Pumpkin Patch, Baby Bunting and OshKosh have only 1-2% of the market each.

Here is the article in full if you are interested: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25520314-5018019,00.html

It’s encouraging to see that there is at least one sector where smaller, niche business can not only survive but continue to thrive despite difficult economic times.

Cross Docks Australia have partnered with boutique children’s clothing label mila&milo to deliver benefits to the business.

Mila&milo specialises in importing and distributing premium quality Dutch clothing and accessories for children. When mila&milo first engaged the services of Cross Docks Australia, there were four major benefits we aimed to deliver:

BUY MORE TIME: More time to focus on core competency:
An understanding of operations is important, however mila&milo identified that it wasn’t their field of expertise. “Many business don’t anticipate how time intensive operations are”, says Cross Docks Australia’s Managing Director Shan Manickam. “It’s the time spent receiving stock, putting it away, picking orders, packing them up and sending off, that is to say nothing of storage costs, maintaining stock inventory and the cost of your own time to do this.” By outsourcing this aspect of the business to Cross Docks, mila&milo were able to focus on their core competencies of research, buying, fostering relationships with existing clients and developing new business, confident that the back end of the business was under control. We believe many small business people don’t value their time in performing these tasks, tasks we can do a lot more efficiently, thus allowing you to focus on expanding your business.

FITS LIKE A GLOVE: A tailored warehousing and distribution solution: On meeting with mila&milo, Cross Docks Australia’s first job was to ascertain the specific needs of their prospective client. Rather then fitting a square peg in a round hole, Cross Docks Australia developed a tailored solution to fit the growing needs of the business. Cross Docks Australia also offered warehouse growth capabilities with the space and flexibility to cater to fluctuating stock levels, seasonal variations or increased demand for stock.

KEEP IT SIMPLE: Simplifying the rate and streamlining costs: Of course great service is important but the vital thing was for mila&milo to achieve this within their logistics and warehousing budget. Cross Docks Australia offered mila&milo a fixed cost per unit arrangement which offers a simplified invoicing system and allows mila&milo to accurately predict what their logistics costs will be. This simple system improves budget forecasting and reduces the difficult and time-consuming process of deciphering what costs were for what service.

CONTROL AT THE TOUCH OF A BUTTON: Control and transparency of stock and stock movement Many businesspeople fear a loss of control when outsourcing a part of their business but with Cross Docks Australia, mila&milo were able to achieve constant visibility of their inventory and stock movement. With the RF (radio frequency) pick and pack system the data movement is visible through a web-based inventory system. This gives mila&milo real-time access to every detail of their stock and the ability to interface/integrate IT systems also decreases the double handling of data.

In the business of logistics and warehousing there is no product to sell; we instead rely on fostering strong client relationships and delivering the most efficient processes, resulting in unbeatable service. All of these ingredients are vital to a successful 3PL (third party logistics) business and go to the core of the Cross Docks Australia philosophy of being Professional, Proficient and Precise.

Who’s not busy now days? We are all busy, and as things get tougher we seem to get busier. But here’s the thing: Are we being truthful with ourselves? Is our time being spent doing things that is actively making money for our businesses or are we spending time doing things that would be done more efficiently by someone else?

Try this simple exercise:

1. List the 5-10 activities that occupy your time on any average day. List everything from answer calls, deal with suppliers, manage staff etc.
2. Asign the average time that you spend on each activity
3. Add up the total number of hours in your average day
4. Add up the hours in each day that you spend generating new sales and growing your business.
5. Divide point 4 above by point 3 above.

If the answer you get is less than 0.70 or 70%, then guess what? You are not spending enough time growing your business and you are spending too much time on task that should be done by someone else in your organisation.

Now try another simple activity. Use the list that you generated in point 1 above and then work out which non revenue generating activities can be performed by someone else in your organisation. If you don’t have the right people in your organisation that can perform these tasks then contract them out to a specialist, like an accountant, book keeper, or an IT specialist.

Finally, and here’s the great bit. Add up all of the hours that you would have created by delegating these tasks to the people who can most likely perform them more effeciently than you. Divide the current number of hours that you were dedicating to growing your business by the number of hours that you have created. For example if you used to only spend 2 hours per day growing your business and you just created another 4 hours a day, then 2/4 = 2. This will be factor by which you will be able to increase your sales based on your past track history of hours converted to sales, i.e. 200% in this instance!!!

Sounds easy? Well it is really. The hardest thing is convincing yourself that there are often other people out there that can do these non revenue generating tasks better than you. Yes that’s right there are. And the beauty about that is once you recognise this then you will be able to grow your business.

A good friend of mine Joe Dorfman taught me this valuable lesson a number of years ago and I haven’t looked back. Here are his details if you are interested:

http://www.thepoweroffocus.com.au/

I wrote a post recently about how a Third Party Logistics provider (3PL) can help a business grow, and I received some comments by other Skout members who said they were in that position themselves, i.e. their business was booming after the Kids InStyle trade fair and taking orders almost to the point of bust and had they known about logistics service providers they could have really capitalized on the success of the trade fair. This got me thinking that many business owners looking to outsource would not really know what to look for and expect in a 3PL. Therefore this post should cover all the things you should look for in a 3PL to make sure you get an arrangement that is right for you.

Size. This is the most important one and there are many things to considern when it comes to the size of business you are partnering with. If you are a wholesaler selling to a relatively small number of stores then you want to find a 3PL that will be able to give you their full attention and ensure your business is prioritised. Many of the major 3PLs deal with some of the largest wholesalers and distributors in the country and as a smaller boutique company, if you enter into an arrangement with them you may find yourself simply falling to the bottom of their priority list.

Growth. You need to select your 3PL with a view for the future in mind. As a designer wholesaler you may start out only needing someone who can manage your small number of shipments but what happens when your business start to expand and or you release a new product that is wildly successful? Is your 3PL going to be able to handle that variation in size. Look for a 3PL who has a system in place to give you their full attention and service whilst allowing your business to grow over time and retain the same service.

Relationship. The relationship between your business and your chosen 3PL is very important to making it work. It should be an alliance between two businesses who want the same thing: the success of your business. It should not be a situation of two opposing forces contantly battling to get the results you want. When you are shopping around for a 3PL make sure you go meet the company directors and get a feel for the way they treat your business. You want to go for a provider shows that the focus is YOU. Someone who is interested in making your life easier and making sure that you are satisfied at every step of the way. Be sure that when you are looking for a 3PL, you avoid someone who just treats you as another faceless client instead of a valuable business partner.

Technology. When you are looking for a 3PL, many companies trying to get your business will throw lots of techno-babble at you in the hope that you be impressed. But really there are only a few things in your 3PLs tech systems that you need to look for to make sure your service is going to be hassle free. Firstly a good 3PL needs to have a system with open flow of information so that you are not left in the dark about what happen to your orders. You should have constant access to the data so you can track them from the time you pass them on to the 3PL until the time they reach the shops. Look for an energy and time efficient 3PL that uses radio-frequency scanning devices in their picking instead of ticking off a traditional paper pickslip. It means far less mistakes are made for one, but also it dramatically reduces the amount of paper wastage in the picking process. It is only a little thing but it separates the good from the best.

Experience. This is something that is hard to determine but generally you can see what you are going to get from a 3PL by looking at the experience in dealing with other companies like yours. Look for a 3PL that services other businessess that are roughly the same size as yours. Or even better a company that is familiar with businesses in your industry whether that’s kids clothing, toys, wine or whatever it may be. Find out who their current clients are and give them a call. They will let you know if the service they are getting is as good as they expected.