Signing up with Stens

[StarTech]

Patience is key when starting a new vendor. You got learn their system of doing things and the carriers too. Here most of my deliveries are just two days out though as Bert said a different delivery area it would be one day on half of my orders. UPS here in my zone does things strange at times like sending things from Chattanooga to Nashville and then back a third of the way to Tullahoma. This adds a day's delivery. Every once a while a package gets miss routed and ends up in Memphis. Of course that adds an extra day.

I can't fuss; however, because an one to three days is still way better than the one to weeks that I had when I first started back in 2009.

Mentioning freight costs. I just place an order last week with one of my vendors that had free shipping because of the amount of the order. They shipped out of three warehouses and they posted the freight charges before crediting the account. it was $45 on a $200 order. I sure that was the retail rate and that they got a volume discount rate. It did give me an idea what some of freight charges would be if I placed a smaller order. With this heads up I will probably place the smaller orders thru other vendors that lower freight charges.

PT, I would recommend if you can set up a small in house inventory of your most commonly used items through you may already have. This way you can take advantage of being being able to place larger free shipping orders plus have a better turn around time for your customers.

Using a computerized inventory program stock item in different bins and have the system keep track of which bins you put items in. Here I use Adminsoft with Auto Manager. It is well supported free program out of the UK though I did register my version last year. I kinda need it here as I have currently have about $25K in part on hand and they are in about 20 different main bin with smaller bin in each of those bins. The inventory database currently have over 750K in SKU number imported into it so pricing is pretty much done for me now if order from the respective vendors. Mike admitted that I am the only that has this volume SKUs in the inventory in system. At first I had a lot importing problems mainly due the way the system was doing imports but working with Mike he got it down to 30 minutes or less for 150K lines of SKU data importing. Now there is a few minor problems but the import file can be edited to remove these prior to imports. I admit that this can take a few hours on my part but trying entering 150K SKUs updates by hand would take weeks if I ever tried it. I am too lazy for that because once a year takes me two weeks by myself.

Another nice thing about the program is that I can use it at different computers on my network. As I type here I am in my office and the shop is over 200 ft away. I can create work orders, check inventory, and invoice from either terminal. Sure saves a lot of walking especially of rainy days.

If interested checking this accounting software here is a link.

Adminsoft Accounting

 

[bertsmobile1]

Interesting.
I have around the same $ worth of inventory $ 60,000 ( Aus) as of July ( tax time ) last year .
Had hoped to be closer to $ 100,000 but the last 2 years of drought have made things slow .
The previous owner used to order what he needed for a job, then go on to the next & order those parts , then the next.
So if he did 20 jobs in a day he placed 20 orders .
My accountant was shocked as that makes it too easy for the tax man to audit your accounts and way too easy to find some job that you forgot to bank.

I place 1 order once a week from each supplier to replace what I have used from stock usually when I come across something I don't have.
That way I can spread the parts from a single job so they are coming from the cheaper / better supplier .
It sounds silly but that extra $ 2 on every 2nd or 3rd job adds up over a year to a healthy profit.

My parts are on open shelves according to type and where possible I buy in full boxes so the box becomes the parts bin.
The only parts I keep an inventory of are belts simply because there are near 500 of them now and they are just numbers .
However again the belts are stored in cartons sorted by width, then length then function so the 5/8 PTO belts are in one box & the 5/8 deck belts are in another.
To keep record of them I drew up a Filemaker database so I know what I have, who I bought it from , how much I paid for it & how much I sold it for & when I last bought & sold one .
I like using data bases rather than spreadsheets and the belt one has 5 layouts so I can see in an instant what information I need to know.
Got a job lot of about 100 clip boards really cheap and every job gets a card ( printed by me ) on a clip board so nothing that gets used gets forgotten when invoicing .
That way I no longer need to buy workshop tickets, a consumable item that you can not bill out & the customers feel thay are a person & not Job # 76231
The belt file is on an old laptop ( mac Wallstreet ) And I keep a back up copy of all the IPL's downloaded on another old laptop, (Mac Lombard ) which is also kept in the workshop so it stays clean & it is real handy to show customers what I need to replace.

 

[StarTech]

Everybody needs are different. Here I actually reduce my inventory down somewhat it was 35K. That is because of the one to two delivery of most parts now. No real need for a huge stock of parts anymore.

Now common items like belts I do stock extra as it just makes sense as not be wasting money on shipping just one when two just as cheap to ship in. I did however got caught with about 1000 usd worth of aftermarket belts that were 1" plus shorter than the specs and ended up having to dump those plus dumped that vendor too. I ended up having buying a v-belt measuring tool with a couple extensions to check all the new as they come in especially if I order an after market belt. One of the best 200 usd I spent as it save a lot time.

As far storing openly that can be a problem it mice get into things. That's why I use plastic bins with lids. I had the mice to chew into cardboard boxes before. I lost a couple thousand in laser toner cartridges once because the mice chew in from the back of the boxes out of sight. All I could do was take them to the dump.

I agree that we all need extra backups of our work files. A good portion of my files are backup on Google and One Drives especially those I have made notes in.

Bert I do recommend you check out the program I mention as it might be of help cut down the number of paper records you need. There is a lot details that can be stored in its databases. Now everyone got their own system of doing things so what works best is what you should go with. It just that I got into the ground floor of personal computers back '82 and seen it very useful for shop records. Back then there was no software other than programs like dBase.

 

[bertsmobile1]

I will have a look at it .
I like paper and a 2B clutch pencil.
I really do not keep all that many records.
The jobs go in a triplicate day book and the top copy becomes the customers invoice.
When I get paid the 2nd copy becomes their receipt & makes it really easy to see if I have outstanding payments due because the first & second copies are white while the final is buff
The work sheets come in real handy & I file them by customer name when the job is finished.
My big problem is space so having 20 mowers in here waiting for parts to come in is a problem.
As for mice I now have 2 workshop cats that get locked in the workshop overnight and only ever feed in the morning.
No mice in my shed and the workshop is on a farm where there are times the fields turn mouse grey.

The local parts suppliers only keep fast moving stock and Briggs in particular can take 2 weeks to fill very common orders.
Any OEM part is going to take a week minimum unless it comes from one of my wholesalers and parts for any mower over 10 years old come from Jacks Small Engines or Pro Parts Direct int the USA so they will be 3 weeks.
Most carb parts come from Combustion Tech Services in Honk Kong and their delivery time is 10 days .
Stihl will only do a single free delivery to their dealers per month so genuine Stihl pars will take 1/2 a day ringing around to see who is about to place an order.
MTD has stopped free delivery to their dealers unless it piggy backs on whole goods so they add a $ 15 courier fee on every order.
Toro will be 4 days and on it goes.
So I started by ordering 2 of every part I replaced .
Back then & that was only 6 years ago I could easily add a 100% mark up but there are so many back yard importers bringing parts in from China & selling on ebay for less than my wholesale now days I am down to 30% -50% mark ups.
They were also good years so it was high turn over thus the inventory grew very quickly.
I snagged all of the commercial mowing operators by doing overnight servicing & repairs so parts for their gear has to be in stock.
They pay a premium price for it but it is something only I do & they really don;t care as lost time on a job or rescheduling because a machine is not working costs them money.
Several of them have keys so they can come in a grab spares between 3am when a lot of them set out & 9 am when I get here & they really appreciate that as well.

All I have to do is convince the small customers to stop i here and ask me before they drive 12 miles into town to buy parts from the big box stored that I not only keep but retail for less.
But they are brainwashed by the TV advertising .
Stens give very generous discounts once your spend gets above $ 10,000 /pa but I just never quite got there.

 

[StarTech]

Wish I could say I am mouse free but the little monsters still sneak in during the day or try to chew they in at night. Traps are working but I got one lately that must be very sneaky as it keeps getting the trap bait off without tripping the trap. I don't what they did to poison here but it is nearly ineffective now. The mice is just getting fat on it. Must be those animal rights interfering again.

Sounds like your parts situation is much like mine was 10 yrs ago here. Hopes things improve somewhat. I too dealing with all the DYIers here which takes most of the easier jobs away. It is the harder repairs that I still get. Since I have been doing electrical/electronics repairs for 40 yrs I ran circles around most of the larger professional shops too. As far as distance a local shop that has parts in stock it is a minimum of 25 miles here so I have been getting customers that is checking with me before they go to town.

New customers like to bring in those near basket cases at first then once they get to know my workmanship they just bring everything. With this Corona virus I am expecting some turn down this year.

As far as commercial clients I only have few of them but they do get priority on repairs as they usually bring things in groups. Usually just before a big job they are planning to do and they went through pre-work equipment check ups. Now I do need to sleep and rest as I am now 60+ even though I since put in up 12 hrs a day for the business; I still got to do work around the home since I am single.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Well I am you 8 years older.
You really need to let nature work for you.
I HATE cats, they are destructive to nature .
However the landlord had a shed cat & that intrigued me .
So the cat got locked into the shed as dusk and just before she went to work she opened the door & fed the cat no more than it would eat in a single sitting.
That way It was happy right then and went off to sleep in the sun.
By the afternoon it is of course hungry again so when the shed door is opened it will come in hoping to be fed & gets about 1/4 cup of cat meat , not enough to fill it's belly so it will be hungry all night.
So nothing that moves inside will last the night .
When I moved in here , mice were a big problem as being field mice they were too small to trip a trap, even after I modified the triggers .
I tried all sorts of balance traps I found on the web but few worked.
Even harder was finding baits as again being field mice about the only thing they would take is fresh bread or seeds .
One month of the cat patrol and no more mice .
You should give it a try.
The local vet praises me when I take the cat in for it's shots as I have the only cat she sees that is not obese because most grossly overfeed their cats ( as well as themselves ) .
She is now seeing type 2 diabeties in cats and about 1/3 of her dogs are type 2 and that is all from overeating .
Remember we originally kept cats for exactly this reason to keep our food processing & storage facilities free from rodents , not to make funny cat videos .

Fixing mowers is not rocket science so I am happy for customers to DIY and will happily give them detailed instructions over the phone for free .
The problem is changing their mind set to buy the parts from me & not the big box or web which is why I under cut the biggest web retailer's price.
Selling parts is easy money and we use swing back blades here so they really need to be changed every year at best or two years at worst so the volume is good when I finally get it flowing fully.
It makes me a helpful member of the community & kills the "tieving tradesman" image that repair people have in general .
The shop 2 miles away sells whole goods, so I do not ( don't have the room anyway ) he sends his big labour jobs down here as he is $ 90 /hr against my $ 60/hr .
I send the customers that need new gear to him , we don't get on particularly well but we do go motorcycling together

 

[StarTech]

Don't know about that Bert. For some even getting out bed is rocket science, I think.

 

[Hammermechanicman]

Don't know about that Bert. For some even getting out bed is rocket science, I think.

Hey! I resemble that remark. I would be offended if i could spell it. ?

 

[BriggsMST]

Ive been dealing with Stens now for well over 4 years and they are a great company other than the above belt problems. I know if I order before 2 I will have my parts 9 times out of 10 the next day and its only because we have a Stens warehouse rather close to me. Its $150 order to receive free shipping. I also have an account with Power Distributors OEM Briggs and many others through Power Distributors. Dont get all crazy starting a pile of accounts because it gets a bit confusing. But it is good to have one or two back up accounts. I do order from Jacks Small Engine form time to time. You will start at a trade account at first but as time goes on according to the money you spend at each place your account will increase which means you cost goes down. Its a struggle i will promise you that but if you set goals and keep digging at it, be persistent and focused you should be ok. Good Luck, I know the exact situation your in.

 

[PTmowerMech]

Ive been dealing with Stens now for well over 4 years and they are a great company other than the above belt problems. I know if I order before 2 I will have my parts 9 times out of 10 the next day and its only because we have a Stens warehouse rather close to me. Its $150 order to receive free shipping. I also have an account with Power Distributors OEM Briggs and many others through Power Distributors. Dont get all crazy starting a pile of accounts because it gets a bit confusing. But it is good to have one or two back up accounts. I do order from Jacks Small Engine form time to time. You will start at a trade account at first but as time goes on according to the money you spend at each place your account will increase which means you cost goes down. Its a struggle i will promise you that but if you set goals and keep digging at it, be persistent and focused you should be ok. Good Luck, I know the exact situation your in.

Everything can be a little over whelming at times. Being backed up on work, waiting on parts, and doing everything yourself (including the secretary work, pick up and delivery guy, stock boy, etc etc etc).
Just about the time you get real backed up and confused, someone brings in some tar baby that I either can't figure out. Or can't get parts for.