Business Tips For Perishable Goods Vendors

Good day people. It's been a while. How are you doing? How is the business?

In keeping with my promise of sharing the business tips I'm learning, I'll like to share some of my learnings while marketing pre-packed eggs.

I was (and still am) very convinced that God led me to start marketing the eggs. I was laying on my bed one Saturday when the Holy Spirit sent me to the kitchen and opened my eyes to the opportunity. Like Apostle Paul, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. I quickly made the necessary contacts. I will write about customer service in my next article, by God's grace. The responsiveness of the organization will be part of what will be reviewed in that article. All I can say here is that they are not shining examples in that regard.

I had done some back of the envelope calculations and concluded that the pack of 15 was most profitable to market. However, one of my business partners recommended that we get all the sizes and test the market response to all. So, we ordered 20 cartons (at competitive prices, of course). I was able to convince the supplier to deliver 10 cartons each in 2 installments, instead of supplying all at once. I had fantastic plans on how to quickly sell the eggs. The plan was to supply a sizeable number of the eggs to supermarkets and stores around. I was quite sure I could supply to them at competitive prices so I didn't sample opinions before asking the supplier to deliver the eggs.

The supplier had mentioned what they called "Recommended Retail Prices" but after a couple of unanswered requests, I stopped asking for that information. I came up with my price list.

Selling the first 10 cartons of eggs turned out to be more challenging than I envisaged. First of all, many of the supermarkets and stores I had ASSUMED would jump at my offer actually had other suppliers or were badly burnt by their previous experience with the particular brand I was marketing. I met a supermarket owner who had sworn not to stock that brand ever again.

Also, my business partners were not as enthusiastic as I was about the business for both valid and frivolous reasons. I had to have a frank talk with one of them and amazingly, the sales from that partner grew tremendously.

We were involved in a race against time. We had to get the eggs out to the final consumers in good enough time so that we wouldn't sell spoilt eggs to them. It was a HECTIC time for me. I would come back from work, say a quick hello to my people and head out to sell as much as I could of the eggs. I met the good and the 'not so good' types of customers. I think I'll write about the different kinds of customers and how I responded to them in another article. My suppliers were calling frequently to find out how many eggs I had liberated etc. Remember these were people I had challenges communicating with while planning for the business.

While I was engaged in all this 'hard work', I also submitted a proposal (including a price list) to a notable supermarket close to where I live. They already had a supplier but they received my proposal, anyway. It turned out that I was offering them the eggs at a cheaper price that their supplier was offering them (I wasn't selling below my cost price). I'll return to this soon.

Meanwhile, I had a meeting with myself and concluded that life couldn't be that hard, lol. I also decided to reduce the number of cartons I received from my suppliers, which meant that my cost price would be higher than I initially anticipated. I decided to give out the remaining eggs as a seed to the business. I used a few eggs to treat my hair (Please don't let me write about the fantastic diet that natural hair enjoys, lol).

I really wanted to quit the business but I remembered that one of my customers had paid me in advance for eggs to be supplied two weeks later. I also met a supermarket owner who encouraged me to keep at it. She collected some eggs and helped me sell some (God bless her heart). I also had some miraculous sales as I went out for my aggressive person-to-person marketing. One of the people I talked to about the eggs connected me to a community of consistent customers, though he didn't buy eggs from me.

I was on my way home one Friday evening when I received a text message from my dad asking me to call a certain number. I called him and he said he received a call from someone asking if we could supply eggs. His number is on the letterhead that I used for the proposal I submitted to the supermarket. I quickly called the supermarket and they asked if I could supply 5 cartons of eggs the next day. My suppliers require 72 hours notice before a supply. I mentioned this BUT I also asked them to allow me check with my suppliers if there was something we could do. I spoke with my suppliers and they happened to be able to get 5 cartons close to where I stay. I had to meet them somewhere to receive it. Another concern was that the money I had with them could not cover for 5 cartons. I needed to pay and I couldn't go into the banking hall to fill a transfer form. I had serious trust issues with online banking, particularly ATM transfers as they issue no receipts. I was willing to risk it in this case.

I called back the supermarket and told them that I would make the supply. I also had to make my hair that Saturday. I had asked the lady to come as early as possible. I kept monitoring the driver of the supply vehicle as we were making the hair. We were about half-way done with the hair when I had to meet up with the driver of the supply van. He was still going to deliver elsewhere so we needed to get there as quickly as possible. I quickly pulled a wig over the half-made hair and cleaned up.

We met with the driver at a filling station and received the eggs. We took them straight to the supermarket. The store manager then asked me for an invoice. Invoi-gini? I quickly told him that I would get the invoice to him by Tuesday. He told me that they only pay on Tuesdays and Thursdays; that if I had submitted the invoice on Saturday, my cheque would have been ready on Tuesday. Thankfully, he asked what name to write on the cheque. I asked him to write my name. He then told me that they typically do not do that but he would make an exception for this case. He advised that I open an account for the business. I raised that with my dad and I can say that we've settled that.

I was so excited about this opportunity. Things were looking good. Life was (and still is) good. I had steady customers buying at fantastic prices; I had a mega supermarket that would potentially buy in large quantities. I was getting ready to start ordering in large quantities at competitive prices again. I had even submitted my proposal (with my price list again). Then I got the order that changed everything....

This story will be too long as one post. I'll post the concluding part as soon as possible. Meanwhile, please share in the comments what lessons you believe are worth learning from my story.