Diversification is a word you hear bandied about in the sphere of financial management and on weekend talk shows, but it is also an important part of your business management. More particularly in the business of making concrete blocks, you must make sure that your outflow of product is not all concentrated in one or two places. Furthermore, it is wise to make sure that all of your orders are not coming from just one demographic. If, at the end of the month, you do your tally and see that the vast majority of your orders came from builders, you need to spread your impact out.
The way you do this is by targeted action. Remember, the key element in your business is keeping your block machines busy pumping out more quality concrete blocks. To do that, you want to spread out your demand base as wide as possible without spreading your fulfillment resources too thin. Mix in some retail locations, for whom you can supply a certain predetermined number and type of blocks per month. Have a few contractors that buy wholesale; this will give you the volume you need to keep the lights on. Remember that your volume business is not there to make a killing on, but to just pay for the day to day operation of your business. A good third option is to sell directly to retail customers. You will have to make sure that your retail outlets you do business with are far enough away not to sense your office as a threat to business. Everything needs to flow naturally back and forth; you refer leads to them and they to you.
In this way, you are spreading out your demand base, and helping ensure that, in a slump, you are prepared and not so exposed that if one of these downtimes comes, all of your business won’t vaporize overnight.
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