HOW TO PREPARE FOR AN UNEXPECTED INCREASE IN SALES

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As a business owner, it is your sole responsibility to prepare for any possible scenario. Your business might experience an unexpected growth in sales especially if your products are useful in certain seasons and times of the year or your business recently became a viral hit and sensation. While high volume in sales can be really exciting, it can make you a one hit wonder if you don't prepare and manage it properly. So here are ways to prepare for that dramatic increase in sales.

PLAN AHEAD

As a good entrepreneur, you should know your business so well and this includes knowing the capacity of your employees. Ask yourself how your employees will react if there is a sudden increase in sales probably by 50% or by 100%, this will help you know for sure what you need should sales drastically increases. Then, have a logistic plan for increase in sales or decline in sales, ensure that your plan works for both scenarios. If you are unsure on what and how to come up with a plan, talk to a professional business consultant to help you out..

CONSIDER YOUR BACK END

Find out if your website can handle the traffic that comes with the increase. Most entrepreneurs tend to over look this until when sales begin and customers starts dropping negative reviews, now they will be forced to shut down for a while to work on the website which will cost them the profit that could have been made during the lost time. This is most important if you run an E commerce business. Prepare your back end for an unexpected increase in sales.. Also make sure you have an invoice system that will work if sales increase.

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX

Successful entrepreneurs are known for their creativity. So think of ways to keep your customers happy. One of the ways to make customers happy is a speedy delivery and a considerable return policy. So when sales and orders increase, hire fleet vehicles that will help you deliver speedily if you deliver locally, while you wait to see if sales will continue at this rate or return to the normal rate then you can go ahead and purchase new vehicles if the sales continue at that rate.

Also while watching this new increase in sales, you can decide to outsource to help you deal with the crazy sales..

BE PREPARED TO WORK OVERTIME

Because no one can predict the future, it will be difficult to know when this sales will come, hence hiring extra hands within such a short time can be challenging. Be prepared to pay your employees for extra hours. Most employees are ready to work for extra cash besides time is money. Don't be in a hurry to increase your work force when you don't know if this sales increase is temporary, instead Let your employees work extra time while you watch the sales. Also this will also help you know how your employees respond to pressure.

CONSIDER TEMPORARY WORKERS

If the sales are just to much for your current work force and you are unsure of how long it will last, then consider hiring temporary employees. They will understand that the job is on a temporary basis. There are hiring services and websites to help you with the hiring process, you can opt in for them.

Doing these 5 things can help you prepare for that unexpected increase in sales, in order to maximize the period for the long term success of your business.