I’m in the home stretch of the gift-giving preparations, and I’m laughing – and frustrated – by the state of my holiday “assets.”
I thought I had a firm grip on what I had on hand, where I had things stored, what I needed, how much I needed, what I could get, and when.
I was wrong.
Supply chain issues being what they are right now, I found out that I couldn’t get certain items delivered to me when I expected them – and I needed to ship gifts out earlier than I had thought (a lot earlier).
And that grip on what I already had? Again, I was wrong.
Does any of this sound familiar? I’m finding myself personally in the same boat as many of our clients have their own assets.
Our organizations – and households – all have assets. We need these items to do the things that we need and want to do. But if we don’t have them (or can’t find them) when we need them, stress and unnecessary spending naturally follow.
Knowing what we have and where we have it may seem so much less important than understanding our sales pipelines or our production schedules. But just as those areas represent time and money to your team – your assets do too.
Every time an asset is misplaced, is lost, is unavailable – it costs you money – and likely time too. My gift-giving efforts actually offer some good examples:
- I had a gift for my Uncle that I purchased last summer. I have no idea where I put it. I spent a couple of hours looking for it. I finally gave up & bought something else for him. This cost me time, an unplanned spend – and my good mood.
- I couldn’t get the materials for the handmade gifts I planned to make in time actually to make them. So I quickly made an alternate plan for holiday treats, estimated what I would need, and got cooking. The chocolate I had on hand was past its prime – so I needed to replace it. I WAY overestimated the amount of chocolate required. Now I have an extra 5 lbs. of white chocolate, I spent more money than I needed to & I now need to find a place to store it all (& then use it while it is still good).
- I was sure I had purchased four gift cards that were going into the packages to be shipped. I found three. After I looked everywhere they could have been, I finally checked the receipt, and it showed I purchased three – not four. So on the way to ship my packages, I needed to work in an extra stop and get one more card. So more time, money (and gas) was spent.
Every time you have an unplanned purchase, it costs you money (of course) – and it also costs you the time it takes to order, receive, and deploy the item.
Other costs add up too:
- Opportunity costs – what can’t get done or can’t be delivered because you can’t find needed assets?
- Licensing costs – how many software licenses are you renewing and maintaining on laptops you can’t find?
- Insurance costs – how much money are you spending insuring items that aren’t in use – or possibly usable right now?
All of these items add up – and up and up. So while you may think that tracking your assets isn’t that important, if you truly looked at what your lack of visibility on these things costs you – you might change your mind.
As we head into the new year, think about increasing the visibility of your assets – and saving your team a significant amount of time and money. Our mobilePLUS solution will pay for itself in your first asset inventory – and continue that savings for years to come.
In the meantime, I’m going to try to figure out where I put Uncle Scott’s gift and what to do with a 5 lbs. chocolate stash. Any ideas?
