A customer who pays you is trusting that the product will arrive as promised. If your supplier lets you down, you let your customer down. Reliable supply is what allows a small business to keep its promises and grow. Online merchants and shop staff alike spend real time on sourcing, ordering and checking goods, so these habits matter for jobs too.
Where products come from
Your stock can come from different places:
- You make it yourself, such as soap, snacks or sewn clothes.
- A producer you know, such as a shea processing group, weavers or farmers.
- A wholesaler or market trader, such as a dealer in Tamale Central Market or Makola.
- A mix, such as buying fabric wholesale and paying a tailor to sew.
Each source has trade offs. Making it yourself gives you control but takes time. Buying from a wholesaler is quick but you control quality less.
Agree the terms clearly
Whenever you buy from someone else, agree these points before money changes hands:
- Quality: what good looks like. Show a sample and keep a photo of it.
- Quantity: how many items, and how many they can supply each week or month.
- Price: the cost per item, and whether it drops if you buy more.