Setting up a new business can be fun, challenging, tiring, and ultimately rewarding. One of the things I never realised was that I was going to end up with data everywhere!
So when setting up an online business there are a lot of things you are going to need to work out, and to track.
Postage
One of the first things I started to put together was all my information around postage. How much various vendors charged. What the cost would be to me. What the VAT I would have to charge was! However I then needed to drill down further to get a clearer picture. I also had to track how much an individual box would cost, packing materials, tape, paper, printing, and those funky little clear sticky bags that can hold your documents on the outside of the box.
Eventually this then moves on to when you actually post out purchases to customers. I needed to keep track of how much I charged, and how much of that was VAT etc.
Stock I want
I also discovered I needed to keep track of the various items of stock that I have put in orders for, but am waiting for the supplier to provide. With the business I am in (model kits with a specific focus on the Bandai Gunpla models) the manufacture and distribution is still massively outpaced by demand. Keeping track of this lets me update people on what may be coming in, and what I will be able to provide in the future.
Stock I have coming in
This covers stock I have coming from the distributor, and also stock I already have. I need to account for all those items, what I paid for them, and what I will be charging for them. I also need to know the width, height, length, and weight of all the items so that I can feed in to the postage. This stock information is kept in both a google sheets page, and in the main store.
Sale Information
I also need to keep track of all the sale information. Interestingly as woocommerce take their fee prior to the releasing of funds to the business account. I have to adjust the bookkeeping value for VAT to reflect the actual VAT taken at the point of sale.
Conclusion
Ultimately there will, undoubtedly be more data / information than you were likely expecting. But it is all part of the learning curve. I would still do it all again, maybe with a little more pre-planning, and with a lot more knowledge. However, it is still something well worth the time and investment.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. If you haven’t already done so please like and follow us on our social media platforms and checkout our website!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086701512793
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/modelkitsltd/
Website: https://modelkitsltd.co.uk
gundam #gundammodel #model #kit #gunpla