You will want to limit all outgoings in your business, won’t you? It’s smart planning to get the best deal for all the services and supplies you need as you look to grow and be successful. This is clearly true but how often do you stop to consider if the least expensive option is the best deal? There are so many ways in which good value can be measured.
Cost In The Long Term
A clear indicator of value is how much use are you going to get out of an item? If we take the example of tools what is the expected working life of a machine or tool? You will need to gauge how any saving you would make on the purchase of an inexpensive brand would be offset against the expected lifetime of that tool. One way of assessing this is to look at the guarantees offered by the manufacturer, as if they are confident to offer a 5 year guarantee as opposed to a 12 month one this clearly shows a confidence in their items. Also check out reviews and word of mouth comments from trusted colleagues in your industry to see what are the preferred models. You usually get a better result and ease of use from better tools or machines as well.
Sustainability
If you do decide to go for a cheaper option, maybe a less known brand to save that up-front cost, what are the ongoing costs going to be compared to a more known and respected brand. By this we mean will parts and repairs be easily accessible or even available or possible at all. If you choose an obscure model or brand of equipment these costs can quickly add up over the years and not just in parts but you may have lost time due to delays in getting equipment back up and running. Or even some parts just can’t be sourced, this is an issue I have with my old motorcycle but wouldn’t want to deal with it at work as this means a costly replacing of the whole unit
Service Provided
It’s not just equipment that you should be aware of but also choosing a supplier of consumables it is not always the cheap option that is the best. In one of the businesses I was involved with we had one firm that would organise Emergency Oil Delivery anywhere in the country and quickly which was invaluable as sometimes if we had a need at a site where we had workers waiting to begin and they would always get it there on time, and if we went with a cheap budget firm any saving was often pointless as it was overshadowed by the cost of lost time.
Good Relationship That Can Create New Business
If you have a good relationship with a supplier then it can act as a form of business networking as if you are known as a good customer with them then they will most likely recommend you if they hear of someone looking for a firm with your expertise. This is the kind of business relationship that is lost when you order from budget suppliers who are just interested in shipping as many units as possible, it’s key to see that when there are a multitude of businesses in one area how this helps the local economy.
