On Tue, 6 Nov 2012 15:58:37 -0500, "Mike Marlow"
wrote:

Leon wrote:
On 11/6/2012 10:28 AM, Mike Marlow wrote:


Leon - I don't think you understand the difference between cost and
margins - which is how businesses operate.


I understand and probably well enough to have run 3~4 businesses well
enough to retire at 40. I did not use generic spread sheets, I made
my own to tell me what I really wanted to know. ADP, our computer
company gave me "english" manuals so that I could get the computer to
produce reports that I wanted vs. what they were providing.


Leon - I do not dispute what you did in your career, I am only speaking to
the obvious which is coming through in what you are arguing in this thread.
You continue to go back to irrelevant points, and avoid the points presented
to you. There is no argument about the need to cover the cost of handling
materials. Never has been. The only point (as far as I recall...) is that
there is no benefit to the wholesaler/retailer in shipping by more expensive
methods. Has nothing to do with cost, profit, margin, spreadsheets, or
retirement.

FWIW, age 28 I was running a parts department for a large Oldsmobile
dealer. GM loved to send in their experts to analogize my purchased
from GM vs. outside suppliers of GM parts. My sales and GP were
growing 20~30 percent each year from the previous 5 that we had been
in business. Three weeks the GM experts spent analyzing my pricing
policy, purchases and from whom I was purchasing, shipping costs etc.

Day of reckoning with my boss and the dealer. It was suggested that I
decrease percentage of GP and pass the shipping cost straight on to
the customer with out mark up. This "might" increase sales.

So... you were marking up shipping costs? Well shame on you Leon.



Their words, other than that suggestion, that department is a
"screaming machine". They did not even suggest I buy more from them
than from the people that they sold to. Yes, I placed supplemental
stock orders from a company that they sold to and paid less for parts
than if I bought direct. I did loose return reserves to return
obsolete stock but it was also determined that my savings in
purchases were by far out weighing giving that up. My GM rep was
****ed because this 29 year old kid that had only been in the GM auto
business for 5 years seemed to know what he was doing.

Ok - so you did well. You should be commended for that. But - you are
still confusing handling with shipping, and now it seems you advocate
marking up shipping. Cannot agree with you on that. BTW - I won't bore you
with the sucesses of my career...


I'll not go into further details, promotions, and or other jobs but I
was pretty much successful from that point forward, till 40, then I
retired so to speak.

Retired is a word we all hold in personal definition. Depending upon our
needs, we can retire very early. Or... or we can call it retirement while
we do other things to bring in the cash we need to survive... And of
course - some can actually save/invest enough in the early years to
actually, really, truely retire very early.


Keep in mind that I have been out of that lime light for 18 years, I
may no longer use the correct terminology but I know how to make a
business grow, make a profit, and control expenses.

I do not suggest otherwise. Remember my point - there is a difference
between handling and shipping.

We were a small service center so for us UPS worked best. They
tracked everything so we could prove delivery ect. The other plus was
not being a huge company regularly shipping it meant somebody had to
take it to the post office, stand in line buy postage and be gone for
a minimum of 45 minutes. Some days there wasn't anyone available. Ran
into the same problem shipping hazardous materieals, dry lead acid
batteries to Alaska, someone had to take it to the airport and pack
it in front of an inspector. We started direct shipping from the
factory in Conneticut on those shipments. For a small business
generally you can't beat UPS. At least last time I worked in 2009.

Mike M