Over the years, I've seen too many ambitious dealer bosses with clear five-to-ten-year development plans, yet few succeed. Are all failures due to objective reasons or bad luck? No. Upon careful analysis, most stumble on foundation work. After all, a tall building rises from the ground; without a solid foundation, how can the upper structure be supported? Some dealer bosses might say, 'I've managed my company for over a decade, so my foundation work should be solid; I know every task with my eyes closed.' Fine, next I have some trivial but realistic questions for each boss to take a small self-test:

  1. How long does it take to conduct a thorough inventory count?
  2. Can you complete a full inventory count within two hours without prior notice?
  3. How far is the current warehouse management level from daily inventory checks?
  4. How quickly can a new loader become familiar with warehouse procedures? Is three days acceptable?
  5. How fast can the sales team replenish new sales personnel?
  6. How long does it take for a new salesperson to become basically familiar with the business and work independently?
  7. Does every position in the company have a complete job description?
  8. Are there contingency plans for various possible incidents (e.g., customer complaints and shipping errors)?
  9. How much time do back-office staff spend each day looking for things?
  10. Can you find files or items in the office within two minutes?
  11. How precise are customer files? Do they have more than fifty fields?
  12. Does the boss know each employee's specific tasks and schedule for the week and month?
  13. Does the boss know what work items each department is currently advancing?
  14. If a veteran employee suddenly resigns, can the impact on the company be eliminated within three days?
  15. Is there any theft of goods in the warehouse?
  16. Are there any fraudulent practices in employee expense reimbursements?
  17. Is there a systematic management system for external customer receivables? The questions listed above are the foundation work. They seem trivial and perhaps not on the same level as the grand ambitions bosses have in mind. Some bosses might disdain discussing such small matters, thinking it lowers their status. After all, big bosses should talk about big things. Dear bosses, as long as you are still in the trading business, don't forget that our business is built one box at a time, one outlet at a time. It is indeed trivial, but it is our foundation. We are not in the creative business where a concept can sell for money, nor are we in the investment business where a bet brings returns. Someone once said that dealers are just movers. That's right; the foundation of a dealer's business comes from selling goods box by box at the most basic level. Some bosses might think, 'So what if the foundation work isn't done well? My company has still grown this big, and business is getting bigger.' Indeed, most dealers' businesses expand year by year, but what about relative profit margins? Many dealers maintain a growth rate of over 30% in total performance, but does net profit grow correspondingly? Why does business get bigger but relative profit margins decline? Costs! Increased costs!! The rate of cost increase has even surpassed the rate of performance growth!!! How do these costs increase? It's in this foundation work. Every point mentioned earlier, if not done properly, becomes a small point of loss, consuming company assets daily and increasing operating costs daily. Perhaps a single point doesn't consume much—maybe just a few thousand yuan or ten to twenty thousand yuan a year—but when dozens or even hundreds of loss points are aggregated, it becomes a huge figure. This is why the cost increase rate exceeds the performance growth rate. In fact, among the dealers I've come into contact with, many waste more money each year than they earn. In summary, the transition from extensive to refined management, from focusing on front-end operations to balancing front and back ends, is an inevitable trend. Dear bosses, stop fantasizing about how easy business used to be; that's the past, and those days won't return. In future business, luck will play a smaller role, and rationality will play a larger one. Some bosses say business is hard; in fact, it's because their operational thinking and management systems have begun to detach from the current market context, making it difficult. Instead of complaining, calm down and do this foundation work bit by bit. Having started as a private business owner and managed a family-owned dealer company for many years, I have also served as a business manager and trainer in several manufacturing companies. My research focuses on internal management of small and medium-sized private enterprises, with main topics including personnel management, cost control, back-office setup, and the integration of demobilized military personnel into private enterprises. I have continuously broken down over 400 topics related to internal management of private enterprises and kept updating material collection and solution development. -END-