1. Gather your leadership team
The first things entrepreneurs can do is gather a team of leaders from sales, purchasing, production, logistics and financing to give alignment, prioritize and ensure operations can continue during the crisis or restart once it is over.
2. Determine the level of demand for every product
Next, key customers need to be contacted to determine their needs in the coming weeks.
This will create a forecast of expected sales, which will inform your inventory purchases as well as your cash flow forecast.
Lajevardi says another result of this exercise should be a simplification of your product range. “Instead of making 10 different versions of 10 things, with limited inventory, pick five products and focus on those for the short term.”
3. How much inventory do I have on hand?
The next order of business should be to look at your current inventory levels for various types of goods:
- finished goods
- work in progress (WIP)
- raw material and inventory that’s ready to be transformed