Every shop knows the season is coming. Far fewer know, item by item, what they sold last time, and that is the difference between a good season and an expensive one.
Start from last year, not from memory
What you remember selling and what you actually sold are different lists. Memory keeps the items that ran out and forgets the ones that sat.
Sales for the same weeks last year, item by item, is the only honest starting point. Adjust it for what you know has changed since, and buy against that.
Credit doubles too
It is not only stock that rises. Regular customers buy more and settle later, so the money out on khata climbs at exactly the moment you are paying suppliers for extra stock.
Know what your outstanding is before the season, not during it, and set limits while everybody is calm.
- Check outstanding balances before the season begins
- Agree limits in advance rather than at the counter
- Expect settlement to arrive after Eid, not during
The counter has to hold up
Whatever normally slows your billing will be four times worse in the last week. Items that are typed instead of scanned, prices that live in one person's head, a bill that cannot be held while a customer fetches one more thing.
Fix those before the season rather than during it. There is no time to learn anything new in the last week.
And plan for after
Seasonal stock that does not clear in its few weeks sits for a year. Decide in advance what you will discount and when, rather than discovering it in a corner next spring.
A clearance decision made in week three of the season recovers far more than one made in month three after it.
The shops that do well in a season are not the ones that bought most. They are the ones that knew what they sold last time.
