[dsr_]

There's always room at the bottom in logistics and scheduling. Find a local business that currently depends on guesswork, intuition and experience in managing their inventory or supplies or other shipments. Every bakery and independent pizza shop has point-of-sale software now, but how many have back-end software that reads the sales figures and can tell them to order [sugar, flour, cheese] before they run out? Even better if it looks back at previous years and suggests appropriate increases for holidays, school graduations and similar periodic events.

Once you've got the structure and interface right, start customizing according to requirements. Does a rural area run on delivered kerosene and propane? Schedule deliveries to customers according to the local temperatures and a per-client adjustment reflecting their historical usage.

Most of all, make it easy and obvious for your clients to use every day. Talk to them about their professional networks -- is there a forum or a mailing list where they discuss the business side? Get mentioned, get recommended. Be easy to talk to.

[esperent]

> Every bakery and independent pizza shop has point-of-sale software now, but how many have back-end software that reads the sales figures and can tell them to order [sugar, flour, cheese] before they run out?

Huh, I basically just spent my entire week working on this for our bakery (and the last 6 months on other software and systems like recipe management, team messaging, online sales, social marketing and more). We're using Odoo which has a lot of the pieces already there, I need need to write a few custom modules to link them up and make them bakery specific.

While I've been doing this, I've been thinking about how most small businesses couldn't do this. Partly technical know-how. But on a deeper level, they wouldn't even think about it, because a lot of people who run small businesses like bakeries are not technical and don't want to be and they can't afford to hire someone who is. And I've been wondering how to solve that problem - or if I'd want to, because as you say, it's not a million dollar idea. But it is an empowering idea for small businesses everywhere.

[colechristensen]

Does it need to be solved? There’s usually just a person or two handling ordering and they usually know the business better than software is going to.

[ezl]

Can you share more about what you've built? I've got a bakery in Chicago and I'd love to learn more about the things you're building. Contact info in my profile.

[ozim]

Not to say that small businesses cheat on taxes always … but quite often they don’t want their stock to be accurately counted.

[esperent]

You're not wrong. And I think for very small businesses this is fine, maybe even necessary.

I guess I'm talking about one step above that, for example when a business grows beyond a single shop with just a couple of staff. At this point the you'll have an accountant and pos software and so on and inaccurately reporting stock or sales would actually take quite a bit of effort. Your staff would have to be in on it, for example. And staff that know you are dishonest are more likely to decide that they can be dishonest too, after all if the business is cheating the government surely it's ok if they cheat the business just a little bit? Overall I think it's not worth it and it's not the kind of business we want to run. I'd rather find extra efficiency elsewhere.

[PTcartelsLOL]

You hit the nail right in the head...

[justansite]

You should check out Toast and Xtrachef.

[esperent]

We are only using software that allows all data to stay on our own servers. Open source if possible.

[rdtwo]

A lot this business is penny wise dollar foolish. So it might be hard to get them cover your expenses.

[unsupp0rted]

Excellent suggestion. I'm doing exactly this now for a one-off client in consumer packaged goods and I'd like to productize this service.

If anybody non-technical is interested in partnering with me (technical) on this, my forwarding email's in my profile.

[kristianp]

The bakery reminds me of my annoyance at a local bakery that often runs out of wholemeal bread by 11am or midday. Don't they realise that if people don't get the product they want when they want it, they'll go elsewhere?

[dsr_]

Note that by definition, they sold all that they made.

It could be that efficiency -- usually oven space or mixer capacity -- causes them to make it in lots of, say, 50 loaves. If they make one lot and sell out, they make two lots -- but if the second lot doesn't sell out, they go back to making one lot a day. Better to be in demand than taking a loss on unsold product.

[mgkimsal]

The psychological impact of scarcity probably continues to help the daily ru not always sell out.