For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
Small things make a big difference during challenging, trouble times.
Look, we all know these are challenging economic times. I don’t need to remind you of that. Sometimes, however, when we are challenged personally, we understandably overlook the larger challenges that surround us. In other words, while you feel alone in your struggles, you would often be shocked to learn of others around you struggling as much or more.
TamPogo exists to help you in the struggle to recover economically and to grow personally and financially. Nothing worthwhile in life comes easy and I know you understand that. But what you might not understand is how deep the problems around you actually are. I wanted to outline a case in point to help you understand the depth of the economic problems you are working so hard to overcome. You might be surprised to know what I am about to tell you was actually new information to me as well.
My case in point involves manufacturing consumer goods. Manufacturing consumer goods is a very vertical enterprise. Graphically represented it looks like this: End User (You) -> Seller (TamPogo) -> Manufacturer (FDA register facility) -> Materials and Ingredients suppliers (i.e. bottles, lids, capsules, nutrients) -> Materials and Ingredient Distributors -> Material Manufacturers, Ingredient importers and manufacturers and plastic extruders.
In words, you work hard and struggle to make ends meet and purchase one or more products that you hope will improve your health or quality of life. At TamPogo we try to make the best products available to you at the lowest price which often means we need to have it made. To make a product, we send the specific formula we want made to an FDA registered supplement and/or pharmaceutical manufacturing plant. The manufacturing plant purchases the raw ingredients from nutrient distributors, tests them, blends them, puts them in a capsule or liquid form, bottles them and labels them, etc. They also purchase the capsules from capsule makers, bottles from bottle distributors and lids from lid distributors. The nutrient distributors purchase the ingredients from importers or direct ingredient manufacturers, the bottle distributors purchase the bottles from plastic extruders and the lid distributors purchase lids from lid manufacturing plants.
In the past, this was a fairly predictable and controllable process, often taking 4-6 weeks to complete. I would make an order and a month or more later it would show up at the door with a bill giving me 30-60 days credit to pay. But we are not living in the past; we are living in the economic challenging times of 2010. And here is how the process has changed, much of which is to my recent shock!!
When TamPogo orders a product it provides the manufacturer with the customary 50% down that troubled times require. The remaining 50% is due on shipment. After all, in today’s economic times there is no such thing as credit!
But to my shock, here is what is happening. And it seems to be universal. In the due course of making all the products that we make, we deal with a half dozen or more of the top manufacturers, virtually all of the most reputable ingredient and material distributors who in turn deal with the top manufacturers and importers. These are the crème de la crème of American producers and suppliers. So when I say it’s universal, I mean universal to even the best of the best.
What is actually happening TODAY is that the manufacturing facility gets paid their large down payment and may or may not purchase the ingredients and supplies immediately, based on other bills which may need to be paid as a result of less orders, retracted commercial credit, escalating fixed costs, etc. When they make their purchases, either eventually or immediately, the distributors often have no inventory to supply the order for many of the same reasons. Shipping those orders must wait until they pay their manufacturers and importers to receive the product they need to forward. You get the picture – a wild pack of variable wait times and few scheduling truths.
What I discovered in this past week in nutrition and skin care is happening in many different product niches. The steps that in good times seemed so small are actually conspiring to keep the troubled economy down. The longer it takes to receive inventory, the less products are consumed and the lower the total sales volume is – fueling continued downturns in the economy. A perfect example of the little proverb I cited above. For want of the nail, the war is being lost.
We won’t let that happen at TamPogo. Our business model is a solution to many of the economic problems the world faces. We have covered that before. But now TamPogo needs to become more – and it will. I have personally stepped in last week to begin pre-purchasing huge amounts of raw materials, bottles, etc. and supply the distributors and manufacturers, even publically traded ones, so that we are no longer a victim the cycle that we described above. While my solving the vertical material madness that plagues manufacturing today isn’t feasible across the globe, it is for our nutrition and skin care business. This move should eliminate back orders over a very short period and allow us to introduce more products faster.
(FOR FURTER INFORMATION ABOUT TamPogo contact Lee at http://www.tampogo.com/default.asp?RepID=28673&RepName=ELH%20Global,%20LLC or
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