As a small business owner, you might be on the fence about investing in a scale, especially when there are so many varieties available. We’ll discuss the many ways a scale is a business essential, from inventory to quality control.
Inventory
It’s a common misconception that small businesses can worry less about tracking inventory. In reality, inventory management is especially important for small businesses, because every product counts. However, it can be difficult, not to mention exhausting, to count all your raw materials and finished products. That’s where scales come in!
A counting scale like Adam’s is a fast, efficient way to keep track of your inventory. After weighing a small sample size, you can pile on identical parts or products for your CCT to count. No more hand-counting small screws or bolts for your hardware store, or packets of clasps for your craft supply store! You’ll get a final number quicker and more accurately with a counting scale. If you want a way to keep a record of each count, Adam's weigh, count and print a label with customisable info, like a barcode, QR code, counting results and more.
Product Look Ups
Once your counting scale has calculated the sample weight, you can store that result in the scale’s memory as a Product Look-Up, or PLU. This way, you don’t have to sample the same product repeatedly – simply enter in the PLU number to recall the sample weight and begin counting. Adam’s Cruiser CCT offers 100 PLU values.
Packing Orders
If your business fulfills online or bulk orders, counting scales are also an excellent way to pack for shipment. Small businesses often depend on word-of-mouth and good reviews for success, so it’s important to build a reputation of integrity by ensuring that customers get exactly what they paid for, no more and no less.
Selling By Weight
If your small business sells products by weight, such as farmers market stall selling fresh fruits and vegetables by the kilogram, you’ll need to have a trade-approved scale on hand. This is required by law – many a business have been heavily fined for not using a trade approved scale.
You can use any scale that’s trade approved. However, there are a few, like Adam’s , that are designed to help make weight pricing easier. In fact, once it has all the info necessary stored in its memory, it will actively calculate the price to pay for your customer on your behalf! Swift boasts a full numeric keypad, three displays for the total weight, unit price and total price to pay as well as 161 PLUs. Our blog takes a deep dive into the differences between legal-for-trade and price computing scales here.
Estimating Shipping Prices
Shipping items from your small business can be stressful – the charges seem to go up every year. Having a scale on hand to estimate or calculate shipping prices is crucial. Adam Equipment’s is an excellent option. With three different platform sizes and four different configurations, it accommodates products and shipment, large and small. The indicator is no-nonsense and simple, letting you get the job done effectively.
For extra large shipments involving pallets, Adam’s are ideal, with three different platform sizes and capacities up to 4500kg. Plus, PT platforms come with your choice of seven different indicators, from counting to washdown to label printers, so you get a customisable experience. If you have a warehouse for storing products, you can weigh and transport products simultaneously with Adam's !
Quality Control
Whether your products are handmade or manufactured, scales are a valuable form of quality control. For example, for a ceramicist selling wares, a compact scale like Adam’s or helps ensure that each mug, bowl, plate or vase are a consistent weight from one to another. This helps prevent wasting clay and helps achieve a uniform look between products
Similarly, a candlemaker can use a scale to measure how much wax and fragrance they’re using for each candle. Weight is an important indication of quality (and heft is typically associated with value) so using a scale is an easy way to step up your small business game.
For ventures involving more extensive manufacturing, scales can be used at various stages of the production process to ensure each component weighs what it should.
Checkweighing scales like Adam's or are particularly helpful for quality control. You can set high and low weight limits and the colour-changing display will shift based on whether the item on the pan is above (red), below (yellow) or within (green) your tolerances.
Need help deciding which scale is right for your small business? Contact the Adam team, we’re happy to help.
