Your import and distribution business, as it exists in a capitalist economic environment will exert pressures on you, causing you to react and develop. How you cope and change with those pressures will determine how well you succeed. It’s helpful to start out by looking at the environment you currently occupy and how those pressures become primary motivators directing your business.

What is your current environment?

You probably operate in a crowded, highly-competitive market and you’re trying to grow and keep your supplier base by distinguishing yourself and gaining the advantage over the competition. At the same time, you’re trying to grow sales in your territory, usually at a rate determined by factors beyond your control. As an owner, you’ve made it your mission to make every supplier happy, even the little guys, while managing crushing goals from you largest suppliers. Fiscal responsibility (and probably your banker or investors) mandate that you keep gross profits up, while supplier pressures are pushing your margins down. Finally, you have to manage that largest repository of unavailable cash, your inventory, while suppliers keep urging you to carry more products.