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Chad Rubin is an Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) member in New York and CEO of Think Crucial , which provides a convenient, affordable way to replace crucial items in your home. He’s also the founder of Skubana , a platform for multichannel brands and retailers that powers orders, inventory and business intelligence. We asked Chad what factors went into the decision to change from in-house warehousing to outsourcing this function. Here’s what he shared: Boxes tumbling off shelves. Hours hunched over inventory spreadsheets. OSHA compliance issues. This wasn’t how I envisioned spending my workdays! It all started with my parents’ vacuum cleaner store. I helped them establish an online presence–and tripled their order volume year-over-year . Building on that experience, I established my own direct-to-consumer brand, Think Crucial, which started to grow exponentially . However, our warehouse was crumbling under the workload. I spent more time trying to manage 30 warehouse employees than capitalizing on the momentum of our business growth. Our warehouse structure was no longer sustainable for scaling, so I made the critical decision to outsource fulfillment to a third-party logistics warehouse (3PL). Many brands run into these issues because they take the same approach I did: Launch your business with an in-house warehouse to get off the ground. Grow your business and generate profit. Expand to a 3PL to scale and reduce costs. The timing of the last step can be a challenge–most don’t realize they need to outsource fulfillment until their process is failing. Or, they won’t consider using a 3PL because they are so ingrained in inefficient practices that the transition becomes a daunting task. But proactively outsourcing fulfillment to a 3PL in the early stages of your business helps reduce overhead costs, provides a runway to scale, and most importantly, gives you back your […]