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One day you may find yourself taking on a new task.  This task may be completely out of your normal wheelhouse so to speak, but there are lots of ways to be more successful if you are found in charge of your companies shipping supplies. It sounds like it may be an annoying part of life checking inventory and keeping up with the trivial things like paper clips and tape, but it can be rewarding to take an area that many find tedious and make it a profitable part of the company.

First thing you want to do is keep amazing records. Look back and find out the cost of everything you are now in charge of.  This is key and it will not be a fun task but once its done its done.  I suggest going into an excel spreadsheet or sheets on google and creating a list of all items. Count quantity of them and find out how much they were paid for in the past. Then write them down and leave space on the sheet to add future prices and quantities.  Now that you know what you have and have paid for it you can move on to the next step.

Map out all the uses for your products.  If you know how many boxes you are shipping out each week start taking note of how much tape you use for the project. This is a way to understand the quantity of products you use on a weekly basis.  From here  you can now use the price you paid and the quantity you use and purchase the most efficient amount of product for the price.  It's a simple way to map out your budget and save money over time. It is possible you were purchasing tape in too low a quantity or in an amount that was not sufficient.  

Look for larger rolls and higher quantity to match the amount of tape you will use in the future. This means you can show that you have saved money on shipping supplies and made yourself more valuable to the company.  Knowledge in this case is true power.  It will take time to get all these processes down. Understanding the amount of product used means asking lots of questions and keeping studious records. So next time you find yourself in control of things you think may be small and not important, turn that frown upside down and make yourself valuable.