Day 70 - The First Audits

In my last Blog entry I discussed the signing of my first new client, well 10 days later I have completed my first 2 audits with the client and I am surprised to say everything went rather smoothly. The first 15 minutes were a bit intense as the owner sat and watched as began weighing bottles (for the first time in a new client). I was able to complete the first baseline inventory in under 3 hours for a moderate size bar and didn’t come across any real hiccups. After completing the second audit no significant issues were identified and proofing of the report also went smoothly. I have a bit of work to do with the management to ensure I receive all of the necessary paperwork (invoices, sales etc) to fill in a few noticeable gaps, but all and all it was a success. The biggest shocker that you don’t really get to experience during the in-class training is data entry of the recipes. My new client has an extensive martini list with over 400 different recipes in total which required a significant amount of upfront work to get the client up and going the first audit. This really emphasizes the critical nature of qualifying prospects before signing them up as a client. If you think they are not a good fit as a long term client, you might be better to pass up on the short term opportunity.......which is tough to do when you are just starting out, but is a necessary evil in my opinion.