In business, we all need to trade with other organisations to survive. To make, add to or deliver our products, it's vital we have these connections. In a recent poll on social media, we asked you "When trading, is it important to you, to work with local Manufacturers / Suppliers?" With the answers, "Yes", "No", "Don't mind". We did this because we are curious as to what other companies like to do, different things work for different industries and for a number of reasons.
The results are interesting! So keep reading to find out what they were!
It's great when companies have connections within other countries as it introduces new, fresh ideas & products to your business and its what helps us grow. The diversity really is something to embrace! But having close relationships overseas has its difficulties too as can sometimes mean less flexibility when trading & more time consuming! There can also be language barriers & time delays too.
We put this question out to all of you and the results are as follows:
100% of the people who participated in our poll said YES! Wow, that's interesting indeed! Clearly, working with local suppliers is preferred, and we think this is for several reasons. Such as, there really is nothing better than being able to physically meet the businesses you work with. It keeps the relationship fresh and often it's good to have face to face interactions to build the trust. At the end of the day, trust is the foundation that any good, long term relationship is based upon. Secondly, it can just be nice to support local firms! Thirdly, from a business perspective, lead-times for production and delivery are considerably reduced when the materials are coming from a local supplier. They do not encounter the lengthy delays other goods would from overseas or at customs. Similarly, if you are working to time constraints, in peak times of year or last minute jobs, the likelihood that a local supplier can deliver when you need is generally better than non-local firms. You can see there are lots of benefits!!
We are fortunate to offer both local & national trade being that we are American owned with branches in UK, China, USA & Australia! So we are essentially "local" to most businesses we trade with / or sell to, in one way or another, due to the global presence!
At the end of the day, we all trade with the companies that offers what we need at that time, regardless of where they are in the world, but hopefully this article has enlightened you on the positives and negatives of both!
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