Setup a suppliers list

Over the years I've needed to engage a lot of suppliers to either support or improve my business. Every SME needs the basic necessities such as an Accountant, office consumables supplier and telecomms provider. You're unlikely to forget these providers.

However, there are often more obscure needs such as a Contracts or Intellectual Property Lawyer that you may need to engage on an ad hoc basis. You could keep a pile of business cards, but in my experience, you tend not to remember who didn't return a phone call or who provided poor advice 18 months ago. You could throw away the business cards of these 'black-listed' providers, but you are throwing away valuable corporate knowledge.

For example, you may accidently re-engage one of these 'rejected' suppliers when you find their beautiful 1/4 page ad in the local paper and not remember your past experience with them until it's too late. So I strongly recommend you make a simple list. I suggest in table format using either Word or Excel (recommended because you can turn on sorting and filtering).

The basic supplier list components are as follows:

• Service type
• Supplier name
• Key contact name
• Address - physical
• Address - postal
• Phone number - Office
• Fax number - Office
• Phone number - Key contact
• Mobile number - Key contact
• Website.

If you've read my post on outsourcing (In My Humble Opinion, SMEs should... Outsource non-core activities), your list will grow pretty quickly in the first few months.

Related posts:

• Performance manage their suppliers
• Share their suppliers list
• Track all contacts with customers and suppliers
• Setup non-suppliers lists.