Quick tips for small businesses

From Rob Kress, founder and CEO of supply chain solutions company Waypost Advisors:

• Diversify your supply base when you can.

• Implement best practices around your inventory: “Make sure you don’t have too much inventory or not enough of the right inventory,” Kress said.

• Consider foreign/free-trade zones, which are areas where goods may be stored, manufactured or re-exported and generally not subject to customs duty, or a bonded warehouse, a facility where imported goods may be stored or undergo manufacturing duty-free for up to five years.