Irrespective of region, origin, industry, and size, there are a few things that nearly all businesses require and have in common. To start with, almost all businesses today, including small food businesses like food trucks and restaurants, are hinged on a strong foundation of contracts.
The New York food industry is booming with plenty of established retailers dominating the market. Even with the stiff competition, new entrants make a mark every month. They attract a diverse group of food enthusiasts residing in the city.
To clarify, all small business owners entering the food industry in New York make more than a dozen contracts in their very first month. These contracts mostly include legal bonds with suppliers and purchasers. Moreover, they also mention the directions all concerned parties are supposed to be following.
The more the number of active contracts, the more profit you end up making in the first few months of operations.
However, small businesses today lose up to 9.2 percent of their total business revenue as a result of their poor contract management. The negligence shown toward contracts and the details mentioned in them can lead to multiple problems and issues down the line.
Some of the reasons small food businesses find it tough to manage contracts are:
- It takes a lot of time to draft, copy and store a contract
- Contracts require approval and the delays that go into this approval process can make you less productive
- Incorrect tracking of price and payments can lead to major revenue holes in the future
- Poor contract management can lead you into a chaotic situation where you overlook company info and policy compliance
What Is a Contract Management System?
A small business contract management software helps you organize contracts from employees, partners, customers, and vendors. In laymen terms, this system can be described as an electronic filing cabinet. It keeps track of the contents in a contract and makes management a lot easier.
The system covers the entire client and contract lifecycle. Every single process in the contract lifecycle is duly monitored and adjustments made to ensure that negligence is minimized. With New York’s food industry becoming competitive by the minute, contract management systems are now an indispensable part of your route to success.
Now that we understand what contract management is, let us have a look at how a small business contract management software’s operations can help small food businesses in New York, and elsewhere.
How Can It Help Small Food Businesses?
Centralized Records
Many small scale food startups today work on a relatively tight budget. So, based on their limited capital, there is also a lack of proper storage space. Small Food businesses usually do face problems filing contracts. The kitchen is off-limits, and any other storage space visible to customers is also beyond limits. Not many new restaurants today have the kind of budget to have a separate filing room.
Contract management solutions can help you maintain a paperless restaurant, by maintaining your records in a centralized manner online. All documents and details related to the contract are located in one centralized position, accessible only to employees who have the permission to do so.
Increase in Communication and Collaboration
A contract management system can help increase communication and collaboration within a business. While most food vendors don’t have different teams to begin with, they might grow over time and require extensive collaboration within these teams.
The sales team hardly ever talks to the legal team in normal circumstances, but in cases where a contract management solution is involved, the sales team will understand the importance of running every contract through the legal team first. The legal team will perform due diligence and approve the contract based on their own understanding of it.
Carefully Organized
We all remember the filing room businesses once used to have. The room was filled to the core with files and contracts. If one had to find a specific contract or clause, they would have to rummage through the entire record to find something relevant.
With a contract management system, there is no need for you to flip through files and countless contracts to find the one that you are searching for. The automation and centralization help you retrieve and save contracts and clauses in no time.
Keeps Track of Important Dates
We understand just how important it is for small businesses in the food industry to keep track of important dates mentioned in their contracts. Among others, these dates could include paying the monthly total to a supplier, providing a review service to a major customer, or finishing a contract with another part.
Moreover, an automated contract management system alerts you whenever an important date comes up. This way, you aren’t caught out of the blue. Using the right techniques to monitor contracts will positively impact your business.
Saves Time
Just how many times have you found yourself rummaging through countless contracts just to find one clause? Well, the time you wasted saving, filing, drafting, and retrieving contracts can all be saved now with automation. Above all, a contract management system will also give you progress reports to keep you in sync with the records.
Effortless Data Protection
Data security is now more important than it ever was. Therefore, regardless of the size of your business or the industry you operate in, you should take all the efforts you can to safeguard client and customer data. These records, including data from contracts, can be safeguarded through centralized cloud storage. Contract management software can provide effortless data protection under the umbrella of services they offer.
Conclusion
A contract management system can be your ally in improving your business operations and adapting efficiency. Put your trust in automation to take your food business to new heights.
