u/Safe_Advertising9449 — reddlx

Tengo 23 años y estoy intentando modernizar la ferretería de mi viejo después de más de 30 años. ¿Por dónde empezarían?

Mi viejo tiene una ferretería hace más de 30 años. Es un negocio que funciona, tiene clientes, movimiento y 5 empleados, pero prácticamente todo se sigue manejando de una forma bastante antigua.
Tengo 23 años y desde hace un tiempo me estoy involucrando cada vez más en el negocio e intentando renovarlo.
El problema es que me estoy dando cuenta de que no alcanza con mejorar el local o poner computadoras. Hay que cambiar prácticamente toda la estructura interna si algún día quiero que esto pueda crecer de verdad.
Actualmente muchas cosas todavía dependen de la memoria, experiencia, anotaciones y controles manuales.
Mi objetivo a largo plazo es que la ferretería pueda funcionar mediante procesos y sistemas, sin necesitar que mi viejo o yo estemos controlando absolutamente todo.
Ya empecé a hacer algunos cambios.
Implementé un sistema de turnos con tickets y puestos numerados, puse una TV para promociones y ofertas, estoy reorganizando sectores del negocio, mejorando cartelería y exhibición, cámaras y seguridad.
También estoy haciendo catálogos físicos para tornillos, bulones y productos complicados de identificar, para que tanto clientes como empleados puedan reconocer rápidamente medidas y productos.
Pero ahora quiero atacar los problemas importantes.
Stock: tenemos miles de artículos y hoy demasiado del stock depende de que alguien “sepa” que algo está o que se está terminando.
Quisiera tener stock real, alertas de reposición, productos de alta/baja rotación, mercadería parada, márgenes, historial de compras, etc.
Ventas y cajas: tenemos 5 puestos de atención y me gustaría que cada empleado tenga su usuario/caja.
Quiero poder saber qué vendió cada uno, cuánto efectivo debería tener, descuentos, devoluciones y diferencias de caja.
También tenemos el problema de las transferencias. Usamos un alias general para evitar ciertas comisiones de Mercado Pago, pero después es difícil relacionar automáticamente cada transferencia con determinada venta/vendedor.
Precios: quiero que todos consulten exactamente el mismo precio desde una PC y que al modificar un precio se actualice inmediatamente para todos.
Esto en Argentina me parece especialmente importante porque los precios pueden cambiar constantemente.
Compras y proveedores: acá creo que también tenemos muchísimo para mejorar.
Me gustaría poder comparar proveedores, precios, condiciones de pago, historial de compras, márgenes, rotación y saber cuándo realmente conviene comprar cantidad.
También quiero empezar a buscar fabricantes, distribuidores/importadores y proveedores nuevos en vez de seguir comprando siempre a los mismos simplemente por costumbre.
Ecommerce: quiero empezar a vender por internet y eventualmente enviar a todo el país.
La duda que tengo es si debería primero ordenar completamente stock, precios y administración y después lanzar ecommerce, o empezar ambas cosas paralelamente.
Segunda sucursal: este es uno de los motivos principales por los que quiero hacer las cosas bien desde ahora.
Mi objetivo eventualmente sería abrir otra sucursal y que ambas estén completamente conectadas.
Quisiera poder abrir una computadora o el celular y ver:
ventas de cada sucursal, stock, cajas, márgenes, compras, empleados, productos más vendidos, productos sin movimiento, transferencias entre depósitos/sucursales, etc.
Incluso poder ver que la sucursal A tiene 2 unidades de algo, la B tiene 15 y el depósito otras 30.
El desafío adicional es que mi viejo conoce muchísimo el negocio pero se lleva bastante mal con la tecnología.
Entonces tampoco puedo implementar un sistema extremadamente complicado porque si para vender 10 tornillos hay que pasar por 15 pantallas, nadie lo va a usar y van a terminar volviendo al papel.
Por eso quería preguntarle especialmente a gente que tenga o haya tenido comercios familiares, ferreterías, casas de repuestos, corralones, pinturerías, distribuidoras o negocios con muchísimos productos:
Si estuvieran en mi lugar, ¿en qué orden modernizarían el negocio?
¿Qué harían durante los primeros 3 meses?
¿Y durante el primer año?
¿Qué sistema de gestión/POS usan o recomiendan en Argentina?
¿Cómo manejan miles de productos y el control de stock?
¿Cómo controlan las transferencias?
¿Cómo manejan las cajas de varios vendedores?
¿Cómo organizan compras y proveedores?
¿Qué métricas miran para saber si realmente están ganando plata con cada categoría?
¿Cómo manejan productos vendidos por unidad, caja, peso o metro?
¿Integraron Mercado Libre/Tienda Nube con su stock?
¿Tienen varias sucursales? ¿Cómo las administran?
¿Centralizaron depósito y compras?
¿Qué automatizaciones realmente les ahorraron trabajo?
Y principalmente: ¿qué errores cometieron al modernizar un negocio tradicional que me recomendarían evitar?
No busco solamente que me digan “usá X programa”.
Me interesa mucho más escuchar experiencias de personas que hayan estado en una situación parecida y hayan logrado pasar de un comercio familiar tradicional a una empresa más organizada y escalable.
Incluso si alguno puede decirme: “Yo estuve en una situación parecida y lo hice en este orden: 1, 2, 3, 4 y 5”, me serviría muchísimo.
Mi intención no es cambiar por cambiar. La ferretería lleva más de 30 años funcionando y claramente muchas cosas se hicieron bien.
Lo que quiero es conservar eso que funciona y construir arriba una estructura que permita que el negocio siga creciendo, venda online y, eventualmente, pueda tener varias sucursales sin que todo dependa de que una persona esté presente controlando cada detalle.

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u/Safe_Advertising9449 — 12 days ago

▲ 36 r/smallbusiness

My father has run a hardware store for 30+ years. I’m 23 and trying to modernize it without destroying what already works. Where would you start?

My father has owned and operated a hardware store in Argentina for over 30 years. The business is established, has regular customers, 5 employees, and generates sales, but almost everything is still managed the old-fashioned way.
A lot of the business depends on experience, memory, notebooks, manual controls, and my father personally knowing what is happening.
I’m 23 and becoming much more involved in the business. My goal is not just to make the store look more modern — I want to completely modernize the way it operates so that eventually we can open another location and have everything connected.
I’ve already started making smaller improvements: reorganizing the store, improving product displays and signage, adding a customer queue/ticket system, using screens for promotions, improving security/cameras, and creating physical product guides for things like screws and bolts that are difficult for customers and employees to identify.
But now I’m getting to the difficult part: the actual management system behind the business.
Right now I’m trying to figure out how to properly implement:
POS and individual employee accounts/registers
Inventory management for thousands of SKUs
Products sold by unit, box, weight, meter, etc.
Real-time pricing for every employee
Cash register reconciliation
Tracking bank transfers and connecting them to specific sales
Purchase orders and supplier management
Profit margins by product/category
Low-stock/reorder alerts
Dead inventory and inventory turnover
Employee sales/productivity
Ecommerce
Shipping throughout Argentina
Eventually multiple locations with shared inventory/data
A central dashboard where I can see how the entire business is performing
One major challenge is that my father is extremely experienced in the hardware business but not comfortable with computers.
So whatever system I implement needs to be VERY simple for employees to use. If selling 10 screws requires going through 15 screens, they will eventually go back to paper.
I also don’t want to make the mistake of buying an expensive ERP and trying to change everything at once without first creating proper processes.
My long-term vision is to be able to open a second store and see both locations from one system: sales, inventory, cash, margins, purchases, transfers between locations, employee performance, etc.
Eventually I would also like ecommerce to become an important part of the business instead of depending entirely on local walk-in customers.
So my question is mainly for people who have modernized an older family business, retail store, hardware store, building supply business, auto parts store, or anything with a large inventory:
If you were in my position, what would you do first?
If you had to create a roadmap, what would your first 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months look like?
What should I absolutely fix BEFORE attempting ecommerce or opening another location?
What systems/processes made the biggest difference in your business?
What did you automate?
How do you manage inventory with thousands of small items?
How do you evaluate suppliers and purchasing decisions?
What numbers/KPIs should I start tracking immediately?
And most importantly: what mistakes should I avoid?
I’m not necessarily looking for someone to just recommend a specific software. I’m more interested in learning how people who have actually gone through this transition structured the business.
I know there are probably people here who inherited or joined an old-school family business and had to deal with exactly this situation.
I’d really appreciate hearing what worked, what didn’t, and what you would do differently if you had to start the modernization process again.

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u/Safe_Advertising9449 — 12 days ago

▲ 8 r/MechanicalEngineering

How would you design a compact system to dispense, measure and cut rigid welded wire mesh without unrolling it across the floor?

I run a hardware store in Argentina and I’m looking for a mechanical solution to a space problem we have when selling welded wire mesh by the meter.
We stock several large rolls of rigid welded wire mesh (approximately 40x40 mm openings). Each roll weighs around 30–50 kg.
Customers usually buy 1–4 meters at a time.
Currently, we have to take the mesh and physically unroll 3–4 meters across the store, measure it and cut it. Because the mesh is rigid and wants to retain its rolled shape, handling it is awkward and requires a large clear area.
Measuring the length is NOT the main problem. The main problem is handling 3–4 meters of rigid mesh in a very limited space.
I would also like the rolls to remain permanently mounted because we have several different mesh types and constantly lifting/swapping 30–50 kg rolls would defeat the purpose.
Ideally I’m imagining a wall-mounted modular system with perhaps two rolls per module, using bearings/spindles to allow each roll to rotate.
What I cannot figure out is what should happen after the mesh leaves the main roll.
Could a compact system use:
feed/pinch rollers,
a measuring wheel/encoder,
a manual crank,
and a second spindle that rewinds the 3–4 meters being sold into a smaller roll?
That way, instead of having 4 meters of mesh stretched across the floor, the material would transfer from the storage roll directly onto a temporary take-up roll while being measured. Once the required length is reached, it could be cut and the customer receives the smaller roll.
I’m not looking for a fully automated industrial mesh processing line. I’ve found machines like that, but they are extremely expensive and far beyond what a small hardware store needs.
I’m looking for a simple, robust, manual or semi-automatic mechanical solution that could be fabricated by a local metalworking/machine shop.
Does this type of mechanism already exist under a specific name?
Would a take-up/recoiling system work with relatively rigid welded wire mesh, or is there a better mechanical approach I’m overlooking?
I’ll attach photos of the actual rolls and storage area for reference

u/Safe_Advertising9449 — 12 days ago

▲ 0 r/Machinists

How would you build a compact machine to dispense, measure and cut heavy rigid wire mesh rolls?

I run a small hardware store in Argentina and I’m trying to solve a problem we’ve had for years.
We sell welded wire mesh from large rolls. The mesh is fairly rigid (around 40x40 mm openings), and customers usually ask for specific lengths such as 1, 2, 3 or 4 meters.
Right now we have to manually handle the roll, unroll the mesh across the floor, measure it, cut it, and then deal with the remaining roll again.
The biggest problem is space. Our storage area is small, so pulling 3–4 meters of rigid mesh straight across the floor every time isn’t practical.
The rolls are also heavy, and we stock several different types of mesh, so ideally I would like them to remain permanently mounted rather than having employees constantly lifting and changing rolls.
I’m wondering if there is a relatively simple mechanical solution that could be fabricated locally.
My idea is something along the lines of:
Roll permanently mounted on a spindle/bearings.
Feed rollers that pull the mesh from the roll.
Mechanical measuring wheel/counter to show how much material has passed.
Some way of controlling or guiding the rigid mesh while feeding it.
Ideally, a way to cut 3–4 meters without needing 3–4 meters of clear floor space.
Possibly another spindle/roller that temporarily recoils the measured section before cutting.
I don’t need an expensive CNC/industrial mesh processing line. Those machines exist, but they’re completely unrealistic for a small hardware store.
I’m looking for something simple, rugged and mostly mechanical that a local machine shop could fabricate.
Has anyone here worked with a machine or mechanism that does something similar?
What would you build? Is there an existing type of machine/mechanism I should search for and copy/adapt?
I’ll attach pictures of the actual rolls and storage area so you can see the space I’m working with

u/Safe_Advertising9449 — 12 days ago

▲ 5 r/machining+1 crossposts

What system do you use to measure and cut heavy rigid wire mesh rolls without fully unrolling them?

I own a hardware store and we sell rigid welded wire mesh rolls, approximately 40x40 mesh.
Each roll weighs around 30–50 kg, they are fairly wide, and we keep several different types in stock. Right now, when a customer orders something like 3 or 4 meters, we have to move the roll to an open area, unroll several meters, measure it, and then cut it.
The main problems are:
it takes up a lot of floor space;
it wastes a lot of time;
the mesh is very stiff and difficult to handle;
we do not have 3–4 meters of permanent free space in the warehouse;
and I do not want employees lifting and swapping 30–50 kg rolls every time a different mesh type is needed.
I have looked at industrial decoiling, straightening and cutting machines, but the ones I find are huge and extremely expensive, far beyond what makes sense for a small hardware store.
I am looking for a manual or semi-automatic solution that could stay installed against a warehouse wall.
One idea I had was to build several modules holding 2 rolls permanently, one above the other, with some kind of roller guide, length counter, and possibly a second spindle that rewinds the amount being sold, so we would not need to lay 3 or 4 meters of mesh across the floor.

u/Safe_Advertising9449 — 12 days ago

▲ 1 r/RedditPregunta

¿Qué sistema usan para medir y cortar rollos pesados de malla metálica rígida sin tener que desenrollarlos por completo?

Tengo una ferretería y vendo rollos de malla electrosoldada rígida 40x40. Cada rollo pesa aprox. 30–50 kg y tengo varios tipos.
Actualmente los guardamos parados y, cuando alguien compra 3 o 4 metros, tenemos que llevar el rollo al salón, desenrollarlo completamente, medirlo y cortarlo. Es lento, ocupa muchísimo espacio y la malla es muy rígida, así que cuesta manipularla.
Estoy buscando alguna solución manual o semiautomática que pueda quedar instalada contra una pared del depósito. El espacio es limitado.
No puedo tener una mesa de 3–4 metros ni una máquina industrial grande. Tampoco me sirve un soporte para un solo rollo porque tengo varios y pesan demasiado para estar subiéndolos y bajándolos cada vez.

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u/Safe_Advertising9449 — 12 days ago

▲ 1 r/NegociosArgentina

Necesito recomendaciones de dropshipping para mi tienda online

Intenté hacer dropshipping con algunas aplicaciones, pero no tuve buenos resultados. ¿Qué me recomiendan? ¿Hay alguna aplicación o proveedor que realmente sea viable para hacer dropshipping en Argentina?
Aclaro que también vendo pinturas, así que ya tengo una tienda online funcionando para ese rubro. Mi idea es mantener la venta de pinturas y, además, incorporar productos de dropshipping en la misma web o en una sección aparte.

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u/Safe_Advertising9449 — 2 months ago