Have you ever tried to plan a big party and felt overwhelmed by all the things you need to buy? Now imagine you’re a business owner who needs to find suppliers for hundreds of different materials every single month. Should you spend hours calling companies and comparing prices by hand, or let computer software do the heavy lifting for you?
This question keeps many business owners awake at night. On one side, there’s the old-school way of doing things – making phone calls, sending emails, and keeping track of everything in notebooks or basic spreadsheets. On the other side, there’s modern software that promises to make sourcing faster and easier. But which approach actually works better in the real world?
What Is Manual Sourcing?
Manual sourcing is the traditional way of finding suppliers and materials. It means picking up the phone, sending emails, visiting websites one by one, and keeping track of prices and delivery times using your own system. Think of it like shopping for groceries without a list – you walk through every aisle and remember prices in your head.
For example, when Tom started his small furniture business in Michigan, he spent three hours every morning calling different lumber suppliers to check prices. He wrote everything down in a notebook and compared prices by hand. It worked, but it took up half his day.
How Sourcing Software Changes the Game
Sourcing software is like having a super-smart shopping assistant that never gets tired. Instead of calling twenty different suppliers, you type what you need into the software, and it shows you prices from multiple companies in minutes. The software can also track price changes, remember your favorite suppliers, and even predict when prices might go up or down.
Lisa runs a construction company in Texas, and she switched to sourcing software two years ago. Before the switch, her team spent 15 hours per week just finding materials for their projects. Now they spend only 3 hours, and they often find better deals because the software checks more suppliers than they ever could manually.
The Real Cost Comparison
Manual sourcing might seem cheaper because you’re not paying for software, but that’s not the whole story. Think about how much your time is worth. If you make $50 per hour and spend 10 hours per week on sourcing, that’s $500 worth of your time. Good sourcing software usually costs between $100-300 per month, which is much less than the value of your time.
Consider the construction bidding process, where contractors need to find materials quickly to submit competitive bids. Manual sourcing can take days, while software can gather the same information in hours. This speed advantage often means the difference between winning and losing projects.
When Manual Sourcing Still Makes Sense
Manual sourcing isn’t always the wrong choice. If you’re a small business that only buys a few items each month, spending time on phone calls might be worth it. Personal relationships matter a lot in business, and talking directly to suppliers can build trust and lead to better deals over time.
Mark owns a small bakery and only needs to source flour, sugar, and packaging materials. He knows his three suppliers personally and enjoys chatting with them every week. For his simple needs, construction bidding software would be overkill.
The Winning Strategy
The best approach often combines both methods. Use software to quickly compare prices and find new suppliers, but don’t forget to build personal relationships with your most important vendors. Smart business owners use technology to handle the routine stuff, then focus their personal time on the relationships that matter most.
The bottom line? If you’re spending more than 5 hours per week on sourcing, software will probably save you time and money. But if sourcing is simple for your business, the old-fashioned way might work just fine.
