Wheres the Money? COLUMN BY RICHARD R. VENSEL You have money everywhere, but you may have forgotten about it. Once you start looking for it, you will be sur- prised at how much there is just lying around. Let your sales history be your guide. If you don’t keep a sales history, now is the time to start. Look for money in these places: * Cores that you have not returned for credit yet. ¢ Scrape out those old units that now have almost no core value and sell off the copper, aluminum, brass and steel. Anything is better than just taking up space. ¢ Look more closely at salvaging. ¢ Stators: All it may take is a lead extension you were too busy to repair before. * Rotors: Changing a slip ring could make you an extra $15. ¢Armatures: Epoxy up the loose wires and missing end fibers and you have made an extra $5 or more. * Rectifiers: Many times you can take two and make one good one. ¢ Regulators: Test them completely, many are as good as new. Make sure of their application. ¢ Solenoids: A caps, disks, and studs are a lot less expensive than order- ing another solenoid. «Drive end housings with loose bushings or bearings can be sal- vaged in minutes. ¢ Alternator end frames with stripped threads can be repaired for next to nothing using thread inserts. «Field Cases: If you have excess, salvage them or scrap them out for the copper and steel. ¢ Brush holders: Salvage them or scrap them. ¢ Check your inventory levels on all of your parts, if you don’t have at least a maximum, establish one and monitor this closely. These levels will be changing faster than ever before in the history of our indus- try. The sooner you lower them the more money you will have to keep up with the newest units and parts. * Re-evaluate your finished goods inventory. You will probably find you have years worth of some numbers for sale on the shelf that you don’t need and none of what you need. When you are busy, many times you take the fastest way out, like changing parts. If that is the case—and it proba- bly is—you have a lot of easy money just lying there waiting to be made. Now is the time to do it. Test and measure twice—cut, scrape or salvage once and you will be money ahead. Richard Vensel is owner of Vensel Enterprises, Crystal Lake, IL.