3 critical things to check before doing business with a new company
The scrap plastic trading business is built on trust – each side to every transaction needs to be confident that their counterparties will keep their promises, deliver on time, and maintain quality standards. However, while it would be nice to think that everyone in this business is trustworthy and responsible, it’s not always the case.
Just as Ronald Reagan said, “Trust, but verify.” Before you get into a new business relationship with a plastic scrap recycling firm or scrap plastic broker or vendor, you need to do some due diligence to make sure these people are worthy of your trust.
Here are three crucially important things to check before you start a new business relationship that can help improve your chance of success:
- Google Them: It sounds simple, but many people still overlook this one crucial step. A simple Google search into your prospective business partner’s history can quickly help you determine if there are any suspicious areas or outright red flags. Do separate Google searches on your prospective business partner’s name, the name of the company, and the names of any employees you’ve heard mentioned.
You should particularly look for:
- Lawsuits: Has this person or company ever been sued by a former business partner? Do they have unpaid loans or contentious issues with failure to pay or keep promises, or other unscrupulous business practices?
- Criminal charges: Has any jurisdiction ever filed criminal charges against this person or company? Check the public court records for the state/city where your prospective business partner is based.
- Negative customer reviews: Has anyone ever complained about this person or their company on an industry forum or vendor resource website? Of course, there are always a few unreasonable customers out there who offer unfair criticisms and complaints – but if you see a long-term pattern of people complaining online about the business practices of this prospective trading partner, that is a bad sign.
- Industry news and updates: Look for any recent news and updates about the company. Do they seem like they’re regular contributors to industry discussions? Do they issue press releases and announce new business activities? Or are they a fly-by-night organization that doesn’t really have any long-term roots in the scrap plastic industry?
Google reveals all. Just a simple Google search can often help protect you from shady characters and avoid getting entangled with disreputable business partners.
- Find Out What They Know: Once you’ve determined that the new business partner doesn’t have any “red flags” on Google, you can try to get a sense of how in tune with the market the new vendor or business partner may be with pricing, shipping details, terms, technology, paperwork, and all the other “tools of trade” of the scrap plastic trading business. Spending extra time to qualify your new business partner is key to everyone’s success. Face to face meetings are always the best if you can make that happen quickly. If not, it’s important to not only get to know your new customer business-wise but also take the time to learn something personal about each person and make note of it. cheap accommodation . Knowing something about the lives of your business partners outside of work helps push relationships to the next level and create trust.
- Check Their Credit: A big part of success in the plastic scrap industry is making sure that your trading partners are creditworthy and able to cover the significant amounts of money involved with buying and selling scrap plastic. Feel free to use this credit reference tool that we created to help screen our own business partners and vendors.
With these three simple steps, you’ll be ready to move forward with confidence into your new business relationships. Just make sure you know who you’re dealing with – and make sure they are worthy of your trust.
