Say Goodbye to Idle Time and Focus on What Matters Most for Your Business: The RECONO.ME Story

We’ve been used to the idea of recycling for over a decade now, so much so that separating materials and food waste for the Tuesday morning collection (other collection days are available) is now second nature… we hope. However, as used to the array of rainbow-coloured refuse receptacles we are, we only deem certain products as worthy of recycling. Sure, we’re used to taking old or neglected clothes, books and DVDs to charity shops – but what about our electronics?

Nick Rawkins had this firmly on his mind when he founded RECONO.ME, a refurbishing service that repairs and upgrades unwanted IT equipment collected from business and households. In his own words, he started the business because “we need to change the relationship we have with electronics”.

We want to change the relationship we have with electronics, keeping them in usage for longer.

Nick was very aware that he wasn’t the first business to offer this kind of service, but he did want to be one of the only ones that were operated sustainably and didn’t charge extortionate disposal fees. With this in mind, RECONO.ME were very clear that the issues facing them were not quite the same as those that most new retail enterprises were also coming up against.

“As opposed to a typical retail business, RECONO.ME has two sets of customers, those who supply us with tech and those who buy from us. We need to offer really valuable services to both sides to grow our business. ”
Nick Rawkins, Founder at RECONO.ME

And with such a challenge to solve, Nick and his team were aware that they needed to use all of their available time productively. And one way of ensuring they did that was outsourcing logistics…

Why Outsourcing Logistics Was Top of the Priority List

You could forgive a first-time business-owner for being a little unsure on where to focus their energy and attention when starting out, and even though Nick knew there were “many variables” that went into structuring his business, he was always clear on one thing.

“Even from the get-go, we knew that logistics was one of the first things we wanted to outsource. Using Weengs means we can focus solely on our business and not waste time packaging and sending our products.”
Nick Rawkins, Founder at RECONO.ME

And that concept of wasting time is something that really can’t be underestimated when trying to set up a successful enterprise. So much to do and so little time, getting a business off the ground can often be an uphill struggle.

Budding entrepreneurs will recognise the feeling of spinning multiple plates at the same time, but decisions like outsourcing logistics help to lighten the load. Freeing your business up to focus on, what Nick calls, “the constant battle to make sure you’re prioritising correctly.”

Leave it to the Professionals

There’s a lot of choices out there when it comes to the matter of logistics, with a number of competitors offering similar services. But with RECONO.ME’s unique business model of first refurbishing products in their own workspace and then sending them out, more traditional warehouse-based logistics services were out of the question.

So they searched for more options, finding Weengs, who were able to make regular daily collections as and when the company needed them. Meaning that they didn’t have to spend out on additional warehouse space, they could save time and money on packaging, and they could do it all completely ad-hoc with no regular retainer fee. All of which suited Nick down to the ground.

“We try to run as lean an operation as possible and using Weengs is essential to that” continues Nick when talking about the simplicity of his operation. The two most crucial parts of RECONO.ME’s work is sourcing their items and refurbishing them to a high enough standard to sell on. When this is done, the task of sending them out to consumers should be the simplest thing, and in many ways, it is, but it can also be time-consuming.

“The whole packaging and sending itself is quite annoying, we’d spend hours a week doing it when we could be doing more important things. If we did 12 orders a week, then we would waste around 3 hours a week doing it ourselves.”
Nick Rawkins, Founder at RECONO.ME

And when you factor in the growth of the business, their ambitious plan for expansion and the much-higher target of orders they set for themselves, that time wasted would continue to spiral as the company grows. Using Weengs, RECONO.ME were able to gain that wasted time back and simplify their already lean business that little bit more.

Not only is the task of popping orders into a Weengs bag, as and when they make a sale, incredibly easy, but the professional packing and courier control offers a consistent level of service to all customers. Alongside their stellar products, all these features help to maintain the store’s 100% rating on it’s eBay shop.

No mean feat at all, RECONO.ME’s reputation on the online retail site is something that has been built out of diligence, hard work and attention to detail. With the time they saved on outsourcing deliveries, they have been able to focus on being as productive as possible.

Being Proactive with Productivity

Even though the time reclaimed was obvious to Nick, he found it a little harder to pinpoint where exactly that time had been repurposed. This doesn’t mean that the time was wasted on a daytime TV binge (looking at you Homes Under the Hammer), far from it. Nick just meant that it didn’t all go to one definable place. Instead, it was spread out – boosting productivity across the business.

“With the time we reclaim, we can focus on other things: Operating the warehouse, collecting more items to refurbish, generating leads, developing the website, and even taking a break every now and then.”
Nick Rawkins, Founder at RECONO.ME

With logistics outsourced and boring delivery taken care of, RECONO.ME were able to fully take the reins of their business and carry on their path to success. Growth is the most important thing for a burgeoning retail venture and ensuring your time is spent on the best possible tasks is a key way of securing a brighter future. Nick and his team realised this from an early stage and are continuing to see the benefits of seeking external help as a way of growing internally. Knowing when to seek help is one of the most key, and often most overlooked, facets in retail, and doing so at the right time can inject some momentum right when you need it most.

Watching a day slide away from productivity is something you can forgive in your personal life every now and then, but it’s not something that blossoming businesses can really afford. Using Weengs’ convenient model of collecting, packing and shipping gives you back wasted time and lets you focus on the things that really matter most.