I recently was honored when a young female entrepreneur asked me to mentor her. She’s an online business in a different space than ours – also specialty and niche but nothing to do with bath and body.
We sat down and chatted for a few hours. I loved her business concept, her business name and the entrepreneur herself. She was a dynamo! Only one problem: she didn’t have very many sales.
So, what did she do? She went out and started another company, having diagnosed her lack of sales as a positioning problem. In trying to start the new company, she all but let her first company sit in the weeds, gathering dust. She did no new marketing, no new products and quit writing her daily blog.
Now, 6 months later, she has one company not making any money (the first one) and another company … not making any money (the second one).
I see this disease in so many entrepreneurs (myself included) – misdiagnosing the problem
It’s natural to do only what you like to do. It’s natural to do the fun things first. It’s natural to want to eat the dessert and skip the broccoli. It’s natural to have too many good ideas as an entrepreneur.
The key is to squelch those natural instincts and actually follow through on ONE good idea. If you thought it was a great idea a year ago, why isn’t it valid now?
The sales part of any business is what’s hard. Actually convincing your potential customers that YOU’RE the one to buy from requires daily, incremental painful effort. It means doing the same things, day in and day out. It’s not sexy. It’s not always fun. It’s sometimes boring. It’s repetitive. But, it’s what will win the day in the end.
You don’t have a positioning problem. You don’t have a cash problem. You don’t have an employee problem. You don’t have a niche problem. You don’t have a packaging problem.
Get more sales and poof! All of those so-called “problems” go away and get magically solved. Why magic? Because with sales comes money. And with money comes more resources. And with more resources comes more bodies to work on your “problems.”
Don’t re-do your packaging yet again. Don’t re-jigger your formulas yet again. Don’t redesign your web site yet again.
Then, in a year, when you’ve quadrupled your sales, you’ll look back at those other ideas that had been tugging at you and be able to use all of your new found cash to expand your business in a logical, thoughtful manner.
Yes i get it too. Can you give me ideas where I can sell my products?
Store in your area would be a great place to start – small mom’n’pop stores all the way up to larger corporate stores (longer sales cycle) or grocery stores (usually have local buyers).
You can also try online vendors such as Etsy!
-Becky with Bramble Berry
And here it is, two years later than Natalia’s post, and this information is just as relevant as it was when it was first written in 2008. A friend of mine sent me this link… I think she’s trying to tell me something in the nicest way possible. :0)
Focusing on sales never goes out of style! =)
wow! i read this just on time !! It´s great to think that this was written almost two years ago, and was here ready for bless my life right now! 🙂
Thanks for putting the “sales” problem into perspective for me. I think all entrepreneurs are guilty at some point of over indulging themselves. Trying anything that may boost sales. I know I always have a “new idea” for my business. But focus and persistence is key. Brand recognition is very important also. I look forward to you next few posts on business. Please be as simple and straight forward as you were in this one. This was great.
Linda and Jennifer,
I’ll work on a series of blog posts in the next few months about easy ways to ask for and get more business. Simple things that you probably know but may need reminding to do … because often times, it’s the simple things that really work. =)
Shelly,
The story is familiar to a lot of us. I’m constantly wanting to go off on fun tangents that don’t help my business and was recently reminded of the importance of staying focused when I started researching an entirely different business to run … whoops =)
Wierd – Sounds familiar 😉
this is so me! re-working a formula, trying to compete with another seller’s product, changing my packaging….thanks for putting things into perspective!
AM
Thanks so much for the this post. I really needed to hear that I don’t need to give up. To continue developing that one great idea and pitch your product over and over until you get those sales.
Yep! Needed that! ~thanks…
Great post A-M! I recently relaunched my biz with a well focused niche and limited product line. Sales have been slower then I would like but your post is a great reminder to stay focused.
~ Penny
http://www.zularisnaturals.com
You are such a great motivator, A-M! I count myself among the lucky ones who have heard you speak in person. Thanks for the advice & wisdom that you share. Asking you to be a mentor is that entrepreneur's smartest move toward success!
I was just coming here to ask for suggestions on GETTING more sales.
Loved this article and it’s a problem trying to figure out the best way to get more sales. I would love for you to do another article on suggestions for getting more sales. I’ve done google, ebay, PR, Blog(poorly) trade shows, craft shows, retail store, Etsy,Flickr,etc. One of things I’ve learned for me is to not give up, I tend to do that. It doesn’t always work immediately.
Thanks
Linda Nigro
http://www.soapier.com
http://www.firstinlinesoap.com
Thanks for this! It’s easy to not want to do the hard stuff and just do fun marketing and brand stuff instead.
*sheepish grin* I so can see myself making those mistakes. Thanks for helping to keep me on track, A-M!