Sales dipping: how do you stay positive? ‌📉‌

[isabelle]

Hi Seller Community. Each business experiences a sales dip sometime or another. Maybe it's seasonal, maybe it has to do with the economic climate. 

As a business owner, how do you stay positive and/or calm? What do you remind yourself? What keeps you going?

[Lovewell]

Things we remind ourselves of: 

Why we started + what our vision is! This is foundation for what keeps us going. We can't stray too far from it or we start to get off track. 

Business is slow but WE OWN A BUSINESS?! What a blessing. 

What we DO:

refine what we are already doing and make it better.

Get creative. dream, plan, DO. 

All the emails and paper work that gets pushed off when we are busy, 

clean clean clean and re arrange! a fresh space feels like a new beginning and gives us excitement for the future. 

Be transparent with our friends and family. They may not fully understand but it helps to remember that you have people in your corner. If you go to do this and realize you don't have those people- spend this time finding them! Vulnerability can be a scary thing but its so worth it when you end up feeling less alone. 

Much love to you all! 

-Andrea + Emily @ Lovewell 

[arouanllc]

Usually listening to a podcast like "Mindset Coach" or "Quote of the Day Show" by Sean Croxton...all about mindset, rewiring our brains, and the power of action in manifesting...those are my go-tos!

[Hailey]

Great ideas! Thanks for sharing those resources 

[Hotmarketmedia]

Good strategy!

[Candlestore]

I am looking to see if a Dip is really occurring.  I took over the business in 2019, right before the 2020 shut downs.  My sales from 2019 were up over the previous owners previous years sales.  Then in 2021 my sales Doubled.  2022 comes along and sales have dropped from 2021 but are still higher than the sales for the business in 2018.  So are my sales dropping or stabilizing after Covid?  As this is happening to us, we are looking at ways to get new items and new scents in our business mix.  After the previous year or two with hard times getting items, we decided to source locally and make more of our own products besides just candles.  So this Summer, I started crafting wall signs from wood for the Fall season and my other half started making wall or Door wreaths.  When we stay busy coming up with new ideas to sell it keeps us motivated and focused on new streams of revenue and items to fill our store.  She makes Wreaths for Doors or walls

Since these are all made by us we have had some local customers ask for custom signs or wreaths now.  Since we make them we can please our customers and do special requests. 

[Hailey]

OMG i love these Keith! Those door wreaths remind me of the ribbons my mom used to make for girls who showed horses. 

[JUYBoutique20]

These are awesome.

[AmericanoLive]

Perspective. You have to see the forest and the trees, and understand the former is but an aggregate of the latter. Just as a few dead trees or even acres wouldn't warrant calling the forest lost, so too a few bad weeks or month(s) wouldn't warrant calling your business failed. Isolate and address the part(s) that aren't working, with the understanding and confidence that the rest are.

[Hotmarketmedia]

Slower times are perfect for looking a bit deeper 🙂

[BCakesLLC]

Take walks, take the time to hone your knowledge and skills, and catch up on paperwork.  

[OldCoder]

My wife doesn't like me coming home cranky, so yeah.

[skinfanatic]

I stay away from negative people, and I don't tell them my business. We as business owners understand there are ups and downs. People that are not entrepreneurial will never understand that.  Just stay positive and focus on completing tasks that you put on the back burner when business is good.

[Enchanted]

This year has been hard on our shop. I wasn't sure what to think was the problem ... but it hit me hard and really took a lot to stay motivated.  We are not a seasonal retailer and are usually pretty good all year round. 

Here is the background story. We have been in business for about 8 years. The location we were in was too small and the landlord was not easy to deal with. So we moved at the end of January. I looked at sales from 2021 for what we could afford. (1st mistake) and signed a 10-year lease for an 8,500 sq ft space at 6 times the rent we were paying for just under 2,000 sq ft. 

We put signage up at the old location & were talking about the move to customers beforehand.  We left a sign on the door when we moved out .... which the landlord took down the next day. The sign on the outside of the building was painted over by him after we told him that we had someone coming for the sign.  We put up yard signs near the old location and they disappeared.

Open in the new location on Feb 2. On Feb 14th (Happy Valentines's Day) the sprinkler system burst, while we were open and customers were in the shop.  4 inches of water everywhere! We were closed for almost 3 full months (1 fully & partially for the other two).  Needless to say not only were fixtures needing to be replaced, but inventory was also too.  We have a lot of paper type of products and they did not fair well at all.  The insurance company was and still is slow to do much.

When we were open we heard stories from old customers about going to the old location and thinking we were closed. Even though we had been adverting through Facebook, Square Marketing, and other media about being at the new location.   

So with these things hampering our sales, I was at a loss on what to do and really felt like giving up a few times.  I knew we had good products, and a great customer base that was loyal, but it was two songs actually kept me motivated.  Don't Stop & Start Again, by Donny Osmond, were my sanity savior.

Then I talked to one of my supplier reps. They told me something that I did not think about ... 2020 & 2021 the nation had extra money because of the federal handouts to people. 2022 we don't. So compare sales for this year to 2019. He said I bet they are better. He was right It helped to look at sales that way. We are actually above the sales for the full 2019 year for the year to date this year.

We are doing some special things starting this month to see if we can up the sales. We have something different each day on sale or events happening at the shop. We now are using the tag "Enchanted Boutique - Where Every Day is Enchanted." to help promote it. 

AND - yesterday's (Oct 2) sales were great, even for a Sunday!  

[Hailey]

Thanks for the backstory @Enchanted. You and your team have clearly been through an extremely challenging year. Considering all of those factors that literally put your business down and out for periods of time, and having to recondition your customers to a new routine to visit your shop, its incredible that you are above 2019 tracking. That is something to be proud of. Your story is one of perseverance and resilience - one that friends, family, and fellow entrepreneurs likely look to and find inspiring. KEEP IT UP! Blast those tunes and keep going.  

[Hotmarketmedia]

I'm sad for your setbacks, that's all so hard.  You are a strong business and owner to push forward.  Owning your own email list where you can take them with you or alert when things happen is great for sharing good and not-so-good news. I hope you can build one now, if you haven't already.  Customers love nothing better than helping, so share your journey with them...maybe without the landlord issues..taking sides is messy in business even if you're in the right. We saw this happen with a store in our area and it was hard to recover from. I wish you much success as you look for ways to move forward from here! Happy to help if we can. 

[nrcohtx]

dips are the reason our business converted.  what we have learned to do is plan optional events/services/products that can increase sales in lagging spots.  use your reports & transaction history to gauge when you made need to run a sale or even raise prices a bit to pad the loss.  whatever you do know that it's not permanent & with the right attitude you'll bounce back in no time. 

[shannyreid2022]

Keeping a smile on my face and always remember that the guest are always riht

[cifix]

I've had a very similar question plaguing me. Because we experience slow times far to often here. I'm unsure about the vacation solution because it isn't afforded to me but I really appreciate you getting folks involved in this topic. It helped eased the mental pressure.

[Hotmarketmedia]

I hear you about not being able to " get away", but mini breaks can be just as or better than the pressure,  expense and rearranging work/staff around a vacation.  Do go for a walk in a beautiful place.  Sit by water. Play with a dog. Visit an elder. Listen to good music.  Express yourself in a different way than your business affords. If you use your hands, engage your mind, or vice versa. 😉 

[hennaharvest]

For me, it's definitely reminding myself WHY I started my business. My business is one of the only one of it's kind in my state and a lot of the time it's reminding myself that I'm still "a new concept" and that it's going to be a lot of education for the public until I can really be well established. I remind myself that even during dips I'm still allowing myself to do what I love for a living. I made lists of what my "WHY" was when I rebranded and opened up my brick and mortar and to consistently remind myself of my "why I am doing this" is a powerful motivator and goal. I also look at numbers from previous years and compare to previous trends versus only comparing weeks. 
I also keep an "inner circle" of cheerleaders. Those people who can be around me that even though they may not be in business are there that I can still talk with and will help keep me grounded, help me see my positives and accomplishments even when I may not be able to see them myself (usually because I'm overwhelmed or feeling down). 

[Hotmarketmedia]

I love this,  great stuff!