ForumsStarting a Business

It seems that your question is one of why is your business slowing down versus picking up? Have you spoken to your customers to ask them why they come to your store and if they will return? If you have a good business, your customers should be spreading the word.

Knowing what your customers want and growing to meet their needs is a critical aspect of any business. Maybe you can try asking them. Good luck!

If you started your business without a business plan, you won't be able to answer your question accurately. Assuming you do not have a business plan, let me tell you the type of information you'll need in order to make the right decision as to staying opening or moving on...First, how much foot traffic do you get on a daily basis? How much drive-by traffic? Do the folks that walk/drive past your shop own computers? How do you know the answer to that question? What about the surrounding community? What are the demographics; are they strong enough to support your shop? Who is your customer? Where do they live? Do they live near your shop or do they work near your shop? How convenient do you make it for them to do business with you? These are all "customer" related questions, but assuming everything else in your business is good, you'll have to answer these questions. Also, you might want to re-run your cash flow projections (just in case you didn't do those before you opened your shop). You need to figure out exactly how many customers you need every day in order to support your shop and yourself. Let me briefly mention marketing (not to be confused with advertising). Try giving talks at your local library, civic organization meetings, join the Chamber of Commerce. In other words, get really involved in your business community...it will be a constant source of customers for you. Good luck!!!!

I've been in business for myself for a little over 3 years, and there are a few things that I have learned about sales and advertising.
With any kind of business, your sales levels will go up and down- you have to be willing to ride the wave. You need to make your business as visible as possible either by signage, advertising or the like. Personally, I think that your store signage is very important, as well as advertising in the yellowpages. My experience has been that all other forms of advertising are pretty much a waste of time and money.
Think of who you want to market to, do some research on the best ways to reach those people, and go for it. You need to be specific in your advertising, what I call the "shotgun" method doesn't work well. Good luck.

Just checking in, how is business going now?

Oh boy - I could write books in response to your question....

Yes, where you're located matters. If you are not in a location that's easy to get to and contains a lot of people in your demographic - it's a problem. Just as an example - for each MacDonald's or Starbucks or other stores they spend a whole lot of money on what's called a Site Selection Study to determine if a particular location will be good for one of their stores. They look at traffic, parking, what other stores are nearby, the demographics for the area and more.

Now, about marketing. It's a constant thing - getting the word out. If you've opened your business already - it's time to do a crash course in marketing. You will always be marketing. Always doing things to attract people to your business and to keep coming back. It's not like you just do it for your Grand Opening and then you're on coast for the rest of your business life.

We don't have any idea what kind of business you have so it's difficult to make a specific suggestion. But it all falls into the category of getting the word out. Think about "buzz." Think about getting media exposure. Paid ads are a black hole into which most small business owners just throw money - with little results. As a small business owner you need to come up with something creative that aligns you and your business as a very real part of the community. This is what I help my marketing mentoring clients to do. Come up with and implement strategies that get results.

One way - join the Chamber of Commerce or another networking group and get active. It's not a fast solution - it's more long range - but it's free and it's very important. For a faster, more splashy way to get the word out - have a contest of some kind and get the local newspaper to publicize it. I've helped clients put together these kind of promotions and they can be done very inexpensively and create a lot of attention - and sales. If they are done correctly.

There are sooooooo many things that can be done to create shoppers coming back into your store!

All the best,

Denise Michaels

Author, "Testosterone-Free Marketing"

PS: Visit me online at http://www.MentoringwithDenise.com