My current start-up challenges

[Andreshorn]

Hey everyone, here is a little thread regarding my journey in business (which started about 1 year ago). I'm posting to see if anyone would have any kind of advice regarding developing a business that's having some struggles to take off. I'm super confident about the potential growth opportunities as I have had some projects that confirmed my thought but basically, I see my business as invisible online and every time I tried to attract customers with ads I've broken even or lost money and all my other marketing strategies don't seem to be working so far. Anyway Throwing this out like a message in a bottle at sea, feel free to get in touch if you're willing to help.

Retro :

After a bit less than a year in business, quite a lot has happened. The first 3 months were quite slow but steady, having passed the £2k bar in June I left my job at the hotel, looking back at it even tho I’ve had so much time to spend on the project, I’m not sure that I made the most of it as my discipline was quite low and I’ve had my 2 worst months in July and August. September, I’m in discussion with a well-known brand for my biggest order so far which will be ordered in October, this moment made me realise the challenges of managing all the production, the system needed optimisation as It was time-consuming. November was a whole month off for family reasons, and I just came back before Christmas to fulfil all the orders that I had at the end of November/December and since the beginning of this year, I haven't had consistent sales, just enough to survive.

+: The product has potential, I’ve had some returning customers, and there is definitely an opportunity for wholesale and B2B,

-: The whole process at the moment is still time-consuming, and improvements need to be made regarding the overall quality of the whole brand experience, from packaging to product, and customer service. The turnover can be faster.


Problems :

The real problem is the lack of consistency in sales, which is making it harder to scale as the cash flow isn’t stable. The only way that I see to grow the business is to average 3.5 sales/day with 8£/CPA.

Solution: The website traffic will definitely be the main sales driver and I need to focus on this more. I feel that Etsy will keep growing organically and I could reach 1-2 sales/day within the next 3-6 months. Regarding the website, 40 visits/day is not going to help me grow. I should average 250 visits/ day to make sure to reach the goal.


Now how to increase traffic :

• So far, Google ads aren’t really helping, beside the wholesale, the CPA for smaller orders is way too high so either optimising the campaign or stopping all of them besides the wholesale.
• Tiktok seems promising, I need to work with influencers weekly, and use the creatives to launch Tiktokmademebuy or so campaigns.
• Facebook ads need to be tried as well.
• I think that SEO can be very promising, It’s a long process but I feel like It would be worth it, the budget would be around 100$/month.

Opportunities :

To really make this project a profitable scalable business, I see different options which will all have to be tried and Ideally combined.

1. Customs order (B2C)
2. B2B/Wholesale strategy
3. Limited editions Collectables with licensors

On the personal side :


I feel like I’m kind of struggling to find stability and consistency in my work as I always expect fast results and lack patience. I’m also not really taking care of myself, no exercise, no the best food habits, no disconnection basically. And the home routine isn’t the best either as I don’t wake up at the same time. My goal is to get consistency in all aspects of the business. Routine is key to reaching that.

 

[Mark T Jones]

To get the rolling; there is quite a lot of thought here on marketing types / media, but it lacks the al important substance of:

- Who the target customer is
- How / when they buy
- What need or desire your product fulfills.

Without significant research into these, you marketing budget will always be something of a black hole.

 

[Beautinow]

You made a great overview for yourself as in which channels you can promote your products. However, I personally thing it's a bit too much to handle for a single person.

My advise would be to focus on 2-3 tasks at the same time. For example if organic website traffic is important, then just focus on:

• Improve overal website design and user experience.
• Optimize website for the keywords that you want to rank for.
• Improve rankings of the keywords through different SEO strategies.

Once you feel you've completed the tasks, then you can add start doing other things such as experimenting with Facebook ads. My personal experience is that facebook ads do much better when you sell a lifestyle products, and when you have great image and video assets.

 

[MarkOnline]

I think you are still in "proof of concept" stage, my advice is to go out and find some b2b customers and work with them to fine tune your offer (whatever it is) find the price points where the numbers can work and you build sales numbers. While you are doing this go and find another job so you have money coming in, from what you have posted you havent got a business which will give you a part time income, never mind full time.
Dont run out of money, or its game over. Good luck.

 

[WaveJumper]

Take a good look at who your target market are you actually pitching in the right places - and then be honest look at your website and social media presence ...... are your really appealing to them.

Is your website the right colour, right font easy to read get some people to review it for you and ask for some honest feedback.

If I was you I would make sure the absolute basic foundations are right before spending anymore money on advertising - I wish you the very best of luck

 

[JamaC]

I agree with the advice given above

1. Your website and its user experience
2. Research on your target market

You can pay for ads and direct traffic to your website all day, but what is the website saying...

Sending people to a website that does not provide a good user experience is big a issue for most businesses. Yet they spend more money on marketing

Utilise the influencers as you mentioned above. Partnering up with the right influencers can change everything

A well put together affiliate program can save you a lot on up front marketing costs

 

[stender]

Does your product sell on amazon, eBay, etsy etc? They have the traffic. If they sell on there then you know your product is ok. Then when you send orders out include a Discount Voucher for ordering from your site. It is a lot of work. My main website is wordpress and that is a pain to keep updated let alone all the other bits.

 

[MBE2017]

Hard to advise, apart from set yourself small daily tasks, weekly and monthly goals. Trouble is, if you are finding it hard to be disciplined and motivated now, at the start of a business, it will not stand you in good stead later.

As for sales, without a clue as to what you do, hard to say.