I was selling well and now im not. Why?

 Hi guys. Today i would like to talk to you about this one frequently asked question to me. 

This person was overly excited when starting out, had an idea to set up a handmade cosmetic shop like lush, spend like thousands coming out with the perfect product; sold well for a couple of months, then got stuck (or sales declined). Why?

Well.. it depends on a lot of factors. But let me conclude to one thing first; its coz she herself lost motivation.

What do i mean by that?

Very easy;

Lack Of Motivation

So this one person she was day in and out excited to start the business; studied everything about it, made an awesome product; figured out a way to sell it; and now cant sell. 

Why? Coz she got bored! You see motivation is like a cycle, sometimes you are overly motivated, sometimes not. So does that mean that when you are not motivated you dont do it? Of course not! 

Solution:

Thats why; instead of motivation; for me; i think that you should fix a routine. 

A routine and a fixed time that no matter whatever happen; you have to ‘show up’ and do it! 

Make it like a way of life. Just like how brushing teeth is natural for us; you have to but ur business ‘schedule’ in just like that. 

Maybe if you are working and you cant allocate time for it; still allocate an hour to do something for it. 

Maybe like marketing on monday, finance on tuesday, and so on. Motivation will come and go but the routine is there to stay. So do that!

No Time

Heres another thing that is usually the reason. When this person started selling; she was thinking of quitting her day job if this worked out. 

She had it all outlined that ‘ok; once i start and start selling ill will make this much x this much money and finally i can quit’. 

So she would spend all the free time she had to this business.

But then life came back, and social life came back and the tv time came back and so on and so the time just ‘slipped off’. 

Truthfully, as a business owner i can guarantee you this; the first 3 years of business; you are still looking for a rhythm. You are still testing out. You cant leave your job’s security during this time coz you have no idea how much you gona make.

Solution:

So really; just like above; the solution is still the same; give you business a fixed time and show up for it every day. Try to put it into your lifestyle. 

If you cant fit it now; you wont be able to fit it in later too!

Heres a past article ive written about how to manage time better.

Product Sucks

Heres another reason why it may be so. 

However; if you had done what I've always mentioned; whereby give out samples to your target customer to get back genuine feedback before making in bulk; im preety sure you wont go through this situation.

Problem is; many cant wait to ‘launch’ their product and so they straight away go for bulk. 

They want the whole glam ‘feeling’ of wanting to be a product founder asap and cant wait to reap the profit.

But seriously; thats not the way. You have already come this far wanting to start your own business. Starting a business is the first most difficult step.

This is just a little step (like an insurance) to make sure you are ‘safe’. 

Even big companies like coca cola does product sampling first before launching all in. So why cant you too?

Solution:

Before launching your product; ask your potential customers what they want. 

After that come up with your product formulation (thats what our business course teaches)/ get manufacturer to make for you small quantity sample. 

Then; give it around as sample. Once all ok; potential customers like it; smell all nice etc; then only make a bigger bulk product with nice packaging etc. 

This is one of the reason why we at soaplab manufacture smaller quantity (10kg). Thats because you can give it around as sample firts before you make bigger bulk order.

This way with people’s review etc; you will also get to know who are the potential customer like; and who is not. From there you would be able to do your product marketing properly as well.

Besides; with the reviews; you will have more confidence to selling your product in the future as well.

Lack of Marketing

Now out of all the reasons above; i think this is the sole reason why your product is not selling well. 

Because of lack of marketing. You are not telling enough people about your product. People are not telling enough people about your product; and thats why you cant sell.

At the start; because of excitement; you would tell and scream out to everyone about your product. And because of your excitement; others gets excited too and they buy from you. 

But; after they tried your product; and if your product is so good; it managed to reduce whatever problem they had or if it managed to get them what they wanted; why is it that they didnt tell others about it? 

Because; its either they didn't like your product because it didn't do what you said it would do; or because they actually didnt need it.

Now again; if you did product sampling as i mentioned above; and found out who will benefit from your product and then sell your product to only those people; then we wouldn't have this problem now would you? 

Instead; It would do exactly what its suppose to do and the customer will be a happy customer who would tell everyone about it (think APPLE products.)

As for the second type of customers; where they didn't need it but they purchased it; thats coz you sold to the wrong person (ie marketing gone wrong).

A lot of times; we tend to sell to ‘everybody’ when actually they are not suitable for your product. 

And the worst thing is when your product is actually good; but you sold it to a wrong person and that person gives you a bad review. OMG! The heartbreak! Happened to me few times.

Solution:

Figure out who your target market is and try to find where they are and sell to them. The smaller the niche; the better as marketing will be a lot more cost effective; you will get repeated customer and you can built a community! 

Don't waste your time trying to impress everyone because its gona bring you to price war and you will get fed up selling your products.

Dont know how to do marketing? Go find out in YouTube! Or google. There are so many ‘free’ marketing strategies available online. Take your time and study it! 

It took me 7 years and im still learning about this so its an ongoing education. 

And..dont stop telling people about your product!

So there it is. I think I've covered mostly why you are not selling. I hope it would help you somehow. 

To sum it up; Make sure your product is something people want, make sure you sell to people who needs it only, and finally; built a routine around your business so that even when you have lack of motivation; you will still do it. I know you can;-)

🤞 Good Luck

❤️ Nisha.