thread Re: Sales dipping: how do you stay positive? ‌📉‌ in Community Corner

Sales dipping: how do you stay positive? ‌📉‌

isabelle — Mon, 16 Dec 2024 15:26:06 GMT

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?

Re: Sales dipping: how do you stay positive? ‌📉‌

isabelle — Wed, 28 Sep 2022 17:53:44 GMT

Thank you @DinaLRosenberg for the inspiration from this post!

Re: Sales dipping: how do you stay positive? ‌📉‌

TCSlaguna — Wed, 28 Sep 2022 18:57:18 GMT

I think first and foremost you need to believe in the products you sell. Every business owner has a reason they entered into an industry. Believing in that purpose helps keep you going.

We surely have experienced dips before, and it can place a mental toll. I try not to look at the numbers constantly when I know things are slow, it will only stress me out further. The slow times are the best times to think about marketing, promotions, reaching out to news stations to get some coverage. It's also a good time to look into new products to carry. We have gone to several craft markets and looked for new products to carry from local creators. This will help differentiate you from the competition.

Most importantly, take a break. Go on vacation for a few days, enjoy nature and spend time with family. Clear your mind, then the best ideas will surely come.

Re: Sales dipping: how do you stay positive? ‌📉‌

dimo10 — Wed, 28 Sep 2022 23:24:08 GMT

There are a couple of things that keep me calm and positive.

I understand my long term goals in life, I know why I am in business and I understand what I need to do to achieve that goal. If you extend your time horizon to 10, 15 or 20 years, the little things that happened today or this week are so miniscule that you will not remember them.

I also try to only focus my time and energy on the things that I can control, if it is outside my control... I may whinge about it but my focus is always on things I can control.

The way I look at things on a day to day if there is a mistake or issue. It doesn't matter who made the mistake, as the business owner I take responsibility. I then look for a solution to the problem and implement that change. For me, a mistake is always an opportunity to improve be that in training a team member in the correct process so they can improve or changing a process so the business can improve.

Hope that helps.

Re: Sales dipping: how do you stay positive? ‌📉‌

ProsperityPools — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 13:06:03 GMT

If the dip is anticipated (such as seasonal), you have to be prepared. I've been an entrepreneur for 25 years, so I've learned to ride the highs and lows of different businesses I've had. Currently, the pool business does have a slight dip in the winter, however, we need to use fewer chemicals to keep the pools blue, so it ends up working out favorably.

With other types of businesses I've had, when there were dips, I tried to figure out WHY and then adjust accordingly, rather than flying off the handle or panicking. So, maybe you're advertising in the wrong places, or maybe a new competitor came to town, etc. and you just adjust your own plan accordingly to get back on track.

The key is not to let anxiety or fear take hold of you. Just stay positive, make adjustments, and keep enjoying the roller coaster ride of business ownership!

Re: Sales dipping: how do you stay positive? ‌📉‌

homeprogreen — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 14:01:51 GMT

I have learned over the years to really only take the year to year reports seriously. I do look at weekly and monthly comparisons to watch for trend’s developing but you will give yourself a stroke trying to plan on the week to week reporting. As an example, this week sales are down 71% for some reason compared to the previous week but when I go to the yearly comparison report it shows that so far this year I am showing 19% gain over last year

Re: Sales dipping: how do you stay positive? ‌📉‌

TheRealChipA — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 15:32:32 GMT

As has been said already, I don’t even seriously pay attention to dips. All that matter to me anymore are trends. The most important metrics that I track are all based on 4-week averages as compared to the same 4-week averages in my previous season. Usually, if there is a short-term dip I can guess that it is going to happen before it happens. Case in point is now. My last 3 weeks slowed down much more than expected, even for the cooler end of ice cream season. It was obvious a month or so ago that the recession had finally arrived, no matter what the experts were saying. So, we adjusted. Thankfully this is the time of year that I slowly cut back my staffing, which just happens to coincide with my high school/college staff returning to school. I just trimmed their hours more and much sooner than expected.

Actually, I’m glad we decided not to make 2022 the year we experimented with winter frozen treat sales. I have the strong suspicion that this holiday season is going to be brutal, at least if my recent sales trends are any indication (which they usually are). That suspicion was one of the biggest reasons we decided not to try anything new this year — I’m pretty sure we’d have regretted such a move. There’s always next winter!

What keeps me going, staying calm and positive? The blessings of sobriety! In 61 years on this earth I’ve learned one immutable fact of life — life is filled with ups, downs and plateaus. Recovery, and meditation, taught me not to focus on any one event, not to get stuck in my head. I do what I can. I adjust. I change. But I keep moving forward without wishing for something different for the parts that are totally out of my control. I can only change what I can change. The rest, as they say, is life.

Re: Sales dipping: how do you stay positive? ‌📉‌

Donnie-M — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 15:33:49 GMT

I always like to look at my customer counts, weather, and events in the area. I don't worry about sales dips if my average transaction is higher or my customer count is similar. Maybe I had a little cheaper special that day, or it was raining last year, etc. There are a lot of variables, but I look at trends over a month or more to see if there really is a "dip" and I need to really do some course correction.

Re: Sales dipping: how do you stay positive? ‌📉‌

shopfybr — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 18:48:00 GMT

This year has been really hard for us and staying positive can be a struggle. If things aren't going well I focus on what I can change, and also have distracted myself by getting creative with a pet project, our new scent line that is launching this Fall. 🙂

Re: Sales dipping: how do you stay positive? ‌📉‌

MJD — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 19:43:34 GMT

Sales dipping means I just need to shift my focus, owning two businesses I luckily bring in enough from one to allow for fluctuating sales from the other!

Dipping sales means I get to have fun on photoshop making cool ads as well 😜

Re: Sales dipping: how do you stay positive? ‌📉‌

Lovewell — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 23:46:56 GMT

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

Re: Sales dipping: how do you stay positive? ‌📉‌

Lovewell — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 23:54:43 GMT

Love you answer!! We just took a vacation and it pulls us out of the shop long enough to almost help us see things much more clearly. We felt like we could be creative again and came back ready to push forward and have fun.

We go back and forth between the older mindset of "The owner of the business should be there everyday and never have time off." It's not healthy and it puts a lot of guilt on a business owner when they are burned out a need a break.

Taking the time to step away is not only healthy for you, its healthy for your team, and the business as a whole.

Re: Sales dipping: how do you stay positive? ‌📉‌

Lovewell — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 23:56:34 GMT

Love this. Thanks for sharing what you have learned over the years. Because of people like you we can be on year two almost three of business and realize its all normal and we are doing okay!

Thanks again.

Re: Sales dipping: how do you stay positive? ‌📉‌

Lovewell — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 23:57:24 GMT

It is all about perspective and looking big picture. Thank you for this reminder!

Re: Sales dipping: how do you stay positive? ‌📉‌

arouanllc — Fri, 30 Sep 2022 03:00:56 GMT

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!

Re: Sales dipping: how do you stay positive? ‌📉‌

Candlestore — Fri, 30 Sep 2022 13:31:22 GMT

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.

Re: Sales dipping: how do you stay positive? ‌📉‌

AmericanoLive — Sat, 01 Oct 2022 07:39:51 GMT

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.

Re: Sales dipping: how do you stay positive? ‌📉‌

BCakesLLC — Sun, 02 Oct 2022 14:01:37 GMT

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

Re: Sales dipping: how do you stay positive? ‌📉‌

OldCoder — Sun, 02 Oct 2022 14:23:11 GMT

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

Re: Sales dipping: how do you stay positive? ‌📉‌

skinfanatic — Sun, 02 Oct 2022 19:24:07 GMT

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.