Buckling down and making it through these times
Crazy times right? Crazy times to be starting a business (we’re a year and a half past launch, I wonder when I’ll start referring to it as running a business???) It’s an economy thing and it has been crazy. We were building momentum like mad into January, and then everything just dipped. One of our boutiques that really sells our stuff well estimates traffic was down from 20 - 30 people a day to oh, about three!! THREE!!
But if this last month of business is any indication of things, then I think things are finally taking a turn for the better. We had a heck of a great show at Baby Celebration, online sales are up, and the boutique’s sales are picking up too.
We’ve been careful to keep up the momentum as much as possible, focusing on driving traffic to the site and also on keeping in touch with prospective boutiques and current accounts. It’s true that your current customers are your best customers - it’s much easier to sell to someone that already likes you and trusts you. So I’m trying to get appointments with current accounts to get in and show them the new stuff. And I’m really really trying to focus on being optimistic and putting the hard work behind it.
Time management is always a challenge, but my partner is going to take on some new project management tasks, which will help a lot. Imagine if we actually created project schedules for the mountains we want to climb? Miracles might happen.
I hope that all of you are seeing a pick up in business too!! Anyone out there have big trade shows coming up soon? Dallas? Mom2B?
We’ve got Atlanta in 9 weeks because we’ve picked up a sales rep!!!!! Right now we’re in the contract phase and I’m working on getting the first official salesman’s kit together. I can’t believe how much stuff you always seem to need when RUNNING a business.
7 comments May 4th, 2008