Today, I want to share a cautionary tale about a time when I got so busy working in my business that I forgot to work on my business. It’s a serious topic, but important.
So, here’s what happened…
In 2017, sales were rolling in FAST on Amazon. I mean so fast I couldn’t even think straight. I hadn’t started utilizing FBA and everything was made-to-order so I was drowning. This went on for about a year. Despite working myself to death, I was feeling like a total rock star because so many people wanted to buy from me. I mean the goal is to get a gazilion orders, right?
My business was doing amazing.
I’m not telling you this to brag, I’m telling you this so that you know I let this feeling become a false sense of security that ultimately caused my sales to decline.
Now, while I was tirelessly working to fill orders – I didn’t have (or make) time to create new products or post on social media.
Not good!
You might be thinking, why would you need to worry about new products or Instagram when sales were rolling in like crazy?
Well, let me tell you why. Because eventually those top products stop being popular. Then, your customers move on to the next top product and I was sitting in the dust wondering where everyone went.
You see, I was working working working non-stop and didn’t notice the slow trickle down in sales while my customers were going somewhere else. Previous customers were going to different shops because I wasn’t making new products. Since I wasn’t creating new products, there was no incentive for customers to come back. My shop stayed the same for close to a year and I wasn’t driving new traffic through social media. Total. Fail.
Ugh, so what did I learn? I learned that you still have to be carving time out for making new product lines and driving new traffic no matter how busy you are.
Thankfully, I was able to identify the problem before it got too out of hand, adjust my SEO to the new popular terms, get new products made, and get things back on track.
But, the real lesson from this is that while you are focused working IN your business you also have to make sure to continue working ON your business. This ensures that you are keeping up with everyone else in your industry. It’s the working ON your business that allows it to continue to grow.
So, what was the number one way that I fixed this in my business. Cloning isn’t an option, so I had to look into automation. I’ve automated as much as possible. When you are self-employed, automation really is your friend. Through applications like Later for Instagram or Tailwind for Pinterest (affiliate link) and Trello to keep me on task for daily tasks. These program help to make my daily tasks more manageable and allow me to metaphorically be in more than one place at once. Using Tailwind (affiliate link) to schedule all of pins on Sunday evening allows my business to remain active all week while I’m filling orders. Win, win!
So, my point in sharing this story is really just to get you to think about the importance of taking time to work on your business no matter how busy you are in your business.
Working on your business is what keeps things moving and busy in your business.
What strategies are you going to implement in your business so that you are staying on top of the latest trends and staying in front of your target audience while also filling orders?
