Making very little sales and not sure about long term with current business - Advice?

[KJFast]

Hello guys, I’m not making much profit on my current business and sales are slow. It’s a really niche market.

Was wondering if I should just keep it idling then focus my energy on another business, I was thinking to do what Lex did with digital products.

Currently my business has outgoings of £35 monthly which it’s profit doesn’t even cover yet & my stocks would run out if I did get large sales. It’s growing somewhat but I don’t have the funds to purchase even the new stock that’d be needed to make it more worthwhile & even if I sold everything overnight, I’d still not have made much profit or be able to scale.

Ideally I’d need to do something that I can start in January and make money quickly, while keeping current business sort of on “idle” but keeping up with daily tasks and improvements.

Any advice?

 

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[AdamRyanUK]

Hello guys, I’m not making much profit on my current business and sales are slow. It’s a really niche market.

Was wondering if I should just keep it idling then focus my energy on another business, I was thinking to do what Lex did with digital products.

Currently my business has outgoings of £35 monthly which it’s profit doesn’t even cover yet & my stocks would run out if I did get large sales. It’s growing somewhat but I don’t have the funds to purchase even the new stock that’d be needed to make it more worthwhile & even if I sold everything overnight, I’d still not have made much profit or be able to scale.

Ideally I’d need to do something that I can start in January and make money quickly, while keeping current business sort of on “idle” but keeping up with daily tasks and improvements.

Any advice?

Sorry to hear you've been having a hard time of it. Can you provide more details about your business and perhaps a link to its website?

 

[KJFast]

Sorry to hear you've been having a hard time of it. Can you provide more details about your business and perhaps a link to its website?

Hello!

Isn’t it “self-promotion” if I share a link to my website?
& here:

Here’s the structure without dipping into what my business actually does.

The product is a perishable good similar to tea where it keeps for a very long time. I sell only to the UK market and my audience is very niche (1.3k-3k searches per term). Currently I have an instagram and a reddit account which I use for marketing purposes. I also use affiliate marketing and have done some basic SEOmyself.

The figures are as below:

Each product is sold in 5 different weights and each variant of product has the same (or similar) price structure of:
£8
£18
£34
£60
£99
Shipping costs £3.50 for customers but people spending £50+ get free shipping

At the moment I have 5 variants of the product

Affiliates can give 20% discounts to all first time customers, then the affiliate receives 10% commission for sales and they also get 30% off storewide whenever they want to order product so they can showcase it to their followers.

Currently we get 10-40 people visiting the site daily and have had 4 sales. Two sales are from affiliates who subsequently got paid £5 in commissions.

I am looking for ways to generate more sales than currently. My instagram is small (less than 100 followers) and reddit wasn’t really working to generate sales.

I am also wondering if this can be automated eventually? Currently I ship everything myself and I do all the marketing (insta stories, posts, reddit posting, talking to affiliates, messaging potential affiliates etc) myself.

I have a marketing budget of £20, which I could use to bring in more people to the site.

I haven’t built an email list but have a couple emails from sales/affiliates.

 

[Jeix]

Not an expert but we tried offering an affiliate program on our ecommerce too and we just didn't have the margins for it, it just added an extra useless middleman we couldn't afford.

I don't think you can afford to offer an affiliate program unless you are the manufacturer or the person that directly hires the manufacturer. I assume since your business is very small that you source small quantities from retail suppliers. That proved not sustainable for us and we lost a lot of money trying.

I recommend growing your brand and doing the marketing yourself to boost your margins and have money to reinvest in inventory and everything else, rinse, repeat and scale from there.

Hope that helps!

 

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[AdamRyanUK]

Not an expert but we tried offering an affiliate program on our ecommerce too and we just didn't have the margins for it, it just added an extra useless middleman we couldn't afford.

I don't think you can afford to offer an affiliate program unless you are the manufacturer or the person that directly hires the manufacturer. I assume since your business is very small that you source small quantities from retail suppliers. That proved not sustainable for us and we lost a lot of money trying.

I recommend growing your brand and doing the marketing yourself to boost your margins and have money to reinvest in inventory and everything else, rinse, repeat and scale from there.

Hope that helps!

Based on the info you've given and my experience I wouldn't be able to say give it up or carry on, however in the books MJ does go over the bases on what to try to make a business work and when you should give up. A lot of people are almost at the point of success before they give up so maybe worth trying to vary a few things see if results pick up or not and give yourself an end date by which you decide to stop if it still is not working. As for the packing etc you could get someone else to do that there will be services about. For me, to say if your business would work or not would be down to the product, is it excellent? Is it unique? Are you just reselling someone else's product and then getting affiliates involved to try and make a quick buck? Did you invest the time and effort needed to create something someone else couldn't replicate (easily)? If the product already exists and you have lots of competitors, how are you adding value?

 

[Kevin88660]

Hello!

Isn’t it “self-promotion” if I share a link to my website?
& here:

Here’s the structure without dipping into what my business actually does.

The product is a perishable good similar to tea where it keeps for a very long time. I sell only to the UK market and my audience is very niche (1.3k-3k searches per term). Currently I have an instagram and a reddit account which I use for marketing purposes. I also use affiliate marketing and have done some basic SEOmyself.

The figures are as below:

Each product is sold in 5 different weights and each variant of product has the same (or similar) price structure of:
£8
£18
£34
£60
£99
Shipping costs £3.50 for customers but people spending £50+ get free shipping

At the moment I have 5 variants of the product

Affiliates can give 20% discounts to all first time customers, then the affiliate receives 10% commission for sales and they also get 30% off storewide whenever they want to order product so they can showcase it to their followers.

Currently we get 10-40 people visiting the site daily and have had 4 sales. Two sales are from affiliates who subsequently got paid £5 in commissions.

I am looking for ways to generate more sales than currently. My instagram is small (less than 100 followers) and reddit wasn’t really working to generate sales.

I am also wondering if this can be automated eventually? Currently I ship everything myself and I do all the marketing (insta stories, posts, reddit posting, talking to affiliates, messaging potential affiliates etc) myself.

I have a marketing budget of £20, which I could use to bring in more people to the site.

I haven’t built an email list but have a couple emails from sales/affiliates.

Sounds like the issue is that the market is too small to take off with momentum.

 

[KJFast]

Based on the info you've given and my experience I wouldn't be able to say give it up or carry on, however in the books MJ does go over the bases on what to try to make a business work and when you should give up. A lot of people are almost at the point of success before they give up so maybe worth trying to vary a few things see if results pick up or not and give yourself an end date by which you decide to stop if it still is not working. As for the packing etc you could get someone else to do that there will be services about. For me, to say if your business would work or not would be down to the product, is it excellent? Is it unique? Are you just reselling someone else's product and then getting affiliates involved to try and make a quick buck? Did you invest the time and effort needed to create something someone else couldn't replicate (easily)? If the product already exists and you have lots of competitors, how are you adding value?

To be fair, it is just the same product as competitors. I have ways to add value but my product is a risk sector also due to it’s nature.

My product is CBD Flower/Hash and I retail in the UK. I can get in “Premium” flowers but as they look exactly like cannabis there’s a chance the packages would be seized as I’d have to import. Plus the MOQ’s are out of my price range. This sort of flower would give me a good USP.

Although, my price is cheaper than competitors except they have established brands and customer bases.

I’m completely new to marketing & have struggled to create decent content. Could do with reading a couple books or figuring out more the marketing end.

So far I’ve mainly just contacted people who review my product and sent it out/gave them a discount and they’d buy.

 

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[KJFast]

Not an expert but we tried offering an affiliate program on our ecommerce too and we just didn't have the margins for it, it just added an extra useless middleman we couldn't afford.

I don't think you can afford to offer an affiliate program unless you are the manufacturer or the person that directly hires the manufacturer. I assume since your business is very small that you source small quantities from retail suppliers. That proved not sustainable for us and we lost a lot of money trying.

I recommend growing your brand and doing the marketing yourself to boost your margins and have money to reinvest in inventory and everything else, rinse, repeat and scale from there.

Hope that helps!

This makes sense also, my margins allow me to be profitable with affiliates but the income I lose out on is sort of vital I suppose atm. The other factor is that affiliates count towards 4/5 of all my sales as they bought my product with discount to review, plus this is currently the main way I’ve grown and to tell them “sorry no more affiliates” would be like shutting down my army of supporters.

 

[AdamRyanUK]

To be fair, it is just the same product as competitors. I have ways to add value but my product is a risk sector also due to it’s nature.

My product is CBD Flower/Hash and I retail in the UK. I can get in “Premium” flowers but as they look exactly like cannabis there’s a chance the packages would be seized as I’d have to import. Plus the MOQ’s are out of my price range. This sort of flower would give me a good USP.

Although, my price is cheaper than competitors except they have established brands and customer bases.

I’m completely new to marketing & have struggled to create decent content. Could do with reading a couple books or figuring out more the marketing end.

So far I’ve mainly just contacted people who review my product and sent it out/gave them a discount and they’d buy.

Hey man, thanks for providing those details. Based on what I've read it sounds like you do not have a "productocracy". If there are many different people offering the same thing the product may get commoditized in which case it is a race to the bottom. Offering the cheapest price in a bid to make sales and get rich isn't the way. You need to reflect on how you can develop and create a product which people need which differentiates you from your competitors.

 

[KJFast]

Hey man, thanks for providing those details. Based on what I've read it sounds like you do not have a "productocracy". If there are many different people offering the same thing the product may get commoditized in which case it is a race to the bottom. Offering the cheapest price in a bid to make sales and get rich isn't the way. You need to reflect on how you can develop and create a product which people need which differentiates you from your competitors.

Thank you for this advice bro, have a good christmas!

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Isn’t it “self-promotion” if I share a link to my website?

Depends on context.

In this context, NO.

You've expressed a desire for help and feedback.

 

[KJFast]

Hey man, thanks for providing those details. Based on what I've read it sounds like you do not have a "productocracy". If there are many different people offering the same thing the product may get commoditized in which case it is a race to the bottom. Offering the cheapest price in a bid to make sales and get rich isn't the way. You need to reflect on how you can develop and create a product which people need which differentiates you from your competitors.

Hello again,

MJ confirmed it’s not self promotion. My site is

Loudhemp | UK Organic CBD Flowers & Hash

Looking for loud? We have a wide range of CBD Flowers & CBD Hash | UK Organic CBD Flowers. Visit us today to enlighten your wellbeing!

loudhemp.co.uk

Any feedback appreciated

 

[AdamRyanUK]

Hello again,

MJ confirmed it’s not self promotion. My site is

Loudhemp | UK Organic CBD Flowers & Hash

Looking for loud? We have a wide range of CBD Flowers & CBD Hash | UK Organic CBD Flowers. Visit us today to enlighten your wellbeing!

loudhemp.co.uk

Any feedback appreciated

Hi KJ, honestly, it seems like you are selling a commodity and that you don't have a product.

 

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[StrikingViper69]

Hello again,

MJ confirmed it’s not self promotion. My site is

Loudhemp | UK Organic CBD Flowers & Hash

Looking for loud? We have a wide range of CBD Flowers & CBD Hash | UK Organic CBD Flowers. Visit us today to enlighten your wellbeing!

loudhemp.co.uk

Any feedback appreciated

You’ve done the absolute bare minimum for listing your products.

- Why should someone buy from you?
- Do your plants have any special characteristics?
- What makes what you do different from what others do?

 

[Andy Black]

Talk us through how someone will get to a particular page on your site.

 

[KJFast]

Hi KJ, honestly, it seems like you are selling a commodity and that you don't have a product.

Yeah, to be fair I started this without knowledge of USP’s and before reading TMFL. I have a backup plan to cut all expenses if I deem necessary to do so.

 

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[KJFast]

Talk us through how someone will get to a particular page on your site.

They’d use the navigation menu or on the announcement bar they’d click the link to learn more about the product.

 

[KJFast]

You’ve done the absolute bare minimum for listing your products.

- Why should someone buy from you?
- Do your plants have any special characteristics?
- What makes what you do different from what others do?

Admittedly my product is the same as elsewhere. What I do differently is provide exceptional customer service compared to many of the other companies.

However, admittedly the product is the same as other companies and I don’t do so much differently.

 

[StrikingViper69]

Admittedly my product is the same as elsewhere. What I do differently is provide exceptional customer service compared to many of the other companies.

However, admittedly the product is the same as other companies and I don’t do so much differently.

What customer service? Isn’t this something you put in the post?

 

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[Andy Black]

They’d use the navigation menu or on the announcement bar they’d click the link to learn more about the product.

My bad. I meant "How will people find your website? How will they end up on a particular product page?"

 

[KJFast]

What customer service? Isn’t this something you put in the post?

True, good point. I do all customer service myself & have built up relationships with customers

 

[KJFast]

My bad. I meant "How will people find your website? How will they end up on a particular product page?"

They can find my site through instagram (my instagram and affiliates instagrams). There’s reviews of my product on youtube and they could potentially discover me through reddit.
To end up on a particular product page they’d need to click on the product.

My site can also be found on 2 directories

 

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[Devilery]

Your site is crap and looks like a scam. You don't deserve sales with effort this low.

First, find your top competitors, and see how they present themselves. Take notes.

Example 1: CBD UK & EU - HempElf CBD | 100% Organic & 3rd Party Lab Tested

Example 2: HempHash | Buy CBD Hash and CBD Hemp in UK

Find more and replicate what works.

Second, get a premium theme. Sure, they cost around $300 but it's well worth it. It will help your site not look like a Google Doc with pictures.

Third, figure out what advantages you can get over your competitors (this is probably the hardest part as larger brands can buy in bulk, thus getting quality cheaper).

 

[KJFast]

Your site is crap and looks like a scam. You don't deserve sales with effort this low.

First, find your top competitors, and see how they present themselves. Take notes.

Example 1: CBD UK & EU - HempElf CBD | 100% Organic & 3rd Party Lab Tested

Example 2: HempHash | Buy CBD Hash and CBD Hemp in UK

Find more and replicate what works.

Second, get a premium theme. Sure, they cost around $300 but it's well worth it. It will help your site not look like a Google Doc with pictures.

Third, figure out what advantages you can get over your competitors (this is probably the hardest part as larger brands can buy in bulk, thus getting quality cheaper).

Will do! & Yeah the site is sucky tbf.

 

[Devilery]

Will do! & Yeah the site is sucky tbf.

As always, I didn't mean it to discourage you. You know very well that you didn't put much effort into building the page, you just listed the products on a free theme. It must look good (it helps you look credible), and you must talk about your products - quality, benefits, etc. to sell the products.

Now, starting out the premium theme might be pricey, but you can certainly work with what you have too. Really take the time to study your competition, go as far as replicate their layout and adjust it to fit what you're doing.

 

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[KJFast]

As always, I didn't mean it to discourage you. You know very well that you didn't put much effort into building the page, you just listed the products on a free theme. It must look good (it helps you look credible), and you must talk about your products - quality, benefits, etc. to sell the products.

Now, starting out the premium theme might be pricey, but you can certainly work with what you have too. Really take the time to study your competition, go as far as replicate their layout and adjust it to fit what you're doing.

Of course bro! I know you’re only offering advice and tbh this is the first site I have ever made & yeah many improvements needed. I have 0 capital to invest so I’ll focus on learning more marketing and working with what I have. I appreciate any advice/feedback even if negative. I’ll take some time to study competiton and such this week. Also going to put some time into lex’s “make money in 15 days copywriting” because I need money sooner especially to work on this business more.

Thanks again, I’ll keep pushing thru

 

[Andy Black]

They can find my site through instagram (my instagram and affiliates instagrams). There’s reviews of my product on youtube and they could potentially discover me through reddit.
To end up on a particular product page they’d need to click on the product.

My site can also be found on 2 directories

How many people are coming through from Instagram? What % will click from the homepage to a product page?

How many visitors are you getting at rhe moment from each channel?

 

[KJFast]

How many people are coming through from Instagram? What % will click from the homepage to a product page?

How many visitors are you getting at rhe moment from each channel?

About 2-15 visitors daily, the most hype and visitors have been from my affiliates I’ll get the % now.
Actually just realised I don’t know how to track that % or even if there is something tracking it… I’ll look for a plugin now

 

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[Andy Black]

About 2-15 visitors daily, the most hype and visitors have been from my affiliates I’ll get the % now.
Actually just realised I don’t know how to track that % or even if there is something tracking it… I’ll look for a plugin now

I'd guess you're better selling one product at the moment, and from the homepage. Get a salespage up (or a signup page) and work to get more high intent visitors.

 

[KJFast]

I'd guess you're better selling one product at the moment, and from the homepage. Get a salespage up (or a signup page) and work to get more high intent visitors.

The sort of brand I operate is valued for multiple products as people enjoy the different effects/taste/smell of each different flower. So you’d recommend a signup page with good copy and capture more emails/high intent visitors?

I don’t feel I could only sell one product, people would laugh my business off and go to a competitor with more variety as variety is valued. Unless I could do two products of my own which are the highest quality ones.

Though could definitely set up a one page sales page as the homepage and make it so people can choose one of the two best products we have, thanks for the idea!