What to do When Your Business Isn't Making A Profit

[Michelle Waters]

Everyone experiences slow points in their business sales at some time or another. The economy and time of year are two factors that could affect your sales. If your business doesn’t pick up after 6 weeks, then there are steps you should take to analyze your business and hopefully jumpstart your sales again.

1. Re-evaluate your target market. Did you do thorough market research prior to launching your product? Does your product help the people in your chosen market? Has something changed within your market that would cause a decrease in sales? If you don’t have answers to these questions, then start at the beginning and identify who your target market is and why they need your product.

2. Re-evaluate your product. What problem does your product solve for your target market? What is the quality of your product? Is there a lot of competition or similar products on the market? What is your unique selling point? You need to make your product unique to your target. It’s not enough to change the color of something when there are 20 competitors lurking around to take your sales. Figure out your uniqueness and capitalize on it.

3. Check your price point against the competitors. Is your price competitive or out of range? Can your market afford your product? While the purpose of making sales is to make money, if your customers cannot afford your product, your sales will decline. If your markup is significant, consider doing a test by lowering your price and analyzing the results.

4. Send out a press release. Invest in a well-written press release and send it to online media sources for immediate distribution. Illustrate your unique selling point and the problem you solve to get noticed quickly. In order to catch the eyes of the media editors, be sure your press release has some news value. Saying, “Joe’s car service is now open” won’t mean much unless you are perhaps the only car service in town. Don’t forget about your local media. They might be interested in running a story about a local, successful resident.

5. Change your advertising plans. Have you advertised your product, either online or offline? You need to make people aware of your presence so a combination of publicity, marketing and advertising is best. Look for advertising options on your favorite forums, websites or podcasts. Ask if you can barter for advertising space if your budget is tight.

6. Market your product to keep your name familiar. Online marketing includes adding your link in your forum signatures or writing articles and submitting them to directories. Find a popular podcast and approach the host about getting interviewed. Participate in networking events or webinars online.

6. Add an affiliate program. If you have a good product that is valuable to your market, affiliates will sign up for free to sell your product in exchange for a certain percentage of sales. Some ebook affiliates make 50% per sale, which drives them to keep selling. This is extremely valuable because you have a sales force who already reaches your target market and your affiliates are able to earn some money without producing their own products. Once you have your affiliates registering to sell, treat them nicely with incentives and with sales tools, such as pre-written articles. Take the time to make the affiliate excited about selling for you.

Taking the time to analyze these business aspects will help to identify where you have problems and what you can improve upon. If, however, you have done this self-analysis and your sales are still poor, it’s time to hire a business coach who can give you an objective view of your business. Sometimes business owners are too close to a project to see if it has any real value left in it.

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