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tinker9696
03-05-2014, 02:11 PM
Since joining this forum a few days ago..I have been reading some of the threads to gain some insight and become familiar with some of the members here.
Some of you people are so business smart and I am feeling totally inadequate. My pet/bird shop is 17 months old and the store is paying the rent/bills and we have a 5k business credit card debt. I should have done more research before we opened and I think I would be feeling more confident.
We had a misstep last Spring where our web site was not as visible as it had been the prior years with the home based business so my sales on baby parrots was down 95%. The problem is fixed with the web site so I am counting on this Spring to provide the sales that at least are measurable to my prior years sales. Each year I usually attempt to have goals that exceed the past year but with this misstep..i think I have to look at it from a different perspective. Also..the fact that I am now a store and not a home based business changes things as well. I have been getting discouraged but not ready to give up. Any feed back is greatly appreciated.
I think my major concern is; 17 months in and only being able to pay the bills and expenses , is that usual and am I where I should be?

Freelancier
03-05-2014, 03:01 PM
17 months in and only being able to pay the bills and expenses , is that usual and am I where I should be?

It depends.

Sorry, that's really the right answer, though. For some businesses in some locations, a slow building clientele is how you get successful; in other locations and with other business plans, you get successful in a hurry.

For example, a salad bar place situated in the middle of an office/retail area where you get minimum 50,000 people coming to work or shop every day is likely going to be wildly successful right out of the gate.

A pet shop not located in a mall or popular part of town? Probably going to struggle to build a client list for a while, considering that you have competitors that are both online and big-box. So you'll have to figure out how to compete against them in a way that they can't do so easily. Price is likely not the best competitive point, not because you couldn't win if you were online only, but because with the physical store presence you have to make a decent profit on every item to be able to afford your space.

You didn't provide enough details about your location or traffic, so that might help you figure out where the issue really is.

tinker9696
03-05-2014, 04:52 PM
Thank you freelancier. ...makes total sense...

Harold Mansfield
03-06-2014, 09:15 AM
Believe it or not, 17 months in and being able to pay the bills is something to be proud of . Most people fold within 17 months. Of course it's not anything to be content with.
Sounds like you've proved it can work, now you need to figure out how to increase sales and/or profit.

Where does the majority of your sales come from? Walk in? Ads? Web? Referrals?

Or maybe a better question would be, where would you like to see improvement?

tinker9696
03-06-2014, 03:06 PM
@harold..I so needed to hear that thank you so much!!!!
we had a misstep with our web site last Spring so my sales where down immensely from previous years with the home based business so this spring will really be able to tell us if this business is going to work. The majority of our bird sales are from the web site because we are a specialty service and do not stock birds...the rest of the sales are from prior customers that purchased birds from us when we had our home based business and than walk ins. I am want to increase the walk in population and am working on a strategy..local advertising/flyers did not seem to add a return last year and it was costly for the advertising. Have to do some serious brain storming. All suggestions are greatly appreciated!!!!

Patrysha
03-06-2014, 07:40 PM
Since I'm a publicist...I'd be networking hard to reach out to any relevant website that would feature guest posts, any podcast looking for guests and sending out releases to generate as much media coverage and publicity as possible. Make the most of the window of time for orders sort of thing.

tinker9696
03-07-2014, 08:08 AM
What is a podcast?

Patrysha
03-08-2014, 11:53 AM
A podcast is an online radio (or now some are in video) show. There are lots in niche areas of interest that you could probably appear on.

tinker9696
03-08-2014, 04:15 PM
thanks..will look into it!

TheResourcefulCEO
03-11-2014, 11:04 AM
I'm much more of a strategy, operations and finance person than a marketer. I agree with Harold Mansfield. By moving to a physical location and out of your home, your overhead increased significantly. Therefore, you need higher revenues to generate the same profits. You are still able to cover all your expenses, but not generate the profits you sought. So I'd ask a bunch of questions.

You say people come through your website. How do they find your website? Is it through SEO, advertising, referrals or what? You can use Google Analytics to determine this. If people can purchase through your website, include a question asking them how they found you on the checkout form. Then use this information and insight to direct your online marketing, PR and advertising efforts. For example, if they found you through Google places, then advertise on Google places and make sure you list with all the online business directories including Yelp, Yahoo!, Superpages, etc. If your customers found you through other bird-related sites, then contact those sites and see if they allow advertising on their sites (links, banners, etc.). If your customers found you through SEO, then check and refine your keywords, make sure that you have enough keywords on your pages and consider blogging, article writing, etc. Do you see how your customers find you help you determine where your time, money and efforts should go?

If your site encourages people to call or visit your store, you must ask how they found you. Actually, for anyone who calls or visits, you should make it part of all your procedures to inquire how they found you. Where do parrot/bird shoppers go or hang out? These are the places you need to target. Placing flyers on the vehicles of cars during a Meetup bird lover meeting will get you significantly more calls than a retail or business parking lot. How many of those bird lovers are in the typical retail or business location? Probably very few. Consider co-marketing with companies that serve bird owners but are not direct competitors to you.

Just ask yourself, "Where is my customer? How do I reach him/her?" Then adjust your marketing accordingly. If you don't have a lot of information on this now, try a few different marketing efforts. Track the response rate. Test and measure. Adjust. Test and measure. Adjust. This is how you make sure you make the best use of your limited time and money!

Tiffany

tinker9696
03-11-2014, 11:45 AM
All great suggestions..definitely giving me motivation. Some we are already doing but this forum and all the support and advice ignites a spark. Thank you

Paul
04-24-2014, 01:30 AM
17 months and covering overhead is NOT BAD! The question is about your trajectory ...are sales increasing, decreasing or flat. It sounds like getting your web sorted out and bird business back on track will start to get you into profitable territory.

tinker9696
04-24-2014, 08:50 AM
At this point flat....In this industry the birds would be producing now and they are not because of the weather.It is confusing all the breeder birds regarding breeding, laying, roosting and sitting when there are eggs. It is just something you have to deal with with live stock.
So far I haven't had to return any deposits. Usually by this time of year I would have approx 20 orders on large parrots..this year only 5 so far. Can only keep doing what I do and hope things get better, I updated all my ads...working on a e-mail list for newsletter, working on fb fan page. Having store window done to attract attention. taking all suggestions that I get here and from people I trust. Not a lot more I can do other than pray!