1 00:00:01,840 --> 00:00:05,560 In today's episode, we're going to walk you through three mistakes that keep small product 2 00:00:05,560 --> 00:00:08,960 businesses stuck and how to avoid them so you can finally start building 3 00:00:09,200 --> 00:00:12,920 real momentum. If you feel like your sales are stuck 4 00:00:12,920 --> 00:00:15,920 in first gear, then this episode is for you. 5 00:00:16,400 --> 00:00:20,080 Maybe you're showing up on Instagram, perhaps you're boosting posts 6 00:00:20,240 --> 00:00:24,000 sporadically, perhaps running the promotion, maybe you're 7 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:27,520 going to events or in person markets. But when you look at your 8 00:00:27,520 --> 00:00:31,370 revenue, it's still seems like you're pretty much always stuck in the 9 00:00:31,370 --> 00:00:34,570 same place, somewhere between 1 to 3k a month. 10 00:00:35,050 --> 00:00:38,690 And it's frustrating, isn't it? You're working really hard, yet the numbers 11 00:00:38,690 --> 00:00:42,290 just aren't moving. And at that point, it's easy to start questioning 12 00:00:42,290 --> 00:00:46,090 yourself, is this business ever going to grow? So if 13 00:00:46,090 --> 00:00:49,410 you're in this zone, then this is the 14 00:00:49,410 --> 00:00:52,090 episode for you. We're going to be talking about 15 00:00:52,890 --> 00:00:56,610 the reasons that people get stuck here and how you can 16 00:00:56,610 --> 00:01:00,430 fix them. Because here's the thing, being stuck at this level isn't a sign that 17 00:01:00,430 --> 00:01:04,270 you're failing. It's not a sign that nobody wants your products or the business was 18 00:01:04,270 --> 00:01:07,830 a terrible idea. More often than not, it's because of three common 19 00:01:07,830 --> 00:01:11,270 mistakes. And the good news is these are things that you can 20 00:01:11,270 --> 00:01:15,110 fix. So the first mistake that I see people making is 21 00:01:15,110 --> 00:01:18,870 that they don't have a clear plan. Often when I talk to people 22 00:01:18,870 --> 00:01:22,390 about their business, I will ask them, do you have a plan? Do you have 23 00:01:22,390 --> 00:01:25,610 a sales plan? Do you have a marketing plan? Do you have a plan for 24 00:01:25,610 --> 00:01:29,410 launching new products? Do you have a plan for what you're going to 25 00:01:29,410 --> 00:01:33,130 talk about when. And usually the answer is no. A lot of 26 00:01:33,130 --> 00:01:36,610 people don't have a clear plan mapped 27 00:01:36,610 --> 00:01:39,970 out because they're often going from one thing to the next. 28 00:01:40,130 --> 00:01:43,770 They are bouncing, they're being very reactive. Maybe an 29 00:01:43,770 --> 00:01:47,610 opportunity comes up, so they're answering that, or something else is coming up, so 30 00:01:47,610 --> 00:01:51,360 they're answering that and back. Basically, they 31 00:01:51,360 --> 00:01:54,160 are letting themselves be kind of bounced around like a ball. 32 00:01:54,720 --> 00:01:58,320 Whereas my background in retail, I've been in the business 33 00:01:58,320 --> 00:02:02,000 for 25 years. What I've learned is that the big guys spending 34 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:05,480 nearly two decades in bigger retailers is that everything is 35 00:02:05,480 --> 00:02:08,320 planned out Now. A lot of people 36 00:02:09,200 --> 00:02:12,160 feel like planning is tough, is difficult, 37 00:02:12,800 --> 00:02:15,560 or not even so much that they feel it's difficult, but more that they feel 38 00:02:15,560 --> 00:02:19,410 like it's restrictive. Maybe you started a business because you're wanting to be creative, 39 00:02:19,410 --> 00:02:23,130 you wanted to express your creativity, and it feels like planning is the opposite 40 00:02:23,130 --> 00:02:26,890 of being creative. But I'm a really big believer that planning 41 00:02:26,890 --> 00:02:30,610 and creativity are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they very 42 00:02:30,610 --> 00:02:34,290 much feed in to one another. Once you've got a structure 43 00:02:34,450 --> 00:02:38,090 and a framework and a plan around you, you can actually be more 44 00:02:38,090 --> 00:02:41,610 creative because you know what you need to do and you just come up with 45 00:02:41,610 --> 00:02:45,380 the ideas for it, as opposed to feeling lost and feeling like 46 00:02:45,380 --> 00:02:48,900 you're kind of just being bounced around from pillar to post. 47 00:02:50,100 --> 00:02:53,780 So what I see with a lot of people is that they rely on ad 48 00:02:53,780 --> 00:02:57,580 hoc posting spur of the moment ideas. So they'll sit there on 49 00:02:57,580 --> 00:03:00,420 a Monday and think, right, I really should post something this week. And they don't 50 00:03:00,420 --> 00:03:03,860 really know what to say. They don't have a coordination between their product 51 00:03:03,860 --> 00:03:07,660 strategy and their marketing strategy. And I think for me 52 00:03:07,660 --> 00:03:11,460 that's one of the biggest missed opportunities. Because the thing about retail 53 00:03:12,160 --> 00:03:15,800 is that it varies a lot throughout the year. It's very, very 54 00:03:15,800 --> 00:03:19,440 seasonal. So what your customer wants from you and the kind of 55 00:03:19,440 --> 00:03:22,840 messages that work with them in the summer are going to be very different from 56 00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:26,680 the messages that work with them at Christmas time, or in fact 57 00:03:26,680 --> 00:03:30,360 in January or February. So there's a lot of shift and change 58 00:03:30,360 --> 00:03:34,120 throughout the year. There's lots of nuance to what 59 00:03:34,120 --> 00:03:37,720 people want from you in certain seasons, and there's lots of 60 00:03:37,720 --> 00:03:41,440 different themes and ideas and opportunities to talk about things that are different 61 00:03:41,520 --> 00:03:45,100 month on month. So, for example, very broadly, 62 00:03:45,180 --> 00:03:48,900 what you're going to talk about in February, if you are a jewelry brand, 63 00:03:48,900 --> 00:03:52,140 is going to be centered around Valentine's Day. And what you talk about in March 64 00:03:52,860 --> 00:03:56,420 is going to be sent could be centered around Mother's Day, for example. So those 65 00:03:56,420 --> 00:04:00,220 are just two very basic examples of how what you want to 66 00:04:00,220 --> 00:04:03,980 talk about is going to vary throughout the year. And if you don't 67 00:04:03,980 --> 00:04:07,740 have that all mapped out, it can feel quite overwhelming. Like I 68 00:04:07,740 --> 00:04:11,070 said, it can feel like you're a ping pong ball being bounced around thinking, oh, 69 00:04:11,070 --> 00:04:14,310 I should be doing something, maybe I should say something about Valentine's Day, oh, maybe 70 00:04:14,310 --> 00:04:17,990 I should say something about Mother's Day. And the 71 00:04:18,230 --> 00:04:21,950 upside is that although it does change a lot and it shifts week on week, 72 00:04:21,950 --> 00:04:25,710 and arguably that's what makes it so exciting, it stays 73 00:04:25,710 --> 00:04:29,470 the same year on year. So once you've cracked 74 00:04:29,470 --> 00:04:33,270 that seasonal element to your business, once you've really delved in and understood 75 00:04:33,350 --> 00:04:37,160 what your year looks like, and obviously it will shift, one year is 76 00:04:37,160 --> 00:04:40,240 not going to be the same as another year. But broadly speaking, there are going 77 00:04:40,240 --> 00:04:43,800 to be themes and ideas that work year on 78 00:04:43,800 --> 00:04:47,360 year, once you've got that, you can repeat it. It is 79 00:04:47,360 --> 00:04:51,080 repeatable. The benefit of retail, of 80 00:04:51,080 --> 00:04:54,680 product businesses over service businesses is that predictability 81 00:04:54,760 --> 00:04:58,360 and that repeatability, that opportunity 82 00:04:58,360 --> 00:05:01,960 to scale and grow because you've figured out a system 83 00:05:02,040 --> 00:05:05,340 and then you're repeating it. So, 84 00:05:06,060 --> 00:05:09,420 for example, if you don't have a plan, 85 00:05:10,460 --> 00:05:14,260 you are going to potentially miss some major opportunities 86 00:05:14,260 --> 00:05:17,900 to connect with your customers because you're not going to be zoomed out and 87 00:05:17,900 --> 00:05:21,740 looking at that big picture. For example, I was talking 88 00:05:21,740 --> 00:05:25,540 to a men's gifting brand and this was in May, and 89 00:05:25,540 --> 00:05:29,100 I asked them about Father's Day and it wasn't something that they'd considered. 90 00:05:29,100 --> 00:05:32,900 Now, if you're a menswear, arguably you have 91 00:05:33,380 --> 00:05:37,140 or a male focused brand, arguably you have fewer 92 00:05:37,220 --> 00:05:40,980 opportunities or not such big seasonal opportunities because, 93 00:05:40,980 --> 00:05:44,740 for example, Valentine's Day tends to be more heavily skewed, 94 00:05:44,740 --> 00:05:48,420 broadly speaking, towards female gifting. And obviously Mother's 95 00:05:48,420 --> 00:05:51,860 Day is different. It's not going to work for you if you're a male 96 00:05:51,860 --> 00:05:55,620 orientated brand. However, if you miss 97 00:05:55,620 --> 00:05:59,310 Father's Day because you just didn't look at the year in a 98 00:05:59,310 --> 00:06:03,070 zoomed out way, then that is a major opportunity that you've missed. 99 00:06:03,150 --> 00:06:06,710 And I see it every single year at Christmas. Every single 100 00:06:06,710 --> 00:06:10,310 year, I speak to people in November. I ask them all the way up to 101 00:06:10,310 --> 00:06:13,950 November, even into December, I'd ask them about their plans for Christmas 102 00:06:13,950 --> 00:06:17,150 and they kind of say, oh yeah, I suppose I should come up with something. 103 00:06:17,630 --> 00:06:21,470 Well, this is the thing. You can eliminate so 104 00:06:21,470 --> 00:06:25,070 much of the last minute aspect of retail. You can plan 105 00:06:25,070 --> 00:06:28,830 it. You know, big retailers are planning 18 months in advance, two 106 00:06:28,830 --> 00:06:32,430 years in advance. Now, arguably, yes, that is the extreme version 107 00:06:32,510 --> 00:06:36,310 and it can lead them to be a little less reactive than they would like 108 00:06:36,310 --> 00:06:39,909 to be and a little more constrained. But the you can 109 00:06:39,909 --> 00:06:43,670 plan in advance and the more you plan in advance, the more you're 110 00:06:43,670 --> 00:06:46,510 able to roll with the punches when something unexpected does happen. 111 00:06:47,230 --> 00:06:50,940 If you've done lots of prep in advance, then you 112 00:06:51,100 --> 00:06:54,700 are able to deal with that without it completely derailing 113 00:06:54,700 --> 00:06:58,260 everything. And then the other reason that I 114 00:06:58,260 --> 00:07:01,820 feel that not having a plan is really difficult is because 115 00:07:01,900 --> 00:07:05,699 if you think about all of the different ways to grow your sales. So 116 00:07:05,699 --> 00:07:09,380 for example, episode 264 of the podcast was about four 117 00:07:09,380 --> 00:07:13,220 ways to grow your sales. Without a plan, you can't really ensure that you are 118 00:07:13,220 --> 00:07:16,930 tackling all those four ways consistently and 119 00:07:16,930 --> 00:07:20,330 you can't create a really nicely aligned, up 120 00:07:20,730 --> 00:07:24,410 aligned plan across all of your channels. If 121 00:07:24,490 --> 00:07:27,770 you and all of your marketing channels, all of your selling channels, and all of 122 00:07:27,770 --> 00:07:31,450 your marketing channels if you don't get it mapped out. Okay, so mistake 123 00:07:31,450 --> 00:07:34,810 number two is not having a product strategy. 124 00:07:35,930 --> 00:07:39,570 So in a similar way that people often will tell me they don't have a 125 00:07:39,570 --> 00:07:43,210 plan for their marketing, I would say that 126 00:07:43,530 --> 00:07:46,810 another common issue is that they don't really have a plan for their products. 127 00:07:47,470 --> 00:07:50,590 So I'll ask them, do you have a plan for what you introduce when? 128 00:07:51,070 --> 00:07:54,870 And the answer is usually no. And I'll ask 129 00:07:54,870 --> 00:07:57,990 them, do you know what your best sellers are? That's not always a given. Either 130 00:07:57,990 --> 00:08:01,710 some people aren't really sure or they think they know, but they haven't actually checked. 131 00:08:02,510 --> 00:08:06,190 And the reason that I think this holds people back 132 00:08:06,270 --> 00:08:09,870 is because all of retail, all of 133 00:08:10,670 --> 00:08:14,390 business, I guess, could be boiled down to do more of what works 134 00:08:14,390 --> 00:08:18,110 and do less of what doesn't work. And so if you don't have a plan 135 00:08:18,110 --> 00:08:21,270 for your products, then you are 136 00:08:21,270 --> 00:08:24,710 unable to really maximize 137 00:08:25,030 --> 00:08:28,670 the data that you've got. And yes, if your sales are lower, you might not 138 00:08:28,670 --> 00:08:31,310 have a huge amount of data. But especially if you look at it on a 139 00:08:31,310 --> 00:08:34,790 monthly basis, look at what your best sellers are, you need to understand 140 00:08:34,950 --> 00:08:38,710 what is moving the needle, what people are reacting to and what they're 141 00:08:38,710 --> 00:08:42,510 not reacting to. And I would say that in this first bit of 142 00:08:42,510 --> 00:08:46,310 the business, when you are at that kind of 1 to 3K, you need to 143 00:08:46,310 --> 00:08:50,150 be figuring out what your customer wants from you. So you need to be 144 00:08:50,150 --> 00:08:53,630 figuring out what they're reacting to, what is selling. 145 00:08:53,950 --> 00:08:57,790 And if nothing is selling, if nothing's working, then you need 146 00:08:57,790 --> 00:09:01,310 to go back to the drawing board on a repeated basis, 147 00:09:02,030 --> 00:09:05,470 checking in with your customers, what do they want from you. Trialing things in as 148 00:09:05,470 --> 00:09:09,270 low a risk as possible to try new things to move 149 00:09:09,270 --> 00:09:13,110 on. But you need to try things and learn from them. It's not about 150 00:09:13,110 --> 00:09:16,860 just scattergunning, bringing in lots and lots of different new things. It's about 151 00:09:16,860 --> 00:09:20,620 creating a hypothesis, checking it. Is that what they want? Let's 152 00:09:20,620 --> 00:09:24,140 try something else. Let's tweak it. Let's tweak what the product offer 153 00:09:24,140 --> 00:09:27,860 is. Let's tweak how I'm talking about it, how 154 00:09:27,860 --> 00:09:31,660 I'm talking about the benefits to the customer versus 155 00:09:31,660 --> 00:09:35,500 the features, all of those things. You want to test that over again, see 156 00:09:35,500 --> 00:09:38,980 what the result is, and then move on from there. 157 00:09:39,940 --> 00:09:43,220 So bestsellers, understanding your bestsellers are really, really important. 158 00:09:43,620 --> 00:09:47,420 They, they help give you confidence and they help you really understand what you should 159 00:09:47,420 --> 00:09:50,980 be focusing on in Your marketing, that's another issue that I 160 00:09:50,980 --> 00:09:54,780 see people having is that they think that, oh, well, if something's selling, I 161 00:09:54,780 --> 00:09:58,580 don't need to be shouting about it. Whereas actually you often get much more traction 162 00:09:58,660 --> 00:10:02,220 by really shouting about your best sellers. Because this is all a game of 163 00:10:02,220 --> 00:10:06,020 probability. You want to really focus on what your customer is 164 00:10:06,020 --> 00:10:09,860 most likely to purchase from you, and that may well be 165 00:10:09,860 --> 00:10:12,580 the thing that you sell the most off. So you want to focus on that 166 00:10:12,580 --> 00:10:15,150 and you want to lean into it. 167 00:10:16,430 --> 00:10:20,030 So if you don't really look at your products and really understand 168 00:10:20,190 --> 00:10:24,030 what they're telling you, then you're going to miss some really important clues, 169 00:10:24,510 --> 00:10:27,950 really important green shoots if you like, to help move you 170 00:10:28,030 --> 00:10:31,870 forward. And then the other thing is 171 00:10:32,030 --> 00:10:35,710 that if you don't have a really considered plan for your products, 172 00:10:36,190 --> 00:10:40,030 it feeds back into my first point about no clear plan overall for the 173 00:10:40,030 --> 00:10:43,430 business. Because really your marketing plan and your product 174 00:10:43,590 --> 00:10:47,030 plan are very, very closely intertwined. Because 175 00:10:47,670 --> 00:10:50,910 if you go through and you look at your year and you understand, right, these 176 00:10:50,910 --> 00:10:54,630 are going to be my peak selling times, well, then you want to coordinate your 177 00:10:54,630 --> 00:10:58,310 products. If you're going to bring new products in, make sure that the 178 00:10:58,310 --> 00:11:01,990 products are coming in at the right time, seasonally speaking, making 179 00:11:01,990 --> 00:11:05,550 sure that they are the right products for the right time. And you really want 180 00:11:05,550 --> 00:11:09,010 the whole thing to be tied up together. But if you, you don't have a 181 00:11:09,010 --> 00:11:12,490 plan for your marketing and you don't have a plan for your product, then what 182 00:11:12,490 --> 00:11:16,290 you're left with is two very disjointed activities that 183 00:11:16,370 --> 00:11:20,130 are really time consuming. Marketing's really time consuming. Product development 184 00:11:20,210 --> 00:11:23,970 or product making new products or sourcing new products is hugely time 185 00:11:24,690 --> 00:11:28,490 intensive as well. And if you're not doing it in a coordinated fashion, it can 186 00:11:28,490 --> 00:11:32,290 end up getting very, very messy. And then 187 00:11:32,290 --> 00:11:36,130 the third mistake that I see people make that really holds 188 00:11:36,130 --> 00:11:39,750 them back is related to this idea of 189 00:11:39,750 --> 00:11:43,470 knowing what's working. But if you don't have a 190 00:11:43,470 --> 00:11:46,830 plan and you're doing everything in a very reactive way, 191 00:11:47,150 --> 00:11:50,430 then the other thing is that you don't really 192 00:11:50,990 --> 00:11:54,670 have a good idea of what you're doing, what's 193 00:11:54,670 --> 00:11:57,870 working, and what you need to lean into in the same way that we talked 194 00:11:57,870 --> 00:12:01,430 about for your products. That goes for everything that you're doing in terms of your 195 00:12:01,430 --> 00:12:05,160 sales channels and your marketing as well. So sales 196 00:12:05,160 --> 00:12:08,880 start to feel sporadic. You have good days and bad days with no clear 197 00:12:08,880 --> 00:12:12,400 explanation. Now, here's something else that I would say to you as well. 198 00:12:13,120 --> 00:12:16,840 One of the things that is particularly True, especially at this early stage, is 199 00:12:16,840 --> 00:12:20,520 that everything feels really, really personal. So lots of 200 00:12:20,520 --> 00:12:23,680 people I know will say that I just feel, 201 00:12:24,560 --> 00:12:28,160 on a quiet day, it completely wipes my confidence. 202 00:12:29,290 --> 00:12:32,730 And I totally get that because nobody tells you when you start a business 203 00:12:32,810 --> 00:12:36,490 how nerve wracking it is to create or curate things that you 204 00:12:36,490 --> 00:12:40,130 feel really strongly about, to put them out in front of other people and 205 00:12:40,130 --> 00:12:43,890 to say to them, hey, buy this from me. It 206 00:12:43,890 --> 00:12:47,450 can feel incredibly challenging, incredibly 207 00:12:47,450 --> 00:12:51,290 triggering for a lot of people, and it can feel just 208 00:12:51,370 --> 00:12:55,130 really, really difficult if you're not getting the response that you 209 00:12:55,130 --> 00:12:58,560 want. So what happens is when you're not really 210 00:12:58,560 --> 00:13:02,200 closely tracking your numbers and you're not really closely tracking 211 00:13:02,200 --> 00:13:06,040 your actions, it feels, 212 00:13:06,440 --> 00:13:10,160 it can feel very sporadic. So one week things will do great and the 213 00:13:10,160 --> 00:13:12,280 next week things will go really quiet. 214 00:13:14,040 --> 00:13:17,880 And you can feel, therefore a lot of. 215 00:13:18,120 --> 00:13:21,880 There's a, it's a real roller coaster for a lot of founders. They feel very 216 00:13:21,880 --> 00:13:25,680 personally upset when things are quiet. They say 217 00:13:25,680 --> 00:13:29,440 to themselves, oh, I must be really bad at this. People really hate what I 218 00:13:29,440 --> 00:13:33,240 do. This is such a bad idea. Everyone thinks it's a joke, what I'm doing, 219 00:13:33,480 --> 00:13:37,160 all of those things. And it just really feeds 220 00:13:37,160 --> 00:13:40,840 into this cycle of not having a plan and not having a structure because 221 00:13:40,919 --> 00:13:44,640 it doesn't feel, you don't feel like you have the right to 222 00:13:44,640 --> 00:13:48,120 have a plan, or it doesn't feel like this is something that 223 00:13:48,200 --> 00:13:52,010 you should do, because this is. You're maybe not 224 00:13:52,010 --> 00:13:55,570 giving having enough confidence in the business to say, right, no, this is what I'm 225 00:13:55,570 --> 00:13:59,050 planning to do. Because the nervousness I see from a lot of people is that 226 00:13:59,050 --> 00:14:01,290 they feel like, well, if I make a plan and I don't hit it, am 227 00:14:01,290 --> 00:14:05,050 I going to feel even worse? Whereas what we're really talking about here is 228 00:14:05,050 --> 00:14:08,730 not so much, oh, you can only have a plan if things are going 229 00:14:08,730 --> 00:14:12,290 well. But we want to try and shift as much as possible 230 00:14:12,450 --> 00:14:16,130 from a subjective point of view to an objective point of view. 231 00:14:17,150 --> 00:14:20,670 And this is the benefit that I have from my long years of experience 232 00:14:20,830 --> 00:14:24,510 in the retail industry and two decades in big retailers, 233 00:14:24,910 --> 00:14:28,590 is that they have to be completely objective. 234 00:14:28,590 --> 00:14:32,270 And what I mean by being objective is that that they 235 00:14:32,750 --> 00:14:36,110 really put a plan in place and then 236 00:14:36,270 --> 00:14:40,070 every week they're looking at the plan and they're seeing whether or not 237 00:14:40,070 --> 00:14:43,230 they've hit it on what they need to do to adjust it. So it's about 238 00:14:43,230 --> 00:14:46,880 a process. And obviously in big retailers 239 00:14:46,880 --> 00:14:50,720 there is much less room for people to be so caught up in 240 00:14:50,720 --> 00:14:54,520 that kind of personal, oh, I failed or I've done something wrong. I mean, 241 00:14:54,520 --> 00:14:58,200 obviously everyone has personal feelings and people have 242 00:14:58,200 --> 00:15:02,000 selected products that haven't worked and that can feel really difficult too. But 243 00:15:02,000 --> 00:15:05,680 ultimately what it's about is the setting a goal, setting a plan 244 00:15:05,680 --> 00:15:09,520 in place and then reacting to it. And that's what I'm talking about 245 00:15:09,520 --> 00:15:12,640 when we're thinking about being more objective than being 246 00:15:12,640 --> 00:15:16,450 subjective. And what can happen if you get too 247 00:15:16,450 --> 00:15:19,570 caught up into the emotion of it? You start making 248 00:15:20,130 --> 00:15:23,810 knee jerk reactions. So, for example, you launch 249 00:15:23,810 --> 00:15:27,530 something it hasn't sold, you think, oh, maybe I should take some money off it, 250 00:15:27,530 --> 00:15:31,370 discount it, instead of thinking, right, okay, did I do 251 00:15:31,370 --> 00:15:35,210 enough promotion? It's almost like we get these negative feelings and 252 00:15:35,210 --> 00:15:38,810 we want to just do something to try and alleviate them rather than actually looking 253 00:15:38,810 --> 00:15:42,350 into it and saying, right, what was the actual plan? So 254 00:15:43,390 --> 00:15:47,190 it's, it's also something that I would really stress that 255 00:15:47,190 --> 00:15:50,750 the benefit of having that plan is that retail 256 00:15:51,070 --> 00:15:54,830 fluctuates a huge amount. It fluctuates a lot, month to month. 257 00:15:55,150 --> 00:15:58,590 But as I've mentioned before, it's on an 258 00:15:58,590 --> 00:16:02,390 annual cycle. It does repeat. So learning things like when 259 00:16:02,390 --> 00:16:06,110 you're going to be quiet can really help with that confidence building and 260 00:16:06,350 --> 00:16:10,030 really help you understand when you're going to naturally 261 00:16:10,030 --> 00:16:13,650 be quieter and then get to helping you get ready for the busiest times 262 00:16:13,650 --> 00:16:17,490 as well. So if you set yourself a 263 00:16:17,490 --> 00:16:21,210 plan, then yes, of course you may have weeks and months where 264 00:16:21,210 --> 00:16:24,730 you don't hit it. But it's still better to have that plan in place 265 00:16:25,370 --> 00:16:29,210 than for you to be so caught up in the emotional 266 00:16:29,210 --> 00:16:32,770 side of it that you really end up 267 00:16:32,770 --> 00:16:36,530 almost beating yourself up if things aren't going so well as instead of 268 00:16:36,530 --> 00:16:39,770 thinking, right, what do I need to do now? What can I try next? 269 00:16:40,470 --> 00:16:44,230 So what I would suggest that you do is take the 270 00:16:44,230 --> 00:16:47,910 time to set those goals and make some time 271 00:16:48,150 --> 00:16:51,710 to, Even if it's 10 minutes a week to really look at, right, how am 272 00:16:51,710 --> 00:16:54,870 I doing? How am I selling? How am I 273 00:16:55,430 --> 00:16:59,070 doing compared to my plan? What's working, what's not working? And 274 00:16:59,070 --> 00:17:02,870 which of my sales channels are really are performing for me. 275 00:17:03,590 --> 00:17:07,270 And it, I totally understand why people don't 276 00:17:07,270 --> 00:17:11,060 do this because it can feel very upsetting if you look at something 277 00:17:11,060 --> 00:17:14,180 and you think, wow, actually I'm not really selling that much or this is not 278 00:17:14,180 --> 00:17:17,500 what I thought it would be. But I really do believe 279 00:17:17,980 --> 00:17:21,780 that there's a lot of power that comes from really 280 00:17:21,780 --> 00:17:25,340 knowing the truth of your situation. Whenever I've had 281 00:17:25,420 --> 00:17:28,540 times in my Business where I've stuck my head in the sand and not really 282 00:17:28,540 --> 00:17:32,220 addressed what's going on. I've always felt so much better 283 00:17:32,220 --> 00:17:35,500 when I've taken the time to sit down and really go through things and get 284 00:17:35,500 --> 00:17:39,230 an actual accurate picture. And also, I can't tell you the number 285 00:17:39,230 --> 00:17:42,870 of times that people will have sit down and run their numbers and 286 00:17:42,870 --> 00:17:46,590 actually they're better than they thought they were. In fact, somebody 287 00:17:46,590 --> 00:17:50,310 in the club mentioned that they had always thought to 288 00:17:50,310 --> 00:17:53,749 themselves that they would feel like they'd done well when they hit a certain 289 00:17:53,749 --> 00:17:57,590 revenue number. And it turns out because they'd been not 290 00:17:57,590 --> 00:18:01,270 looking at these things, they were feeling stuck and in denial. They hadn't 291 00:18:01,270 --> 00:18:04,710 looked at their numbers and they'd actually hit the revenue number that they'd been aiming 292 00:18:04,710 --> 00:18:08,370 for. But they hadn't realized it because they hadn't looked, they hadn't engaged because 293 00:18:08,370 --> 00:18:11,970 they caught up in these feelings of insecurity and 294 00:18:12,450 --> 00:18:16,170 just not feeling like they, they wanted to engage with the numbers because 295 00:18:16,170 --> 00:18:20,010 they were scared of what they might show them. So if you're stuck 296 00:18:20,010 --> 00:18:22,770 then around that 1-3k month, 297 00:18:23,330 --> 00:18:27,170 1-3k of sales a month level, then it's probably not because you're doing 298 00:18:27,170 --> 00:18:30,210 anything wrong. It's because of 299 00:18:30,860 --> 00:18:34,620 these particular mistakes that I see people 300 00:18:34,620 --> 00:18:38,460 make. Those are things like, for example, not having a 301 00:18:38,460 --> 00:18:42,260 clear plan, not having a product strategy, not having visibility of what's 302 00:18:42,260 --> 00:18:45,860 working and all of those things that keep you on a 303 00:18:45,860 --> 00:18:49,580 sales plateau. So the good news is, is that every single one of them is 304 00:18:49,580 --> 00:18:53,340 fixable. You can definitely take the time to work 305 00:18:53,340 --> 00:18:57,100 your way through and. And maybe it's sitting down and 306 00:18:57,100 --> 00:19:00,620 sketching out a seasonal plan. Maybe it's identifying your bestsellers, 307 00:19:00,620 --> 00:19:04,440 maybe it's starting a sales check in with yourself. But 308 00:19:04,440 --> 00:19:08,280 whatever you choose, make that one small step towards helping move you 309 00:19:08,280 --> 00:19:12,000 past that plateau. And if you'd like some more support with this, 310 00:19:12,000 --> 00:19:15,720 then we have the retail sales game plan. The doors are open 311 00:19:15,720 --> 00:19:19,160 for this course. It is the first time I'm running this course. I'm really 312 00:19:19,160 --> 00:19:22,920 excited about it. We are going to look at everything that you need to 313 00:19:22,920 --> 00:19:26,240 put some plans into place, some structure, some 314 00:19:26,240 --> 00:19:29,890 strategy and help you really get a grip on with how to grow your product 315 00:19:30,130 --> 00:19:33,730 business. Thank you so much for listening and I'll see you next 316 00:19:33,730 --> 00:19:34,050 week.