hello,


i am not really sure what else i can do to help my personal care company climb out of the slump. we've been in business for just about 2 years and have started to hire sales reps in different territories, hired a marketing coordinator to help with press and establish new reps but it's still not going in the right direction. i have tried mailing out catalogs, offering promotions and have included press clippings to generate more business.

when i spoke to a few of the stores i sent info to, they mentioned that they're not ready to buy and come back around oct/nov - closer to xmas. what can we do til then to survive???others were not interested in trying something new and would rather stick with what works best. we had our products brought to an accessory/apparel show and had no luck there!!

there have been times when things have just gotten so busy we couldn't keep up but now, it's really not doing too well.

any advice...please help. owning a business is my dream and i don't want to give it up!!!

Hello,

I was in the same boat you are in, my company specializes in custom picture mattes. I found success by calling on small boutiques and gift stores in my area. It was tough at first, but with a little luck, I was accepted by the first one, and then the others started calling back to schedule appointments and orders. Give it a try, if you do not succeed, try again, it worked for me.

My first question... Do you have a business and marketing plan...

Perhaps now might be a good time to rework it... Go over what it is that works when you're working and try and figure out what causes you to not be working.

One of the things I noticed about a lot of companies, is that when they aren't working, they do all the things they need to do to drum up that business, prospecting, marketing, etc. Then when they have the business, they (for whatever reason) stop doing the things that were drumming up the business in order to do the business... and then the business drops off... It's a vicious cycle and I believe that momentum is key.

Reworking your business plan regularly will help you discover all the key things that you are doing that give you those busy phases and will force you to figure out a way to keep doing them even when you are busy; that way you cease to have slow phases.

This might not help you survive until Christmas, but if you do, it will help you survive longer term, and I believe thrive.

Good luck.

Tina Brooks, VP Marketing
Brooks Pepperfire Foods, Inc.
Makers of Peppermaster Hot Sauces
http://www.peppermaster.com

Eat more peppers!

Offer the store owners free products if they will use it themselves to try. Even if they say no, leave it anyway. Give some to your friends and have them try it then ask the merchants if they carry your product. Get some word of mouth going with testimonials. Maybe you can get some local celebs to try it as well then get their testimonial.

Worth trying.

Ocha

Website:
http://www.potpourriemporium.com
http://www.infoesource.com
Blog:
http://www.potpourriemporium.blogspot.com

I have to chime in to veto the suggestion of free product... That will only drive the company deeper into cash flow problems, if you ask me...

We were getting dozens of requests for samples from people every week... (we still do) ... Stores, individuals, whoever. At first we would comply, we would send out the samples and although we did close orders, we weren't in fact closing MORE orders.

It was bleeding us. So, what we did was rework our system.

We created a sample package of product, included the cost of shipping and named our price for the package. We then offered to prospects that if they wanted to sample the product, they could purchase this package. Then when they placed their first wholesale order, we would deduct this amount from their order price.

We've sold a few wholesale packages who haven't become customers and we've sold even more who have become customers. What is most interesting though, is that we aren't giving our product away anymore.

I don't advocate giving away product.

Tina Brooks, VP Marketing
Brooks Pepperfire Foods, Inc.
Makers of Peppermaster Hot Sauces
http://www.peppermaster.com

Eat more peppers!