This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Today's caller from California, I started her side hustle a while back, I think it's been a couple of years, and it was going well, especially during year one, but recently business has taken a turn for the worse. So in this situation, she is effectively in a sales slump, and she's wondering like, what can she do? How can she get out of this slump? Is it best to change tactics, to change strategies, to try an all new business or something else? I think this is an important thing to think about.
The alternative is just to kind of keep trucking along, and that's what our natural tendency is. We've done something and it worked before, so we'll just keep doing it. Maybe it's not working as well as it was, but we just keep going with it. And that can be the best solution sometimes, but other times it's like, there's something you could do that will actually turn this around and give it a much better trajectory, some more momentum for you. So how can we handle this situation?
How do you respond when you're in this situation? How can you, in fact, break out of a sales slump? That's today's question, detailed version coming up from our caller, Elizabeth, as well as my answer right after this. [Music]
This is Elizabeth from Lohauvra, California. I've been a fan of yours since 2018.
I was finally able to work on my side hustle in 2020, thanks to being able to work from home. By the end of the year, early this year, I was experiencing some pretty decent growth. I was going to regular pop-up events to get my name out, my social media following was growing, and I was even getting the occasional order online, either through Etsy or through my website. However, I'm starting to come across a lull in business. I still post regularly and try to update my shop listings and launch new products.
However, that doesn't seem like it's enough. Is there some way I can get out of this slump? Also, I've been trying to get into the wholesale game. Do you have any suggestions? [Music]
Well, my first comment here is that your conversion rate and your overall sales record is not always up to you, at least not entirely.
We sometimes attribute the outcome of something to our own actions when in reality, there are other circumstances. So this might be bad news if you're doing well, like if you're making lots of money, you're like, "I'm such a genius." Or it might be good news if you're not, 'cause you're like, "I'm struggling, "but maybe it's not my fault." I think the greater point is just to learn to look as objectively as possible at what's really happening, okay? And then maybe second, like whatever the cause of the decline is, rather than think what caused the slump, I would ask, what caused sales to rise earlier? Like why was it working at one point? Were you reaching different people?
Was your product or service fresher? Was it being offered in a way that was more unique and is now more common, perhaps? A lot of stuff changes. So much changes in the world of side hustling, especially with online business and e-commerce and social media algorithms, AI. When we first started making this show, we weren't talking about AI at all.
And now it comes up like every third or fourth question that I get in my inbox and as I'm out and about and talking to people. So things are changing all the time, lots of variables. I would just keep trying different things and maybe split testing. Split testing a couple of variables to see if I change something significant, like the price or the headline, not something really small. It's not about like changing the color of the order button.
Let's change something really big and see if this has an impact. That's gonna give you some actual information that you can then make decisions on. So I like to be intuition-based, but with a good bit of data to guide the way, I think that is the best approach here. Elizabeth, you're doing good work. I'm so glad you were able to get a project going.
And I think something better is coming up, whether it is an improvement in this business or something altogether new. And I'm wishing you every success. Listeners, wishing you every success as well. Thanks for being out there. We've got new episodes coming out every day, seven days a week.
You can access the complete archives of the show, 3,300 plus episodes for free at sidehustleschool.com. That's all for now. My name is Chris Guillebeau. You are listening to "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the "Onward Project."
