For businesses affected by a COVID-19 closure or shelter in place order, it’s more important than ever to keep your business top-of-mind and attract new customers to shop your online store and register for your live stream options. That way, when you get back to work, you’ll have more new clients to welcome back and add to your established customer base. Click here to read a letter from our CEO, detailing how Vagaro is here to help your business get through this crisis.
Even the greatest business can experience a sales slump. Make no mistake—when your business experiences a slowdown, it can be a terrifying prospect. This is doubly true for service providers in fitness, beauty, and wellness, whose income depends on a bustling day-to-day operation. Whether you’re experiencing a seasonal slowdown, competitive marketplace, an industry slump, or a downturn in business for other reasons, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. After all, no sales slump lasts forever. Here are some simple tips to keep your mind clear during a sales slump and prepare yourself to get back in business!
1. Don’t Panic!
The first thing to remember when you’re facing a sales slump is: don’t panic, but don’t be passive, either. That may sound like a tough balancing act, but as a small business owner, it’s key to remember two things. First, you can break out of a sales slump with proactive measures, and second, that panicking is a creativity-killer. In order to create a solid, workable plan to re-invigorate your business, you’ll need to be able to formulate creative, actionable solutions and put them into practice. By staying calm under pressure, you’ll be able to identify the source of the slump and decide on a practical course of action to get your business back on track again.
2. Look for Inspiration
It’s all-too-easy to let a business slowdown cause you to lose motivation. When your booking pages are lighter than usual and your retail sales slow to a crawl, don’t get discouraged, get inspired. Turn your focus towards a successful business you admire, and ask yourself, What would they do in this situation? Sometimes stepping outside of your own situation allows you to see solutions more clearly. In allowing yourself to creatively wonder how someone else would solve the problem, you might get inspired to try something different or revisit something that’s worked for you before. By changing your mindset from “I can’t do this,” to “I could try that,” you’ll immediately be able to see creative solutions you might not have thought of otherwise.
3. Become a Problem-Solver
The internet is full of blog posts, podcasts, marketing tips, and information geared towards helping small business owners succeed (might we suggest searching the Vagaro blog or the Vagaro YouTube channel or Vagaro’s online support video library for inspiration?) Use these resources to pick up practical tips you can implement in your own business to solve the slowdown problem. Sometimes, hearing someone else’s tip is just the spark you need to get your own problem-solving gears spinning! Then, carefully review your marketing plans and run reports to identify sales trends. Is there something you were doing differently when your business was busier?Or is there something you could add to your marketing plan—like virtual classes or streaming personal consultations—to help things pick up?
4. Work Smarter, Not Harder
Instead of doubling-down on efforts that aren’t paying off and working harder, try simplifying and streamlining your processes to work smarter. For example, are you carrying a pricey line of products that’s sitting on the shelves? Adjust your orders to reflect current sales trends and try creating a Daily Deal flash sale to move products off the shelves and customers into your storefront. Is there a day your business is particularly slow? Try creating a discount code for customers to use that day and use social media and Vagaro’s text marketing to give your discount a boost and bring in new traffic! You can send Daily Deals directly to your established client base using Vagaro’s email marketing tools. It’s simple: create your Daily Deal, choose the “send to existing clients” option and wait for the bookings to roll in.
5. Try Something New
Are you wasting valuable time and money on advertising campaigns that aren’t paying off? There’s an easy way to stay calm, get inspired, become a problem-solver, and work smarter while trying something new: becoming a featured business on the Vagaro Marketplace. If you’re in a sales slump, there’s no need to panic—as a Vagaro Marketplace featured business, your listing will be prioritized over the local competition on the landing page of your local Vagaro Marketplace. Need some inspiration? Former Oakland Raider Chris Cooper of Cooper Sports Performance notes, “I wanted to Get Featured for the extra exposure, and I get so many calls from being on the front page—it’s great!” Become a problem-solver and work smarter instead of harder. Try something new and becoming a Vagaro Marketplace featured business—set-up is quick and requires minimal time, so you’ll see results fast.
Ready to break out of the sales slump and get featured? With your business prioritized on the front page of the Vagaro Marketplace, you’ll be back on track in no time. Want to see even more new clients in your storefront? Combine the power of Get Featured with a Daily Deal and see how much working smarter can pay off for your business!
Header Image and Icons: Mia Montemayor via Vagaro