WHAT TO DO WHEN BUSINESS IS SLOW

I always say that you will keep repeating a lesson until it is learned, and as I spent another night laying awake with my thoughts until 7am, I knew that I still hadn’t mastered the lesson of “What To Do When Business Is Slow”. There is a reason why they say that an idle mind is the devils workshop. When you have too much time on your hands you tend to go down what I call the rabbit hole. It is a place where you keep asking yourself what are you doing wrong, what can you change, when is this or that going to happen, and the honest truth is that if you have enough time to question yourself then you have enough time to be working on something. Yes, thats right, working on something. You may ask, “How can I work on something if business is slow?” Think of yourself as a full scale business where sometimes you are the owner, but there are times when you must be the unpaid intern. There is always something to do whether it's inventory, research, or designing. If you have any inventory that isn’t moving, you have a laboratory playground. Pull out your materials and get in the think tank of creativity. Figure out ways to move that inventory by creating new pieces. Think outside of the box, you can create another money stream by creating a new division of cost friendly jewelry. If you don’t feel it will flow with your high-end jewelry, sell it on other formats such as Etsy where you can publish 1 piece at a time and sell it that way. Your goal is and always should be to keep your business in front of people at all times and bring in revenue. You never know, you might discover a new demographic of clientele. They could become fans and push you in the direction of rounding out you business to include pieces that appeal to different price brackets, while staying true to who you are as a designer. Look and see what your competitors are doing, if they are busy then figure out what they are doing differently. Look to see what new merchandise is out, how are people presenting themselves to the market, get your name and face out there. Being in business when you are small and starting out is not an easy task, staying motivated to push forward is even tougher, so fill your time with tasks that will elevate, motivate, and move you and your business higher. There should never be enough time to question yourself because you should always be busy either fulfilling orders, working on how to get more orders, or simply taking a mental break to comfort yourself. Keep it positive people, and while you are at it, keep positive people around you. Whatever is meant to be will always find its way!

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Photo by Song Kaiyue