Starving entrepreneur

[Zizio]

I have been self employed for quite some time however my business is not generating income with the exception of the few months leading to Christmas. I sell products on my shop and EBay.

I have done PPC although found it expensive. Have outsourced content for SEO and social media plus logos etc. The website sits beautifully but hardly any sales.

I am now feeling a bit stuck and looking for ideas and suggestions.

What is it you sell, and what are your other skills?
The best business advice I can ever give is to stay ' agile'
If your items don't sell well, there is a reason - whatever that may be - so it's time to look closely at everything, and your surrounding market. \I'm a marketeer , and although you say you have a strategy, it may need looking at again!
Happy to help any way I can.

Are your products very niche? You might have to get a paid job to survive until sales pick up.

What research did you do before starting your business? Do you understand enough about demand for your products? Do you know if it's a seasonal market - or more pertinently, do you know how to increase appeal of your products outside of the Christmas period?

What was your marketing plan? Is it working for you?

What was your cashflow plan - were you expecting an even run of business all year or did you know it was going to be like this?

Change direction, or "pivot" as start-up kids would describe it.

If what you are doing is not working, there is no point flogging a dead horse (figuratively or literally!). PPC is incredibly expensive - I don't touch it any more unless the client has masses of money to slosh around.

Get onto reddit.com/r/entrepreneur

Presumably you have a wide range of highly transferable skills having run your own business for a while, even if it wasn't profitable, so get back to the drawing board and start over.

You made this thread a year ago.
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/freelancers/2197882-Starving-entreprenuers

What do you sell? How do you advertise? Ads in relevant magazines, for example, attending craft fairs (if it's craft)? I've seen people 'start businesses' and all they do is nag their Facebook list and then quit due to lack of interest, so let's assume you're doing far more than that - but literally, what are you doing to get your site known? Contacted publications to see if you can be featured, or other blogs and sites to get yourself mentioned?