Week Nine: navigating a failing business

Sunday, November 27
This just won't end. Each day I wake up this weekend and think, "okay, they'll like this sale more" 
Sundays are my good days on Instagram. During the week, my story views are in the teens now, but on Sundays, they hit triple digits easily. Also, that makes no fucking sense, Instagram. WTF?!

Anyways, back to sewing and prepping for my last drop. 
I'm sending out 'welcome packs' to a few new moms I want to collaborate with. At this point it's merely obligatory- because goodness knows I can't even afford the shipping label for a "welcome pack". Also, welcome where? The ship that's sinking!? 

Anyways... 
9hrs
$53.45


Monday, November 28

This morning, I changed my theme and made sure all my marketing was ready to go. I was so hopeful that maybe the BF shoppers, and small shop Saturday shoppers just missed me, and surely on Monday they'd circle back. 
NOPE! 

So, panic mode. I went and sent our "sitewide" code to everyone again. 
One order. 
OUCH! 
I'm sitting here cutting out samples to make for 2023 and I honestly don't know why. How can there even be a 2023? 
6.5hrs
$33.60



Tuesday, November 29
I give up! I intentionally made my sale just fun for today. I knew everyone would be worn out from shopping and/or seeing sale post after sale post this weekend. 
What hurts more today is I usually go live and have a holiday themed grab bag sale and donate 100% to a charity. 
I don't get to do that this year. I don't even get to fill my gas tank on BFCM sales this year. 

I'm taking half the day off to focus on other endeavors. Stickers and graphic packs for BHUB's Etsy, moving PDFs off the site and migrating blog posts to a central blog that I can (hopefully) monetize. 
5.5hrs
$61.44 (from that resend on the sitewide code) 



Wednesday, November 30
Woke up to a sick kid that needed my entire attention. 
I cleaned up the site and switched the theme back. I spent 3 hours today making graphics and posting one of my most vulnerable posts (3) yet (and if you know me by now, I get pretty real on the daily). 
I simply have no cards left up my sleeve. If someone wants to take my posts the wrong way and unfollow, I literally have nothing to lose. Odds are, they aren't spending money with me, anyways. 

The only silver lining about still owning my own business is I get to say whatever the fuck I want on my platforms. 
I spent 2 hours sewing and another hour drafting reels and tiktoks. I also prepped two emails about this week's drop. It'll be my last for the year. I'm going to focus instead on grab bags, shit already ready to ship and the semi annual sale to clean up my closets full of ready to go inventory just sitting here. 

7hrs
$25.20



Thursday, December 1
The 3-part post struck a nerve in all the best ways possible. Other business owners are making reels and posts, sharing my graphics and my story and fully supporting my message. I am in total shock. Usually when I get this fed up and speak up, it seems to fall flat or backfire on me. 

I spent a lot of time today interacting with everyone who was sending me love. It means the world to me to get any sliver of support these days, and I find it more important than ever to let them know how much it means to me. 

Okay, now the engagement is up, and everyone has asked for a tag tomorrow for my last drop. Are they really going to shop though?! I feel like so many times people say "tag me" then drop time comes and crickets.. 

I'm spending a lot of time today prepping fabric for tomorrow's drop. I don't want to cut too far into this fabric in case it flops. 

6hrs
$142.53


Friday, December 2
Today's the day. I am tagging everyone and I scheduled my email and text to trigger early. I scheduled the products on Shopify and I purposely let one bow drop at 2am, and I woke up to a sale of that item-so I guess people really are ready to shop if they were refreshing the site in the middle of the night. If this is a sign, the drop might actually go okay... 

WOAH! My drop hit at 930 for text and email subscribers and 10 to everyone else. I tagged the VIPs who asked and promoted while in the middle of having blood drawn and doing physical therapy. My schedule went a little wild today with last minute appointments (as always) and the Mailchimp incident. I've been sitting on my bed for two hours bouncing back and forth between answering drop questions and answering angry former customers about Mailchimp spam glitching and sending out THOUSANDS of old order and shipping notifications. 
I DON'T EVEN USE MAILCHIMP ANYMORE!


Okay, update-- I am at $966 in sales! Could I actually see my first four digit day of the year?!? I can't jinx it! 

I'm celebrating with a grande today, baby. I earned it just by answering the rudest emails today and having to hunt the internet down to find a way to contact Mailchimp these days. 

8hrs (mostly emails) 
$ 979.82
I might cry! 


Saturday, December 3
I woke up peppy this morning despite my body is so sore between PT yesterday and organizing and decorating the house for the holidays! I'm answering more emails and responding to these incompetent Mailchimp workers, sending an email offering a small % off the new drop since it went so well and then I am signing off besides showing up in my stories a few times. 
I feel like I can take a real breath for the first time in such a long time. 

Tomorrow, I can cut and catch up on my to-do list. Today, I do the necessities and spend time with my kids for the first Saturday in literally months! 

2hrs (yay!)
$244.37


Total Hrs:44 hrs (HELL YES!) 
Total Sales: $1540.41
$35.00/hr (There we go!) 
With a snap of a finger and ONE good drop, I am back!!! 
***The scary part is knowing:
-it can all go right back to crickets 
-I won't have another planned "drop" like this for the rest of the year.

Now time to get creative to keep them engaged until the new year + to keep small sales coming in consistently. 


---------------------------------------------------------------
November Summarized: 

Total hours: 255.5

Total Sales: $1,256.07

$4.91/hr :( 



*Yes, you'll notice I made more in the last 7 days then I did in all of November, you know, the biggest sales month in retail* 
Make that make sense.. you can't. Welcome to e-comm in 2022! 

***Speaking of 2022, it's coming to an end very soon. With the decline in business, I have to make some cuts. I had already been working on starting a blog and monetizing my personal accounts in regards to my chronic illnesses. They will be keeping me bedridden a few times in 2023 with upcoming surgeries. 

When I was working on the structure of that blog, I thought about how silly it would be to monetize that and not bring over my baby bird and BHUB content to increase the views and downsize. 

Right now, I only keep BHUB website open for the blog, and that's just silly. 
So in the coming weeks, BHUB blog posts will move to my main blog site. 

I'll make sure to continue putting out interesting business content and will likely extend this series through at least Q1 2023. I truly, truly hope you continue if you enjoy my writing style and enjoy this inside look on a "small then medium then small again" business navigating through this current economical situation. 

Thank you all so much! I know that this week was a lot lighter towards the end, but my fear is it'll soon get dark again. I want to thank you all for sticking with me as my words likely got scary. I keep it as real as I can in regard to my mental and emotional life and how much it aligns with the success of my business. 

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for being on this journey with me. It makes me feel less alone, and isn't that what we want for each other!?