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Most of the makers and handmade shop owners I work with come to me with issues like:
“I am not making enough sales”
or
“I am not getting enough views or traffic to my shop”
– and because of that they’re feeling, understandably, quite stressed out because they don’t know how to start solving that problem.
… and so the first thing I always do is use the method I am going to share with you in this article to get to the bottom of what the issue with their shop really is – so they can fix it and move forward and grow their shop and income.
I call this process the [4+1] troubleshooting method. It’s actually really simple and you can use it to troubleshoot any problem you might have.
Let’s dive in!
I’d love to talk you through a simple process you can use to get to the bottom of any issue you might be having with your handmade shop – or might have in the future.
No magic, no mysterious tricks – just plain and simple logic. And because of that, it works 100% of the time.
See, I noticed that most of the makers I work with often feel overwhelmed or anxious – not because they have an issue with their shop, not because something is not working the way they want to but because they don’t know WHAT is not working and HOW to fix it.
This creates a sense of “lack of control” over the problem which naturally can cause our human brains to… well, to freak out, because we don’t know how to fix it.
See your brain is, 24/7, looking for answers – that’s its job. It will look for answers to ANY question you ask.
The trick is to simply learn how to ask yourself MUCH better questions.
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The #1 question I get asked from makers is this one:
Now that’s a HUGE question.
It’s impossible to answer without taking a good look at your handmade shop, your shop’s stats, your strategy, what you’ve tried, are currently doing, etc…
If you ask such a broad question to your brain OR to Google (our second brain) – what happens is a deep hole of interconnected possible answers which will only create more stress – in other words suddenly your brain has 460 tabs open and is unable to make sense of any of it.
When something’s not working, the first thing we all tend to do is go straight to Google to start looking for a solution, something we can act on.
But you can’t find the solution when you don’t know what the problem you’re trying to solve *really* is.
And “I am not getting sales” is not specific enough of a problem for you to be able to fix it.
You’ve got to dive deeper.
And beyond that and most importantly:
“Solving a problem is NOT an action”.
Let me repeat and explain that because it’s VERY VERY important.
“Solving a problem is NOT an action – it’s a thinking process where you identify what really isn’t working and decide what the best solution to that problem is.”
Once you’ve done that – you essentially SOLVED the problem, and can move on to implementing that solution – which is an action.
We spend too much time trying to take action to fix a problem, and not enough time thinking about what the solution to that problem is in the first place.
Again, solving a problem is not an action – it’s a thinking process.
This is going to sound counter-intuitive, because it is, but something isn’t working in your handmade shop, you have to refrain from looking for answers and instead start asking better questions.
To do this, I like to use what I call the “1+4” troubleshooting method – and I also like to use a logic-tree to illustrate it.
“1+4″ stands for one “issue-statement” and four “follow-up” questions. It’s surprisingly simple, nothing more than pure logic, yet it’s also very powerful.
The first step is to write at the top of a page what your #1 issue is. At that point, it might be something quite broad (which is normal at this stage) like “I am not getting enough sales.”
Then, you force yourself to ask at least 4 additional follow up questions, each time going deeper into the “issue” – NOT trying to fix it yet, just to really understand it.
Let’s take a look at an example together.
Issue statement: “I don’t have enough sales.”
Question 1: “Why is that? Is this a traffic problem (not enough people visit my shop) or a conversion problem (not enough shop’s visitors turn into customers)?”
At this point, you might already think: “Well… I don’t know.” If so, that’s the first thing you need to fix.
You should know what your shop’s “traffic goal” is and how much traffic is “enough” for you to start seeing sales.
For our example, let’s imagine you answered: “It’s a conversion problem, I have lots of visits, they just don’t turn into sales.”
Then question 2 could be: “Well, ok… if it’s a conversion problem, if people are visiting my shop but not buying … then why could that be? What impacts a handmade shop’s conversion rate?”
Now… You might know the answer to this question, or not, in which case; it’s fine to Google it.
But keep in mind the question you’re trying to answer is NOT, “Why am I not getting sales” anymore… it’s “What can I do to improve my shops’ conversion rate?” now.
From your quick search, you might have learned what the most important elements to improve a shop’s conversion rate are and can start honestly asking yourself where you might have missed the mark.
You go down the list and (this is where you need to have discipline) you don’t stop at item one – you methodically go down the list and assess each element.
You turn yourself into a detective. You follow a logic-tree. You process by elimination.
A quick search tells you that “traffic quality” means getting not just any visitors to your shop, but the right type of visitors: those who are likely to purchase from you.
From there, question 3 would then be: “OK – are the people visiting my shop the “right type” of visitors then? Who are my shop’s visitors, anyway?”
To answer this, you are going to need to figure out where most of your shop visitors come from.
A quick look at your shop’s stats and you might realize that you get most of your shop visits from say… Facebook.
Then question 4 would be: “What could I be doing on Facebook that’s not sending the right type of visitors to my shop?”
Well, thinking of it, most of your Facebook marketing consists of sharing your products into Facebook groups made of other makers/Etsy sellers/jewellers/potters/ etc., so it’s very likely that the people visiting your shop are actually peers, competitors, or people interested in your craft… not people who are actually looking to BUY your products.
And THAT is the REAL problem you’re having.
Suddenly the problem isn’t this HUGE broad spectrum issue but a clear, specific problem which you can resolve much easily.
With 4 simple and logical questions, you went from looking for a solution to
“I am not getting enough sales” (<– super hard to answer because it’s VERY broad) to:
“How can I re-work my Facebook marketing strategy to make sure I am putting my products in front of potential buyers, not just peers and competitors?”
You can use this method and make your own logic tree for any issue you encounter.
The key is to be methodical and to consider each possibility one at a time.
You might uncover more than one “real” issue.
Maybe in our example you realised there was a “traffic quality” issue – but also some work you needed to do with your product photos.
In which case that’s not bad news, that’s good news – you know what the 2 most impactful things you need to do to move forward are.
Building a successful handmade business is a process, not some mysterious black magic like it can sometimes feel it is.
There is always a logical, step-by-step way to troubleshoot any issue you might ever encounter.
If you’d like more help and support on this journey – consider joining Tizzit HQ, our membership community, and get access to handmade business training, coaching and support – so you always feel confident that you’re doing the right things, methodically, in the right order and have absolute clarity as to how to course-correct when and if needed.
I’d love to see you there!
Until next time – thanks for reading and aurevoir!
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