Overcoming sources of negativity in your own business

Having a small business is hard, really hard.  We all suffer from self-doubt and a lack of confidence.  Here I have addressed some of the daily battles we come up against in our own head.  In an attempt to help you see that you are not alone and some ideas on how to overcome them.  Often the sources of negativity are from you.

Product confidence

We pour our heart and soul into the items we make and we can often not believe that they are good enough.  Self confidence in the items that you make is frequently the biggest daily struggle that we experience.  Key things to remember are, as you made the item you can see all the imperfections.  A customer may not view the item in the same way that you do.

In the same way you are not forcing a customer to purchase your items.  Therefore if you put an item up for sale a customer will only purchase it if they want it.  If they do then purchase your items they obviously like the item and are happy with it.   Leave this decision up to the customer and let them make the decision if your items are good enough.

Time management

We can completely overwhelmed at times.  As a small business owner there are so many things that you need to be on top of.   Between social media updates, new stock creation, orders and just general life you can feel that you don’t physically have enough time to do all that you need to.  Try and break the overall task into smaller manageable pieces.  So for example if I have social media updates to do, I try and post a few on a scheduler.  If I have come up with just 2 posts that is 2 less that I have to create in the future.

Try and find spare minutes, I try and squeeze as much of my time out as possible.  For example when waiting to pick the children up from school I can write a post or two to be published on Facebook.  This time would otherwise be wasted and I am working towards ticking another item of my to do list.

The main thing to remember is you can only do so much.  Try not to be too hard on yourself and not to overwhelm yourself with what you still have to do on your list. Maybe try having a look at some of the time management techniques that people use to be more productive like the Pomodoro method https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique

Copy Cats

If you are a handmade business owner for long enough it is inevitable that you are going to come across someone that makes items very similar or in extreme cases exactly the same item as you.  It is just the nature of the handmade product market, however it can be really down heartening. 

On a side note if there is a clear case of copyright where the item has been copied exactly you can approach the selling platform and ask for the items to be removed.  In the same way if your items have been copyrighted you can launch a case for copyright infringement with the appropriate authorities.

Negative Review

The hardest obstacle for us to overcome mentally is if we receive a negative review.  Particularly as this is one of the sources of negativity that comes from an external source. Now at this point it is important to remain impartial as much as possible.  Just because one customer was not happy with their item does not necessarily mean that every customer will be.

View the review as some feedback.  Is there something you could do differently to improve your product or service to be better for the next customer. 

You should also look and see if there is something that you can do to improve the experience for that customer.  Could you offer a replacement or a discount on a future purchase.  Customer experience can have such a positive effect on your business you should try and do all you can to offer the best interaction.

Income

Some of us rely on the income that we receive from our small business and it can be a constant worry about whether we will receive enough income.  Obviously this is a serious worry, and shouldn’t be overlooked however it should not become spiraling negativity.

Just make sure that you are being sensible with your money.  If you are pouring a lot of money into advertising and not seeing a return then it would be better to stop that spending.  Try to really assess what you can afford.  You can easily save money in your business if you are willing to work hard.  There is no point paying hundreds for someone to do your social media posts if you have the time and ability to do this yourself.  Too often people are not willing to learn how to do something and will waste money paying someone to do it for them when it can be quite simple.

Quiet sales

The problem with retail is there is no rhyme nor reason to sales or what customers purchase.  Therefore it is inevitable that at times your sales will be quieter.  This is usually when a lot of us go into panic mode and think that we will never see an upturn again. 

The best thing to do in this situation is not to concentrate on the numbers and see it as an opportunity to take advantage of a bit more spare time.  It is often a good time to look at a new product range or catching up on admin that you have been unable to do when in busy periods.

So basically we all struggle with negative feelings when we work on our business.  The key to remember is you are not alone in this and we all do it.  You need to identify that often sources of negativity come from you.  The goal is to try and overcome these thoughts and move forward with your business.  Look back on how far you have come and think about how far you will move forward if you can overcome your fears.

If you are just starting out and already fighting with self doubt have a look at our blog post on fears to overcome to start a craft business https://www.claireyatfairycrafters.com/fears-to-overcome-to-start-a-craft-business/