I'm sitting here reflecting on the past 7 months & what we have done to streamline our biz by making a weekly/monthly checklist. We shared a few posts ago about what we do daily, but these are the things we do each week/month. Let's start with each week:
#1 - Check on Packages
It is important to make sure that our packages & shipments are making it to our customers. Track some (all) packages from each of your shipments to make sure that there are no issues.
#2 - Ask for Reviews
As you are tracking packages, you can also reach out to make sure that they got their package safely. While you're chatting with them, ask them to leave you a review if they loved your package so that other people will know the product is good.
#3 - Check Inventory
You never want to run out of inventory on the items you are selling. If you don't have a crazy amount of inventory (this was us when we first started), make sure that you are checking inventory to know what you don't have. Then you can either order more or take that offering off of Etsy until you restock.
#4 - Update Instagram Highlights
It is important to keep your highlights up to date with your most recent products & items. Make sure that you are updating your highlights with some new content each week. Adding new products, sharing more about yourself & filling your other highlights too.
#5 - Grow Your Email List/Instagram List
Reach out to your shop purchasers with a link to your Instagram or email list. Put a link to your email list on your Instagram stories. Chat with your customers about the easiest way to communicate with them & stay in touch. You want to be chatting with these people.
Each month we:
#1 - Order More Products
It is important to keep a solid inventory of all of your products. We sell tees, canvas bags, scrunchies, and digital graphics. Obviously digital products take care of themselves, but at the end of each month, we take inventory of our tees and canvas bags and order more as needed. We also chat about what scrunchie patterns we are launching the next month & make sure that we have enough fabric to fit that theme.
#2 - Launch New Products
We try to launch new products each month whether it fits a holiday theme or is just something fun & new. There are almost always holidays that you can center your launches around, but if not, think about some categories that you can launch (college teams, sports teams, girl scouts, new babies, pastels, the outdoors).
#3 - Set Sales & Growth Goals
It is important to set goals each month for your shop sales & growth. When we first started, we were choosing a number of sales each month. In time, we learned that it is better to set sales goals with money rather than products. One sale of one item only counted as one sale, but we also had people buying 5 items and that was only one sale too. Sooo after a few months, we switched to a money goal in sales each month. Aim high, friends & reach those goals. Other goals could be:
Number of customers
Certain amount of sales of an item
So many shop favorites
This is where we invest time weekly and monthly to help grow our shop, Instagram & customer base. Is there anything that you would add to this list? Where can you display a list like this to make sure that you do these things every week or month?
Happy Shop Running,
Marc & Barb