Early on in a recent recession, someone [1] gave the advice of:
Focus on getting two new customers each month. Get out there and hustle. Ignore the rest of the recession.
Though aimed at smaller software companies who earn recurring revenue, this advice can apply to any business.
Two new customers a month won't sustain that vast majority of ecommerce stores (unless you sell industrial machines) but what about 200? 2,000?
With a calculator [2], you could figure out how many customers you need to order each month. From there you can break it out by week and now you have something to aim for each week.
This might sound simplistic because it is. When there's a lot of doom and gloom in the air and sales are low, it can be difficult to remember the simple things.
"Can you find two customers this month?" gets back to the essence of running a business and cuts though much of the hype and headlines.
Eric Davis
[1] I can't find who said this so I don't want to misattribute it.
[2] A rough formula to use is your monthly breakeven amount divided by the Average Order Value.
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If you knew exactly when the majority of your customers were ready to buy again, you can increase your orders and profit just by tweaking your message timing.