Almost every one of us thinks about how to grow our sales every day. In fact, most Store owners have a sales goal in mind that will make them feel like they are successful. But did you know that it’s possible to reach your “successful” sales goal and actually have even less cash on hand than when your big goal was just a dream? Today on the podcast, I’m sharing why I think you should create a plan to scale your sales. In this episode, you’ll see: Why scaling your sales is the most profitable way to reach your big goals. What you must do before you can scale successfully. How you’ll know you’re ready to scale.   I’ll also give you some offer strategies that you can use to scale, and for inspiration, I’ll share some examples of stores that have offers that scale well! If you enjoyed this episode, you’ll want to listen to Episodes 69, 111, and 112 to hear how some super smart clients created their scaling offer.  https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/how-to-scale-your-sales-episode-165/ Stop wondering if you’re “doing it right” and learn how to grow your sales in a consistent, predictable way. Spend 40 minutes with me in this eye opening workshop, and you’ll leave with a few simple steps that will grow your sales next month. Find a time that works for you, and register here: https://watch.thesocialsalesgirls.com/s/77wKvQ “Insightful, actionable, and engaging! I learn so much every single time I listen. I can’t believe this information is free  - If you feel like this too, I’d love it if you would leave us a review. Reviewing the show will help us reach even more store owners, so we can help them grow their sales.  Click here, scroll down, tap to rate with 5 stars, and select “Write a review”. Let us know what you find most helpful about the podcast!

It’s the embarrassing little secret that ecommerce store owners don’t like to talk about. Why do we always feel broke? It is so frustrating, embarrassing , and it causes us so much stress.  It’s important that we talk about it, because for most of us, when we get into a cash flow crunch it makes us feel like we’re failing, Like we’re doing something wrong. It’s embarrassing, and it affects how we run the business. Running your business when cash is tight is like trying to run your business wearing handcuffs. It often leads to making poor decisions made out of a desire for a quick fix. It’s a tough problem to solve, and most of us suffer in silence. I want to share something with you that every store owner should know The truth is, many store owners don’t know that there’s a conflict between our sales goals and the real cost of growing a product based business. We’re wired to want to grow our sales, and we can learn how to do this. We teach this in the Inner Circle, and it’s the exciting part of business for most of us. But nobody teaches us the other side of that - most store owners don’t know that growth is expensive, and that it has the potential to strangle your cash flow and make it really hard to run your business. And the most important thing you need to know is that it’s preventable. And if you have a cash flow crisis, it’s fixable. Today we’re talking about why it happens - but more importantly, how you can fix it and become a cash flow positive store owner! Episode Website: https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/how-to-be-a-cash-flow-positive-store-owner-episode-164/ Stop wondering if you’re “doing it right” and learn how to grow your sales in a consistent, predictable way. Spend 40 minutes with me in this eye opening workshop, and you’ll leave with a few simple steps that will grow your sales next month. Find a time that works for you, and register here: https://watch.thesocialsalesgirls.com/s/77wKvQ “Insightful, actionable and engaging! I learn so much every single time I listen. I can’t believe this information is free  - If you feel like this too, I’d love it if you would leave us a review. Reviewing the show will help us reach even more store owners, so we can help the grow their sales. Click here, scroll down, tap to rate with 5 stars and select “Write a review”. Let us know what you find most helpful about the podcast!

Today I’m chatting with Sylvie Roy the founder of Eclair Lips. Sylvie is sharing the story of how she used a templated event that she pulled from the “Get Sales Now” unit inside of the Inner Circle Classroom. Last month Sylvie used the “Mystery Box” event (formerly called “ninja event). Her goal was to make some sales and get rid of some labels for products that she had discontinued. You’ll love hearing how Sylvie used this event and ultimately had her highest sales day ever. In fact, her revenue for this event was more than last year’s entire Black Friday weekend revenue. It’s a great story in itself, but the real story is about transformation. When you hear what’s happened in Sylvie's business since January 2020, you’ll get clarity  about managing your expectations for today’s results while being able to see what’s possible for you in the future. The real lesson is in understanding your sales potential if you stay consistent and focused on a few marketing activities instead of jumping from “idea” to “idea”.   When you listen, you’ll learn: The reason that building an audience is the fastest way to scale Proof that Marketing is more important than product and pricing An example of how you can get sales fast, even if you don’t know where to start How to make  “scaling” your sales possible. You can visit Eclair Lips here: https://eclairlips.com/

Many Ecommerce store owners are surprised when they learn that they need a massive audience to keep growing and reach their long term sales goals.  It’s not uncommon for higher volume stores to reach millions of people every month.  They’re highly visible. Even when you’re a new-ish Ecommerce store owner, you’ll need to make yourself visible to 100,000 - 200,000 people every month in order to create awareness for your products. It might seem daunting, but the truth is it’s not that hard, or expensive. Brand Videos are one of the fastest ways to build your product awareness, get more traffic to your site, and make your business visible and memorable. You might be thinking that Brand Videos are only for “big” businesses, and that you need a high production value, big budget video, but I know that’s not the case. Every Ecommerce store owner should have a Brand Video. When you have a Brand Video, you’ll be able to use it to: →Attract the right people, by giving them a  taste of what they’ll find on your site →Build a massive audience - for a tiny spend  Listen in as our Inner Circle Traffic Coach, Cathy Hayhurst shares a simple way to create your Brand Video then use it to build a massive audience.  Grab a pen, take some notes, and before you know it, your store will be visible, and your audience will be full of people who have a genuine interest in your products.

Have you heard of an SEO Funnel? We talk about the Sales Funnel all the time, but we haven’t talked about how you can create an SEO Funnel. Until now. Investing time into SEO can be beneficial for any ecommerce business, and you can use a content-based funnel strategy to grow traffic and sales without advertising. Most of us understand the sales funnel where we've got our cold, warm, and hot traffic filtering down the funnel to the purchase goal. You can apply that same method of thinking to SEO. Listen in as our Inner Circle SEO Coach, Sarah walks us through the steps. Start building your SEO Funnel, and build up more high quality traffic for free. Get Simple SEO for Store Owners here: https://learn.thesocialsalesgirls.com/simple-seo-for-store-owners-guide/ Read the transcript of this episode here: https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/how-to-build-an-seo-funnel-episode-161

This episode is full of  “aha” moments. One of the most powerful things you can do for your business is to become what I call a “Marketing First” Store Owner. It sounds fancy, but really it means that you prioritize marketing over all the other “things” that take up your work hours. Today we’re talking about what a Marketing First store owner does - and how to stay on track I invited one of my favorite Inner Circle Members, Melissa Davies, to join me today. When I think of a Marketing First store owner, a picture of Melissa pops into my head. Melissa has generously offered to share her Sales Funnel with us, so you’ll get to see her actual numbers. We’re going to talk about her funnel - and why  she does this work, even though she has  a successful store, and she’s really good at marketing Melissa shared her Sales Funnel numbers for the last 30 days, and when I saw what she was doing, my jaw dropped.  We talked about what she did to grow her audience and traffic massively since she’s been using the Sales Funnel, and then we talked about what her strategy should be to maintain these numbers. We wrapped up with 1-3 action steps that Melissa can take right now! The Sales Funnel framework works beautifully for store owners at all stages of business I love it because it makes it easy to develop an effective action plan for each month. You know exactly what your business needs NOW, and once you know, it’s easy to become a Marketing First store owner. PS: I’ll help you build your own Sales Funnel for your store live on Zoom. Register for your spot now. It’s only $10, and it will change how you think about Marketing. https://classroom.thesocialsalesgirls.com/build-your-sales-funnel-workshop

What can I work on that will really move the needle in my business.  What’s the work that will get me closer to my goals, keep me on track, and lead to long term success? This is the question that swirls around in almost every store owner's head - all the time. For years we’ve been giving our Inner Circle Members the exact work they must do in order to get sales.  More often than not, their progress comes in baby steps, and sometimes that’s really hard to see. That’s when many people start to wonder if all their effort is having any impact on their results. And they shift gears or stop altogether. It’s a problem This year, we developed new training that solves that problem.  We’re teaching our Members how to build a Sales Funnel for their shops.  When you build your sales funnel, you actually get to see: How many potential customers are in your Sales Funnel Where they are on their customer journey The work you need to do to convert more people into buyers What your business needs you to focus on this month. You are actually able to see what your business needs each month. You’ll do the work, and you’ll be able to physically see the impact of your work when you build your Sales Funnel next month. Building their own Sales Funnel, and being able to see the big picture has had a massive impact for our Members. They’re focused. And they’re making more progress than ever before. This training is so important that I knew we must share it with you. Join us next month for a live, hands-on workshop. We’ll guide you through the process as you build your Sales Funnel.  You’ll leave knowing the big picture for your store, and the work you’ll focus on that will get you closer to your big goals. You can register here. The cost is $10. Join us live, and come ready to work.  A replay will be delivered to all registrants.   Link to register: https://classroom.thesocialsalesgirls.com/build-your-sales-funnel-workshop

Today I’m talking with my good friend Ciara Stockeland about how store owners like us can get control of our cash, understand our financials, and finally stop sweating about our cash flow. I am a big fan of Ciara’s because she’s a long time Retailer turned Profit First Expert. That’s important, because she understands inventory based businesses, and how common it is for us to struggle with cash flow because we are continually buying inventory or raw materials. We’ve both seen too many smart store owners be stressed to max from continually juggling their cash. Even though it might feel like you’re failing, or “not good” at the money part, the truth is that managing your cash flow and profit is just a problem to solve. And it is solve-able. Listen in as Ciara and I talk about the strategies she teaches in her new book, Inventory Genius. It might be the most valuable 20 minutes you spend this month.   Get your copy of Inventory Genius here: https://www.ciarastockeland.com/a/2147532113/2cz2f3cA Get the Inventory Genius course here: https://www.ciarastockeland.com/a/2147521502/2cz2f3cA

Did you know that your Returning Customer rate is like a thermometer for your business? It helps you evaluate the health of your business, and when you understand this, you’ll use it to determine what your business needs right now. Last week, I shared how I’ve noticed that store owners often are unclear about two metrics that kind of sound like the same thing, but they’re not   Returning Visitors vs Returning Customers   On last week’s episode of the podcast, I shared that by focusing on your Returning Visitor metric, you can significantly increase your conversion rate. If you haven’t listened - you’ll want to go back and listen to episode 156   This week, I’m sharing how you can use your Returning Customer rate to understand what you need to focus on in order to grow your sales in a significant way. You can get the ideal benchmarks for Returning Customers, and some work to do. To help you understand why your Returning Customer rate is a big deal, I’ve boiled it down to these 3 points: Attrition. Eventually, even the best customers stop buying, and your pool of buyers will shrink. New customer acquisition. Are you bringing enough new customers into your business to [at minimum] replace the customers you lose each month? Are you bringing in enough new customers to create significant growth? Go listen to the episode - it’s super short, and you’ll walk away with the knowledge that will give you the power to get unstuck and grow your sales.

This week I’m sharing a little tip that will help you see what you have to do at a glance. There’s some confusion for many store owners around these two metrics. We were talking about how to make a solid plan to grow your business, and I’ve realized that I need to clear it up. This is helpful for every store owner - if you’re just starting, or if you’ve been growing your business for a while. Here’s why this is important to you:These are important metrics for you to know because ONE will show you where you can put your focus and get more sales without spending more money THE other is like a thermometer for your business - it helps you evaluate the health of your business, and when you understand this, you’ll use it to determine what your business needs How to find your Returning Visitor % in Universal Analytics Go to: →Audience → Behavior → New vs returning → Set dates for last month - see where you land Next week - we’ll talk about Returning Customers - and how you can use your metric as a thermometer to take the temperature of your business.