Business Just Pick Up? Options

[donp]

I work by referral only and in the past 5 months or so, it was dead, very little came in, but in the past two weeks, wow. Is it a trend here? I'm trying to figure out why all of a sudden I'm getting all this new work? I love it, don't get me wrong, but why now? Anyone else notice the phone ringing a bit more these past few weeks?

[Randy]

Well I'm in a totally different market or actually several totally different markets, if you're talking about SEO and Web Design, but I can say I've seen some signs that things are starting to get better with both my B2B and B2C sites.

A couple of things I've noticed...

1. Sales volumes are on average back up to about 90% of normal according to my historical data. In some markets I'd seen an almost 50% drop off in business last late-summer and fall. This recent pick up in business has been slowly crawling back up for the last 4-6 weeks.

2. I've also got some sites where there is a monthly recurring fee for subscribers. Normally you see very, very few of those have a rebill failure. Well under 1% for my sites. Last fall I was getting a ton of rebilling failures over a several month time frame from roughly July through December. We're talking (rough figures) 10-15% would get declined for lack of available funds. We're not talking huge amounts of money either. My rebills are usually somewhere between $17 and $47 per month.

Since the first of the year it feels like people have a much better handle on their finances so that they're not so over extended. Since January 1 I think I've had exactly 1 rebill failure. Out of roughly 5,000 rebills that get sent through each month on my various sites.

It feels like things are starting to get better. Too early to say if it'll stick or not I think. But the last 4-6 weeks has been encouraging from what I can see in my own sites. I've also of course talked with a dozen or so friends of mine who run e-commerce sites. They're experiences are pretty close to what I've been seeing over the last several months. Including the recent pick up in business.

[torka]

I can't speak for all our channels, but our online sales have definitely picked up since December. Sharply up.

--Torka (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mf_prop.gif)

[BBCoach]

It's the economy. Businesses that have avoided building an ecommerce website or paying for SEO work are now looking at broadening their customer reach (across the country or internationally) while possibly eliminating some staff. Anyways, that's my take on what's happening.

[bwelford]

I go along with your view, BBCoach.

In good times, you can run your business inefficiently and you may still do reasonably well. OK you should be looking for ways to improve but if there is no obvious pain, que sera sera.

In tough times, you are forced to face up more to reality. Unless you change you will not survive. You look at all those cash amounts going to support off-line marketing efforts. You realize that you have not done enough on those online approaches with their much higher ROI. The decision is obvious.

[torka]

Businesses that have avoided building an ecommerce website or paying for SEO work are now looking at broadening their customer reach (across the country or internationally) while possibly eliminating some staff.

But neither I nor Randy are talking about businesses offering SEO or ecommerce website development. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

--Torka (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mf_prop.gif)