Every year at this time, entrepreneurs start thinking more about updating their businesses for the new year. But plenty of people put it off to the last minute. And then they're scrambling to increase sales, which means they usually end up behind the ball.
"Every year right around December I get a big rush of people who want me to help them increase their sales," says Jasmine Harrington, owner of KASH ICONS Consultants. "But I'm usually backed up by then.
The people who meet their sales goals for the year, are the ones who get started now."
That's why Harrington and others in the industry encourage people to start looking into direct selling now. Those who get it done early tend to enjoy cost-saving, increased sales, repeat customers, and business growth and expansion. And these early birds also get to capitalize off the booming holiday season for small businesses.
However, Harrington does note that even those who're starting to work on direct selling in hopes of increasing sales can also run into frustrating delays.
In fact, she says that most people tend to make the same mistakes when they're trying to increase sales. And those who make all three of these mistakes tend to waste the most time and money.
The first mistake, says Harrington, is to not overspend on inventory or partnerships in the early stages. You want to test the market with multiple options rather than an enormous inventory or workload that you cannot manage to move due to feeling overwhelmed with unrealistic goals.
Another common mistake is to partner with a company that does not match your markets needs. Research your audience to provide them with alternatives to their problems with a variety of solutions
Finally, Harrington also notes that she sees a lot of people rebranding others products as their own. This is counter productive because the goal is to collaborate with other brands to grow your brand through credibility, trust, and loyalty.
"I think people are getting smarter about collaborating with other businesses while avoiding wasting money on unsold inventory,"Harrington says. I expect that this year we're going to see massive growth in the area of direct selling.
The research tends to agree. Last year direct selling generated $40.1 billion in retail sales and 7.7 million entrepreneurs in the U.S. sold products or services through the direct selling channel, providing a personalized buying experience for 41.6 million preferred customers and discount buyers." This year, however, that number has gone up -- it's now up 9.7% in 2021 than it was in 2020. And these new trends have a lot of people excited about the future of entrepreneurship. However, the increase of direct selling is pivotal to the growth of small businesses as we collaborate with larger corporations to sell their products and services directly for commissions as an independent contractor.
To learn more about Jasmine Harrington's KASH ICONS Consultants, you can follow at @iamkashicons on Instagram or message online at www.kashicons.com.
