S.Mutaga III wrote:I discovered that I would only sell an average of five items a day. The total number of customers who would express interest but not buy were very many. For every 8 customers,only one would buy. I managed to break even but quit the business as the returns were not reasonable.
This seems like a problem with marketing and targeting.
If 1 out of 8 inquiries a day leads to a sale (Which I think is not bad) then you need to move to a more visible location where you also have more walk in traffic. Imagine if you got 150 people to walk into the shop daily.... At some point the dynamics change depending on the quality, price, customer service, fashion etc... but you need really good visibility to sell to strangers.
The other bit is targeting. Pick the group you want to sell to and have a marketing plan targeted at them. Build a small website with your designs and drive traffic there, use FB, email, etc.. to get your existing customers to shout about you.
Forget about the credit thing. If people desire something, you need to make them feel that it is within their grasp.
Let them know it is affordable (I hope your products are), others in their class/status are buying too, it is fashionable they will find it worth it.
If you do installments, it's deposit first collect on final payment.