In Need of Some Help for My Business

[stace]

Hey there THP'ers....
 
i am in need of some help and advice for my business.

I purchased SauceWorld.com a few months ago from the previous owner - the website and inventory.  

I've always loved cooking and grilling with hot sauce, bbq sauce and basically any cooking sauces, spices, etc.  So when the opportunity came around, i thought it would be an amazing opportunity and venture.
 
well, several months later and a lot of money down and monthly rent and bills, the business is not going as well as i had hoped and i am really down to the wire to see if i can keep this thing moving.  

currently, i am posting on social media daily, have a lot of fans on FB, instagram is growing but the traffic to the site is VERY low.

one way i know i can get the google rankings to improve is to get links on other sites.  one of the issues i've had is finding these sites.  i've contacted a few and usually get no response.  a couple of the new sauce makers i have been able to work with have shared my site on their site to say we are now selling their product but at this time, i don't have the money to introduce new product.

any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.  i absolutely love the business and my goal is to sell and work with as many small sauce makers as i can but without traffic and without the ability to sell off the inventory i purchased with the business, i will not be able to stay in business.

thanks for taking the time to read this.
 
sincerely,
stacey

 

[Gemini Crow Sauce Company]

Ack...
Not sure I have too much to offer.Fi
First thing that popped into my head is why was the site & inventory being sold. Raised a red flag in my brain.
 
Was this person running his business successfully or was it failing and they were looking to unload it?
Did you look over their books before deciding to take over the site/inventory?
Did you haver a business plan before going in, or were you winging it.....
 
In virtually all businesses, new as well as previously run with 'new' ownership, can take years upon years to be financially viable and successful. Rarely is something a hit right from the get go.
 
Social media is very fickle. 'Likes' and stuff are nice but they are fleeting. On FB alone, I 'like' a new band, or company, or artist several times a day....Mostly it means I'm curious and am interested in knowing what's going on moreso of being a real fan. 
 
My eyes. there is no magic formula for success, but relying on FB/Twitter, Instagram posts is definitely not the golden ticket....
 
my .02.  many here who can offer much better insight and opinions...

 

[stace]

hey @gemini crow sauce company,
 
thanks for your reply.
 
definitely looked over everything. i can't say i know exactly why he was selling because i don't know him, so whatever story i was told may or may not have been true. :/  

but i knew the biz needed a good amount of work and i wanted to change the way it was selling - most sales were on amazon and ebay, which is very pricey and because the name is so great, i wanted to work on building traffic to the site.
 
i did close the ebay and amazon accounts, so that changed sales but i was okay with that.
 
i've successfully grown traffic to websites but this one is a bit of a bear.  i definitely know that social media is not the magic wand.  it helps in some ways but not what i am looking for.
 
i know one thing i need are backlinks, which means that there is a link for my site on other sites. this has been an uphill climb to get going though.
 
stacey

 

[Lucky Dog Hot Sauce]

Online-only sales that aren't supported by a brick & mortar are tough. Maybe why the business was for sale.

And reaching out to the sauce makers isn't the best way to build your SEO, because you'll be poaching business from their direct sales sites. So why would they feature links to your site from their social media pages?

There are quite a few subscription services popping up - but that's pretty cutthroat too. I'm hesitant to work with many because they need to lowball me on my pricing to compete against each other and I'm simply not interested in discounting my products to help someone take business away from me with my own products.

Would suggest organizing local tastings - people who try sauce buy sauce at a far higher % than people who see a bottle online. It'll take some work and small investment in location, health permits, etc, but then you can use that established base to grow from there.

My web traffic has risen over the years by selling directly at farmers markets and to soecialty stores across the country where they do product sampling. Stores that sample my products sell 5-8X the volume that stores who don't sample sell.

Focusing on small brands is great, but you're also limiting be amount of marketing possible since small brands have small followings. I've got less than 3k followers on my company FB, so adding me wouldn't help as much as adding say, Tabasco or Tapatio or CaJohns or some of the other big ones....Might be wise to bring in some bigger players just to get their marketing strength.

Best advice: pay for a booth at a local art & wine festival or music festival. Be a "superstore" booth and feature all of your brands. Make sure none of your local brands are there (and if they are, don't sell their sauces at the event). Get a mailing list going. I get on average 100 new followers, many from out of state from each such event.

Getting yourself out into the public is the best possible way to get the public awareness of your website/service. Online you're just another website selling hot sauce. So find ways to not be just another website selling hot sauce.

Once you've built some momentum, you'll be able to host contests on social media and other spammy ways to get new likes (look around Facebook & you'll see the "share this post to win a bottle of whatever" contests) - not ideal, but I'm told they work.

Good luck with your business.

 

[oldsalty]

There is your answer. Lucky Dog Hot Sauce is the answer you get by being part of a site like THP. I would recommend becoming an extreme member for business on THP. As someone new to the retail end of the industry it would seem that having access to an instant wealth of information as well as showing members your serious about the site which would help grow a strong customer base. As a new business you gain the attention of members who see your more than just a fly by night member looking for quick sales and gone. Really looking forward to seeing more of your product line and Best of Luck in your new venture!!! fellow chili head.
Cheers

 

[stace]

@lucky dog hot sauce and @oldsalty,
 
thank you very much for your input.  it's all super helpful.
 
lucky dog, what you are saying makes a lot of sense and really sounds like the right approach. i've tried promoting myself locally but since i am a warehouse and not currently open to the public, the only thing i have offered is free delivery.  but like you said, without tasting, people are less interested - until they know what they like and want.
 
i have a lot from the big brands in addition to some smaller ones - we offer almost 900 different types of items (from hot sauce, bbq sauce to honey and preserves).  so, i can go to the bigger brands and see if they'd want to work with me in some way.
 
i know what you are saying about small brands - a couple have shared our site on their site but i know it's not everyone's preference and i totally respect that.  what i do is promote the brands very heavily via social media and they've done the same for me.  it's become a partnership, which is something i really like and they are really excited about as well.  again, not everyone's preference.

there are local fairs and events around the area and i will look into these, as well as health permits - is there anything else that is required, when sampling to the public? i can talk to my accountant about the rest.
 
again, i can't thank you enough for taking the time to help me out here.  hoping i can reach out to you once things, hopefully, get rolling!
stace

 

[The Hot Pepper]

Do some google adwords with keywords to every sauce you carry with the minimum bid. You can enter in a bulk list. Analyze the performance and look at the rankings. If you are low in the results for your top 10 keywords, then up your bid to be in the top. Top 50, use a moderate bid.

 

[Lucky Dog Hot Sauce]

@stace - you'll need a seller's permit for your state, a food handler's card ($13 online test) and a temporary event permit for whatever event you're considering doing.

That's pretty typical across the country.

But always check with the event & the local health dept to determine whether or not you're in compliance.

500 brands and no Lucky Dog huh?

 

[salsalady]

you can put a link to your website in your Sig line here on THP.  (Might only be for extreme member, but I don't think so???)  Every little bit of exposure and quick links helps. 
 
I'm off to check out your site. 
 
to THP,  hope some of these tips help~

 

[The Hot Pepper]

Website and inventory look great, saw familiar names right on the homepage, Elija's Xtreme, and Intensity Academy. Good to see you're carrying the smaller craft stuff and not the novelty satan's armpit sweat type stuff.

 

[salsalady]

I'm Back~ 
 
Checked out the website, and WOW!  there are a lot of products. 
 
First, a quick note as you are new here and I don't want you to get the wrong inpression.  When a person posts a question, request or something like a label asking for feedback, we all (or at least 99.9%  of us) will post our sincere thoughts for "whatever" with the honest intention to help the person asking the question.
 
With that said, my first impression of the website after reading your initial request is-
 
 
wow, there's a lot of product! 
 
The products are fairly diverse, from olive oil, to vinegars, hummus, sauces of all flavors, peanut butter (???),...so what kind of website is it?  While it does have a fair amount of spicy products, there's a lot of other stuff that I wouldn't think would sell well on the internet, like 10 flavors of all natural peanut butter, and a brand of olive oil I can get at my local Po-Dunk grocery store.  Peanut butter and oils have a shelf life and they will get rancid if not moved/consumed in a timely manner.  Personally, I wouldn't buy an olive oil or peanut butter from a website like this that doesn't specialize in olive oils or peanut butter.
 
My suggestion would be to choose what kind of webstore you want to be.  It doesn't sound like you are in a position to push out to be a full on gourmet foods store.  If you want to focus on spicy foods, there is always room for that and you do have some good names in inventory.  Plenty more awesome sauce makers out there to bring on board when you are ready. 
 
If you want to go with an all spicy website, run a clearance sale an everything you will not be restocking and blow them out!  Get a bit of quick cash, keep the biz running. 
 
Another note or suggestion is to have the hot sauces Sort-able by heat levels.  Not a big deal, but if the website gets some work, that's a good feature to have as a lot of sauce buyers search by Heat Level. 
 
One more thing---( sorry, I just went and looked at the site again...   )  As you are the new owner and just getting things worked out, if there is a product that you will not be stocking again, remove it from the website.  If the item will be stocked again, maybe say "On Order, available XX/XX/XXXX"  Out Of Stock is not good to see.
 
Good Luck!  and when you are in the market for another extreme heat product, give me a holler and we can talk about wholesale for Pure Evil 1.5mil and 9.6mil SHU. 
 
 
 
These are first impressions from me and please, take them or leave them as you see fit.  You probably are aware of and are working on a number of these things already.  It's just one opinion, and we all know about opinions....   
 
Best of Luck! 
Keep us posted~
 
salsalady

 

[Idiot Piquant]

Nail on the head. 
Exactly my thoughts as a consumer, SL. 
 
My Product Manager Neuroses have kicked in. 
Ack...Hnnnggg...
 
His multi-niche model worked on Amazon b/c of volume.   
My fear is you're sitting on $$$$$k of expiring product. 
 
Would love to see the due diligence and business plan.  
Your accountant did this work?
 
Stacey, what is your deep down vision for the company?   
Sincerest good luck.  Stay around, we're the good guys. 
 
I will place a hot sauce order soon! 

 

[Hot Mama Bearz]

Wish you luck here or should I say break a leg?  SEO and where you fall on a google search are the most important.  
 
My best advice is to blow some money and have a sale and advertise on google and Facebook.  A sweepstakes at the same time couldn't hurt,  i know of a sweepstakes listing site that has hundreds of thousands of members,    I would share and list it for you.  Gotta make the prize decent and easy to enter for,

I'm Back~ 
 
Checked out the website, and WOW!  there are a lot of products. 
 
First, a quick note as you are new here and I don't want you to get the wrong inpression.  When a person posts a question, request or something like a label asking for feedback, we all (or at least 99.9%  of us) will post our sincere thoughts for "whatever" with the honest intention to help the person asking the question.
 
With that said, my first impression of the website after reading your initial request is-
 
 
wow, there's a lot of product! 
 
The products are fairly diverse, from olive oil, to vinegars, hummus, sauces of all flavors, peanut butter (???),...so what kind of website is it?  While it does have a fair amount of spicy products, there's a lot of other stuff that I wouldn't think would sell well on the internet, like 10 flavors of all natural peanut butter, and a brand of olive oil I can get at my local Po-Dunk grocery store.  Peanut butter and oils have a shelf life and they will get rancid if not moved/consumed in a timely manner.  Personally, I wouldn't buy an olive oil or peanut butter from a website like this that doesn't specialize in olive oils or peanut butter.
 
My suggestion would be to choose what kind of webstore you want to be.  It doesn't sound like you are in a position to push out to be a full on gourmet foods store.  If you want to focus on spicy foods, there is always room for that and you do have some good names in inventory.  Plenty more awesome sauce makers out there to bring on board when you are ready. 
 
If you want to go with an all spicy website, run a clearance sale an everything you will not be restocking and blow them out!  Get a bit of quick cash, keep the biz running. 
 
Another note or suggestion is to have the hot sauces Sort-able by heat levels.  Not a big deal, but if the website gets some work, that's a good feature to have as a lot of sauce buyers search by Heat Level. 
 
One more thing---( sorry, I just went and looked at the site again...   )  As you are the new owner and just getting things worked out, if there is a product that you will not be stocking again, remove it from the website.  If the item will be stocked again, maybe say "On Order, available XX/XX/XXXX"  Out Of Stock is not good to see.
 
Good Luck!  and when you are in the market for another extreme heat product, give me a holler and we can talk about wholesale for Pure Evil 1.5mil and 9.6mil SHU. 
 
 
 
These are first impressions from me and please, take them or leave them as you see fit.  You probably are aware of and are working on a number of these things already.  It's just one opinion, and we all know about opinions....   
 
Best of Luck! 
Keep us posted~
 
salsalady

 
 
This....

 

[stace]

@salsalady - thank you!  your honesty is more than welcomed and i can't thank you enough for taking the time to write this all down!  i hear everything you are saying and i do agree.

i know that there is wayyyyy toooooo much product and wayyyy tooooooo many categories.  (and if you can believe it, there was even more inventory that we turned down when buying it.) 

i will be more than happy when/if the day comes and i can contact you about having your brand on sauceworld.

@idiot piquant - your thoughts are what keep me up at nite.  there is inventory with best buy dates coming up and i am a constant knot of stress over it.  my husband and i did all the work and research on the business model before. it was previously mainly being sold on amazon and ebay....amazon was mostly at a loss.  there was traffic coming to the website and i thought i'd be able to grow that, it's just been a lot harder than i realized.
 
i am more than happy to do a fire sale to dump product but my biggest issue is i am not getting traffic to the site, so even if i were to lower prices on items to get rid of inventory i don't want to carry, i can't do it so easily.  i've done some FB advertising but they have all these new rules now...i'll have to figure that out. money is so tight, i am barely getting by, so i don't have the financial resources to spend too much on it, at the moment.  i am very open to paying for advertising/marketing.

@luckydog - believe me, it is killing me that i can't bring in all the new lines that i want to.  i am turning people down regularly because i just can't bring more onboard at the moment.

@the hot pepper - i am thrilled to be carrying intensity academy and elijah's xtreme.  they both approached me and i told them i can't do it, but they both stepped up and offered to work with me and help promote me as a place to go to buy their product and i've pushed them as well.
 
so my overall vision is cut out a lot of the product that doesn't make sense and doesn't sell.  and to, most importantly to me, to work closely with several of the craft names, once i am able to.  i want to be able to have a partnership of sorts where we work together to grow the brand name.

(sorry if i missed any questions or advice, this is all a lot to absorb and i will go back a read all comments again but i am really humbled that everyone is taking the time to give me their thoughts, it means the world to me and i want nothing more than to make this business succeed, so i can help small business owners like myself.)
 
stace

 

[The Hot Pepper]

@the hot pepper - i am thrilled to be carrying intensity academy and elijah's xtreme.  they both approached me and i told them i can't do it, but they both stepped up and offered to work with me and help promote me as a place to go to buy their product and i've pushed them as well.

Cool!! Good sauces and good peeps.

 

[stace]

@the hot pepper, couldn't agree with you more! 

 

[Hot Mama Bearz]

If you have a, "fire sale" I can never turn down a good bargain.  Stuff is good a bit past expiration.  Let me know...

 

[salsalady]

A couple FB groups to check out-
Fire Talkers
Chileheads
Chileheads Part 2
Hot Sauce
Peppers and more
Hot Sauce Collecting
 
 
There are a LOT of small sauce companies, chileheads, bloggers, etc in those groups.  Take your time, get to know the groups as they do have different focuses.  If they get to know you and your site, word will start to spread. 
 
Also, if you do have a Fire Sale, those groups will probably bring you quite a few customers.
 
Good Luck!

 

[Lucky Dog Hot Sauce]

Would suggest an addition to SL's suggestion:

Don't go in gangbusters with a sale. I'd suggest posting an introduction 1st.

There are groups with 90-10 vendors and groups with 90-10 chile heads.

In the latter, some of the chileheads will rally against vendors they perceive as spammers. I've seen it several times.

So an introductory post & maybe a couple of social contributions can go a long way towards assimilating prior to posting about a sale.

My $.02 on the social media stuff - always best to be social first. People love to grab the torches and storm the castle.

 

[stace]

thanks again.
 
i am on a few of these FB pages and i've been leery about posting for the main reason you say, @lucky dog.  last thing i want to do is taint the website's reputation as a spammer but i will go on and just comment and chat a bit and feel it out.
 
i will definitely keep everyone posted if/when i drop prices.
 
stacey