Whew we made it through! The first quarter of 2023 was rough. Or should I say slow. The holidays ended and it felt like orders came to a halt.
If you are also a small business owner, or maybe trying to get a business up and going, you aren’t alone in the struggle! I wanted to be transparent with how the first quarter went because we know how isolating being a small business owner can be, especially when your business is struggling. It is such a weight to carry.
Since Iviana & Co. is our income, Chris and I dove into researching why business was so slow. We talked to many people. From small business owners to employees of large corporations. One thing we heard across the board was that business had slowed down.
We’ve been seeing the federal central bank raising interest rates for a while now. The whole point was to cool off the economy. While I’m no economic expert, what they’ve done seems to be working. And we won’t forget the whole reason they needed to raise the rates in the first place. Inflation. We know that since everyone is spending more on necessities, the discretionary money pool has been drained.
We also have seen business slow down on the third party website we sell most of our jewelry on. We know some of the current economic factors are certainly playing a role.
So what do you do as a small business, with five kiddos to support and a struggling economy?
Since we know our market is a bit volatile, we always have savings. Chris has a couple side hustles that have helped cushion the blow of a slow first quarter. We also keep our monthly expenses as low as we can, so when we need to tighten up the budget, we can.
We’ve made some pivots in the business, evaluated expenses and really honed in on what is selling well and expanded those product lines.
Perhaps the most important thing we’ve done is pray & pay our tithing. We have a firm testimony that what we have been blessed with on this earth is a gift from God. We give back to him and we are even more abundantly blessed. He opens up opportunity and provides.
The good news is, for now, we are seeing an increase in orders and business has been picking up again. We are praying that continues! As well as doing what we can to improve our business.
Hopefully we can all ride this wave of a bumpy economy. I know it’s not easy!
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