Another impediment to growth is insufficient sales.  If your small business is not growing due to insufficient sales it could be due to a number of factors such as:

- inadequate marketing,              
- poorly priced products or services
- not enough products or services being offered
- store hours not convenient for your customers
- Not assessing what items are selling and which ones are not
- Not status conscious
- Not enough leads

Inadequate Marketing:

Marketing is a key component to growing any business.  If your business is not growing you should examine what you’re doing to market your business.  Questions you should ask your self includes:

                - Is the marketing budget adequate
                - Is the right demographics being targeted
                - Is the best and most effective marketing tools being used
               

Visit the SBZ Marketing page to learn about all the different marketing tools available to you.

Poorly Priced Products or Services:

Poorly priced products or services can dissuade customers from buying.  If your products or services are priced too high you will convince your customers to go elsewhere.  If they are priced too low you won’t make a profit and hence won’t be able to grow your business.  Visit the Product Pricing page to learn how you should price your product.

Not Enough Products or Services Being Offered:

Do you have enough products on the shelves or offer enough services to give your customers some decent choices.  Consumers prefer to go where they have choices.  A limited number of products or bare shelves is not a sign of a healthy company that is prepared to serve it’s customers.  Consumers are governed by social and psychological needs.  If they don’t feel that you are catering to them they will not buy your products or services and will go where they feel that they are being catered to. 

Are you carrying a variety of branded products.  Consumers have a likeness for specific brands.  It is a major reason why they’re willing to pay a little more for one product over another. 

Consider diversification to bring new brands , products and services to your customers.  Diversification is the introduction of new, related products or services to the existing lineup.  It also means finding new markets for existing roducts and introducing new products into new markets.

Are your store hours convenient for your customers:

If you’re running a retail outlet Having good store hours is key to reaching as many customers as possible.  An online store don’t have this problem because it is available 24/7.  Your store hours should be targeted to the time when your customers are most likely to be available to shop.  It should not be convenient for you and inconvenient for your customers.  Do some local research to find out what the ideal time should be.  Ask your customers, they will tell you.

Are you assessing what items are selling and which ones are not:

If you want to maximize your sales you have to know what’s selling and what’s not.  Sell more of what your customers want and be on the road to profits.  You have to accept that some things will not sell.  Products can be seasonal and only sell at certain times of the year, while other products can sell year-round.  If you do your monitoring you can identify what is not selling and rework your inventory to stock what sells and minimize holding products that will not sell or sell in low volume.

Are you status conscious:

Catering to the status conscious consumer is another factor to making a sale.  This is especially true if you’re selling clothes, accessories, jewelry, cars, etc.  Some people are very particular about what they wear or seen with.  They deem their choices as an indication of their social status.  If this is your target audience they will not settle for less than the best and they will be willing to pay a little more to get it.  But, you still have to convince them to buy it from you.