This morning I was speaking to one of the Reps that passes by me, to sell hardware for my kitchen business. I have been redesigning my website, reworking my marketing strategies and so much more because the work is drying up.

I found out that I am not alone, going through the worst November ever, I found that most of her clients are getting a hiding in the market place, nobody is getting a flood of leads, there are less than 5 companies booked up till the end of year shut down, she says and they are all small companies where one kitchen means booked for about 6 weeks,

Most of her clients are diversifying, taking on all the shitty small jobs that they would have passed on a year ago. So I now know that there is way more competition than there are jobs. I was getting really depressed thinking I was doing something wrong only to find out that it’s an industry wide problem.

I know that there is still decent work out there because some people have some. I need to get more local traffic to my site and preferably local traffic that will convert. My site has shown a decrease in traffic from last year at the same time, My leads have dropped off from 10 to 2 a week and those leads are to put it bluntly almost not worth pursuing.

If I didn’t need money I would just not take on the work being offered.

I have a few choices, try and up my niche to more wealthy clientelle, reduce prices or try something else.

I know what the reasons are for the reduction in interest, Interest rates have gone sky high, People with mortgages are paying up to 20% more than they were a year ago, We have elections looming so politicians are trying to out-fuckwit each other and this is never good for business.

I have a few choices, try and up my niche to more wealthy clientelle, reduce prices, or try something else.

I was thinking of adding a prize draw to my website for clients that have placed an order, but am wondering if that extra cost wouldn’t best be swallowed by offering a decent discount instead.

I know most of you reading this will have no understanding of local conditions in South Africa, but factually people are shopping around hard, even the small jobs like replacing counter tops are getting harder to quote for because the prospects are getting 5 quotes and more, talk about turning over every cent.

Has anyone got any suggestions or ideas on how to get more local traffic, My SEO is pretty good, but I am seeing less traffic non the less.