Starting an Online Business All-in-One For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Bringing In the Pros

Most online business owners are used to taking risks and calling the shots — alone. That's why the hardest part of being a netrepreneur is realizing that you don't have all the answers. The second most difficult part is to understand when to turn for help, when you finally admit that you need it!

If you're unsure whether your site warrants outside help, trust us: Ailing businesses leave plenty of clues to that answer. If any of the following problems sounds familiar to you, you might need some outside help:

• Declining sales: A steady drop in online orders is a sure sign that something is wrong. It doesn't matter how many products or services you offer — if overall sales decrease month after month, you're losing precious dollars.

  A sharp and immediate decline in online orders is treated differently from sales that drop steadily over a long period. If you suddenly lose a disproportionate number of sales, first check out these issues before you start panicking:

  • Your site lost its search engine rankings.
  • Your site or server is temporarily down.
  • You had a security breach.
• Stagnant sales: If your online orders aren't growing as your business matures, you have a problem. You might see an occasional spike in sales on a new product or from new customers. Stagnant sales mean that you're losing loyal customers, however, which means that you're either not attracting new visitors to the site or not adding enough products to account for attrition. No matter the reason, ...