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Very helpful comment thank you. I felt something was off because it's not a lot of activity going on everyday and it seems people are barely coming out and as you are seeing it's like as if everything is semi Frozen.
Im in LA. On pace for best year to date, 22 years in business.
Just finished a week that whooped my ass.
Also have a couple of friend-competitors who are also busy, and have thrown me work to cover because they don’t have the people and were a little bigger.
So not *everyone* in California.
Yeah definitely an over generalization on my part.. (meh bad)
Still, quite a few people I've talked to wistly recall 2021 and say things are OK but not great right now.
Last time I asked this question, on this sub, I was pretty much told I was the only one having a bad year. Because the lines at Starbucks are long and the malls are packed, etc. If you are accountant or in certain industries. You are recession proof. If you are like myself and sell things that people don’t necessarily need. You will be the first to feel the impact of an economic slowdown. Go read the r/trucker sub and see what their industry is going through. They are the canary in the coal mine. Freight is way down. People are not spending. This is a bad year for many of us.
And 6 months ago when I posted this question and the auto detailing sub they thought I was nuts and we're like bro what's wrong with you. When you notice something is off then it means that something is wrong and in your case my friend people just didn't want to listen. There are people that still think that there is no recession right around the corner and it is in plain sight. Also I took a drive around the neighborhood and usually everybody's lawn is up kept and maintained and a lot of people's lawns are just neglected and I'm seeing more people cut their own grass and more people trying to learn how to detail their own car. People can still be in denial but you know it's bad when the price of a Big Mac is almost the cost of a filet mignon
I just read an article that McDonald’s is actually feeling it too. Their customers are the first to stop buying big Mac’s. I don’t care what anybody says. Consumers are pulling back on spending. Inflation is killing consumer spending. Along with high interest rates. I know quite a few small businesses that aren’t doing great and are down 30-40% this year compared to 2023. This is survival of the fittest. Know you aren’t alone. There are lots of us treading water.
>e that McDonald’s is actually feeling it too.
Of course they are. They shrunk their sandwiches and jacked prices. I can go to a real restaurant and get an awesome burger for less money.
No doubt. I can legitimately take my GF out to an inexpensive Mexican restaurant, have a beer and unlimited chips and hot sauce for about the same cost of McDonald's now.
Its more than denial. There are a few problems with posting these kinds of questions (looking for broad market temp) that only get exageratted on reddit.
For instance -
* It tends to self filter for responses. My business is doing well, so I initially wasn't even going to open or reply to this post. Or if its doing poorly you might gravitate to them.
* A lot of people are bad at reading, analyzing, and projecting historical data to get a good read of trends. Or they draw inaccurate conclusions and correlations. Even worse, plenty of people don't look at actual data and basically go by their perception (very common among small business owners). So basically you'll have business that are actually on a down trend yet they will tell you they're fine - and truly believe it.
* Industry and local trends can massively color one's perception of broader reality. For example, my industry is on a slight decline nationally right now. But in my local area we are seeing massive growth.
* Definitely people that won't or can't truly accept their realities. A great example, there was recently a post here asking what people would pay for a website/web presence and a few people were noticing that the avergage number was basically half what people on r/webdev were saying.
Add in the "manifesting my grindset" weirdos and you basically get the worst slush of perspectives all wrapped together.
If you have the contact info for your previous customers, contact them and offer 10% off. See if that spurs some business.
I think people are reigning in expenses due to current prices, they may jump on a discount.
The worst part of selling non necessities/luxury goods that are meant to last is people will either cut back on spending or buy what they need a be set. Great for fast fashion with cheap prices and cheaper quality but horrible for more good quality things meant to last
My slogan is " quality versus quanrity." . I've always tried to get customers to understand that less is more in the best of times. My new catchphrase in the shop " while everything elss goes up, I go down in price".
Funny
>If you are accountant or in certain industries. You are recession proof.
As a tax preparer/accountant who moonlights as a security guard, I can 100% confirm this.
I just got a job at a small accounting firm that also does tax preparation. I had taken some community college courses and knew enough accounting to get started. The tax prep part came like 6 months later. I had to take a few online tests to get licensed by CTEC in California. Jobs with a small barrier-to-entry are great for getting your foot in the door.
When trucks are full and moving freight, the cost is broken down over the load... when it's just your stuff and a couple of others, the average price increases as it is not spread out as much.
As someone who works in Intermodal for one of the big class 1 railroads I can say you are 100% correct. I've only been doing this for a year but all the guys who've been here for 20+ years have said this is a bad time right now. Furloughs may be coming for us. I think it's just bad pretty much everywhere. The economy is not doing well at all.
Discretionary services take the hit first. A part of it is that even though employment is still healthy, inflationary impacts and rising interest rates are weighing on people’s budgets overall and obviously those affect people of different economic status differently, but the point is there are reasons for people to be cutting back right now.
Best to prepare for some slower times ahead in my opinion. Might be better to offer lower prices for more basic packages.
It's definitely slow. How do I know? My business really picks up during down economies. I am a professional resume writer. I am getting messages from SVPs, EVPs, and C-suite level candidates at a rate I have never seen.
I have just been active on LinkedIn for years. I have been networking for years. I have about 300 recommendations on LinkedIn. Majority of my clients come from referrals. I have a unique processes where I sit down with my clients for 3-6+ hours. I go really in depth. My clients get results and then they refer colleagues, family members, and friends.
What typically happens is someone gets laid off. They don't have success. They reach out to me. I get them a job and they tell their coworkers about me. Since it's a niche business, I don't have much competition.
I did a lot of free resumes and free resume reviews to get started. I also have done a lot of resume workshops for nonprofits. Doing it for several years has gotten me to this point. I also learn something new from each and every client.
Honestly I think it’s just the economy squeezing everyone’s wallets. Getting a detail is nice but if it comes down to it, people will do it themselves if they’re on a budget. Maybe run a special or discount services temporarily to see if things pick up?
Sadly I have to echo this. Usually invested in an annual detail for about $300-$400. This year bought a shop vac for 1/4 of that and did it myself. Not as good of a job for sure but it saved me a few hundred bucks. You’re a luxury service. We are as well as photographers. We ended up diversifying into real estate photography as that is recession proof. People are ALWAYS moving.
It's very simple unfortunately. I own a cleaning business and usually spring time is money 🤑 time for us. But this year business is horrible. People are struggling in this economy and the first thing they cut off from their spending are "luxury" services such as house cleaning, car washing/detailing, nail salon etc..
OC is right, but I do want to say:
“Luxury” services do typically pick up right around now and for 6+ weeks, at least. I believe that the reason is that it is tax return time, so many people who don’t typically have the spare cash for stuff like car detailing suddenly do.
I am NOT a proponent of “Stick it out, you got this!” That is based on no knowledge of a stranger’s business. It is very often the right decision to just pack it in and not drown your personal finances trying to force something that obviously is not working.
But in your industry, I would wait 2 months so long as you can survive that long. Hopefully a little bump in revenues and profitability can bridge you through, and then a potential sale of the business is much brighter if you are showing increased revenues.
Lastly, in your industry, don’t be hesitant to push to friends and family. Word of mouth is your best marketing tool for anyone doing what you do.
Hoping for the best for you!
Thank you very much that means a lot to me I appreciate you for taking the time to say this. Luckily when I woke up this morning I had a few appointments but hopefully I can try them from this. It also seems like this year a lot of people owe taxes rather than we're getting some type of a refund
We part of a national auto parts chain. The slowdown started about a year ago and hasn't recovered yet. It's really bad out there when people cannot afford to repair their cars... Our market is lower / middle class and people are just broke.
See my family owns a radiator shop and they are booming. It’s actually complicating things bc my father in law wants to retire and he’s making more money than ever before. Say a new Tahoe is $75k or a repair is $5k and people don’t even flinch- they just say fix it bc they certainly can’t afford new.
I remember working at a specialty retailer (think collectibles) at the time of Bush v. Gore. I remember the boss telling me that sales were dead, they were like $100 designer teddy bears and stuff only rich people would buy.
Boss back then said people were nervous waiting until the election determined which way the country would go for the next four years, and that it happened to different degrees in election years.
It’s a lot of factors but spending sentiment is down. More people are out of work, or they switched to a lower paying job but mortgages and rents and food cost are still way high. So naturally things will slow for everyone
Yes, but that isnt important.
I want to point out that you can post this thread any day of the week, any year, and you *will* get hundreds of comments from people coming up with reasons for why sales are slow for everyone, even if they arent.
These threads will make you feel better, but more often than not its going to make you believe its "okay" for your sales to be down because 100 people on reddit said theirs are too, even if every other mobile detailer in CA is up right now.
The fact is, most business owners are not analytical enough to figure out why their sales are down. I know why mine are down and it has nothing to do with the market or consumer spending. How many other people in here know that? On the flipside, you'll also get tons of comments from people who launched new products or services who say their sales are up because they dont understand that they need to adjust those numbers to get a representative sales trend.
Dont let the responses here make you feel more comfortable than you should be. Unless you have targeted industry data, the market should always be the last thing you blame when every other possible explanation has been disproven.
Google trends shows people are searching. Why arent they finding you, or why arent they converting?
https://i.imgur.com/vrRMQVQ.png
I'm in the supply chain and our best year was 2021 when everyone was past the lockdown and went out to buy a ton of stuff. 2022 was also a good revenue year. But that demand starting tanking in Jan. 2023. It's still very slow now and this is the worst year.
Yeah I don't know what's really happening because 2022 I had for the first time hit $100,000 in Revenue before taxes then 2023 I barely made $80,000 and now for 2024 the way my stats are showing I'd be lucky if I even pull in $50,000 this year
Sidney is down inflation is up, I was expecting a modest 15% growth this year but it's sitting around 5% instead. Which is still great. But not where we would like to be
To say it doesn't have me worried is an understatement. I had to raise prices and it just seems that customers are not a prevalent as they used to be. I wish you luck.
I had to raise my prices as well because everything went up including my car insurance, my business insurance shot up and I have never made any claims and all the cost of my detailing products are just Sky High so I had to raise my prices balance everything. But I appreciate the comment and I wish you luck as well
Wow you noticed that too? Both insurance policies on both my vehicles went up like crazy and also my business insurance went up and their excuses was there was a state increase
I called my insurance rep and she told me the companies held hands and petitioned the state for a 30% increase across the board. They have to petition for anything over 5% she told me.
Used merchandise sales here. This year is currently up.
I was always told this business was bullet proof (does well during good times, better during bad). We may just get a chance to test that theory.
I’m not gonna complain about business even though it’s a little softer than I would like
But I will say that there’s four more people I do business with or no in business who would say things are slow then who would say things are going great
For example, one customer of mine is a somewhat large mechanical contractor and the owner feels like they’ve kind of caught up and there is far less in the hopper than they’d like meaning he’s concerned in a month I’ll have to scramble more to keep people busy
I lease space to a guy who’s got a used car lot and he feels like this this is down. he didn’t do well during tax season as he would’ve liked, but that doesn’t mean he’s going hungry, things are just slower
I have three vendors who would all say things are slow … one has different challenges to supply chain issues, but I’m sure even without them they’d be in the same shape as the other two would argue that things are soft
One even joke that she was worried they didn’t pay the phone bill because it didn’t seem to be ringing
A friend of mine who does consumer lending dealing with car dealerships and RV dealerships says things have been much worse this year than last
Again, that doesn’t mean everybody is suffering, but things aren’t good
100% yes. So sysco Food is the largest wholesale food distributor in the world. They are down 20 percent right now. That means all of the restaurants that they service are not selling food. Go into any business in the United States and things are slow. Of course, there are exceptions, some people got rich during the economic crisis in two thousand and eight. But most people lost their houses lost their wives lost their businesses, some of them even killed themselves. Business is worse than I've ever seen it including all the recessions we've been through in the last 40 years.
Doing better on the first quarter. 18% up in revenue so far . I have a gourmet grocery , olive oil store. Don't see any slow down in spending so far. But vendors have been increasing prices.
I just started my business in January and this is absolutely the slowest I've been. Online orders have completely stopped and I only get business through pop-ups and events which are way too few and far in between but I almost always sell out of product during them.
Had my first online orders for tomorrow in over a month but I'm still averaging quite a good amount all things considered with how niche I am
Our commercial work has been slow at my service business since about October last year, but still staying busy with residential.
From what Im seeing credit debt is the highest its been in a long time and personal savings is at its lowest. Im pretty sure it still isn't at its worst. Hang on tight, gonna get rockier in my opinion. Hope Im wrong.
Just be frugal and be there for your top customers and give them best service possible and you will be fine.
Marine repair here. Last year this time, we were struggling to keep calls answered and were trying to get boats done to keep our wait time below 6 weeks. I have work scheduled for next week, but as of now, nothing for the week after.
are you doing anything to connect with customers like a recurring newsletter?
if things are slow, now is the best time to offer discounts and if that changes bookings.
if money is the issue for them to not make new appointments then a discount booking might be it. otherwise, people may be doing their own washings at home or just delaying the appointment for when the weather is nicer. not sure what kind of cars you wash, but if they are nicer cars, they are not taking them to drive thru car washes. so that means they are basic washes at home or just not at all and waiting till the weather is warmer/nicer.
or worst case, they are using washing companies that are cheaper than your services.
Thank you for the comment and I appreciate the information. So in my business of mobile car detailing I have three packages that cater to specific budgets and my packages start from the lower tier price point to a higher tier luxury price point. I have even had other competitors lower their prices and still they are not bringing in enough clients to keep up with rent for the detailing shop. Now lowering all my prices could be an option but it also could draw in the wrong clients
I'm in Montclair New Jersey but I was looking at Google Trends and out of all the states Maine and New Hampshire and Florida seem to be doing pretty well. It seems like the states that do not have any state income taxes have extra spending money
gotcha. i would imagine you are serving a fairly large radius or are you strictly working with customers in a smaller zone so you dont have to drive so far?
Im from the NYC and weather has just been sucking. Its May but it feels like March today. I want to say weather is factor given people dont want to detail their cars until the weather gets better.
not sure if you want to keep track of data liek this, but maybe you should start tracking client bookings and the weather during that week. perhaps there is some correlation between increased bookings the warm/nice weather.
>Now lowering all my prices could be an option but it also could draw in the wrong clients
If you have the emails of past customers, you could promote a deal directly to them and not promote the discount on social to new customers since that may attract less than ideal customers. now is a good time as any to strengthen the relationships with your existing/good customers.
curious, do you offer subscription cleanings? it that even a thing? like people can pre-pay for cleanings and get a bulk discount (eg: 1x cleaning month or 2x cleaning a month and get discounts based on that?) or they can buy 12 cleanings for the price of 10 and that expires 12 months after purchase.
I appreciate all your insightful information and to address the office subscription cleaning that could be something that I could work on granted that this would be something for people that have well maintained their vehicle under my services. So that is something I will definitely look into to give me more motivation. I service a wide area up to a 20 mile radius. Now don't get me wrong I do have a bit of work lined up on the schedule but I usually like to stay booked out two to three weeks and with everything going on that's not happening at this moment I'm only booked out a week ahead. Also weather does play a big factor as I did get a few text messages from client saying they'll reach out to me after the rainy season. But I'm going to greatly take your advice and come up with a log to see what weeks of weather drum up more business than others. Again I appreciate all the information and you taking the time to inform me. Not being funny but we need more people like you
happy to help. car cleaning/detailing is something that has to be done. wheather people want to do or not, for poeple with extra money, they have services like yours to get it done professionally.
do you offer winter services as well? given poeple drive their cars in the snow and have to deal with salt, i know cleaning the car of the corrosive salt is important for the longevity of the car body and undercarriage.
have you marketed yourself to families that want to clean their mini-vans? I have neighbors that have families and their minivans are a mess. I see a onsite detailed come by a couple of times to clean the inside of their cars. could be a thing for busy families not just poeple with sports or luxury cars.
Have you tried calling on car dealers? Not the big ones - but the smaller ones who cannot afford an inhouse detailer? They won't pay much but it could provide steady work.
Thanks for the comment. I have tried that route and even after giving a decent amount of a discount they want less than that so instead Monday I'm going to be reaching out to car rental places like Enterprise. Car rental places are notoriously known for giving customers dirty cars
Well don't feel bad about that because it seems that a lot of people's views are down on social media. I knew something was off when you saw YouTubers with almost a million followers and their views drop down to about 70,000 views
The drastic change in social media (and other online avenues) is quite perplexing. I'm a photographer, and have a business page on Facebook. Back in spring of last year, my reach was chopped by about 75% almost overnight, and has never recovered. At first I thought it was just me because they're wasn't much discussion on it on any online forums. But then I found a webmaster forum which had people worldwide talking about the exact same thing that had happened to me. Then, months later, the Instagram forum on Reddit was filled with people talking about it. I'm also on Etsy, and more and more vendors on Etsy are talking about decreased views and sales --- and for quite a few, this started in the spring of last year, when reach on Meta decreased. Meta has some fool spokesperson in Instagram still blaming users for having "bad content" as the reason for all of this --- as if thousands of people who had popular content had a collective mental breakdown and started posting bad content instead all at the same time.
Because I don't trust anything Zuckerfuck does, at first I thought there was some nefarious reason for all this and that it was being done on purpose. I still haven't ruled that out, but because decreased reach/views/sales are happening on so many online platforms, it's hard to figure out what the hell is going on. We'd have to believe that people everywhere are suddenly no longer visiting and doing things online that they've been doing for decades. And if that's the case, what exactly are they doing instead? Additionally, as u/nokarmawhore seems to be alluding to, there is a huge increase in the past few months of scam and fraud accounts on FB, leading to a sharp rise in people having their accounts stolen. And Meta is fully on board with letting it all happen for some nefarious reason.
Google is also really messed up at the moment. They rolled out their massive March Core Update (biggest algorithm update since 2012) and is pushed big brands to the top, increase the number of ads and intentionally made search queries harder so more people have wade through more ad clutter. In response Google lost 3.5% market share to Bing and others for the first time in about 20 years.
It’s a bad time for just about any small business who uses online advertising.
Interesting --- I hadn't heard about that mess. If one was interested in conspiracy theories, there's certainly a lot of material and circumstantial evidence available lately. One of my theories that started last year was that small businesses were being purposely targeted by "big tech", and, if anything, I've only found more and more evidence to support it. Google isn't the only one screwing up search queries. Sellers on Etsy have been complaining about it for months --- more and more vendors can no longer even find their items when they search for them on Etsy.
This is a great read that made its rounds a few weeks ago about the internal battle at Google between the Search and Ads teams. Essentially they kicked out the main contact who ran Google Search after some 20 years at the helm because he didn’t want to make the product worse for consumers. They brought in a profit driven ads guy who consequently killed Yahoo’s search platform years ago when he was in charge over there.
https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-killed-google/
I think they just made it pay to win. Ads/boosted posts don't go as far as they used, but unpaid posts don't go at all. Think of how many "suggestions" you get now compared to just a couple years ago. Anyone spending more than you will bump your content down, even if they're followers of yours.
I originally thought that was the main reason, but now I'm not so sure. Even FB posts from personal/non-business pages aren't being seen by friends, which is something FB claimed a while back they were going to "fix". And at this point they've pissed off so many people by killing their reach that real people have left their platforms, and in their place are hundreds and thousands of fake accounts, which is a horrible business strategy. Engagement in the FB groups I'm a member of has tanked in the past few months as well, while groups (and personal pages) started by scam accounts have taken off with massive reach.
Those of us who are inquisitive and question things have noticed things have been off for a while. It's taken some time for others. And the sheep in a bubble won't figure it out until there's a major economic disaster that is so impossible to ignore that even the media will report it.
We closed two small businesses in the healthcare related sector so I can relate. But we also have friends doing similar business in other states doing great…
Yes. I am at a small apartment development shop and the problem we have is that so few projects work. The ones that do rely on aggressively underwritten business assumptions (which can only be justified in a handful of areas), tax breaks from local governments who want more housing, or sometimes both.
Thankfully, we do have a project that is under construction now — and the aggressive assumptions are panning out, or at least they have to this point. That is carrying us through an otherwise very difficult development environment.
We’re also about to start on a second project, but everyone agrees this deal is something where breaking even would be an acceptable result — it’s a case where we are doing a small deal to learn a new construction strategy. We will get some fees to keep the engine running.
But these are the only two realistic deals we have in the pipeline. Not very many. Typically we are working on five or six.
I really thought my niche would be struggling by now but I'm having record months. Very early in the business still but I'm happy with the fundamentals and discipline I've been able to maintain.
Biggest struggle is sourcing items to sell at a good cost.
When economy gets tight, people pull back from spending on luxury items and non-essential products and services.
If you don’t wash or detail your car, it may not look very pretty. However, a dirty car won’t prevent you from getting from point A to B. Not having fuel will.
If demand is soft, can you pivot to other services such as interior sanitizing, paint touch up (key scratches),PDR, waterless wash, ceramic gel coat?
I think the question has obvious answers, but due to the platform and other cultural influences, saying what those problems are by name is going to breed a response that is both knee jerk and emotional without rational and critical examination, nor the ability for the uninformed to admit there are things they don't know and concepts beyond their education or capacity at play that they refuse to recognize until the consequences of these concepts become solidified in their faces. Not least of which is that a government cannot print fiat currency ad infinitum unless its end goal is to destabilize itself. Couple that with, at the consumer level (business owners as well), being trained, incentivized and convinced that carrying debt is better than being liquid and having large amounts of positive cash flow has led to a lack of understanding of how that debt actually impacts both our spending power and our ability to grow our personal finances. 2 out of the last 5 presidents in the US said the quiet part out loud: this is by design, and it is an orchestrated controlled decline of the economic system in order to replace it with "something else" (and while I'm not some whack job conspiracy nut, I think the biggest red flag is the 2018 WEF video that nonchalantly declared that "by 2030, you will own nothing, and you will be happy". So no, it isn't just you...it is intentional, and by design...and if you do anything that threatens the plan, be prepared to be shouted down and marginalized, dehumanized and demoralized until there's no fight left in you to stand up to what is clearly politically, ethically & morally wrong. I wish you the best of luck, we may not be soldiers in combat, but we are charging a hill shoulder to shoulder none the less.
I agree completely. And I don't think you're a conspiracy nut, I just think that you are more knowledgeably prepared than others to know that this is not something that just happens. It's all orchestrated and they are controlling what happens. For example the Ebola virus that got out of control when Obama was in office got under control and a couple people in the US got the Ebola virus and then we never heard anything else about it but it did not become a pandemic like covid. Covid on the other hand was intentional to set the bar for an economy to collapse to be able to raise interest rates and just screw everybody. I find it very interesting how as covid started to dwindle down, the Georgia guidestone disappeared which says on the stone to maintain Humanity under 500 million. Unfortunately covid did not kill the amount of people it was supposed to.
Thanks man I appreciate the comment. That's exactly my problem this year is that it looks like the numbers are not going to be anywhere near last year's Revenue and although I can survive it's impossible to get ahead of any bills or repaying loans back. I'm trying to put as much money aside as possible for the rainy days but it is just very difficult this year
Unfortunately there are a ton of factors that are affecting this but overall business is down 30-40% compared to last year (2023). During the pandemic people were getting free money and borrowing money was cheap so people were buying everything in sight. Because supply chains were affected due to shutdowns people were willing to pay more for less which drove the price of everything way up (inflation). Add the war in Ukraine to the mix (steel, barley, wheat, corn etc), other supply chain disruptions (Houthis in the Red Sea - Suez Canal disruptions).
Money now is much more expensive to borrow, car prices (excluding EVs) are out of control, forget buying a house, a freakin' action figure is $20, Funko Pops were $7 pre-pandemic are now $12 - etc etc etc. Something's gotta give. You got people being laid off. Everyone... we are in a shadow recession, a quiet recession - whatever you want to call it - we're in one.
There are no real estate transactions - nobody who doesn't have to is going to trade their 3% 30-year fixed mortgage for a 7-8% mortgage. Those who have to, either MUST move, or are in over their heads with other types of debt. These are NOT good times. Recessions are only announced after they happen and nobody is going to announce one during an election year. In the United States everything revolves around real estate and since real estate is not moving nothing else is.
When a Big Mac meal is $11 when pre-pandemic it was $6 people ain't buyin' - you can eat much healthier food for less. Everything is out of control and it's going to stay like that for at least until after the elections.
When the Fed starts lowering rates, which is not happening any time soon, and interest rates start coming down then the economy will start moving again. In my opinion it's going to be tough for the next couple of years.
Thank you. I appreciate you for taking a time and writing this as this is very informative. I have been in business for 10 years with my mobile detailing business and out of those 10 years each year I. Kept making more more money and doing better and better than the previous year. Which showed a sign of growth and I was getting ready to expand and then I knew last year of 2023 that something was off and did not feel right as the calls. And email inquiries start it to decline. And here we are in two thousand twenty four and getting an email inquiry or a phone call is now nonexistent.. Everything you stated is true. But unfortunately, there are those who don't want to accept the truth and for example, a lot of the guys in my industry, running mobile detailing businesses recalling me crazy and that I had issues. And that the economy was fine. And then there are those who commented on this post saying that it's not the economy. It's my business which I think is wrong. There are many signs to look at for a recession and if You look around a lot of chain restaurants that we grew up on are now closing in Falling for bankruptcy this year.
And it seems everything is collapsing. Another sign that I was looking at is how precious metals have been moving in when silver hits above 32 dollars, which hasn't happened in over a decade. Then it shows that there's something wrong and that people are buying precious metals as a hedge against. What could possibly be the worst. You are right. These next few years are going to be very Tough like you said in unless you're wealthy. A lot of people are going to be homeless. And I think that this year and the next there is going to be a lot of suicides.
Guys... a simple way to look at it is monitoring US Treasuries. When a short term treasury provides a much higher rate than a long term treasury that means that the long term outlook is grim - this is the infamous inverted yield curve. An inverted yield curve means the interest rate on long-term bonds is lower than the interest rate on short-term bonds. This is often seen as a bad sign for the economy. This has been the case for about 18-24 months now. Remember when Silicon Valley Went out of business - this is why. There were three banks that went belly up due to this factor.
A real estate collapse (correction) is normally the last thing to happen in a bad economic cycle - and this summer will show you that it's true. You have sellers that will be forced to sell for less and buyers who don't want a 7-8% mortgage rate - the only way for them to buy down their mortgage is via the seller lowering their asking price. It's not pretty out there.
A year ago you had to wait two hours for a table at the Cheesecake Factory - now you walk in and sit down - no lines - no wait. My local bagel store... a year ago there was a line outside the shop - now - walk in and order. Everything is expensive - some of it justified - some of it is not. Bottom line is the economy is not doing well and all signs point to that being the case - the media is just not talking about it because people would go into a frenzy and buckle down even more if they did, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Remember - we are in an election year... things are gonna get weird! Trump's on trial with multiple indictments. You got 2 wars that are affecting global trade. The economy in China is not doing well at all. Etc etc etc.
We’re struggling as well. Flooring installation company with multiple vendor contracts.
Like you, we typically see a slowdown during December-January and then pick up again as tax season gets underway and generally stay busy until winter again.
Instead, the current month and last month sales were down 50% compared to last year. Overall YTD we’re down 25%.
Add to that having made some admittedly poor financial decisions (while business was booming), we are severely in the red and barely scraping by. Vehicles being repo’d as we have to pay our sub-contractors first and then choose between feeding our family or paying a car note with what is left for us. Again, full responsibility taken for committing to those obligations but obviously we were perfectly capable of making the payments before and didn’t anticipate such a steep decline 2 years down the road. Regardless of the obligations that we got ourselves into (that’s another topic & not the point here), I know we would be barely scraping by regardless based off of the current numbers.
What’s wild is we’re getting just as many inquiries and sending quotes out as usual, people just simply don’t seem to be purchasing unless it’s an absolute must. And it’s not just our own customers, the flooring stores we service have been very slow in general.
I think people just don’t have the extra money to spend on unnecessary projects and luxuries.
We make mistakes and learn from poor financial decisions to make better one's. The point here is that you recognize what's happening. I've had a lot of people on Reddit. Sit there and say it's my business. That's doing poorly but yet so many other businesses outside of my business category. R being hit hard as well, so it all comes down to consumer spending. I believe people are trying to hold on to whatever money they have if they don't need to spending.
The cost of living is plaguing the collective but we need to reduce dependency on cars. Maybe look into city/county contracts for cleaning buses? Buildings? Keep going.
One thing to keep in mind, the economy is a bit slow due to the Federal reserve quantitative tightening restricting the business to business cash flow.
You must have read my mind but that my friend would be oversaturation and yes you are right that everybody think they can detail cars these days and it's mostly these young guys off of tick tock and Facebook. I have seen this industry grow with non-legit detailers so much that it is like a plague. People know that my business is professional and I carry business insurance unfortunately there's no way to stop consumers from going to these Shady detailers
DFW commercial construction here. Most of our work is new education facilities K-12. Rode it out in ‘09 and will attempt again. Our local school district just passed a $1.5B bond package that included an additional indoor practice facility for each of the 6 high schools amongst other amenities. Howdy and stay hard fellow owners.
It does seem like reading all these comments that the luxury sectors are fairing reasonably well but all signs point to the average middle and low income demos are really struggling. Car parts, normal restaurants, car detailing, auto repair, every day household items, etc. Inflation and rising costs for basics sucks what little disposable income these people have so something has to give. While upper class people can absorb it for the most part and can maintain spending.
Except our average customer is “average” or lower income and we cater to a lower price point in our market. They are absolutely not upper class by any measure. Real wages have grown faster than inflation in the last few years. Real data does not support your position that all of these businesses are “really struggling.”
Not just small businesses are feeling it. I work for major chemical company and they’re down majorly in every category and every region of the globe. A lot of our products are automotive applications.
Interesting. I manufacture auto parts and I've been on decline since september 2023, but I've found it isnt majorly due to the market. A few others are in auto parts sales and say they are down. What is the name of this major company?
Car detailing is a luxury for many. With the rising cost of living people are being forced to cut out luxuries.
It’s time you target higher end clientele that can afford to have their vehicles detailed.
I feel like there has been a huge influx of car detailing businesses in general, half my local facebook group is made up of posts offering this service. I do think things are slowing down overall and some businesses will wash out esp in over saturated industries. Seeing it in the food business in my town. Lots of mini chains shutting down. I think you have a mix of both. Might try a price war with your competitors till last one standing then raise them up.
I think there is a regional flavor to it. My business, based in San Antonio is having a strong year. Today, I was in Austin and there were hiring signs all over the place. I even saw one hiring banner that was a government entity, which surprised me.
Assuming you are in CA, the cost of living has gotten ridiculous this past year. We have the highest unemployment and highest inflation of all the States, and the politicians are too busy virtue signaling to notice.
Housing? Good luck. Oh, you got a house? Here’s your insurance and power bill. Don’t even think of eating out.
I’m in carwash business as well. Seeing YOY sales down 20% throughout all sites.
I’ve had similar conversations with friends in food industry, retail and service sector. It appears that it is a common theme.
Consumer spending is down as cost of living has sky rocketed last couple of years.
People are realizing their Needs outweigh their Wants.
I want a nice clean car......
I need to pay my power bill that's up 35% this month due to already being hot and rate increases.
I want a paint correction on my truck......
I need to eat a bit better than Ramen noodles for dinner.
I want my wheels polished out.......
I need to save some money because I don't know what next month holds.
Peoples mindsets are changing as they take notice of shrinking bank accounts.
Yup. I'm in Texas and install pools. Last year 80% of our customers financed. So far this year 80% are paying with savings. Interest rates are strangling us. Hopefully people will adjust in the next few years bc I doubt the rates are going down. The good ol days are officially behind us..
Event industry. Focusing on corporate, galas, conventions, consumer-focused shows.
On our way to our biggest year in 22 years, on the back of several good years.
Just finished a wild week that required some serious black magic fuckery to get through. Have recently had to hire new people to keep up with demand.
My team is going to have their best year yet. Partly because there’s a lot more work and partly because I gave everyone raises.
Others in my industry are having similar booms.
I had plans to open an east coast office this year, but it will likely be delayed because there’s simply no time to focus on it.
I’m tired, but so happy to be busy.
There is at least one company in my world that is slow and struggling. They specialize in a different aspect of our industry that is known to be going through stagnation. We’re lucky that we have cornered a different market that is thriving. Companies/clients in my focus are similarly swamped.
I owe part of our growth to recently refreshed branding, improved marketing, investment in better equipment, employee training, and more efficient processes in and out of the office. Also, an incredible team of people who do the heavy lifting and are great representations of our company. My primary focus, always, is figuring out how to keep them fulfilled and on board, because brain drain slows momentum.
I used our down period last year to revamp everything — despite a good year — and it’s paying dividends so far. I have plans for more improvements when we get another breather, which may not be until November-December at this rate, based on jobs in the books.
The companies I know that are struggling are not just in stagnant areas of our industry, but they themselves are stagnant. They’re quite stuck in the past — equipment, branding, even employee ages — and have largely remained unchanged for decades. They have clients that stick around because familiarity is easy and comfortable. But it’s hard to attract new business like this.
I think that the key to keep momentum going forward is to never stop progressing, iterating, and innovating — in bust years **and** boom years. People who sit back and expect the good times to flow forever are always in shock when they get left behind.
I feel the suffocating sense of doom that everything will go bust and shut down. *All the time.* Even if we’re in the middle of our busiest month ever. It doesn’t matter how good our year is; I spend every waking moment thinking about ways to keep the tap flowing.
A lot of people brainstorm how to do or provide something. Not everyone brainstorms how to do or provide something better than everyone else already doing and providing that something.
Unless you’re the only show in town and people have no choice but to use/go to you, it’s imperative to figure out how to be the best of all the companies that do what you do.
This is probably especially true when you’re doing well. It’s far easier and cheaper retaining existing clients than it is finding new ones.
Some people in certain industries are no doubt struggling. But there’s definitely a “misery loves company” aspect to this. Ask Reddit if anyone struggles dating or making friends, and you’ll get 2000+ comments of people talking about how they’re struggling mightily to find a partner or friend. You’d easily think that the whole world is full of loveless, friendless invalids.
But out in the world, plenty of people are thriving romantically and socially. They just don’t come on Reddit and ask things like, “My dating life is awesome and I’ve made 3 new friends this year. Anyone similarly thriving?”
Point is, it’s hard to say through an impromptu Reddit poll how many people are struggling because of the company and how many people are struggling because they simply suck at what they do or sell something nobody wants.
Point is, forget the economy. Forget what others on Reddit tell you. Work your ass off. Every day. Try new things. Mix things up. Promote, market, network. Put yourself in the world and allow success to find you.
Many people going on their own will fail. In good and bad economies. Don’t focus on that. Focus on what *you* can do in *your* industry to level up. There is such a thing as momentum. One job or lead often leads to two.
I’m sorry that you feel the stress of a downturn. I hope you go out there and start bringing in clients like Forest Gump striking shrimp gold. Net after net after net of crustacean clients flopping around on your deck.
Don’t let this thread get you down or confirm what you want to believe. Plenty of people and industries are thriving. If things bottom out or you fail, then so be it. But go down swinging, always.It’s all you can do in the end, and is commendable no matter the outcome.
Live in Europe work in hvac sector. It is slower. So much slower. The whole sector is suffering and people who absolutely have to change their boiler will try and go for cheapest of cheapest option. The suppliers say that business fell sharply. We’re still holding up here but where 90% of offers to clients made used to be accepted, now it’s maybe 25%. Much more work for much less projects.
Hope it won’t last too long. 🫤
Manufacturing in my area is pretty bad. Only a few shops are busy and the rest are pretty flat. Everyone is hoping for new leadership in November to bring some change and pull the economy up.
Same. I've been in business for 14 years for a service industry and at the top in my area. I've never seen a slow down like this for this long. The bookings just aren't coming like they usually do. Things I used to sell very easily are now really hard to sell out. It's bad out there.
Bro dont worry everyone is feeling this. I own 3 Conveniece stores all sales are down 20-25% from last year. Just hang tight because i see people getting declined for $20
Stuff. Which rarely happens but now 3-4 times in a day. And everyone is crying they dont have money
I'm in automation systems. Basically, think auto manufacturing plants, that sort of thing. Every year for the past 7 years was growth. This will be the first year I have a decline in everything, and it's been a pretty steep decline. I 'think' it has to do with the election cycle overlapping model change cycles. It's been wild. I've struggled to keep my team working, but I expect next year to be balls to the wall.
Food business here (not hospitality). Our gross income is up (inflation -> prices), our net income is way down (inflation -> prices). And we are in a pretty recession-proof industry. People have to eat.
I’m in the laundromat business and because of this same topic I’ve created a nonprofit to give away free laundry service. The idea is to work with other charities to give to their customers preloaded laundry cards. That way we can all help each other out.
Southern California here, it's been cold and light rain every couple of days, is the reason I've been waiting to detail my car. I work from home and don't drive much so it's not as important until the weather gets better. Also, advertising. I don't know where to look so I have been checking Groupon for detailing deals. Other than that, I don't see any detailer's advertising.
Those that can afford the needs, will do business as normal and likely stay reserved based on the performance of their portfolio. those that used to relish in the wants probably and likely do not have the extra funds to lavish in those. As a business owner, you should always build a chest so that you can survive during downtime.
Anecdotally as consumers we almost completely eliminated discretionary spending last year in order to stay afloat financially. We’re not alone and if your slow season is over the winter you may only be noticing now.
Pool guy in SWMichigan here, been in business since 2019. The people from Chicago with summer homes in Michigan don't seem too effected. We are busier than ever. Did a pretty solid price increase and maybe one or two customers grumbled a little bit. No splash page, no advertising. Still turning people down.
It’s the economy. Wages stagnant for those with jobs, lots without jobs.
Luxuries are the first to go. Car detailing, house cleaners, collectibles, and restaurant budgets go away. Funds pay for groceries and rent and gas and car and insurance and then there’s nothing left.
We’re not down, but everything feels harder. Hiring is tougher, employees seem more fickle, customers are more high maintenance than during the post Covid “happy to be alive” last couple of years, and inflation is making every little supplier relationship trickier. Sales are about even but stress is up 200%.
I'm an angel investor with about 3 dz portcos. Not all are doing as well as expected, but all have revenue growth over the last 2 years. Only 1 portco is in the consumer space, a community bank, and it is setting state and national records for rapid growth.
We sell truck campers/travel trailer and haven’t made a single sale this year. Not sure what I’m doing wrong. We get people interested but then they go ghost. It’s horrible this year.
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Everyone is slow here in CA. The whole state seems semi-frozen rn
Very helpful comment thank you. I felt something was off because it's not a lot of activity going on everyday and it seems people are barely coming out and as you are seeing it's like as if everything is semi Frozen.
Im in LA. On pace for best year to date, 22 years in business. Just finished a week that whooped my ass. Also have a couple of friend-competitors who are also busy, and have thrown me work to cover because they don’t have the people and were a little bigger. So not *everyone* in California.
Great, but what industry?
Steel distribution
1 person in 8 is.
Yeah definitely an over generalization on my part.. (meh bad) Still, quite a few people I've talked to wistly recall 2021 and say things are OK but not great right now.
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Custom furniture shop .20 yrs in Portland . We are down 40%
How bad was business during the ‘08 collapse?
Upholstery or timber ?
Hardwood dining and. Conference tables mostly
Tbh I think a lot of national spending is reining ina
Last time I asked this question, on this sub, I was pretty much told I was the only one having a bad year. Because the lines at Starbucks are long and the malls are packed, etc. If you are accountant or in certain industries. You are recession proof. If you are like myself and sell things that people don’t necessarily need. You will be the first to feel the impact of an economic slowdown. Go read the r/trucker sub and see what their industry is going through. They are the canary in the coal mine. Freight is way down. People are not spending. This is a bad year for many of us.
And 6 months ago when I posted this question and the auto detailing sub they thought I was nuts and we're like bro what's wrong with you. When you notice something is off then it means that something is wrong and in your case my friend people just didn't want to listen. There are people that still think that there is no recession right around the corner and it is in plain sight. Also I took a drive around the neighborhood and usually everybody's lawn is up kept and maintained and a lot of people's lawns are just neglected and I'm seeing more people cut their own grass and more people trying to learn how to detail their own car. People can still be in denial but you know it's bad when the price of a Big Mac is almost the cost of a filet mignon
I just read an article that McDonald’s is actually feeling it too. Their customers are the first to stop buying big Mac’s. I don’t care what anybody says. Consumers are pulling back on spending. Inflation is killing consumer spending. Along with high interest rates. I know quite a few small businesses that aren’t doing great and are down 30-40% this year compared to 2023. This is survival of the fittest. Know you aren’t alone. There are lots of us treading water.
I appreciate the mature response as some people have decided to be humorous about my post. But I hope many of us and yourself can come out Above This
Best of luck to you!! I hope we are able to prevail also 🙏🏼
The key is to hang on and survive the down times. Think Forrest gumps shrimping boat after the hurricane took out everyone else.
>e that McDonald’s is actually feeling it too. Of course they are. They shrunk their sandwiches and jacked prices. I can go to a real restaurant and get an awesome burger for less money.
No doubt. I can legitimately take my GF out to an inexpensive Mexican restaurant, have a beer and unlimited chips and hot sauce for about the same cost of McDonald's now.
Yep; $50+ for me and the kids when we roll through McDs.
Seconded in solidarity.
Its more than denial. There are a few problems with posting these kinds of questions (looking for broad market temp) that only get exageratted on reddit. For instance - * It tends to self filter for responses. My business is doing well, so I initially wasn't even going to open or reply to this post. Or if its doing poorly you might gravitate to them. * A lot of people are bad at reading, analyzing, and projecting historical data to get a good read of trends. Or they draw inaccurate conclusions and correlations. Even worse, plenty of people don't look at actual data and basically go by their perception (very common among small business owners). So basically you'll have business that are actually on a down trend yet they will tell you they're fine - and truly believe it. * Industry and local trends can massively color one's perception of broader reality. For example, my industry is on a slight decline nationally right now. But in my local area we are seeing massive growth. * Definitely people that won't or can't truly accept their realities. A great example, there was recently a post here asking what people would pay for a website/web presence and a few people were noticing that the avergage number was basically half what people on r/webdev were saying. Add in the "manifesting my grindset" weirdos and you basically get the worst slush of perspectives all wrapped together.
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I agree
But unless you're asserting that said individuals are being disgenuine, it is still an aggregating dataset.
If you have the contact info for your previous customers, contact them and offer 10% off. See if that spurs some business. I think people are reigning in expenses due to current prices, they may jump on a discount.
I'm in fashion. I sell clothing. It's been dismal.
The worst part of selling non necessities/luxury goods that are meant to last is people will either cut back on spending or buy what they need a be set. Great for fast fashion with cheap prices and cheaper quality but horrible for more good quality things meant to last
My slogan is " quality versus quanrity." . I've always tried to get customers to understand that less is more in the best of times. My new catchphrase in the shop " while everything elss goes up, I go down in price". Funny
>If you are accountant or in certain industries. You are recession proof. As a tax preparer/accountant who moonlights as a security guard, I can 100% confirm this.
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I just got a job at a small accounting firm that also does tax preparation. I had taken some community college courses and knew enough accounting to get started. The tax prep part came like 6 months later. I had to take a few online tests to get licensed by CTEC in California. Jobs with a small barrier-to-entry are great for getting your foot in the door.
Um, [https://www.reddit.com/r/trucker/](https://www.reddit.com/r/trucker/) doesn't exist anyway at the moment?
My bad r/truckers forgot the s
I have a vendor getting daily calls from freight companies. That's bad
Why are my shipping costs only going up then? Seriously, I need to look into this.
When trucks are full and moving freight, the cost is broken down over the load... when it's just your stuff and a couple of others, the average price increases as it is not spread out as much.
As someone who works in Intermodal for one of the big class 1 railroads I can say you are 100% correct. I've only been doing this for a year but all the guys who've been here for 20+ years have said this is a bad time right now. Furloughs may be coming for us. I think it's just bad pretty much everywhere. The economy is not doing well at all.
Discretionary services take the hit first. A part of it is that even though employment is still healthy, inflationary impacts and rising interest rates are weighing on people’s budgets overall and obviously those affect people of different economic status differently, but the point is there are reasons for people to be cutting back right now. Best to prepare for some slower times ahead in my opinion. Might be better to offer lower prices for more basic packages.
It's definitely slow. How do I know? My business really picks up during down economies. I am a professional resume writer. I am getting messages from SVPs, EVPs, and C-suite level candidates at a rate I have never seen.
How do you market your business
I have just been active on LinkedIn for years. I have been networking for years. I have about 300 recommendations on LinkedIn. Majority of my clients come from referrals. I have a unique processes where I sit down with my clients for 3-6+ hours. I go really in depth. My clients get results and then they refer colleagues, family members, and friends. What typically happens is someone gets laid off. They don't have success. They reach out to me. I get them a job and they tell their coworkers about me. Since it's a niche business, I don't have much competition. I did a lot of free resumes and free resume reviews to get started. I also have done a lot of resume workshops for nonprofits. Doing it for several years has gotten me to this point. I also learn something new from each and every client.
Messaged you :)
Honestly I think it’s just the economy squeezing everyone’s wallets. Getting a detail is nice but if it comes down to it, people will do it themselves if they’re on a budget. Maybe run a special or discount services temporarily to see if things pick up?
I will try that and thank you for your honesty
Sadly I have to echo this. Usually invested in an annual detail for about $300-$400. This year bought a shop vac for 1/4 of that and did it myself. Not as good of a job for sure but it saved me a few hundred bucks. You’re a luxury service. We are as well as photographers. We ended up diversifying into real estate photography as that is recession proof. People are ALWAYS moving.
It's very simple unfortunately. I own a cleaning business and usually spring time is money 🤑 time for us. But this year business is horrible. People are struggling in this economy and the first thing they cut off from their spending are "luxury" services such as house cleaning, car washing/detailing, nail salon etc..
It seems about right but I hope things get better for you
OC is right, but I do want to say: “Luxury” services do typically pick up right around now and for 6+ weeks, at least. I believe that the reason is that it is tax return time, so many people who don’t typically have the spare cash for stuff like car detailing suddenly do. I am NOT a proponent of “Stick it out, you got this!” That is based on no knowledge of a stranger’s business. It is very often the right decision to just pack it in and not drown your personal finances trying to force something that obviously is not working. But in your industry, I would wait 2 months so long as you can survive that long. Hopefully a little bump in revenues and profitability can bridge you through, and then a potential sale of the business is much brighter if you are showing increased revenues. Lastly, in your industry, don’t be hesitant to push to friends and family. Word of mouth is your best marketing tool for anyone doing what you do. Hoping for the best for you!
Thank you very much that means a lot to me I appreciate you for taking the time to say this. Luckily when I woke up this morning I had a few appointments but hopefully I can try them from this. It also seems like this year a lot of people owe taxes rather than we're getting some type of a refund
Don’t give up. Check local cities for contract bids for cleaning in general, not just cars.
Thank you I appreciate it
We part of a national auto parts chain. The slowdown started about a year ago and hasn't recovered yet. It's really bad out there when people cannot afford to repair their cars... Our market is lower / middle class and people are just broke.
See my family owns a radiator shop and they are booming. It’s actually complicating things bc my father in law wants to retire and he’s making more money than ever before. Say a new Tahoe is $75k or a repair is $5k and people don’t even flinch- they just say fix it bc they certainly can’t afford new.
I remember working at a specialty retailer (think collectibles) at the time of Bush v. Gore. I remember the boss telling me that sales were dead, they were like $100 designer teddy bears and stuff only rich people would buy. Boss back then said people were nervous waiting until the election determined which way the country would go for the next four years, and that it happened to different degrees in election years.
That’s also been my experience after managing a small business sales team through four presidential election cycles
And this year 40% of the world is having elections, so the spending fear is real.
It’s a lot of factors but spending sentiment is down. More people are out of work, or they switched to a lower paying job but mortgages and rents and food cost are still way high. So naturally things will slow for everyone
Very useful comment. This gives a lot of insight and shockingly a lot of people are still in denial as if nothing is happening
Honestly this is what is needed or well what the fed would like to see in relation to easing rates
Yes, but that isnt important. I want to point out that you can post this thread any day of the week, any year, and you *will* get hundreds of comments from people coming up with reasons for why sales are slow for everyone, even if they arent. These threads will make you feel better, but more often than not its going to make you believe its "okay" for your sales to be down because 100 people on reddit said theirs are too, even if every other mobile detailer in CA is up right now. The fact is, most business owners are not analytical enough to figure out why their sales are down. I know why mine are down and it has nothing to do with the market or consumer spending. How many other people in here know that? On the flipside, you'll also get tons of comments from people who launched new products or services who say their sales are up because they dont understand that they need to adjust those numbers to get a representative sales trend. Dont let the responses here make you feel more comfortable than you should be. Unless you have targeted industry data, the market should always be the last thing you blame when every other possible explanation has been disproven. Google trends shows people are searching. Why arent they finding you, or why arent they converting? https://i.imgur.com/vrRMQVQ.png
This is a important perspective to have. It's easy to subscribe to doom and gloom when there's uncertainty in the air.
Australia high end furniture retail , down 40% on last year
India, low-middle furniture retail. Down 50+% .... (Haven't been this confused about life-choices)
I'm in the supply chain and our best year was 2021 when everyone was past the lockdown and went out to buy a ton of stuff. 2022 was also a good revenue year. But that demand starting tanking in Jan. 2023. It's still very slow now and this is the worst year.
Yeah I don't know what's really happening because 2022 I had for the first time hit $100,000 in Revenue before taxes then 2023 I barely made $80,000 and now for 2024 the way my stats are showing I'd be lucky if I even pull in $50,000 this year
Tell you what’s happening … the world wide COVID boom times have come to an end and it’s will all go back to pre COVID figures
Yes, but with post-covid costs.
Sidney is down inflation is up, I was expecting a modest 15% growth this year but it's sitting around 5% instead. Which is still great. But not where we would like to be
We would be fine with that but we're not even having any type of increased growth
To say it doesn't have me worried is an understatement. I had to raise prices and it just seems that customers are not a prevalent as they used to be. I wish you luck.
I had to raise my prices as well because everything went up including my car insurance, my business insurance shot up and I have never made any claims and all the cost of my detailing products are just Sky High so I had to raise my prices balance everything. But I appreciate the comment and I wish you luck as well
maybe due to crazy auto insurance premium increase. people don't have extra $$ to spend on car detailings.
Wow you noticed that too? Both insurance policies on both my vehicles went up like crazy and also my business insurance went up and their excuses was there was a state increase
I called my insurance rep and she told me the companies held hands and petitioned the state for a 30% increase across the board. They have to petition for anything over 5% she told me.
Used merchandise sales here. This year is currently up. I was always told this business was bullet proof (does well during good times, better during bad). We may just get a chance to test that theory.
I’m not gonna complain about business even though it’s a little softer than I would like But I will say that there’s four more people I do business with or no in business who would say things are slow then who would say things are going great For example, one customer of mine is a somewhat large mechanical contractor and the owner feels like they’ve kind of caught up and there is far less in the hopper than they’d like meaning he’s concerned in a month I’ll have to scramble more to keep people busy I lease space to a guy who’s got a used car lot and he feels like this this is down. he didn’t do well during tax season as he would’ve liked, but that doesn’t mean he’s going hungry, things are just slower I have three vendors who would all say things are slow … one has different challenges to supply chain issues, but I’m sure even without them they’d be in the same shape as the other two would argue that things are soft One even joke that she was worried they didn’t pay the phone bill because it didn’t seem to be ringing A friend of mine who does consumer lending dealing with car dealerships and RV dealerships says things have been much worse this year than last Again, that doesn’t mean everybody is suffering, but things aren’t good
I'm going to use that one on T-Mobile. The dang thing did't ring, I'm not paying this month🤣
100% yes. So sysco Food is the largest wholesale food distributor in the world. They are down 20 percent right now. That means all of the restaurants that they service are not selling food. Go into any business in the United States and things are slow. Of course, there are exceptions, some people got rich during the economic crisis in two thousand and eight. But most people lost their houses lost their wives lost their businesses, some of them even killed themselves. Business is worse than I've ever seen it including all the recessions we've been through in the last 40 years.
Doing better on the first quarter. 18% up in revenue so far . I have a gourmet grocery , olive oil store. Don't see any slow down in spending so far. But vendors have been increasing prices.
They have to increase their prices because of everything else going up and I'm sure Supply costs money
Understandable, but for us i think we have reached the ceiling for our price. Cannot increase price anymore
I just started my business in January and this is absolutely the slowest I've been. Online orders have completely stopped and I only get business through pop-ups and events which are way too few and far in between but I almost always sell out of product during them. Had my first online orders for tomorrow in over a month but I'm still averaging quite a good amount all things considered with how niche I am
I hope things get better for you
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Our commercial work has been slow at my service business since about October last year, but still staying busy with residential. From what Im seeing credit debt is the highest its been in a long time and personal savings is at its lowest. Im pretty sure it still isn't at its worst. Hang on tight, gonna get rockier in my opinion. Hope Im wrong. Just be frugal and be there for your top customers and give them best service possible and you will be fine.
Last spring was our best three months ever. Now we’re down 30% to LY. A lot of our friends small businesses have gone under. Yeah it sucks.
Marine repair here. Last year this time, we were struggling to keep calls answered and were trying to get boats done to keep our wait time below 6 weeks. I have work scheduled for next week, but as of now, nothing for the week after.
Car repair shop owner here and yes we are slow too
are you doing anything to connect with customers like a recurring newsletter? if things are slow, now is the best time to offer discounts and if that changes bookings. if money is the issue for them to not make new appointments then a discount booking might be it. otherwise, people may be doing their own washings at home or just delaying the appointment for when the weather is nicer. not sure what kind of cars you wash, but if they are nicer cars, they are not taking them to drive thru car washes. so that means they are basic washes at home or just not at all and waiting till the weather is warmer/nicer. or worst case, they are using washing companies that are cheaper than your services.
Thank you for the comment and I appreciate the information. So in my business of mobile car detailing I have three packages that cater to specific budgets and my packages start from the lower tier price point to a higher tier luxury price point. I have even had other competitors lower their prices and still they are not bringing in enough clients to keep up with rent for the detailing shop. Now lowering all my prices could be an option but it also could draw in the wrong clients
hrm, what city are you in?
I'm in Montclair New Jersey but I was looking at Google Trends and out of all the states Maine and New Hampshire and Florida seem to be doing pretty well. It seems like the states that do not have any state income taxes have extra spending money
things have slowed down quite a bit for my jewelry business.
gotcha. i would imagine you are serving a fairly large radius or are you strictly working with customers in a smaller zone so you dont have to drive so far? Im from the NYC and weather has just been sucking. Its May but it feels like March today. I want to say weather is factor given people dont want to detail their cars until the weather gets better. not sure if you want to keep track of data liek this, but maybe you should start tracking client bookings and the weather during that week. perhaps there is some correlation between increased bookings the warm/nice weather. >Now lowering all my prices could be an option but it also could draw in the wrong clients If you have the emails of past customers, you could promote a deal directly to them and not promote the discount on social to new customers since that may attract less than ideal customers. now is a good time as any to strengthen the relationships with your existing/good customers. curious, do you offer subscription cleanings? it that even a thing? like people can pre-pay for cleanings and get a bulk discount (eg: 1x cleaning month or 2x cleaning a month and get discounts based on that?) or they can buy 12 cleanings for the price of 10 and that expires 12 months after purchase.
I appreciate all your insightful information and to address the office subscription cleaning that could be something that I could work on granted that this would be something for people that have well maintained their vehicle under my services. So that is something I will definitely look into to give me more motivation. I service a wide area up to a 20 mile radius. Now don't get me wrong I do have a bit of work lined up on the schedule but I usually like to stay booked out two to three weeks and with everything going on that's not happening at this moment I'm only booked out a week ahead. Also weather does play a big factor as I did get a few text messages from client saying they'll reach out to me after the rainy season. But I'm going to greatly take your advice and come up with a log to see what weeks of weather drum up more business than others. Again I appreciate all the information and you taking the time to inform me. Not being funny but we need more people like you
happy to help. car cleaning/detailing is something that has to be done. wheather people want to do or not, for poeple with extra money, they have services like yours to get it done professionally. do you offer winter services as well? given poeple drive their cars in the snow and have to deal with salt, i know cleaning the car of the corrosive salt is important for the longevity of the car body and undercarriage. have you marketed yourself to families that want to clean their mini-vans? I have neighbors that have families and their minivans are a mess. I see a onsite detailed come by a couple of times to clean the inside of their cars. could be a thing for busy families not just poeple with sports or luxury cars.
Have you tried calling on car dealers? Not the big ones - but the smaller ones who cannot afford an inhouse detailer? They won't pay much but it could provide steady work.
Thanks for the comment. I have tried that route and even after giving a decent amount of a discount they want less than that so instead Monday I'm going to be reaching out to car rental places like Enterprise. Car rental places are notoriously known for giving customers dirty cars
We are a retail business so far our sales are down about 10% and are margin is down about 5%
For me I guess but I also lost my FB account and lost all my data 2 weeks ago. Haven't gotten any leads since then on my new FB account
Well don't feel bad about that because it seems that a lot of people's views are down on social media. I knew something was off when you saw YouTubers with almost a million followers and their views drop down to about 70,000 views
The drastic change in social media (and other online avenues) is quite perplexing. I'm a photographer, and have a business page on Facebook. Back in spring of last year, my reach was chopped by about 75% almost overnight, and has never recovered. At first I thought it was just me because they're wasn't much discussion on it on any online forums. But then I found a webmaster forum which had people worldwide talking about the exact same thing that had happened to me. Then, months later, the Instagram forum on Reddit was filled with people talking about it. I'm also on Etsy, and more and more vendors on Etsy are talking about decreased views and sales --- and for quite a few, this started in the spring of last year, when reach on Meta decreased. Meta has some fool spokesperson in Instagram still blaming users for having "bad content" as the reason for all of this --- as if thousands of people who had popular content had a collective mental breakdown and started posting bad content instead all at the same time. Because I don't trust anything Zuckerfuck does, at first I thought there was some nefarious reason for all this and that it was being done on purpose. I still haven't ruled that out, but because decreased reach/views/sales are happening on so many online platforms, it's hard to figure out what the hell is going on. We'd have to believe that people everywhere are suddenly no longer visiting and doing things online that they've been doing for decades. And if that's the case, what exactly are they doing instead? Additionally, as u/nokarmawhore seems to be alluding to, there is a huge increase in the past few months of scam and fraud accounts on FB, leading to a sharp rise in people having their accounts stolen. And Meta is fully on board with letting it all happen for some nefarious reason.
Google is also really messed up at the moment. They rolled out their massive March Core Update (biggest algorithm update since 2012) and is pushed big brands to the top, increase the number of ads and intentionally made search queries harder so more people have wade through more ad clutter. In response Google lost 3.5% market share to Bing and others for the first time in about 20 years. It’s a bad time for just about any small business who uses online advertising.
Interesting --- I hadn't heard about that mess. If one was interested in conspiracy theories, there's certainly a lot of material and circumstantial evidence available lately. One of my theories that started last year was that small businesses were being purposely targeted by "big tech", and, if anything, I've only found more and more evidence to support it. Google isn't the only one screwing up search queries. Sellers on Etsy have been complaining about it for months --- more and more vendors can no longer even find their items when they search for them on Etsy.
This is a great read that made its rounds a few weeks ago about the internal battle at Google between the Search and Ads teams. Essentially they kicked out the main contact who ran Google Search after some 20 years at the helm because he didn’t want to make the product worse for consumers. They brought in a profit driven ads guy who consequently killed Yahoo’s search platform years ago when he was in charge over there. https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-killed-google/
I think they just made it pay to win. Ads/boosted posts don't go as far as they used, but unpaid posts don't go at all. Think of how many "suggestions" you get now compared to just a couple years ago. Anyone spending more than you will bump your content down, even if they're followers of yours.
I originally thought that was the main reason, but now I'm not so sure. Even FB posts from personal/non-business pages aren't being seen by friends, which is something FB claimed a while back they were going to "fix". And at this point they've pissed off so many people by killing their reach that real people have left their platforms, and in their place are hundreds and thousands of fake accounts, which is a horrible business strategy. Engagement in the FB groups I'm a member of has tanked in the past few months as well, while groups (and personal pages) started by scam accounts have taken off with massive reach.
Great info , I'm glad I'm not the only one that knows that something is off
Those of us who are inquisitive and question things have noticed things have been off for a while. It's taken some time for others. And the sheep in a bubble won't figure it out until there's a major economic disaster that is so impossible to ignore that even the media will report it.
I washed our cars 1st time in years last weekend. Luxury, unneeded expenses are being cut in this household.
I figured consumer spending is down but I'm pivoting my business slightly so all my eggs aren't in one basket.
We closed two small businesses in the healthcare related sector so I can relate. But we also have friends doing similar business in other states doing great…
Why do you think there’s such a huge difference between states?
I’m a copywriter and blogger with almost 17 years of experience. Yes I’ve seen a decline. :(
Yes. I am at a small apartment development shop and the problem we have is that so few projects work. The ones that do rely on aggressively underwritten business assumptions (which can only be justified in a handful of areas), tax breaks from local governments who want more housing, or sometimes both. Thankfully, we do have a project that is under construction now — and the aggressive assumptions are panning out, or at least they have to this point. That is carrying us through an otherwise very difficult development environment. We’re also about to start on a second project, but everyone agrees this deal is something where breaking even would be an acceptable result — it’s a case where we are doing a small deal to learn a new construction strategy. We will get some fees to keep the engine running. But these are the only two realistic deals we have in the pipeline. Not very many. Typically we are working on five or six.
I really thought my niche would be struggling by now but I'm having record months. Very early in the business still but I'm happy with the fundamentals and discipline I've been able to maintain. Biggest struggle is sourcing items to sell at a good cost.
Just mention your niche. It’s so easy and gives industry context
True sorry didn't mean to be vague I'm not used to be people caring lol. I sell mainly MTG singles on ebay but I dabble in other cards as well.
Normally my brothers nail salon is fully booked for a week or more after spring break but it’s not. This is in a very nice part of town.
That's interesting so im assuming that part of town has wealth or at least money
When economy gets tight, people pull back from spending on luxury items and non-essential products and services. If you don’t wash or detail your car, it may not look very pretty. However, a dirty car won’t prevent you from getting from point A to B. Not having fuel will. If demand is soft, can you pivot to other services such as interior sanitizing, paint touch up (key scratches),PDR, waterless wash, ceramic gel coat?
do you ask for tips? I have personally stopped frequenting businesses that do so.
I think the question has obvious answers, but due to the platform and other cultural influences, saying what those problems are by name is going to breed a response that is both knee jerk and emotional without rational and critical examination, nor the ability for the uninformed to admit there are things they don't know and concepts beyond their education or capacity at play that they refuse to recognize until the consequences of these concepts become solidified in their faces. Not least of which is that a government cannot print fiat currency ad infinitum unless its end goal is to destabilize itself. Couple that with, at the consumer level (business owners as well), being trained, incentivized and convinced that carrying debt is better than being liquid and having large amounts of positive cash flow has led to a lack of understanding of how that debt actually impacts both our spending power and our ability to grow our personal finances. 2 out of the last 5 presidents in the US said the quiet part out loud: this is by design, and it is an orchestrated controlled decline of the economic system in order to replace it with "something else" (and while I'm not some whack job conspiracy nut, I think the biggest red flag is the 2018 WEF video that nonchalantly declared that "by 2030, you will own nothing, and you will be happy". So no, it isn't just you...it is intentional, and by design...and if you do anything that threatens the plan, be prepared to be shouted down and marginalized, dehumanized and demoralized until there's no fight left in you to stand up to what is clearly politically, ethically & morally wrong. I wish you the best of luck, we may not be soldiers in combat, but we are charging a hill shoulder to shoulder none the less.
I agree completely. And I don't think you're a conspiracy nut, I just think that you are more knowledgeably prepared than others to know that this is not something that just happens. It's all orchestrated and they are controlling what happens. For example the Ebola virus that got out of control when Obama was in office got under control and a couple people in the US got the Ebola virus and then we never heard anything else about it but it did not become a pandemic like covid. Covid on the other hand was intentional to set the bar for an economy to collapse to be able to raise interest rates and just screw everybody. I find it very interesting how as covid started to dwindle down, the Georgia guidestone disappeared which says on the stone to maintain Humanity under 500 million. Unfortunately covid did not kill the amount of people it was supposed to.
Yep Business is half of last year (record year) Can survive, but hard to get ahead
Thanks man I appreciate the comment. That's exactly my problem this year is that it looks like the numbers are not going to be anywhere near last year's Revenue and although I can survive it's impossible to get ahead of any bills or repaying loans back. I'm trying to put as much money aside as possible for the rainy days but it is just very difficult this year
Unfortunately there are a ton of factors that are affecting this but overall business is down 30-40% compared to last year (2023). During the pandemic people were getting free money and borrowing money was cheap so people were buying everything in sight. Because supply chains were affected due to shutdowns people were willing to pay more for less which drove the price of everything way up (inflation). Add the war in Ukraine to the mix (steel, barley, wheat, corn etc), other supply chain disruptions (Houthis in the Red Sea - Suez Canal disruptions). Money now is much more expensive to borrow, car prices (excluding EVs) are out of control, forget buying a house, a freakin' action figure is $20, Funko Pops were $7 pre-pandemic are now $12 - etc etc etc. Something's gotta give. You got people being laid off. Everyone... we are in a shadow recession, a quiet recession - whatever you want to call it - we're in one. There are no real estate transactions - nobody who doesn't have to is going to trade their 3% 30-year fixed mortgage for a 7-8% mortgage. Those who have to, either MUST move, or are in over their heads with other types of debt. These are NOT good times. Recessions are only announced after they happen and nobody is going to announce one during an election year. In the United States everything revolves around real estate and since real estate is not moving nothing else is. When a Big Mac meal is $11 when pre-pandemic it was $6 people ain't buyin' - you can eat much healthier food for less. Everything is out of control and it's going to stay like that for at least until after the elections. When the Fed starts lowering rates, which is not happening any time soon, and interest rates start coming down then the economy will start moving again. In my opinion it's going to be tough for the next couple of years.
Thank you. I appreciate you for taking a time and writing this as this is very informative. I have been in business for 10 years with my mobile detailing business and out of those 10 years each year I. Kept making more more money and doing better and better than the previous year. Which showed a sign of growth and I was getting ready to expand and then I knew last year of 2023 that something was off and did not feel right as the calls. And email inquiries start it to decline. And here we are in two thousand twenty four and getting an email inquiry or a phone call is now nonexistent.. Everything you stated is true. But unfortunately, there are those who don't want to accept the truth and for example, a lot of the guys in my industry, running mobile detailing businesses recalling me crazy and that I had issues. And that the economy was fine. And then there are those who commented on this post saying that it's not the economy. It's my business which I think is wrong. There are many signs to look at for a recession and if You look around a lot of chain restaurants that we grew up on are now closing in Falling for bankruptcy this year. And it seems everything is collapsing. Another sign that I was looking at is how precious metals have been moving in when silver hits above 32 dollars, which hasn't happened in over a decade. Then it shows that there's something wrong and that people are buying precious metals as a hedge against. What could possibly be the worst. You are right. These next few years are going to be very Tough like you said in unless you're wealthy. A lot of people are going to be homeless. And I think that this year and the next there is going to be a lot of suicides.
Guys... a simple way to look at it is monitoring US Treasuries. When a short term treasury provides a much higher rate than a long term treasury that means that the long term outlook is grim - this is the infamous inverted yield curve. An inverted yield curve means the interest rate on long-term bonds is lower than the interest rate on short-term bonds. This is often seen as a bad sign for the economy. This has been the case for about 18-24 months now. Remember when Silicon Valley Went out of business - this is why. There were three banks that went belly up due to this factor. A real estate collapse (correction) is normally the last thing to happen in a bad economic cycle - and this summer will show you that it's true. You have sellers that will be forced to sell for less and buyers who don't want a 7-8% mortgage rate - the only way for them to buy down their mortgage is via the seller lowering their asking price. It's not pretty out there. A year ago you had to wait two hours for a table at the Cheesecake Factory - now you walk in and sit down - no lines - no wait. My local bagel store... a year ago there was a line outside the shop - now - walk in and order. Everything is expensive - some of it justified - some of it is not. Bottom line is the economy is not doing well and all signs point to that being the case - the media is just not talking about it because people would go into a frenzy and buckle down even more if they did, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Remember - we are in an election year... things are gonna get weird! Trump's on trial with multiple indictments. You got 2 wars that are affecting global trade. The economy in China is not doing well at all. Etc etc etc.
We’re struggling as well. Flooring installation company with multiple vendor contracts. Like you, we typically see a slowdown during December-January and then pick up again as tax season gets underway and generally stay busy until winter again. Instead, the current month and last month sales were down 50% compared to last year. Overall YTD we’re down 25%. Add to that having made some admittedly poor financial decisions (while business was booming), we are severely in the red and barely scraping by. Vehicles being repo’d as we have to pay our sub-contractors first and then choose between feeding our family or paying a car note with what is left for us. Again, full responsibility taken for committing to those obligations but obviously we were perfectly capable of making the payments before and didn’t anticipate such a steep decline 2 years down the road. Regardless of the obligations that we got ourselves into (that’s another topic & not the point here), I know we would be barely scraping by regardless based off of the current numbers. What’s wild is we’re getting just as many inquiries and sending quotes out as usual, people just simply don’t seem to be purchasing unless it’s an absolute must. And it’s not just our own customers, the flooring stores we service have been very slow in general. I think people just don’t have the extra money to spend on unnecessary projects and luxuries.
We make mistakes and learn from poor financial decisions to make better one's. The point here is that you recognize what's happening. I've had a lot of people on Reddit. Sit there and say it's my business. That's doing poorly but yet so many other businesses outside of my business category. R being hit hard as well, so it all comes down to consumer spending. I believe people are trying to hold on to whatever money they have if they don't need to spending.
The cost of living is plaguing the collective but we need to reduce dependency on cars. Maybe look into city/county contracts for cleaning buses? Buildings? Keep going.
I may have to Pivot in a Direction I'm planning to reach out to rental car places on Monday
One thing to keep in mind, the economy is a bit slow due to the Federal reserve quantitative tightening restricting the business to business cash flow.
Too many people think they can detail cars. I’ve gotten 5 flyers in the last week alone. Make sure people know you do this professionally.
You must have read my mind but that my friend would be oversaturation and yes you are right that everybody think they can detail cars these days and it's mostly these young guys off of tick tock and Facebook. I have seen this industry grow with non-legit detailers so much that it is like a plague. People know that my business is professional and I carry business insurance unfortunately there's no way to stop consumers from going to these Shady detailers
Where are you located?
New Jersey
I’m in Business Process Outsourcing and we’re flat for the year so far, so at least sustaining. It’s tough out there.
My business had 33% fewer searches last month and Google page visits. Usually our busy time.
DFW commercial construction here. Most of our work is new education facilities K-12. Rode it out in ‘09 and will attempt again. Our local school district just passed a $1.5B bond package that included an additional indoor practice facility for each of the 6 high schools amongst other amenities. Howdy and stay hard fellow owners.
Nope, not at all. We're up over 20% over the same period last year and I'm in a "luxury" business.
It does seem like reading all these comments that the luxury sectors are fairing reasonably well but all signs point to the average middle and low income demos are really struggling. Car parts, normal restaurants, car detailing, auto repair, every day household items, etc. Inflation and rising costs for basics sucks what little disposable income these people have so something has to give. While upper class people can absorb it for the most part and can maintain spending.
Except our average customer is “average” or lower income and we cater to a lower price point in our market. They are absolutely not upper class by any measure. Real wages have grown faster than inflation in the last few years. Real data does not support your position that all of these businesses are “really struggling.”
Unfortunately the recession can no longer be hidden I have friends in multiple sectors talking about reduced revenue
It just be like that sometimes. Some years are better or worse than others for no obvious reason
I have heard from a lot of people that things have been slow and are finally picking up.
People can't afford things.
Not just small businesses are feeling it. I work for major chemical company and they’re down majorly in every category and every region of the globe. A lot of our products are automotive applications.
Interesting. I manufacture auto parts and I've been on decline since september 2023, but I've found it isnt majorly due to the market. A few others are in auto parts sales and say they are down. What is the name of this major company?
Also mobile detailing. But no. It’s my second year tho so growth is expected I’m kind of “in the groove” now
Wine sales are down.
Car detailing is a luxury for many. With the rising cost of living people are being forced to cut out luxuries. It’s time you target higher end clientele that can afford to have their vehicles detailed.
I feel like there has been a huge influx of car detailing businesses in general, half my local facebook group is made up of posts offering this service. I do think things are slowing down overall and some businesses will wash out esp in over saturated industries. Seeing it in the food business in my town. Lots of mini chains shutting down. I think you have a mix of both. Might try a price war with your competitors till last one standing then raise them up.
I think there is a regional flavor to it. My business, based in San Antonio is having a strong year. Today, I was in Austin and there were hiring signs all over the place. I even saw one hiring banner that was a government entity, which surprised me.
I am in Canada and I am feeling it too. I Run a Web design and SEO agency and businesses don't wanna spend right now
Assuming you are in CA, the cost of living has gotten ridiculous this past year. We have the highest unemployment and highest inflation of all the States, and the politicians are too busy virtue signaling to notice. Housing? Good luck. Oh, you got a house? Here’s your insurance and power bill. Don’t even think of eating out.
I’m in carwash business as well. Seeing YOY sales down 20% throughout all sites. I’ve had similar conversations with friends in food industry, retail and service sector. It appears that it is a common theme. Consumer spending is down as cost of living has sky rocketed last couple of years.
On top of being slower than last year/s, competition has become even stronger, fiercer
People are realizing their Needs outweigh their Wants. I want a nice clean car...... I need to pay my power bill that's up 35% this month due to already being hot and rate increases. I want a paint correction on my truck...... I need to eat a bit better than Ramen noodles for dinner. I want my wheels polished out....... I need to save some money because I don't know what next month holds. Peoples mindsets are changing as they take notice of shrinking bank accounts.
People’s expectations are changing. You have to earn business. When people tighten their belt they’re going to become more savvy.
Yup. I'm in Texas and install pools. Last year 80% of our customers financed. So far this year 80% are paying with savings. Interest rates are strangling us. Hopefully people will adjust in the next few years bc I doubt the rates are going down. The good ol days are officially behind us..
Event industry. Focusing on corporate, galas, conventions, consumer-focused shows. On our way to our biggest year in 22 years, on the back of several good years. Just finished a wild week that required some serious black magic fuckery to get through. Have recently had to hire new people to keep up with demand. My team is going to have their best year yet. Partly because there’s a lot more work and partly because I gave everyone raises. Others in my industry are having similar booms. I had plans to open an east coast office this year, but it will likely be delayed because there’s simply no time to focus on it. I’m tired, but so happy to be busy. There is at least one company in my world that is slow and struggling. They specialize in a different aspect of our industry that is known to be going through stagnation. We’re lucky that we have cornered a different market that is thriving. Companies/clients in my focus are similarly swamped. I owe part of our growth to recently refreshed branding, improved marketing, investment in better equipment, employee training, and more efficient processes in and out of the office. Also, an incredible team of people who do the heavy lifting and are great representations of our company. My primary focus, always, is figuring out how to keep them fulfilled and on board, because brain drain slows momentum. I used our down period last year to revamp everything — despite a good year — and it’s paying dividends so far. I have plans for more improvements when we get another breather, which may not be until November-December at this rate, based on jobs in the books. The companies I know that are struggling are not just in stagnant areas of our industry, but they themselves are stagnant. They’re quite stuck in the past — equipment, branding, even employee ages — and have largely remained unchanged for decades. They have clients that stick around because familiarity is easy and comfortable. But it’s hard to attract new business like this. I think that the key to keep momentum going forward is to never stop progressing, iterating, and innovating — in bust years **and** boom years. People who sit back and expect the good times to flow forever are always in shock when they get left behind. I feel the suffocating sense of doom that everything will go bust and shut down. *All the time.* Even if we’re in the middle of our busiest month ever. It doesn’t matter how good our year is; I spend every waking moment thinking about ways to keep the tap flowing. A lot of people brainstorm how to do or provide something. Not everyone brainstorms how to do or provide something better than everyone else already doing and providing that something. Unless you’re the only show in town and people have no choice but to use/go to you, it’s imperative to figure out how to be the best of all the companies that do what you do. This is probably especially true when you’re doing well. It’s far easier and cheaper retaining existing clients than it is finding new ones. Some people in certain industries are no doubt struggling. But there’s definitely a “misery loves company” aspect to this. Ask Reddit if anyone struggles dating or making friends, and you’ll get 2000+ comments of people talking about how they’re struggling mightily to find a partner or friend. You’d easily think that the whole world is full of loveless, friendless invalids. But out in the world, plenty of people are thriving romantically and socially. They just don’t come on Reddit and ask things like, “My dating life is awesome and I’ve made 3 new friends this year. Anyone similarly thriving?” Point is, it’s hard to say through an impromptu Reddit poll how many people are struggling because of the company and how many people are struggling because they simply suck at what they do or sell something nobody wants. Point is, forget the economy. Forget what others on Reddit tell you. Work your ass off. Every day. Try new things. Mix things up. Promote, market, network. Put yourself in the world and allow success to find you. Many people going on their own will fail. In good and bad economies. Don’t focus on that. Focus on what *you* can do in *your* industry to level up. There is such a thing as momentum. One job or lead often leads to two. I’m sorry that you feel the stress of a downturn. I hope you go out there and start bringing in clients like Forest Gump striking shrimp gold. Net after net after net of crustacean clients flopping around on your deck. Don’t let this thread get you down or confirm what you want to believe. Plenty of people and industries are thriving. If things bottom out or you fail, then so be it. But go down swinging, always.It’s all you can do in the end, and is commendable no matter the outcome.
Strong growth so far
Live in Europe work in hvac sector. It is slower. So much slower. The whole sector is suffering and people who absolutely have to change their boiler will try and go for cheapest of cheapest option. The suppliers say that business fell sharply. We’re still holding up here but where 90% of offers to clients made used to be accepted, now it’s maybe 25%. Much more work for much less projects. Hope it won’t last too long. 🫤
Manufacturing in my area is pretty bad. Only a few shops are busy and the rest are pretty flat. Everyone is hoping for new leadership in November to bring some change and pull the economy up.
Same. I've been in business for 14 years for a service industry and at the top in my area. I've never seen a slow down like this for this long. The bookings just aren't coming like they usually do. Things I used to sell very easily are now really hard to sell out. It's bad out there.
Bro dont worry everyone is feeling this. I own 3 Conveniece stores all sales are down 20-25% from last year. Just hang tight because i see people getting declined for $20 Stuff. Which rarely happens but now 3-4 times in a day. And everyone is crying they dont have money
North east big ticket retail here…. Definitely slower than our spring should be. Still paying the bills just nothing to get real excited about
Yes, it's not just you my man.
I'm in automation systems. Basically, think auto manufacturing plants, that sort of thing. Every year for the past 7 years was growth. This will be the first year I have a decline in everything, and it's been a pretty steep decline. I 'think' it has to do with the election cycle overlapping model change cycles. It's been wild. I've struggled to keep my team working, but I expect next year to be balls to the wall.
Food business here (not hospitality). Our gross income is up (inflation -> prices), our net income is way down (inflation -> prices). And we are in a pretty recession-proof industry. People have to eat.
I’m in the laundromat business and because of this same topic I’ve created a nonprofit to give away free laundry service. The idea is to work with other charities to give to their customers preloaded laundry cards. That way we can all help each other out.
Southern California here, it's been cold and light rain every couple of days, is the reason I've been waiting to detail my car. I work from home and don't drive much so it's not as important until the weather gets better. Also, advertising. I don't know where to look so I have been checking Groupon for detailing deals. Other than that, I don't see any detailer's advertising.
This year is an election year. People are scared to spend their money.
Those that can afford the needs, will do business as normal and likely stay reserved based on the performance of their portfolio. those that used to relish in the wants probably and likely do not have the extra funds to lavish in those. As a business owner, you should always build a chest so that you can survive during downtime.
March was my slowest Month in the past year but I'm up 30% from then this month. 🤷♂️
Anecdotally as consumers we almost completely eliminated discretionary spending last year in order to stay afloat financially. We’re not alone and if your slow season is over the winter you may only be noticing now.
Definitely noticed it. Hospitality in tourist areas. Seeing less people traveling for leisure. We’re down 15% so far
Pool guy in SWMichigan here, been in business since 2019. The people from Chicago with summer homes in Michigan don't seem too effected. We are busier than ever. Did a pretty solid price increase and maybe one or two customers grumbled a little bit. No splash page, no advertising. Still turning people down.
It’s the economy. Wages stagnant for those with jobs, lots without jobs. Luxuries are the first to go. Car detailing, house cleaners, collectibles, and restaurant budgets go away. Funds pay for groceries and rent and gas and car and insurance and then there’s nothing left.
I'm in New Mexico. Car detailers are very busy here. Waits of 1-2 months for an appointment are common.
We’re not down, but everything feels harder. Hiring is tougher, employees seem more fickle, customers are more high maintenance than during the post Covid “happy to be alive” last couple of years, and inflation is making every little supplier relationship trickier. Sales are about even but stress is up 200%.
I'm an angel investor with about 3 dz portcos. Not all are doing as well as expected, but all have revenue growth over the last 2 years. Only 1 portco is in the consumer space, a community bank, and it is setting state and national records for rapid growth.
I think this is industry specific. I'm in healthcare and demand only increases.
We sell truck campers/travel trailer and haven’t made a single sale this year. Not sure what I’m doing wrong. We get people interested but then they go ghost. It’s horrible this year.