eCom/business perspective needed please

[hk247]

New account for obvious reasons — I want straight answers, not sales pitches.

I’m looking at a small custom parts business in the sporting goods space. It’s been running 10+ years and was consistently profitable up until about 18 months ago. One-man-band setup, decent living, no drama.

Now it’s all over the place. Some days £500+, next day nothing. No consistency at all.

They’re running Facebook ads, but it’s unclear whether that’s the problem or just an easy thing to blame.

Big issue: trying to get proper advice. Every “expert” wants serious money, promises the earth, and delivers very little. Hard to separate people who actually know what they’re doing from those who just talk a good game.

So — no fluff:

What would you look at first?
Where do businesses like this typically go wrong after a long stable run?
Is this likely to be ads, market shift, offer, or something else entirely?

Interested in hearing from people who’ve actually fixed this kind of problem — not theory.

Thanks for your time.

[MrSparks]

I’d start by trying to figure out if it’s an internal or external influence.

Internal

- was the website been changed 18 months ago? (use wayback machine)
- is it a conversion or traffic issue, have either/both decreased (check analytics)
- run the site through page speed insights - is it really slow? Mobile optimized?
- where did most sales come from 18 months ago? (Check analytics)
- have any ad channels been reduced or removed (check accounts software)
- have prices been increased 18 month ago?
- is stock consistent? Inconsistent sales could be due to stock outs. (Check inventory system)
- have Meta ads been updated to suit the latest Andromeda AI formats?
- have the ads ever been updated? If so can you determine when and what was changed. If they haven’t then are they still relevant and optimised - (ad manager)


External

- any new competitors pop up 18 months ago? (Google)
- is the product still relevant? Use Claude/ChatGPT to research market size and competitors
- are products competitively priced in market (Google)
- has search volume for the product reduced in the market? (Google trends)
- look at search console, is traffic decreasing? Any site penalties?
- use AHREFS to audit the site to analyse traffic, dead links, 404 etc.


Internal issues can be fixed relatively easily. External ones are a bit harder to deal with.

[Tim Cognito]

As you must have given chatgpt all the context to get it to write that post have you tried asking it what to do?

[22s]

hk247 said:

New account for obvious reasons I want straight answers, not sales pitches.

I m looking at a small custom parts business in the sporting goods space. It s been running 10+ years and was consistently profitable up until about 18 months ago. One-man-band setup, decent living, no drama.

Now it s all over the place. Some days £500+, next day nothing. No consistency at all.

They re running Facebook ads, but it s unclear whether that s the problem or just an easy thing to blame.

Big issue: trying to get proper advice. Every expert wants serious money, promises the earth, and delivers very little. Hard to separate people who actually know what they re doing from those who just talk a good game.

So no fluff:

What would you look at first?
Where do businesses like this typically go wrong after a long stable run?
Is this likely to be ads, market shift, offer, or something else entirely?

Interested in hearing from people who ve actually fixed this kind of problem not theory.

Thanks for your time.

To be honest, if you're asking these questions I would stay very far away from acquiring this business. The reason people are charging a lot to evaluate this opportunity for you is because they have years of experience in the industry, and it's still a complicated and time consuming process.

What has the seller of the business told you about the drop off?