Reason no.2 - I was basically working for Meta and Google

Ok, reason number two. Ads. 😅

When I started 3 years ago, I could put a small budget on Facebook and Instagram and orders came. Not crazy, but enough to feel that the thing works. Every year after that the same budget brought less. Same products, same photos, same me. Just more expensive clicks.

In the end my good months were around 4% return and bad months minus 10%. I said it already in the first post - just leaving the money in the S&P 500 would have done better. And I was the one sitting there every night changing creatives and audiences.

A small shop has no protection here. Big brands come in October and November with huge Black Friday budgets, everybody bids on the same people, the price goes up for all of us. They can lose money on ads and make it back somewhere else. I can't 🧐

Plus remember reason no.1 - part of the people now ask ChatGPT instead of scrolling. So you pay more to reach fewer of them.

At some point I did simple math: I'm not running a store, I'm running ad campaigns and the store just pays for them.

One more reason left. That one is about the Baltic market itself. Soon.