u/Routine-Focus-3177

I'm writing this because I genuinely need some outside perspective from other small-business owners.

I've been building my small slow-fashion clothing business, Rangeelaa, for 12 years. It started very small, and somehow, year by year, I built a loyal community around colourful clothing made from repurposed, preloved and factory-waste saree fabrics.

We are not a big company. There are no fancy studios, professional models or huge marketing budgets behind us. We are a tiny team, working with what we have. Our clothes are made by real artisans in small quantities, and because we're giving existing fabrics another life, every piece is a little different.

And somehow, for 12 years, we made it work.

But lately, I feel like I've hit a wall.

Most of our sales still come from the community I've built over the years, particularly through Facebook. I'm incredibly grateful for our repeat customers, but reaching completely new people — people who have never heard of Rangeelaa — has become surprisingly difficult.

I've tried marketing help. I've spent money on agencies and Meta ads. And sometimes I find myself spending more time trying to figure out marketing than actually running the business I love.

That's probably what makes this so frustrating:

I genuinely believe in what we make.

We're not trying to compete with fast fashion. We take beautiful fabrics that already exist and give them another life. Behind our clothes are women who cut, sew, coordinate fabrics, solve problems and make these pieces one by one.

After 12 years, I'm certainly not ready to give up.

But I'm also tired of throwing money at marketing without really knowing what will move the needle.

So I'm asking the business owners here:

If Rangeelaa were your business, what would you do next?

How would you take a small, established niche brand with loyal customers and introduce it to a much larger audience?

Meta ads? Influencers? TikTok? SEO? Google? Etsy? Founder-led content? Something I'm completely overlooking?

I'm not looking for overnight success or some magic marketing trick.

I just want to find the people who would genuinely love what we make — but don't know we exist yet.

That's probably one of the strangest feelings after 12 years of building a business: knowing there must be people out there who would connect with what you've created, while having absolutely no idea how to reach them.

I'd genuinely appreciate hearing what you would do in my position.

I'm a small-business owner in Canada, and I'm posting this because I'm genuinely curious how other business owners would handle this.

I hired a social media agency called Somizu Media and paid approximately CAD $3,000. Work started June 1.

I didn't expect miracles or guaranteed sales. I expected professional strategy, content creation, engagement and expertise — basically, people who knew more about social media growth than I did.

Instead, after roughly two months, we had gained barely 10 new followers. The tangible content produced was around 2 reels and 2 carousels, and even those required corrections and considerable guidance from me.

The irony is that I often felt like I was coaching the people I had hired to coach me.

There was one staff change. A new coach was eventually assigned who I believe genuinely tried, but the quality of work coming from the supporting/editing team was extremely disappointing. I kept correcting, explaining and waiting.

Eventually I terminated the service before the agreed period was over because I felt I was wasting even more time by continuing.

Here's the part that really bothered me.

When I asked for a refund, I received a very polished report explaining their position. But the report contained information I believe was inaccurate — including saying our work started July 1 when it actually started June 1.

That made me wonder: if something as basic as the start date is wrong, how am I supposed to trust the conclusions of the report?

They are very good at producing impressive-looking documents and presentations. But my experience made me realize something:

A beautiful strategy document means absolutely nothing if the execution behind it isn't there.

I have the agreement, their original audit, communications, submitted content, corrections and subsequent reports. I'm now considering my legal options and filing a complaint with the Competition Bureau of Canada regarding concerns I have about representations made versus what I believe was actually delivered.

Again, I'm not angry because they didn't magically generate sales. No marketing agency can guarantee that.

I'm upset because I paid professionals for expertise and execution and ended up spending an enormous amount of my own time managing and correcting the work I was paying them to manage.

I can earn the $3,000 again. I can't get those two months back.

Other small-business owners: Would you accept this as a failed marketing experiment and move on, or would you pursue a pro-rata refund based on what was actually delivered?

And has anyone here had a similar experience with a social media/marketing agency — particularly Somizu Media?