Home Party Plan Biz

Hope you all have a safe and Happy 4th of July! Enjoy a well deserved weekend off!

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Home Party Plan – Creating a Referral Plan that Works

One of the most frustrating parts about building a successful home party plan business for new consultants is creating a referral program that consistently brings in a steady stream of new leads.

It’s actually not as difficult as it sounds, and the sooner you put these simple techniques to work for your home party business, the quicker your business will begin to grow.

Here’s how to get started:

First of all, think of the last time that you experienced truly excellent customer service.  What do you remember about the experience?  What did the salesperson or representative do that made it stick out in your mind?

Sadly, getting excellent customer service has become such a rarity these days that when we do find someone who understands what it means and practices it in their business, we do remember it – and so will your customers.

Creating an excellent customer service program will also help to generate new leads and referrals to your business, because people will not only tell their friends, family, and contacts about you (usually without you even having to ask), but they’ll also be happy to send referrals your way when you do ask them to.

Start with your own customers. You’re going to create a “Preferred Customer Program” and let your customers know that they qualify for extra special services.  What’s wonderful about this is that it will make your customers feel special, and it’s not expensive or time consuming, as long as you stay organized.

Create a simple database – either on your computer, or do it by hand using recipe cards and a card box.  Under each customer name and contact information, include the personal information that you have – for example, birthday, anniversary, spouse and children’s names, hobbies, likes, etc.  Then, add additional information relating to your product line.  If you sell cosmetics for example, what is your customer’s skin tone? Facial shape?  Best feature?  What are her preferred colors (warm/cold, summer/winter, etc.)  What products does she buy all the time?  Favorite fragrance?  Add this information based on the products you sell and she likes.

For first time customers, put together a simple one page survey or online survey.  Invite your customers to fill it out – and tell them that you’ll be happy to let them know when sales of their favorite products are coming up, so that they can save money!  And then follow through.  Your customers will be delighted, and as you build trust and respect, you’ll also notice that your sales continue to grow.

Every month, go through your list of birthdays, anniversaries, or other special occasions for the next month, and add them to your calendar.  Taking the time to send an email, postcard, or greeting card lets your customers know that they are important to you – and that they mean more than the money they spend with you.  Pay attention to what’s going on in your customer’s lives, and be ready to ask questions, congratulate special occasions, or comfort during times of trouble. Because almost no one takes the time for these little extras any more, you – and your home party plan business - will be remembered.

Set up a Customer Referral Program. Make it fun and reward customers who refer other customers, hostesses, or recruits your way.  For example, you could offer monthly contests, with a product or special prize to the winner.  Or offer a special discount or reward program so that customers can earn gifts, products, or discounts on their next purchases.  One popular method is to use a points system, where points can be accrued over time – and the more points someone has, the bigger or more expensive prize they can earn.  Set up a point system for things like referring a new hostess, or someone who is interested in becoming a consultant, or hostessing a live, online, or catalog party.

One caution – create a system that is easy to use right from the beginning, and preferably one that is automated, to save yourself lots of administrative time down the road.  You want to be able to stay on track with your referral program and keep it organized, or it can quickly become a nightmare!  Include information about your referral program in all your hostess kits and other marketing materials.

Train your recruits to recruit. Don’t forget to take the time to teach your recruits your recruiting and referral methods, too.  Remember that their success helps to build your own.  Share your methods with them, and provide ongoing training and support.

As you can see, with a little bit of time and effort, your business sales and success will be soaring thanks to the simple techniques that will increase your leads and customer base!

Would you like more information about creating a referral plan? Click Here

Filed under: Blogging, Building Your List, Growing Your Business, MLM, Marketing, Recruiting, Successful Selling, Website Design, building a business, musings, network marketing | No Comments »

How Home Party Consultants Increase Their Sales, Recruit More Team Members, and Book More Parties Using These Simple Steps – and You Can, Too!

When you first became a home party consultant, you were full of energy and excitement about your new business, and probably found yourself dreaming about how quickly you would become a “success” and started making plans about how to spend all the money you were sure you were going to be making, right?

And then, somewhere between two and six months into running your new business, you hit a slump and found it difficult to maintain the momentum, right?  Maybe your sales started dropping off, or you found it more difficult to convince people to host a party.  Maybe you even found yourself doing things like cleaning the scum behind the bathroom sink faucets or scraping the grout in the kitchen, just so you didn’t have to get on the phone and face another rejection.

Maybe you even began to doubt yourself and think that maybe you’re not cut out to be a home party consultant after all.

Well, I’ve got some good news for you!  What you’re facing is something that probably 85% of all new home party consultants face in their business.  In fact, not only is it a common problem, there is also a solution.  Just follow these simple techniques, and in no time at all, you’ll find yourself back on the fast-track to owning your own successful – and profitable business:

Dream a Little Dream

Set aside an hour when you’re not going to be disturbed.  Turn off the phone, don’t look at your email, and if the doorbell rings, pretend that you’re not at home.  The first thing you’re going to do is a little “dreaming.”  That’s right.  I want you to sit down and imagine your “perfect” business.

Let’s pretend that it’s 5 years from now.  What does your business look like?  Describe it.  Where is your office?  What is your title?  What does your office look like?  Do you have a staff or team?  How many?  What are they like?  It’s important that you write down on paper your dream.  Put as many details into it as you can – how much money do you make a year?  What kind of lifestyle do you have because of your business?

The reason that it’s important to dream first is because if you don’t have a vision – an idea of what you want – how are you going to know when you get there?  Start with the big picture first.  Every time you get discouraged, just knowing where you want to end up and exactly what you want to achieve can help you to stay focused and motivated, even during the most difficult of circumstances.

If you’re a visual person, you might even want to create a dream book that you can paste pictures in of the things you want.  (The world’s experts on goal setting and business building and even top sports figures all agree that visualization is one of the basic building blocks of getting what you want.)

Get Smart

Now create your long-term goals.  Here are a few things to keep in mind about goals:  Write them down.  Give each goal a deadline.  And make your goals SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely.)  Long-term goals can be goals that you want to achieve anywhere from 1 to 5 years down the road.

Here’s another hint: Your long-term goals should all be related to the last things you need to do before achieving your dream.

Get Chunky with It

Now let’s break down one of your long-term goals. (This is also called “chunking” your goals.)  For example – if you decide that within one year you want to be making $20,000 a year working part-time in your home party consultant business, one of the things you’ll need to figure out is what your net average party sales are.  (You can either take your total sales for the last year and subtract your expenses, or if you haven’t been in business for a year yet, take your last month’s party sales and add them up.)

Now subtract your expenses – what it cost you to do business.  Next, multiply that number by 12.  Then take your “goal” amount - $20,000.  Divide that by 12.  (I’m going to round it up to $1,667.)  In order to reach your goal of $20,000 a year, you only have to earn $1,667 a month – which really isn’t that much.)  Now look at the number you came up with for your net sales.  Let’s say you came up with $300 per party, and you’re holding an average of 4 parties a month.

At your current level, you only have to make another $5,600 in the next 12 months – or an additional $466.67 a month.  Which means there are two very simple ways you could meet – actually exceed your goal.  Increase your sales at every party – in this example, that means you only need an additional $116.67 per party.  Or hold two more parties a month, and you’ll exceed your goal.

Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan

Now let’s work on creating short-term goals that will help you achieve your long-term goal.  If the average guest at a party spends $50.00, then that means that you would only need three additional guests each month – and you’ll meet or exceed your goal.

What can you do this week to help each one of your hostesses get one or two more guests to their parties?  What about a contest?  A fun new theme?  Can you find a new way to motivate your hostesses?  What about encouraging them to give out catalogs to each person they invite who can’t come to the party? Or offering a special – and highly coveted prize – to the hostess with the highest sales for the month?

That’s all there is to it.  Know what you want – have a vision for your business.  Create long-term goals that are SMART.  Chunk those goals down into doable steps each week or each day.  Work on each step until you’ve achieved it, and then move on to the next.  Persistence will pay off in the end, and one day you’re going to look around and realize that you’ve built the business you once only dreamed about!

Find more information here

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Seems like a simple enough thing right?  Need a picture of something, go to google images and download anything you want!

Not so fast there.  Do you know that using someone else’s images can be illegal?  Like anything thing else in this world, someone probably owns the rights to that picture and you could get into trouble for using it without permission.

You say, “But everybody does it!”  Everybody used to share music files online too, until they cracked down on that.  Recently a woman was ordered to pay $80,000 per 24 songs that she downloaded illegally!!! Yikes!

There are enough site where you can actually get free or inexpensive photos, that you really don’t need to set yourself up for a lawsuit.

Some of the websites that I use frequently are Bigfoto.com, Freedigitalphotos.net, Publicdomainpictures.net, and Microsoft.com (Microsoft is not as nice about where and when you can use their photos but still a good source.

If I can not find what I want I always go to Bigstockphoto.com they have this HUGE selection of pictures and you can get any picture there for as little as $1.  This is big folks… someplace charge you $25 to $50 for one photo!!!  That is crazy.

Bigstockphoto.com has everything you could ever ask for, from backgrounds, to people, food, abstracts, you name it they’ve got it.

Here you buy credits to buy your photos and depending on how large a photo you want is how many credits you pay for it.  Now, if you are using this for your website or blog you do not need anything over a medium size photo which is 2 credits worth.

Credits worth depends on how many credits you buy but if you buy 30 credits which can get you 30 wonderful pictures that you can use anywhere and any time you want with out fear of a lawsuit or having to pull a picture off you site.  30 credits will cost you a meer $45 in this instance!!!  Come on.. that is $1.50 a credit for a photo that is yours to use any way you see fit.  It is a beautiful thing!

I have spent way to much money at Bigstockphoto because I love their photos!  They have something for everything I have ever thought of and somethings I plan to write just because I found a photo and now have to put words to it!!!

Don’t get into trouble with the photos you use on your website or blog, it is not worth the trouble.  Get your photos for free (just be sure to give them credit) or buy yours for a minimal charge at Bigstockphoto.com.

You won’t be sorry, spend a couple dollars and stay out of jail or avoid a lawsuit that could cost you thousands!

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