When you in the home party plan business it is very important to keep your calendar full with bookings and one way you can do that is by getting bookings from parties already on your business calendar.

In Direct Sales, this is the “key” to your success so today I thought I would share a booking game with all of you that has worked well for me over the years.

Stack The Host Gifts Booking Game

* You will need one of every booking gift that your company has to offer.
* You will need 4-6 envelopes (inside place a slip of paper that says “Good for one 1/2 price item).

During your host’s party you will ask her to come to the front and to stand beside you. Tell all of the guests that you are going to spend a few minutes talking to them about the benefits of hosting a home party with you. In addition, you want to show them all of the “FREE” and “1/2 Price” items they could earn by hosting a show.

You will want to hold up and show the party guests the first gift that your host will be earning. This is usually a thank you booking gift or a gift for having 10 guests at the party, etc.

You then want to proceed up the ladder of all of the gifts and 1/2 price items that your party hosts can earn when they book and hold a show with you. The envelopes will represent the 1/2 price items since most Direct Sales companies offer these special 1/2 off deals to their party hosts.

At the end of your presentation you will want to look around the room and ask everyone to stand up if they would like to receive all of the free and 1/2 price gifts that you just showed to them. It works really well to put all of the guests “on the spot” and usually you will get at least one or two to stand up as they don’t want to let their party host down.

I always liked to reward my newly booked hosts with a little freebie gift at the party to just say thank you for booking with me that night. That is up to you if you want to do that but it did work well for me.

Do You Need More Bookings? If so, check out this site!

In a study conducted by the American Sociology Association (ASA), they found that working moms multitask more than their counterparts. They also found that the experience is more negative for moms.

The study found that moms multitask 10 hours more in a week compared to dads. When parents were asked about how multitasking made them feel, most moms said that the experience was negative for them, while dads saw it as a more positive experience. The study also found the discrepancy in multitasking activities among moms and dads. When moms multitask at home, they engage in childcare or housework activities. Dads, on the other hand, engage in activities like talking to a third person or self-care.

As working moms, we have a responsibility at home and at work. Most of the time work gets sacrificed because of the things we have to do for our family. When we are running our own business, all the more that we need to stay focused on our goals, and at the same time, our family.

Here are 3 tips on how to stay focused on your business, and at the same time, be happy with your life:

Time management – So little time, so much to do. The moment you wake up in the morning, your mind starts thinking about all the things you need to do for the day. In order to be productive, you need to get into the habit of managing your time properly. Use a planner or calendar and list down all the important things you need to do for the week. Then write down the small things, like grocery or laundry, school meeting, etc. Scheduling your time and strictly following it will let you stay on top of things.

With your busy schedule, you cannot rely on your mental notes alone. In fact that “mind clutter”, will often work against you. Get rid of it! Once you get into the habit of reducing everything into writing and scheduling it for yourself, you will have a more organized week. Time budgeting is just or even more important than financial budgeting. It’s vital for you to know the “real time” it takes you to get tasks done. Underestimating your time investment in tasks only leads to frustration and failure.

Your own home office – Setting up your own office will help you focus on your business. If you don’t have an extra room that you can use at home, at least find a spot that you can call your own. Once you find your spot, let your household know about it. Let your kids know that they can’t play with your computer or printer. Having your own office will give you freedom to do your work. If you can find the quietest spot in your house and set up your office there, all the better. This way you can concentrate on work when it’s time to do work.

Ask support from your family – having a family is about support and teamwork. The demands of life will always get to you but the battle will be worth it when you know you have your family’s support. Communicate with your husband and ask him if both of you can take turns in taking care of your children. Find ways on how you two can maximize your full potential both at work and at home. If you have teenage kids, communicate with them as well. Tell them about what you do so that they will understand. If you have your family’s support, it will be easier to juggle your time between your family and business.

There are no shortcuts to success. We have to make time for our family and business if we want to be successful in both. We have to stay focused on our business goals and at the same time be here for our family. Adopting time management practices will help us stay on top of things. This will increase our productivity and help us become more efficient. Setting up our own office at home also increases productivity and helps us focus on the things that we need to work on. And lastly, success is easier to achieve and tastes significantly sweeter when your family supports you all the way.

Maria Elena Duron, CEO (chief engagement officer), buzz2bucks | a word of mouth marketing firm, is skilled at making networks “work” and harnessing powerful online and offline buzz, she facilitates online visibility services and word of mouth coaching and workshops – taking companies and professionals from buzz-worthy to bucks-worthy, http://buzz2bucks.com.

One of the most important skills any direct sales consultant must acquire is the ability to network with event attendees to convince the attendees to keep coming to presentations. The trick to getting people interested in your products is to make yourself available to answer questions and create value in your products that is not readily available.

Developing an effective direct sales training course for your associates is just like anything else in the business world in that the more you put into it, the more you will get out of it. By putting in some extra work and teaching your associates useful tricks, you can start to really expand your business.

Enhance Your Products – The catalogs you give out at each presentation are excellent resources for people to use when learning about your products. But if you work to find one or two more uses for each product that is not in the catalog, then you become a resource for your clients for information that only you have. When you give your presentations, include little bits of product information that is accurate but not in the catalogs. You will find that your clients will continue to call you and attend future events to buy products and get more information.

Spread Your Contact Information Around – One of the more important elements of direct sales training is getting associates to understand the power of communication. When you or your associates set up for an event, your contact information needs to be all over your catalogs and available on every piece of literature you hand out. You should also carry business cards that you give to each attendee as something they can carry with them with your contact information on it.

Stay in Touch – When you give a presentation, be sure to ask attendees for their standard mailing or email address so that you can send reminders for upcoming events. You can also use this list to send out short messages on uses for your products and announcements on new product releases. Do not saturate your clients’ inbox or mailbox with mailings, but do enough to maintain your status as a valuable resource.

Book In Tight – Narrow Choices – The chances are good that your most immediate dates will fill up first. That is why you should only show prospective clients your calendar for the next two to three months. You will find it much easier to fill up your calendar when you already have dates filled in. If you give your client an option of choosing dates that are three months away or more, then it looks like you have more open dates and you lose that sense of urgency.

Make your calendar look full!! – A sense of urgency in prospective clients is important because it helps to decrease the chances that the client will cancel. In order to create that sense of urgency, you need to know how to keep a calendar that always looks booked and busy.

When your calendar looks full,even if it is not full, then you will become better at booking shows at your show.

Establishing friendships at a direct sales event can be tricky because those friendships only benefit you if they result in sales or more events. That is why you should always act professional, be courteous, be fun and be an invaluable resource for your clients when it comes to your products.

When you put these direct sales business tips into your business you will create a consistent income year round. Learn more about party plan success systems that work for all companies at: http://www.CreateACashFlowShow.com

Whether you are purchasing your first or your fiftieth online ad, or even using free advertising, there a few things to do to prepare for your advertising campaign. Taking these steps ahead of time will help you determine which ads work and which aren’t as successful. Whether you are spending money or time, know if your efforts are paying off.

1 – What is the purpose or goal of your advertising campaign?
A common answer to this question is “to get website traffic” but is that really all you want? Think about what you want your visitors to do once they arrive at your site. Do you want them to make a purchase, join your business opportunity, or sign up for your newsletter? Setting a specific goal focuses your campaign for greater success.

2 – Get your landing page is ready.
Keep your goal in mind when you decide on a landing page for your campaign. If you want newsletter subscribers, don’t send visitors to your home page or your shopping pages. Your ad invites visitors to do something; make it easy for them to do it by designing a landing page that walks them through the process.

In some cases your landing page may be fairly short and simple. If your ad copy is long enough to presell the prospect you may not need additional marketing on the landing page. For example, a solo ad may provide enough information so that a visitor is ready to complete the offer when the arrive. But a banner ad or text link may have just peaked their curiosity enough to get them to visit, and additional marketing may be needed to get them to follow through.

Whether it’s a short or long landing page, make it very clear what you want your visitors to do, and be sure to ask them to do it. Don’t assume that if they see a form they’ll fill it out. Specifically direct them to complete it.

3 – What is your measure of success and how will you know if you’ve achieved it?
Having a specific goal for your campaign makes it easier to track and measure success, but you will likely need to fine tune your definition of success. For example, if your goal is product sales, you can measure success by dollar value, number of units sold, conversion rate (the percentage of visitors that make a purchase), or return on investment.

Your website statistics or analytic program probably provides all the information you need to track your promotions, but if not, you may want to invest in an ad tracking program or service. Or you may be able to use other methods such as sending results to to a special email address or by using a coupon code to identify the campaign.

Establishing your goals, having a well thought out landing page, and tracking results will help you recognize successful campaigns and determine what needs to be changed to improve results.

Linda Stacy manages several online resources for direct sales consultants. Generate your own leads for your direct sales business with a direct sales directory listing.

GET IN ON THE GROUND FLOOR!!!

PAPERLY, although not new to stationery, is very new to the Direct Marketing Industry.  Now is the time to sign!  There are less than 200 consultants nationwide, but we are growing.  Recognized by the Direct Sales Association for ethical business practices, Paperly offers generous Consultant commissions, is a low pressure business with a very low startup cost and no need to repeatedly buy expensive”samples”.  We offer high-end personalized stationery and a wide array of gift items via fun, social, house parties.  I would love to have you on my Paperly Team.

Paperly

Elizabeth Sheehy
elizabeth_sheehy@paperly.com
www.mypaperly.com/elizabethsheehy

Are you planning on working from home? Are you finding it challenging to complete tasks without being distracted? Is time management a challenge for you?

When I started working from home with my internet marketing business, I found it easy to get distracted and lose my focus. I am disclosing some of my best tips, so that you can learn from my mistakes-which brings me to tip #1!

1. Leverage your time by finding a mentor – The easiest way to get good at something is to find somebody who is good at it and copy them. There are many ways to find a mentor. One is by searching online for your business and see who comes up. Read recommendations and download free offers from their site to see who might be the best fit. Check out people who have written good articles about working from home.

Another way is to ask friends who are in the same or related business. If they are very successful, take them out to lunch and ask questions. Most successful people truly enjoy mentoring others, so don’t be afraid to ask.

2. Make a schedule and stick to it – When you worked for a boss, did you have certain hours that you had to be at work? Did you have certain tasks that you needed to accomplish? Now that YOU are your boss, create your own hours and tasks and treat your business like a business!

3. Cut out distractions – Are you distracted by email and social networks when working from home? So was I and I still am if I don’t take steps to avoid it. When I first boot up my email for the day, I delete everything that is not related to what I am doing. This includes offers for the next shiny object and the next magic software. Today, when I booted up my gmail account, I deleted 111 emails and kept 4. If I can’t see it, it can’t distract me.

4. Set a timer – Set a timer for 25 minutes and work with intensity. When the timer goes off, take a 5 minute break and begin all over again. This creates an artificial deadline and it really works. I use a clever little iPhone app called “Pomodoroplus”. It basically is a timer that shows me how much time I have left for my task and how many tasks (called “Pomodoros”) I have accomplished for the day. Currently, I have 5 minutes to go while writing this article so I know that I have to keep focused.

5. Don’t answer the phone – When you were working for a boss, you were probably asked to not take personal calls. Your family and friends have to be trained to understand that this is a business like any other, even though you are working from home. Even a quick phone call will lead to distraction, so turn your phone off while you are working.

Well, I have 75 seconds left and have managed to write an article from start to finish in my 25 minute period. Try these tips and you will be accomplishing more that you ever thought possible while working from home.