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7 Steps to Get Out of the Home Business Rut
Business not flowing as well as you would like? Did you have a great holiday rush and now your home based business appears to have come to a screeching halt? Here are seven steps you can take to get out of the rut.
1. Direct mailings with your company catalog. Pick a market or two, such as assisted living facilities; nail salons or real estate agencies to name a few. Mail no more than ten catalogs to each market; there’s no sense waiting catalogs and postage without testing the waters first. Be sure to include a sample and/or special offer. Increase chances of having your catalog opened and read by placing a relevant sticker on the front. Highlight what’s in it for them if they open it.
2. Develop a Valentines Day marketing campaign and get it out to the masses NOW. February 14th is right around the corner, so don’t delay. Your window of opportunity is tiny. Men will be particularly grateful for gift giving made simple. Think where you can find a group of men – barber shops, auto sales, auto repair, gyms, pro-shops, etc. Continue reading
Want to Work Your Home Business Using Internet Marketing?
One of the most frequently asked questions I get from potential team members is if they join my team will I teach them Internet Marketing – since this is how I work my business. Many are surprised that my canned answer isn’t “Yes – of course!” Let me explain …
Internet Marketing (IM) isn’t something a direct sales sponsor can teach – at least not in the same way the sponsor can teach using a workstation or host coaching. It is a knowledge base that must be learned over a period of years. There are Internet Marketing gurus who make teaching this subject their full time business.
I would be very leery of any sponsor who promises to teach you IM. The sponsor should be making him/herself available to training and mentoring the entire team on all aspects of their independent businesses, plus taking care of their own customers, while continually working with prospects. When would this person have time to teach a comprehensive skill set that takes years to learn and one that is dynamic and always changing?
I actually worked with a local lady a few years ago who was interested in joining Scentsy. After meeting with and communicating with her over a period of weeks she did eventually sign up to be a consultant. However, she signed up with someone else, who lived on the other side of the country. That fact didn’t bother me so much because I genuinely believe it’s important that you find a good fit with your sponsor before signing up. It was the reason she went with someone else. She said “because he’s an internet marketer!” That was amusing to me because I was one of the original Scentsy consultants to first start working my business online in 2006 and the person she went with was a new consultant with the company with no proven track record. But he promised to “teach her IM”. Continue reading
Plan to Work From Home in 2012
We’re in the last few hours of of 2011 and at the tail end of the busy Christmas gift giving season. If you’re like many home based business owners you’ve been running yourself ragged for the last 4-6 weeks. There’s something about holiday chaos that is an adrenaline rush! Soon you will be able to breathe easy and put your feet up.
Or will you?
If you choose to work from home, then you have a a business that needs consistent, forward activity in order to thrive. Let’s face it, your last minute holiday orders came in with little effort (at least compared to off-season) – as you had scheduled events and hopefully marketed yourself well. Therefore, by now you should be thinking about your game plan for 2012. Actually should have been long thinking about it before the ball drops in twelve hours.
Will your home based business be offering any special promotions for January such as limited time product offerings, special host benefits or recruiting specials? If so, don’t wait until January to start spreading the word about these specials. Promoting January during January is too late. Do it now. Of course if you’re just now reading this and it’s already January then it’s a little late, but better late than never I guess. You can plan better for next year. Continue reading
Finding Blog Topics
Having a hard time coming up with topics to write about for your direct sales blog? Whether you truly have a case of writer’s block or you’re just using that as an excuse to not update your website with fresh content, below are seven tips to keep the ideas flowing.
1. Look around. Your life and people in your life can inspire just about any blog post. If you’re a new mom, perhaps the mere fact that you’re tired all the time, but need to keep getting up even when you don’t feel like it will inspire you to write about working even when you don’t feel like it.
2. Product highlights. The importance of a blog is not to sell, but to inform. Give your readers something they can use. Write about the benefits and features of some of your products.
3. Fun facts or tips about your industry. Whether about direct sales in general or something about candles, jewelry, cooking, fitness, beauty or whatever industry you’re in there’s always something interesting you can write about. Continue reading
So Call It Something Different
Perhaps you’re not having the success you’d like because of the words or names you’re using to share your direct sales business products or opportunity. So call it something different.
Anyone who knows me well knows I am a huge Laverne and Shirley fan. One of my favorite episodes is The Diner, where Laverne is the fry cook and Shirley is the waitress. Laverne keeps saying “Betty, pick up. Betty, please pick up your hash blacks.” When Shirley asks why she keeps calling her Betty, Laverne responds, “Because it sounds so much better than ‘Shirl, pick up.’” Watch the first 30 seconds below if you want a refresher of this dynamic duo).
The scene above highlights this concept of using what sounds best in a given situation. For example, if the word “Party” as in Host a Home Party, tends to sour potential hosts, use a different term. Perhaps call it a Scent Event, Open House, Demo, Show, Get Together or even “free items for large orders”.
I’m not at all suggesting you should mislead anyone. Rather I’m talking about speaking a language that your market can identify with or that makes you more comfortable. Continue reading
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