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Are You Misleading People?
Competition is keen but intentional inaccurate headlines only hurt your credibility
If you provide information to someone that is inaccurate because you misspoke or were mistaken, I don’t think anyone would fault you for that. We’re all human and who among us hasn’t erred?
However, what if in effort to grab someone’s attention you intentionally post false information? Is that creative marketing or is that a lame excuse for keyword spamming? Make no mistake – that is an unethical business practice no matter how much you try to justify it.
For example, Scentsy recently announced that they’re making plans to open their business opportunity to residents of Germany and the UK. Launch is scheduled this Spring. U.S. residents will not be able to sell there but recruiting will be permitted. There hasn’t been much more information provided at this point because it’s still in the development stage. It is something that will most likely happen soon; but it has not happened yet.
I popped online yesterday to a public forum to read the following subject line from someone who held a senior ranking title: “We sell Scentsy candles in the U.K & Germany.” Seems innocuous enough. Except that Scentsy doesn’t sell there. They are planning to, but they don’t presently. When the fact that her subject line was misleading was raised, the consultant responded, “Yup, I know.”
This article isn’t a passive aggressive attack on said consultant. It was just such a perfect, and timely, example of misleading marketing for personal gain. I could not have made up a better example. It’s also not directed toward this one particular offender; it doesn’t matter who did it. I’ve seen others employ this type of keyword spamming too. Continue reading
Should You Pick a Direct Sales Company Based on Your Passions?
If you’re considering a career in direct sales but are unsure which company you want to represent, keep reading.
There are many factors to consider before you join a direct selling company. A key area to research is the products’ selling potential. One debatable consideration is whether or not you should pick a company based on your passions.
On a work at home forum, I recently followed a thread where a potential recruit narrowed her decision down to two companies. She was asking for feedback on which to select. One consultant suggested:
“Ask yourself which product you like better yourself and you could probably “sell” that product more passionately, and there is your answer.”
Seems like reasonable advice, doesn’t it? Or is it?
Clearly you need to have some interest in the product offerings if you want to excel. Manufacturing widgets or technology based products may be breaking sales records and are in high demand, yet they are nothing I would ever have any interest in selling, no matter how high the income potential. My personal interest level is a zero in those types of products.
With which company do you think you’d have more success – one where you were passionate about the product or one that carried a product that sold well? I love crossword puzzles; one might even say I’m addicted to them. I’m so passionate about the word puzzles that not a day goes by when I’m not engrossed in one. But I can’t see selling crossword puzzles as a viable business venture. Continue reading
Direct Sales Income Tax Help
It’s that time of year again – income tax time. This is also the time of year when some direct sales consultants from almost every company are scrambling or panicking because they don’t know what to do. Consultant forums are starting with fill up with threads asking for help with their taxes. Below are some tips to help you survive taking care of filing your income tax as an independent business owner.
TIP #1: Outsource it. Not likely the info you were hoping for, is it? I figure if you already file your own taxes and are familiar with how to handle business filings, you likely would not be reading this article. My advice is that if you don’t know what you’re doing, hire a professional. That’s what I do. Then my time can be better allocated to doing what I do best.
TIP #2: Don’t take advice from your peers. Having survived an IRS audit, it really concerns me when I see independent consultants ask other consultants for tax advice on company forums. Maybe they should ask for legal and medical advice while they’re at it. Just because someone can sell wax, recruit or coach hostesses does not make one qualified to give tax advice.
Recently I read a forum post of one consultant who publicly shared with a large audience of consultants that she writes off her entire year of mileage on her family van as a business expense because she had a magnetic sign on the side of her vehicle. This is clearly prohibited in IRS mileage regulations. If she were to claim 20,000 miles because of her little Vista Print magnet, even though she may have actually only driven 870 miles directly related to business travel, it’d tax fraud. Yet her informative post, albeit erroneous, was met with a multitude of replies of gratitude and appreciation. So now because of one consultant’s wrong information, a number of other consultants were going to do the same. GIGO – Garbage In, Garbage Out. Continue reading
Use Only Professional Marketing Materials
If you are a consultant with an established direct sales company, it’s highly likely that your corporate office provides professional marketing collateral, instructions, signage, forms and other tools to aid your business. A professional image is vital to your business success.
Yet almost daily I am made of aware of consultants who want to make their own marketing collateral, instructions, signage, forms and other tools to aid their business. I don’t get it; I really don’t. Why do so many insist on reinventing the wheel? Sure in some cases consultants need to pay for the professionally designed materials, but there are always costs associated with running a business.
Homemade materials generally look amateurish, cheesy and send a message that you’re not doing well enough to use professionally printed information. Also, by the time you factor in your time to create it, paper and ink to print it yourself, and the costs associated with lost business due to the unprofessionalism, you’ll end up paying more than if you just used what was provided by your company. Continue reading
Sickly Business Owners
If you own a home business and have an illness or disease do you have an obligation to tell your clients?
Lest I look like a total insensitive boob, let me start off by saying that I am very sympathetic when someone or someone’s child gets sick or if there is a death in the family or other crisis. I get that life happens. It would be unreasonable to expect any business owner to truly be available 24/7 365.
One of the many benefits to owning a home business is that it affords you flexibility. Entrepreneurs generally choose to work at home either because they simply want to or often because of health concerns or caring for a loved one make it difficult to work outside the home.
Within my own team we have members who are dealing with Lupus, Cancer, Crohns, COPD, Narcolepsy, RA, Chronic Fatigue, depression, Bi-Polar, a brain tumor and Heart Disease. We have parents with special needs children and consultants taking care of aging parents. We have single parents and military spouses whose husbands are deployed overseas and we have pregnant and new moms. And those are just the challenges of which I am aware. I am certain there are plenty others that have remained private.
That said – if you own a home business and have an illness or disease do you have an obligation to tell your customers? My take on it is that no, you do not need to reveal this information providing your problems do not become your customers’ problem. If you can carry on your business in spite of challenges, and no team members will feel ignored or unanswered and if customers receive their product in a timely manner, then your health issues is no one’s concern. Continue reading
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