Managing Momentum Channeling Rapid Growth

October 31st, 2008

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If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to ride a rocket, just ask executives of the fastest-growing direct selling companies. They all agree. It’s excitement like nothing else.

Though sales in the entire direct selling industry weakened a bit over the last year, the companies who spoke with Direct Selling News flew far above the slumping economy. Each characterized its remarkable growth in a different way.

Scentsy’s wickless scented candles and products have created a business so hot that it has grown by a factor of six for the last 18 months.

“Our sales and consultant numbers have had equal average growth,” says Scentsy President and CEO Orville Thompson. “For four or five months, our sales numbers grew faster than the consultant count. Then it flip-flopped. But year to date it’s all up about 600 percent. Sales per raw consultant are up slightly over last year.” The company’s upward growth trend has expanded each year since it was established four years ago.

At greeting-card company SendOutCards (SOC), growth is measured numerous ways. No two cards the company produces are alike, and each is printed, addressed, stamped and mailed by the company after the customer custom-creates it online.

“When we first started business in my garage, we could print 10 cards in five minutes,” says President Erik Laver. “Now we can print 1,000 cards in five minutes on printers that are 40 feet long. Since we sent that first card on July 1, 2001, we have mailed about 15 million cards. We’re currently growing at 210 percent a year.”

State-by-state energy deregulation allowed Ignite to begin offering electricity in Texas in 2005 and in late April the company expanded into newly deregulated Georgia to offer natural gas. In those two states alone, it has more than 100,000 independent associates and has already acknowledged three million-dollar income earners in its first three years of operation. The young company’s revenue shot to more than $600 million in 2007, from $400 million in 2006 and $67 million in 2005. Keep in mind, the company was doing business in one state.

“Electricity is the perfect product or service,” says Doug Witt, Ignite’s Senior Director of Marketing Operations. “We kept things simple. You don’t have to explain anything to anyone or change their buying habits.”

E-Growth
Agel President and Co-Founder Craig Bradley says it’s hard to comprehend how fast the company has grown, but, “We realized that we had a billion-dollar idea, and we knew that we wanted to have a footprint around the world.”

The company uses a major e-commerce focus to market its gel-based nutritionals and opportunity. Since almost 100 percent of its orders are placed online, it credits the Internet for much of its incredible growth. The founders’ intent was for the company to be immediately international, so it developed a revolutionary, proprietary method to make it happen. Agel launched in 10 countries simultaneously in May 2005 and now has expanded into almost 50.

“We’ve been able to set up the company in such a way that we’ve self-funded virtually all the growth.”
—Darren Jensen, President of Agel International

“We were up over a million dollars this month over last,” Bradley said in early July. “We just launched in Kazakhstan six days ago, and we broke even on our investment in just 48 hours.”

Agel created strategic alliances and partners around the world to help it distribute products while leveraging technology to allow it to expand rapidly. Both have let the company expand without heavy investment in bricks and mortar, and its robust Web site overcomes language barriers. The Utah-based company also tapped the international student body at nearby Brigham Young University to staff its customer-service center, speaking to customers and team members—its name for distributors—in 35 languages.

Its initial challenge was to figure out cash flow, accounting and a way to meet regulatory requirements around the world for its product line. It made its way through all three mazes.

“It’s not inexpensive to operate,” Bradley says. “But we have a very sophisticated system now. From the beginning, we had a strong financial partner who understood the billion-dollar idea. We were held accountable, but our partner is very good. We paid back our initial investor a year ago, and we’ve been debt free since.”

Agel President of International Darren Jensen adds, “We’ve been able to set up the company in such a way that we’ve self-funded virtually all the growth. We still have our partner, but we’ve been able to build internally through the revenue we take in. We also formulate our products for global use to begin with. In almost 50 countries, there are very few variations. Some go everywhere with no variation at all.”

Its basic business model and being e-commerce-based has allowed SendOutCards to grow with relative ease.

“Two things are hard on business—accounts receivable and inventory,” Laver says. “We have neither. Each card is already paid for when it goes out the door, and because of our product we run zero inventory. We have paper as a raw good, but we have virtually no waste. And we have a great management team who are good decision-makers. So it hasn’t been as difficult as you’d think because of the great team that surrounds us.” His only complaint is offered in jest: “Holidays age me by about 10 years!” he says with a laugh.

Laver acknowledges that distributors always face the perennial direct selling showstopper: being told no. But he adds that his products’ convenience, the variety of 12,000 greeting cards and their inexpensive price—starting at 62 cents, when the average cost of a greeting card purchased in a store is well over $2—readily overcomes most objections.

Real Estate Restrictions
Perhaps the e-commerce focus has helped Agel and SendOutCards avoid one of the key challenges that most companies face: real estate.

But fast, powerful growth has created space demands for both Ignite and Scentsy.

“For us, the challenges have been mostly personnel- and space-related,” Ignite’s Witt says. “For instance, in three years I’ve been in four different offices because of our expansion requirements. It’s always in the same building, but we have to reconfigure every time you turn around. And there are times when you can’t seem to get people on the payroll fast enough.”

He says that for an energy company, the primary danger to fast growth is service-related.

“If you lose credibility and confidence with either your field or your customers, your momentum will extinguish,” Witt says. “It’s not something you can turn on and off. We’ve had to deal with that. We’ve had some challenges and stumbles, but for the most part we’ve overcome problems and reached our goals.”

Ignite’s energy provider is Stream Energy. Stream has successfully tapped technology to provide stellar service. In April, a panel of 25 global industry analysts selected Stream Energy as one of the two most innovative companies in North America in customer service. They gave the company a four-star ranking, the highest honor in the awards program, because of the technological transformation and streamlining of the company’s customer contact center.

Witt adds that Ignite’s growth is restricted by the slow pace of energy deregulation in each state in the United States.

Scentsy’s Thompson says that having enough operational space has always been a challenge.

“The problem is that when we’re growing this fast, we have to explain to the landlord that we have to have 25,000 square feet, but the lease on it is 35 percent of last year’s revenue,” he says. “They say, ‘Show me.’ It’s difficult to get a landlord to understand that your projections are accurate. When we went to our landlord to show him our projections so we could lease the building we’re currently in, he turned us down. He thought our projections were irrational. We had used a factor of 400 percent, even though we thought it would be 600. Then we had to lower the projection to 200 percent just so he wouldn’t think we were crazy.”

Scentsy had to obtain a line of credit with its bank before the landlord would lease to it. The bank cooperated because Scentsy had good revenue and good deposits. Three months later, when the company’s growth proved the projections accurate, the landlord was impressed and expanded the space he would allow Scentsy to lease.

“We only did what we said we would do,” Thompson says. “But in a year, the landlord extended the amount of space we had by another 25,000 square feet of warehouse and 13,000 square feet of office space. Now that we have a track record, we’ll simply expand more into the same building we’re in.”

Subletting is one of the company’s growth secrets.

“For our first building, we specifically looked for something we could sublet,” he says. “We negotiated the shortest lease times possible so we would have the flexibility to move. Now we’re in 75,000 square feet.”

Recruiting the Right People
No matter how much or how little space an expanding company has, the people in the space—and the people they support in the field—have to have the right stuff. Ignite looks for experience, attitude and stamina to work the long hours needed to get the job done. International Agel values language skills and experience with other cultures. And the staff at SendOutCards tends to be young—average age 28—and, of course, have cutting-edge Internet skills.

But at Scentsy, President & CEO Thompson has a unique requirement for his executive staff: no direct selling experience.

“Anytime a company is growing at this kind of rate, it isn’t doing so because of a marketing or advertising campaign,” he says. “It’s because of the person-to-person viral marketing that’s going on. The primary job of a CEO, as I view it, is to define the virus and perfect it. My job is not to allow somebody to introduce the inoculation. So many companies borrow what their virus is from other companies, and if I were to bring someone in from another company, they’re bringing that company’s virus—it’s a unique offering to the world that was ingrained in them for as long as they worked there.”

To be certain that the Scentsy virus doesn’t mutate, all executives come from other industries, such as technology, automobiles and apparel. And Thompson has another requirement, too.

“Everybody has to be a generalist,” he says. “You can’t hire for a specific task when you’re young because everyone has to put on so many hats. You have to roll up your sleeves, go to work, but be experienced and smart enough to run a department. The skill set and personality type I’m looking for is unique; some people can manage, some can build. At Scentsy, you must have both.”

As in every direct selling company, Scentsy’s viral growth starts with its distributors, who are concentrated in the Intermountain West of the United States. Its primary distributor demographic is somewhat younger than most direct sellers, but it also has some unexpected representatives.

“Our typical distributor is a 31-year-old stay-at-home mom from Boise, but we also have an 83-year-old guy in an assisted-living facility,” Thompson says. “He does $300 to $400 a month in sales, and he’s enjoying the experience. They have very little in common outside of Scentsy. Our Hispanic market has started to heat up. We haven’t gone after it, but it’s coming to us. And we have a lot of deaf consultants. We have three or four directors who are deaf. They communicate through e-mail and are very well interconnected. It’s a wonderful demographic for direct selling. We would never have thought to go after the hearing-impaired demographic, but our numbers have grown organically, and we’ve happily facilitated and accommodated them as best we can.”

SOC’s Laver says that his typical distributor is a younger-than-industry-average male with the Internet skills that are common today.

“For recruiting, it’s beneficial to have some business background,” he says. “It particularly helps you talk with other businesspeople about the products. Anyone with a small business loves our products. One of the customer groups we’re attracting is distributors from other direct selling companies. With our product, they can market more efficiently and communicate well with their downlines and prospects. They can create cards about what their company is doing or about events that are coming up.”
“If you lose credibility and confidence with either your field or your customers, your momentum will extinguish.”
— Doug Witt, Senior Director of Marketing Operations, Ignite

Ignite’s Witt credits the company’s field leadership with being key to the company’s skyrocketing numbers.

“Very few of our people had any MLM experience, and we didn’t move whole organizations into Ignite when we started the company,” he says. “More than anything, it was the inherent integrity and leadership skills of our founding group that has quickly helped us grow organically and with few problems. You can’t teach ethics and integrity, but if you’re fortunate enough to start with a group like that, they attract people like them. It makes a huge impact.”

Once Ignite attracts its ethical distributors, it builds their knowledge base through both online and off-line systems, including Ignite Academy, its traveling training school. The combination of integrity and information is powerful and helps fuel growth, Witt says, “Fast growth generates enthusiasm, and enthusiasm is contagious.”

Agel executives also point to their field leaders as one of the company’s keys to success. The company cultivates close relationships so its leaders feel buy-in.

“We want to do everything possible to get rid of the wall between the corporate office and the field,” Jensen says. “Whether people are employees or distributors, we refer to them as team members. We’ve found field leadership with the skills we wanted. We didn’t necessarily develop their skills, but we set the proper expectation. Then that culture is replicated throughout their organization.”

As executives of the fast-growing companies—none more than 7 years old—reflected on the rewards of building such high-powered growth engines, all expressed pride at the impact their opportunity has made in the lives of their distributors. And none expect the pace to slow down.

“It’s been very satisfying seeing something start from scratch,” Ignite’s Witt says. “In 2005 we were just six guys sitting at card tables in a one-room office. Now we have more than 300 employees and in excess of 100,000 associates. But best of all is the impact that the business has had on people in the field—not just the millionaires it has created, but the single mom who’s making an extra $1,000 a month that’s changing her life.”

Author:  By Barbara Seale  Source:  www.directsellingnews.com




Young Company Focus: Scentsy

October 30th, 2008

Sometimes the next big success is nothing more than an entrepreneur looking for a great product and a product looking for a great entrepreneur. This magical combination is exactly what occurred at a trade show in Salt Lake City a few years ago. Stay-at-home mothers Kara Egan and Colette Gunnell had designed and packaged no-flame candles—aromatic and decorative—and since October 2003 had been selling them here and there. Orville Thompson was an entrepreneur who, since 9/11, had been struggling, and he and his wife, Heidi, were considering giving up their business of selling goods at fairs, kiosks, etc. When Thompson first saw the candles made by this tiny company called Scentsy, he immediately sensed they had huge potential.

“Initially, I wanted to sell their product through my normal distribution channels—fairs, kiosks, and shows—but there was something about it,” Thompson says. “I brought the product testers home to my wife, mother-in-law and sister-in-law. An hour later, I came back, and they were still smelling the testers, laughing and sharing memories.”

The first thing he did was call the wife of a friend who was a consultant for a struggling direct selling business and was ready for a change. Thompson asked her if she wanted to help him launch a company, and together they went to New Orleans for the Direct Selling Association’s (DSA) annual meeting. That’s where ideas really started to generate, and Thompson says he received help from all sides. “I was immediately impressed with the collaboration of the DSA,” he says. Thompson returned home with excitement, and he, Egan and Gunnell brainstormed ways to take the wickless candle concept to the next level. On May 1, 2004, Thompson and his wife bought Scentsy, keeping the two founders on as both consultants and members of the board of directors.

Humble Beginnings

Scentsy’s first home was literally no more than a metal box: Thompson had a 40-foot ocean container on his small sheep farm (no kidding about the sheep). “We were building a team while deciding on compensation plans, making the candles ourselves and working 20 hours a day to get this thing off the ground,” he says.

What the company lacked in accommodations and capital, it made up for in determination. “We started off with a sense of purpose and a sense of destiny,” Thompson says. “Everybody told us the sacred rules of margins and cost of goods and the importance of making sure you’re fully capitalized ahead of time. We weren’t able to meet even one of those rules.”

For Thompson, bucking conventional wisdom about the “right” way to do business paid off. “We were a little company with an aspiration to be a big company,” he says. “And we had 322 percent growth in the first year.”

A year and a half after the company launched, Scentsy moved into a 2,000-square-foot facility. And yet people were still looking at the business plan and telling Thompson, “The candle industry is dying. You don’t have enough capital to get where you need to go.” Despite the naysayers, Thompson forged ahead, and in Scentsy’s second year he was able to invest in the company’s growth. “We paid others instead of ourselves,” he says. “We changed the price of the kit and sold it under cost. We bought software. We had about 100 consultants and revenue of about $5,000 a month and we hired a consultant trainer.” Scentsy grew 410 percent in its second year.

The company continued to grow, and after a one-year stay in 5,000 square feet, Scentsy had grown so much that it was sorely in need of space. So Thompson found a 42,000 square-foot building and approached the property owner who quickly said Scentsy’s projections were unreasonable and denied him tenancy. Not ready to give up, Thompson cut the growth predictions in half, to 200 percent. The property owner agreed to rent the building and Thompson obtained financing. “We used that line of credit for three weeks,” he says. “About $60,000 is all the company has ever needed. Everything else has been completely bootstrapped.” And by the way, the growth during that period was more than 750 percent.

And Scentsy’s growth shows no signs of slowing. “We ended 2007 at 594 percent sales growth—$13.5 million,” Thompson says. “Our recruiting growth was 556 percent and that translates into a 7 percent increase in sales per consultant while we grew.”

Scentsy’s market is still concentrated in a small area, and 70 percent of the company’s growth has been in the Utah, Idaho and Texas areas. “We’re untapped in California, we’ve barely touched the Northeast, and the Midwest and South have room to grow,” Thompson says.

Value, Authenticity, Simplicity

The basis for Scentsy’s business philosophy is a quote by Albert Einstein—a quote that so inspired Thompson as a young man that when he saw it on a poster he bought it and hung it on his bedroom wall: “Try not to become a man of success. Rather, become a man of value. A successful man takes out of life more than he puts in. A man of value will give more than he receives.”

This philosophy serves as the starting point for Thompson’s three-point business strategy of Value, Authenticity and Simplicity. “Good things flow to value,” Thompson says. “The concept of the value of contributing more than you take has allowed us to become stronger and stronger. Having the right values helps the business through its generations. Be true to yourself, contribute more than you take, be simple and good at one thing. ”

Thompson says every Scentsy consultant is important to the success of the company. “I value every consultant,” he says. “I don’t say, ‘You’re not recruiting anybody so I don’t value you.’ One woman is saving her money to take her kids to Disneyland. I’m not going to say, ‘That dream is stupid. You could be driving a new car.’ If the consultants are only giving a little bit, but only taking a little bit, they still have value. This simple principle fosters incredible positivity in the company.”

Both for consultants and customers, authenticity is the second key tenet of the company’s success. Thompson holds a Director’s Counsel every week for those who have $10,000 in team wholesale volume and explains where sales are compared to the previous year. Nothing is a secret. “They use this call as their thermostat,” Thompson says. “My job is removing the impediments to growth. I tell them, ‘You guys are the drivers of the dream.’ They’re driving it; we’re serving them.”

Authenticity is the concept that sets Scentsy apart for its customers as well. “Boomers have a tendency to try to mask who they really are,” Thompson says. “Gen X is completely different. Authenticity speaks very clearly to them. Heidi is shy, I’m bald, and I don’t shave every day. We’re authentic.”

Thompson says the buzzword authenticity resonates with the Gen Xers and Gen Yers because they want to know what they are getting, how much, when and why they should want it. With the value of authenticity behind every product and every consultant in Scentsy, a new demographic is discovering a company they can trust. “Gen X and Gen Y are now our primary consumers,” Thompson says. “The boomers are moving into the consumption of experience—college educations, trips, hospital bills. It’s the Gen Xers who are buying homes and decorating them, and who are buying diapers and food and all the things that are needed to keep a family running.”

Scentsy’s third business strategy is a focus on simplicity. “In the loud world we live in now, the message has to be crystal clear for us to hear it,” Thompson says. “Instead of having a large product offering, we have parties with one idea that people have to understand. It cuts right through the clutter.”

One way Scentsy keeps things simple is by listening to its consultants. For example, when the field asked for smaller samples, Scentsy made them small enough to fit in a basket. Consultants can put the samples in a basket, find a location to place that basket, and leave it alone. Customers then use the samples to place orders. “We have one consultant with 17 basket ‘parties’ going on at one time,” Thompson says. “Now we’ve just taken away the problem of finding hostesses for doing home parties.”

Scentsy’s Future

Thompson believes his salesforce shares his vision of the positive future in store for Scentsy. “To self-perpetuate, we have to perpetuate the values—the vision,” he says. “It’s not enough to have a convention and share my vision and have consultants go home and work on my vision. They have to have complete buy-in if they want to instill in other people that same vision. In addition, the Scentsy product simply offers a better value proposition.”

Thompson hopes the winning combination of great products, a passionate sales force and a sound business strategy will make Scentsy a company others want to emulate. “In five years, I want to be an industry leader,” he says. “I want Scentsy to be known as one of the great companies that have inspired us.”

Author:  by Deanne Lachner   Source:  www.directsellingnews.com




Candle Fire Survey Supports NFPA’s Public Safety Message

October 28th, 2008

Scentsy provides SAFE candle alternatives – no flames with Scentsy Wickless Candles!

October 7, 2005 – A new survey commissioned by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) finds that many U.S. adults are practicing candle safety, one of the important home fire safety messages that NFPA sends out during Fire Prevention Week and throughout the year.

According to the candle survey, conducted by Harris Interactive®, most U.S. adults who use candles at least once a year say they never deliberately leave a candle burning overnight (91 percent) or inadvertently fall asleep while a candle is lit (81 percent).

NFPA commissioned Harris Interactive to conduct a survey on candle safety for the NFPA-sponsored Fire Prevention Week (FPW), which is being held this year October 9 through 15. FPW is observed throughout the month of October. This year’s theme is “Use Candles with Care. When You Go Out, Blow Out.” A telephone survey was conducted with 1,002 adults, ages 18 and older, living in private households in the continental United States.

“We are excited to learn that people are getting our Fire Prevention Week message and using candles with care,” said NFPA Assistant Vice President for Public Education, Judy Comoletti. “Placing candles a safe distance from anything that can burn and extinguishing them when you leave the room are important measures when using candles in the home.”

The survey found that 3 in 10 (29 percent) adults who use candles at least once a year have a specific household rule to never leave a burning candle unattended. But about 2 in 10 (18 percent) have no specific household rules at all when it comes to candle use.

Respondents who use candles at least once a year in homes where children are not present are more likely to say they have no specific household rules regarding candles than those in homes where children are present (21 percent of empty nest homes and 24 percent of homes with no children vs. 9 percent of homes with a child).

The survey also found that among younger adults who use candles at least once a year, there is a higher likelihood that candles may deliberately be left burning overnight (14 percent of those 18 to 34 and 10 percent of those 35 to 54 vs. 4 percent of those 55 or older).

According to NFPA’s most recent statistics, 41 percent of home candle fires start in the bedroom, resulting in a quarter of associated fire deaths. Eleven percent of the home candle fires start after someone falls asleep.

Here are additional findings in the survey:

* Candles are used in the home by more than half of U.S. adults (55 percent).
* Homes in which children are present are more likely to have a candle lit than homes in which no child is present (64 percent vs. 49 percent).
* Younger adults are more likely to report using candles in their homes than those who are older (61 percent of those 18 to 34 and 65 percent of those 35 to 54 vs. 43 percent of those 55 and older).
* Candles are used regularly by many adults: Three in 10 (30 percent) adults who use candles in their home report weekly use; and another 17 percent report using candles in their home on a daily basis.
* Few adults (6 percent) who use candles in their home use candles less than once a year.
* More than half (53 percent) of those with kids at home who use candles in their home use candles at least weekly.
* Scent is the most popular reason by far that candles are used in the home (59 percent), with ambience or mood as the second most popular reason among adults who use candles at least once a year (18 percent).

NFPA’s public safety campaign and related materials concentrate on home use of candles, which represent a uniquely residential concern. According to the NFPA Home Candle Fires Report (2005), 9 out of 10 reported U.S. candle fires occur in homes.

According to the survey, most U.S. adults who use candles at least once a year (92 percent) do not recall a fire starting in their homes.

While few who use candles at least once a year report that children use a candle without adult supervision even rarely (3 percent), 4 in 10 (40 percent) say a candle is left alone with no one watching it at least rarely.

NFPA offers these tips for safer use of candles  in the home:

* Always stay in the room where candles are being burned.
* Keep lit candles at least one foot away from curtains, mattresses and anything that can burn.
* Keep candles, matches and lighters away from children.
* Use sturdy candle holders that won’t tip over or burn and are large enough to contain dripping wax.
* Burn candles on sturdy, uncluttered surfaces.
* Trim candle wicks to one-quarter inch before lighting.
* When lighting candles, keep hair and clothing away from the flame.
* Extinguish candles when they burn to within two inches of their holder.
* Avoid using candles during a power outage. Have flashlights and batteries on hand for emergency lighting.
* The best way to extinguish candles is with a snuffer or soft, directed breath. Be careful not to splatter wax when extinguishing.

Methodology
Harris Interactive® conducted the telephone survey in the United States on behalf of NFPA between September 9 and 12, 2005 among 1,002 U.S. adults aged 18 and over who live in private households. Figures for age, sex, region and race were weighted where necessary to align with the proportions in the population.

In theory, with the probability samples of this size, one can say with 95 percent certainty that the overall results have a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points of what they would be if the entire U.S. adult population had been polled with complete accuracy. Sampling error for the various sub-sample results is higher and varies.

NFPA has been a worldwide leader in providing fire, electrical, building, and life safety to the public since 1896. The mission of the international nonprofit organization is to reduce the worldwide burden of fire and other hazards on the quality of life by providing and advocating consensus codes and standards, research, training and education. Visit NFPA’s Web site at www.nfpa.org. Contact: Lisa Braxton, Public Affairs Office: +1-617-984-7275

Source:  www.nfpa.org




U.S. Home Candle Fires

October 28th, 2008

Yet more reasons why Scentsy Wickless Candles are SAFE and flameless.

U.S. fire departments responded to 15,600 home structure fires that were started by candles in 2005. These fires caused:
• 150 civilian fire deaths;
• 1,270 civilian fire injuries; and
• $539 million in direct property damage.

Overall, candles caused 4% of reported home fires, 5% of the home fire deaths, 10% of the home fire injuries, and 8% of the direct property damage in reported home fires.

Causes and Circumstances of Home Candle Fires:

Details from the U.S. Fire Administration’s National Fire Incident Reporting System show that in 2002-2005:
• On average, one home candle fire was reported every 34 minutes.
• More than half of all candle fires started when something that could burn, such as furniture, mattresses or bedding, curtains, or decorations, was too close to the candle.
• In one-fifth (20%) of the fires, the candles were unattended or abandoned.
• Almost two-fifths of home candle fires begin in the bedroom, although the candle industry found that only 13% of candle users burn candles in the bedroom most often.
• December is the peak time of year for home candle fires. In December, 13% of home candle fires began with decorations compared to 4% the rest of the year.

The top five days for home candle fires were Christmas, Christmas Eve, New Year’s Day, New Year’s Eve, and Halloween.

Candle Fire Trends

Although home candle fires fell 8% from 2004 to 2005, more than twice as many were reported in 2005 as in 1990.

Source:  http://www.nfpa.org




Team Recognition Need Not be Boring

October 19th, 2008

If you have recruited even one person, then you are a TEAM leader! For those of you doing monthly or weekly TEAM meetings, you know that recognition is one of the things that keep people coming from month to month. Here are some quick ideas for fun recognition of your TEAM members. You may also consider using some of these ideas for your hostesses as a thank you!

1. Pay Day candy bar For trying extra hard
2. Tub of icing “You’re the icing on the cake”
3. Trial Size toothpaste For always smiling
4. Flower seed packets For helping others grow
5. Light Bulb For bright ideas
6. Snapdragon seed packet For “snapping into place” whenever needed
7. Chocolate gold coins You’re worth a million bucks
8. Chocolate Kiss You have a sweet heart
9. Gems candy You’re a gem!
10. Paper fan I’m a big fan of yours
11. Decorative tacks for being sharp as a tack
12. Stick, magnet, or glue For sticking it out
13. Can of green beans For always saying “I can”
14. Can of cinnamon You spice up our meetings
15. Comet cleanser Willing to do the dirty work
16. Flower arrangement For handling arrangements well
17. Lemon drops For turning around a “sour” situation
18. Orange candy slice For making the most of your slice of life
19. Deck of cards For winning even when dealt a losing hand
20. vitamin C For being a source of energy
21. Red Hots candy For someone who is red hot
22. Mint candy You’re worth a “mint” to me
23. Can of Pepsi For having a lot of pep and sizzle
24. Box of ready mix pizza For having “pizzaz”
25. Sure Deodorant For “showing your confidence”
26. Puzzle For being an important piece in the puzzle
27. Car Broom For making a clean sweep
28. Box of “highlighters” For making the world colorful
29. Yardstick You really measure up
30. Trial size product For giving it a “try”
31. Bubble bath Your enthusiasm bubbles over
32. Pillow For making dreams come true
33. Gold stars For reaching for the stars
34. Stuffed plush bear You always listen
35. Sea shell You’ve come out of your shell
36. Runner’s headband You’re in it for the long run
37. Toy ball you’re on the ball
38. Life savers candy for a real “lifesaver”
39. Feather Put a feather in your cap
40. Map Mapping out your own success story
41. Rubber band Expanding your business -or- bouncing back-or snapping to it
42. Chicken and Stars soup For someone who was chicken to do something, did it anyway and is now a star

Source:  http://www.thesuccessfactory.com/