First Cooking Show Success: Tips, Tricks, and Booking Opportunities!

[PoseyMom]

Well, I finally did it... I have been doing all catalog shows since September as we thought we were relocating, which apparently isn't happening... so now... I did my first cooking show... it was so nervewracking and then my kids ate the strawberries for my recipe!!! Since they aren't in season this involved me driving all over the place to find strawberries again, finaly got them, but it meant i was only 30 minutes early to the show... which would have been okay but i was doing a lot of stuff ahead of time. Next time I think I am just going to do the prep work ahead of time at my house. I really didn't feel that comfortable prepping in the kitchen with the hostess.

Anyway I didn't really know most of these ladies, but got two bookings out of it... and the hostess is still working on outside orders. We are still below the $400 mark, but hoping to get there by Friday. Of course, I forgot to say half of my stuff... got totally flustered half way through and there was a long pause of dead air.... But the gals were nice, they loved winning prizes... they were just prize junkies, kept giving ME reasons they should get prizes... lol. Anyway, hopefully the next two parties are successful too!

 

[pamperedlinda]

Congratulations! Isn't it nice to get that first show behind you? Don't worry about forgetting things, I do it all the time. Sometimes in the middle of my demo I'll remember something that I should have said about a product I talked about 10 minutes before - so I just say 'Oh....forgot to tell you about blah blah blah'....I usually get a laugh and someone else will chime in and say 'that's so true and it will also do yadda yadda yadda' - which makes me forget where I was all over again, but it makes it fun.

 

[GourmetGirl]

I totally forgot about tons of stuff in my first show... heck still to this day I forget about stuff! Just know that the shows will only get easier! Congratulations on being done!

 

[tlennhoff]

Congrats on your 1st show. 2 books and sounds like the sales are going well, that is great.

 

[PoseyMom]

YOu know... I was totally bummed out last night... I don't know why. I kept thinking that I should have had higher sales, but I think it was a low-income crowd so I guess I did okay. They were seasoned PC junkies which made it helpful. They sold everything for me. I even had a little old lady demo my can opener. She is hosting a show too!! I think next time I'm going to have more guests demo. I don't think I need to do anything and just let them do it all. I'll just stand around and throw prizes at people.

 

[PoseyMom]

OH!! One other thing. So between this show and a catalog show I am closing tomorrow night I will meet my SS1. But my SS1 isn't until November. When will it ship? And then will sales in November only count toward plus bonuses? Or will they apply to SS2?

 

[tlennhoff]

It usually ships within a week of your show that qualifies you for your SS1. You might want to think about calling HO and seeing if you can change your SS1 to be october and that way november would be your SS2 - not sure if that is good or bad for you depends on how you think your bookings for November, December, and January are. Otherwise any sales you have post-ss1 bonus going into a SS-bank where there are 4 options and you pick one each time your "bank" hits $1250.

Fantastic job so far, keep up the good work.

 

[mommyhugz1978]

That is awsome Jen congrats!!!! I can say been their done that and own the tshirt of being flustered and forgetting stuff!!!

 

[PoseyMom]

Tasha... I dont think I can switch it back to October. It was orginally October, but we were supposed to be moving to England in October so I pushed it to November. Well now we are not relocating, so we are just hanging out here waiting. I'll just let it accrue in my bank and see if I can keep getting bookings. I was thinking of doing a teacher's lunch hour demo at the school here. I should call and ask if that would be okay.

 

[tlennhoff]

Well some of those "bank" options are in my opinion better than the SS monthly options. So look, drool, and set a goal to hit.

 

[PoseyMom]

HAHA! I've been drooling lots. I wish I could assemble my own SS bonuses! My show finally closed at 457!! YAY! I'm so excited. Now I just need to get more November bookings!!