Help Barely Treading Water Here!

[jenniann]

Well the last quarter of 2005 was amazing for me. In October, November and December I was over $2,700 in sales each month (november was $3,300!) my January looked strong with 3 shows booked by the beginning of November. January rolled around and I had one show move and one totally flop because the host was almost hospitalized with morning sickness so she didn't put any work into it but I couldn't get her to postpone the show and my 3rd show was fabulous at $1200. Well I got one booking off the $1200 show for Feb and had only one other booked (due to 10 day vacation). I'll quit with that but needless to say my business really hasn't been good since January.

I admit I haven't been putting much into it (I am pregnant with my first baby and with working 9-5 I haven't had the energy to do shows) But now I am feeling more energetic but have no leads! I mean nothing, nada.... I live in the country so I can't do the neighborhood grill out or anything like that, my last open house was a total flop I just don't know what to do I NEED shows on my calendar for August, September and November. I have a 4 day fair booth the end of the month and I am hoping for alot of bookings there.

Sorry for my pitty party but does anyone have any ideas that might get me back in my $2,500 saddle........

 

[pamperedalf]

My biz was not all that great at the begining, but I got on the phone and I have done 2 fairs and then got on the phone w/ the leads from the fairs. I wish you luck in building your biz back up, and congrats on your soon to be newest addition!

 

[gilliandanielle]

It is hard to focus on PC when you are pregnant, especially with your first. I joined PC while I was pregnant (signed before I found out) with my second child. It is really hard to run a successfull PC business and take care of my kids all day (2.5 and 14 months). There just isn't enough time in the day. I just can't justify paying a babysitter to watch my kids so I can drop off catalogs cold. When I call to talk to my customers my kids are always screaming in the back ground! Sorry, this kind of turned into a vent....

ANYWAY, why don't you offer a special incentive like free shows or dollar days at your fair booth to get those first couple shows booked. Also, have a drawing box so you can get more contacts, or collect e-mail adresses and send them a newsletter. People love free recipes! Sorry for the negativity, but I am having my own pity party!!

 

[jenniferlynne]

I didn't have any shows in January, and the summer is always slow for me. I do the best in the Spring and Fall. Just hang in there. I have a feeling that business will pick up when that new catalog comes out!

 

[Mom4kanda]

I kinda in the same boat. I had a great start - but there are 8 other cons in my area and people just don't want to do shows. I know everyone goes thru this but this is getting old. I had 1100 in March, 0 for April ( i had surgery and a car wreck) I had 3400 for May and only $205.00 for June - how pitful is that. I have count them NO LEADS!!!!!!!!!!!!!. I am having a mystery host this month with 185 invites going out. So I have to get some SHOWS from this, I can not go inactive. That would be soooooooo sad. I love this biz. But I need some help. I am offering incentives, free shows, dollar days, etc. HELP
I have gotten on the phone - but i get lousy responses and it gets hard.

 

[cmdtrgd]

Terri - have you tried friends and family that live out-of-town? Catalog shows can be good business if you just need to keep going. Also, ask people to send out emails to their contact lists, too. That way the people aren't upset that their email address was given away - the friend sends out the email - and you could get some response from it! Keep it simple and keep trying the same 2-3 new ideas for 90 days. You will be amazed at the results. Once the results start happening, you can't stop what you have been doing otherwise you'll hit another dry patch!

 

[Mom4kanda]

Thanks Kate, for the suggestions. I think sometimes - i try to hard and just need to keep things simple and go back to the way I did things before. I just need to get on the phone and call some folks and tell them the specials and hopefully someone will book from it.

Thank you

 

[jenniann]

I too have a lousy response when it comes to making phone calls. I actually kept track of it last week and got 13 machines and 2 people, 1 $10 order and no bookings.....

Does anyone have any fabulous booking incentives that I could use at my fair booth?

 

[Mom4kanda]

Where are some flyers that I can use at my mystery host party for booking? I have lots of stuff to give away. I am already using Dollar Days and Book to Look. any others would be helpful

Thanks

 

[gilliandanielle]

Terri, try looking in the files and typing in 'mystery host' and see what you can come up with!

 

[susan g]

How about your OB? If yours is like mine, it is an office full of female patients and employees. That seems like a great place to try and I'm sure you're there all the time!

 

[Veevahchef]

I too have a lousy response when it comes to making phone calls. I actually kept track of it last week and got 13 machines and 2 people, 1 $10 order and no bookings.....

Does anyone have any fabulous booking incentives that I could use at my fair booth?

I just did a small "fair" type thing a couple of weeks ago. What i did was the "Show in a Bag" thing.
I had 4 gift bags there and 2 were marked with dates before the 10th of July, and 2 were marked with dates before the 1oth of August. I did it that way so that I could offer the incentive for the beginning of the month so my month is nice and even. (I hate bottom heavy months).

I told people that if they booked on those dates, they got a FREE PC show, and all they had to do was invite everyone and supply a beverage. Inside the bags were all the things I would normally put in a host package, plus a package of Paper plates, a package of plastic cups, package of plastic cutlery, and a package of pretty napkins (Bought it all at the dollarama for a dollar each).

I stressed that it was the easiest home party they would ever do!

Anyhoo... I booked 3 of the 4 dates while I was at the event.

ALSO.... for the first time (probably because I was in a hideous slump for summer bookings) I got up the next morning and immediately started calling the contacts from my draw box (Started around 9am). I really wanted to be the first of the vendors to contact these people. I ended up getting .... are you ready?

9 BOOKINGS!!!

Ok only 8 are in the summer and one is in September, but still..... HOLY COW!

I usually wait a couple of days, until I "have time" to call contacts from these things, but this time, I got right on the phone, and what a difference.

Remember, probably most of the people that express an interest in booking or the opportunity, put the same thing on the Tupperware lady's draw slip, and the Partylite Lady's, and the Epicure lady's and the Jewellry lady's.... pretty much everyone probably got the same response..... so you need to be first to contact them!!
GO GIRL!!

 

[reba515]

Terri - have you tried friends and family that live out-of-town? Catalog shows can be good business if you just need to keep going. Also, ask people to send out emails to their contact lists, too. That way the people aren't upset that their email address was given away - the friend sends out the email - and you could get some response from it! Keep it simple and keep trying the same 2-3 new ideas for 90 days. You will be amazed at the results. Once the results start happening, you can't stop what you have been doing otherwise you'll hit another dry patch!

____________________________________________________________

I will ask my contacts to do this too and offer a referral gift usually a SB & a $5 off coupon.

 

[cat]

How about your OB? If yours is like mine, it is an office full of female patients and employees. That seems like a great place to try and I'm sure you're there all the time!

I had tried that at mine and the receptionist told me I'm not allowed to leave catalogs in the waiting room!

Have you tried a phone/email sale? One time I had over $400 in sales (good to keep me from going inactive!). Another time I only had $50 in sales...but every little bit helps! I hear some consultants on here do very well with phone and/or email sales!

Now is also a good time to set up fundraisers for the fall! I had 2 fundraisers this year and both were not spectacular...one was $1250 and one was $730, but now with these experiences, I feel that my next fundraisers can be so much better! (One was for my son's preschool and one was for the local HS marching band).

Also, just keep asking! Anyone you talk to or do business with! You never know who you will meet! Now I have to practice what I preach! I had $2270 in sales for June (most were booked at the end of May from phone calls I made) and now I've only got on on the calendar for July. I have so many maybes to follow up with, but some I've been chasing for more than a year! (These are friends of mine and I keep asking them if they want me to stop talking about PC, but they just tell me, "It's fine, just ask me agan later!") One friend of mine finally hosted a show after 11 months of putting me off and she had a $800 show. She was SO thrilled with all her free products that she wants to do it again, but hasn't decided when!

Anyway, I guess my point is, persistence pays off and you will find those bookings if you keep on asking!

Sorry for my rambling!

 

[gilliandanielle]

I had tried that at mine and the receptionist told me I'm not allowed to leave catalogs in the waiting room!

I always ask if the receptionist can put some in the break room, then I "accidently" leave the catalog I was looking at (and a few others if I am feeling ballsy) in the waiting room.

 

[Cindycooks]

I told people that if they booked on those dates, they got a FREE PC show, and all they had to do was invite everyone and supply a beverage. Inside the bags were all the things I would normally put in a host package, plus a package of Paper plates, a package of plastic cups, package of plastic cutlery, and a package of pretty napkins (Bought it all at the dollarama for a dollar each).

I love this idea! I am doing a "before work hours" fair for our chamber of commerce on the last Thursday in July - from 7:30am until 10am. I'm excited - it will be a whole different crowd and I want something different. I'm gonna make up some pull-apart bread and just have it out. No Demo - just let them see the products and ask questions..and some raffle sheets. I love the idea of these bags to get bookings! I can just hand them the bag and have my calendar ready! Gotta do something - I have 2 shows for July and one for August so far.....thats it!

 

[gilliandanielle]

I love the party in a bag idea! We don't have dollar store up here, but if you caught a good sale at the grocery store you could stock up and have them when you needed them!

 

[bbauman07]

Here is a link to 118 ways to get bookings. I hope this helps.

http://www.chefsuccess.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=575

 

[jrstephens]

Call on some good friends to host parties to get bookings from. That's the way we all began and that could help you to have a "re-birth" (no punn intended) so to speak. Send out a email newsletter to all customers, friends and family you have addresses for of the up coming specials to peak interest. Pull out old sales receipts and make calls to see if anyone needs any products or would be interested in hosting a show. Do you have a local paper you put a classified ad in?

 

[Veevahchef]

I love the party in a bag idea! We don't have dollar store up here, but if you caught a good sale at the grocery store you could stock up and have them when you needed them!

What?? No dollar store? How do you survive?!?!

LOL

 

[gilliandanielle]

We have a "$1.50 store" LOL that has such crappy useless stuff that they are going out of business. I live at Wal-Mart and Fred Meyer!

 

[pamperedalf]

Gillian, at least you have a fred meyer I don't even have that!!!

 

[NANCY_PTTRSN]

Do you have a website? I haven't been doing all that well either. The website has helped though. Email your past hosts and guests with an E-mail theme show ,and raffel off the benefits .

 

[Mom4kanda]

Hey - I called a couple people last night. That have been putting me off and I got 2 shows for July and 5 referrals for people and get this ALL 5 booked shows for August!!!!!! I offered the $5 coupon or 10% off. two were past hosts so they get this inaddition to their 10%.

I also did an email sale for the "last Chance" summer dates. And I can't wait to see what comes from that. But hopefully all these people will actually host a show and not back out. I have already gotten my packets ready and my first party is the 18th. So with these two and my mystery host, I should be back on track.
I also got invited to do a back to school fair for moms - YEAH! I pay for the booth tommorrow.
Just shows - you have to stay modivated and GET ON THAT PHONE!.
Thanks everyone for all your help.

PS. About the OB office - i do wish i went there more often. I have 5 kids and no more in the future - I had a hysterictomy in 2003. So now I go once a year. - bummer about the leads.

 

[jenniann]

I "accidently leave" catalogs everywhere I go! So far no leads from those though. I like the bag sale idea, I'm definetly going to get stuff together for that. I need to order some bags from paperwork supply. I am also thinking about doing a "baby bonus basket", order the mini stuff off paper work supply and make mini gift baskets, if they book for August, or early September they get one of the baby baskets as a thank you gift (not until the night of their show of course)

You guys are so great thanks for all the ideas, Keep em comming!!

 

[gilliandanielle]

As long as you bring treats no one notices that you are actually not there for an appointment. Call first so that they don't think you're crazy though!!