Stacy,
The only one of these I have seen done in my area is the newspaper. I am a military spouse living overseas, so I don't see many of the others!
We have a base paper where I have seen lots of people advertise different things in the classifieds (ex. new season, mother's day, HWC, etc). I have also seen customer's place ads (ex. need a PC rep to call them for a show). Of course, I called that lady!! She said she had about 11 consultants call her, and only about 4 really sounded like they wanted to do a show!! Why would you call otherwise??? She even said that her previous show was over $2000!! Anyway, the newspaper tends to work well (even for customers)! I can't give you any exact numbers tho, I haven't tried it yet!

 

I may be well wrong here but I thought you had to be a Director before you could advertise in a paper etc?

 

Any consultant can advertise in local papers....we just can't put an ad in the top 100 newspapers (I think the list is on the PC website or maybe the RFS).

Do be careful about using the PC logo though....I would run your ad by HO first.

 

They may have been Directors...I don't really know. I was under the impression that the policy was only for actual advertising, not classifieds. I don't really know. I have never done it myself, or called the few ads that I have seen. (But--I was considering it )

Thanks for the heads up!!

 

This is from CC on the PC website:

Consultants may place paid advertisements in local, community and national newspapers; town newsletters; Chambers of Commerce or other business organizations’ publications; school, church or county fair programs, flyers, etc.; and in local and national magazines.

In all advertisements, identify yourself as an Independent Consultant rather than as the company or one of its employees. See Title/Identification guidelines.

If you are providing information to a newspaper or magazine for possible (i.e., unpaid for) coverage or inclusion in a story, refer to the separate policy on publicity.

 

As far as mailing flyers it is true you can't put them in people's mailboxes. Some consultants make doorhanger flyers you can put on peopl's front doors. If you still wanted to mail flyers you could mail them to people out of the phone book kind of like cold calling but cold mailing. Of course you have to pay for postage for all that.

 

3 ideas to jumpstart

try your local chamber of commerce. it does cost money ($75 for my local hometown, $190 for the nearest city), but the membership gives you a lot of good things:
- NETWORKING
- DISCOUNTS
- COMMITTEE MTGS
- SPECIAL EVENTS
- NEWSLETTER w/ advertising; goes to 350+ bizs here, 1000 bizs for nearby city
- etc.. there are a lot more! (these are things i found with my chamber)
i also googled my hometown (and the closest city) for the chamber of commerce website, and looked up community events.. found some festivals, fairs and a christmas craft show already set for this year.. good opportunities to get your name out there and nab some serious contacts/bookings. so, maybe try your local chamber. (i think i might offer paying a portion of chamber membership for my recruits once they qualify.. as a benefit of signing with me.. but that's down the road--i dont' have a single recruit yet!)

i'd definately call/talk to all of your friends, family and co-workers, whether they're close or not. tell them you're starting your PC biz and ask them if the'll do you a favor by hosting a home/catalog show or just collecting an order or two for you. maybe offer a small gift (a seasons best cookbook or small spatula) for your first 5 or 10 hosts. or if you got the dough, you can always offer free cooking shows for your first hosts.. if you did this, you could pick one recipe to demo at all your shows, buy the ingredients in bulk and split accordingly for each show, like i've seen mentioned on here. if you find a bunch of people don't want to host, but dont' mind gathering a few orders, set up several mystery host show where each contributor who collects $100+ in orders gets entered in the drawing for a chance to be the host of the show and get all the benefits. or PIECE OF THE PIE shows, where you give each contributor (of $100+ orders) a portion of the host benefits, so everyone gets something. i'd also try to have grand opening show(s). i've read about a lot of success with those. if you can't have it at your home, see if your local church, school, or library is available to use, and OVER-advertise for it. the more the better.

and like the first suggestion, check out the fairs, vendor shows, bridal expos, etc. i did a small vendor show at our local mall for a few days in october and did quite well. if you can't afford the fee by yourself, try to find someone else (maybe your recruiter/director or someone from your cluster) to go in on it with you, or see if you can do a timeshare.. pay a fee for some of the available days. these opportunities can really get your name and service out there. (more people than i can count came up to me and said "i was hoping to find someone involved with PC around--i didn't know there was anyone nearby!")

all three of these things are things that i didn't get to do until after i went inactive and became active again, 7 months after i originally signed. but they are things that, had i known about them when i signed, i would have done them full-heartedly. (just anothe thing that i'll do differently when I get my own recruits!!) they say those that start off in their business strong, stay strong and only get stronger. i didn't start out strong, and maybe that's the reason why i'm at a lack for any bookings and my business is quite dry. but i'd focus on trying to do a slam-bam blowout start for your business, and keep the momentum going from then on.

good luck and let us know how you're doing.. and if you need any encouragement, there is a whole lot of it here!

 

I ran a free ad in the community calendar events, and I am doing a series of 4 healthy cooking classes. I didn't use pampered chef anywhere in the ad, and I have 4 more contacts and customers from it. I use all pampered chef products and they see the ease and how organized cooking can be. 2 of them had never heard of PC. I have sold probably $200 in products from this group. since we are meeting every week, it is building a repore with them. I concentrate on the food , just the opposite of a cooking show. I am in hopes that in the end I will get a few bookings and new customers.

Rita