If you’re already in direct sales, you know that it’s not always easy to keep the priorities straight. Particularly when your business is just starting, but also when you get things going at a good clip in your business, direct sales can take on a life of its own and quickly cross the boundaries of happy home life. Here are 10 quick tips for helping to keep the Mom part of your life at the forefront while still running a successful Direct Sales business.

1. Plan – Sit down with your calendar and write out everything non-direct sales business related first. Decide which of those things are non-negotiable no matter how many people want to do parties on that day. And then keep them non-negotiable! Write in kids events, date nights with hubby, vacations, birthdays and birthday parties and plain old “just because” family time.

2. Power Hour – One of my favorite speakers in the direct sales field is Belinda Ellsworth. Her power hour is a tremendous way to manage your business life. It’s simple too! Here’s the quick rundown: Take 4 manila folders. Mark 1 as recruiting, 1 as booking, 1 as customer service and 1 as downline management. Decide on an hour in your day when you are going to work the phones for your business. Take your folders, set a timer and work each folder for 15 minutes only. When the 15 minutes is up, move to the next folder. As you interact with customers, recruits and downline put the information in these folders until the next time you sit down for your power hour. You will be amazed at how much work you can really accomplish when you are focused for that hour of time.

3. Office door – Use it! After you are done with your power hour or email time or whatever, walk out of the room and CLOSE the door! Or if you’re working with the laptop (see below) turn it off and close the laptop.

4. Get a laptop. A laptop with wireless Internet is a great tool for moms. You can get them pretty inexpensively now too. While the kids are doing their homework, pop open the laptop, sit WITH them and do your emails then. When they’re done with the homework, close the laptop and be done with your work as well.

5. Freedom Friday – Decide on one day in each week where you will be “off”. This can be Friday or any day, but decide on it and then actually do it. Commit to it with your kids, put it on your calendar and enjoy it. You’ll love it and the emails can wait! Once your customers and downline understand that this is your day off, they will respect it.

6. Use the “open date card “concept. Determine which days of the weeks you’ll be doing parties and write those down on a separate booking calendar or individual party date cards. When you are at your parties and getting future bookings only book parties on the dates that you set in advance on that calendar or on the cards. If someone needs a different date than you have available, find her another consultant (preferable in your downline!) to take the party.

7. Automate – Use the tools of the Internet to automate as much of your business as you can. Use an auto-responder for your recruit email packets and your downline training. Have a voicemail message available with a 10-minute presentation on your business that potential recruits can call before they call you with questions. Do conference calls with your downline so that you can address issues with the whole group rather than one on one with each of them, etc.

8. Involve your kids – Make your direct sales business a family affair. Employ your children to help with putting labels on catalogs, filing your paperwork, packing up your supplies for your parties, making the bank deposits, etc. As they get older their work responsibilities can increase too. You can even pay them tax-free and write it off as a legitimate business expense. Talk to your accountant about this great home business benefit.

9. Hire a maid. If your business is really on a roll and you need to spend more time on business, don’t take that time away from your family, take it away from other parts of your life, like the housecleaning instead. Hire a maid to do the big housecleaning jobs and use the time you’d normally be doing that to hang with the kids. It’ll be worth every penny.

10. Have fun – remember that your kids are only young once. They need you to be mommy FIRST and businesswoman second, even if your family does need the extra money your Direct Sales business brings in. Work smarter, not harder and enjoy your kids while you can.

Annette Yen is a successful direct sales consultant and mom to two lovely daughters. Find more details about the ideas above at her website: http://www.directsalestools.com.

Here are some helpful hints for making the most of the holiday selling season.

Get organized! – You cannot have a record-breaking season if you are not prepared. Set aside one hour today to order supplies, update your potential hostess list, get your show bag in order, clear your desk, and make those booking calls.

Schedule early and schedule tight!  – Begin filling your calendar with more shows than you would ever dream of holding. Promote noon and four p.m. tea shows so you can hold two shows in one day!

Have a family meeting. – Share with your family the importance of the season ahead and together decide on a reward you will all enjoy when you meet your goal. Post a family calendar on the fridge that includes important family events as well as your shows. Create a plan for when mom is away on business and make sure they know that they are an important part of your career.

Prepare meals in advance. – Set aside one afternoon or evening each week to prepare healthy meals for the nights you won’t be home. This eliminates the stress of rushing a meal and running out the door. Your family will know that they are your top priority. (For cook-ahead meal ideas go to our Meal Planning section in the DSWA Learning Library.)

Maintain an attitude of gratitude!  – The holidays are a busy time and are sometimes overwhelming; however give thanks for the abundance coming your way and celebrate your success. You will have time to take it a little slower in January.

Holiday Sales – Now is the time to gear up for the selling season ahead with fabulous sales ideas. Give your display tables a festive touch by draping them with elegant fabric in seasonal colors. A greeting card, ornament, or wrapped gift will also remind guests the holidays are just around the corner. Help clients take the guesswork out of gift giving with a Gift Certificate, if your company has this available or make your own gift certificate or basket gift. Have one on display at your shows and always offer this as a solution to your male clients. Offer to help busy clients take care of the people on their gift list in one easy stop with you.

Gift Buying Appointment. – Have the items delivered to your home, then gift-wrap and label each gift and personally deliver the order to your client’s home or office. Look into the possibility of participating in a community or church holiday bazaars. Often these events offer great exposure at a reasonable price. Be sure your products are properly labeled for your shows. This will make it easier for your customers to write up their own orders and reduce the order taking time at your shows. But remember to be familiar enough with the style and price of your samples so you can check orders for accuracy.

Jane Deuber is a Co-Founder of http://www.DSWA.org (the only association dedicated to the needs of the independent party plan and network marketing professionals). Discover what makes the DSWA so unique. Listen to three motivating and informative free teleseminars by visiting http://www.mydswa.org/tele_class.asp

Your new recruits are probably very excited, nervous and downright scared! They are anxious to get started earning money, confidence with their products and a steady business growth. But are you casting them to the world too soon?

Many sellers we consult with offer to help their new recruits with their first party or two. Once the recruit has a party booked, the recruiter attends to assist and guide them until they feel comfortable. However, some of the most successful sellers we work with go one step better: they offer a New Recruit Practice Party.

Each of your new recruits could be invited to such a “practice party.” This party would involve each of the new recruits you’ve signed up that month. Each of these new recruits should invite two people to attend the practice party. Having friendly faces in the crowd always helps to steady jitters. The party should include their friends/relatives and possibly a couple of your own more successful and seasoned team members. The team members can offer valuable advice and tips to newbie recruits for boosting their sales, how to present, ideas for party games, etc. They will be excellent at “critiquing” the newbies and offering useful and applicable tips.

These parties should be segmented so each recruit gets the chance to do a part of the presentation. The presentations should be divided up and each recruit does a separate item, service, etc. They should each be involved in the sales part of the presentation (usually toward the end).

These parties are fun and relaxing and perfect for new recruits to “get the bugs out” of their presentation skills, sales skills, etc. The guests should be informed that it is a practice party and everyone will feel more relaxed knowing that fact. Guests are at ease and the newbie sellers will feel more freedom in giving information, showing the products and practicing their sales skills.

Recruits will feel much more comfortable knowing that they have this practice party (or even two) in order to develop their confidence and skills before setting off themselves. Since it won’t be billed as a “real” sales party it will set them at ease. Of course, it should be a selling situation as well. It should be productive financially but very casual and easy-going (read: lots of laughter, a few goof-ups, but ultimately a confidence builder!).

As their recruiter you can attend the party to offer them tips, suggestions on their techniques, etc. This can be done after the party at a personal consultation session or as a group session after the party. This is when the seasoned team members should offer their own ideas on how to run a profitable party. Recruits can learn from others’ mistakes and their own triumphs.

Some sellers even go so far as to pair up a newbie with a seasoned team leader. They work together until the new recruit feels comfortable on her own. Using this tactic helps get the newbie off to a faster start, earn more at her parties and streamline her party/presentation skills. Remember, an earning recruit is a happy recruit!

K. Moehr is President of Moehr & Associates, a marketing firm that specializes in helping motivated direct sales professionals grow their business. Moehr & Associates is publisher of numerous marketing books and newsletters, including the Direct Seller Guide and Top Sellers Tell. Learn more at: http://www.isellmoretoday.com or email sales@isellmoretoday.com

Feeling bad because you don’t spend enough time in your business? As a woman, we get pulled in all directions. There’s never enough of you to go around. Here’s 5 ways you can save time, valuable time you can invest in your direct sales business.

#1 Delegate – This is a hard one because it will always be true that you can do it better yourself. But there is something it took me a long time to realize – the ones that love me really want to help. If I let them everyone is happier. Make a list of tasks that you don’t require “you”. That means tasks that others know how to do, or could easily learn.

Next to the task, note how you could delegate. Examples could be having a family member do the vacuuming, or the dishes. Maybe your spouse could pay the bills. Look at all the things you do in a week. The list is long, I am sure. If you can assign tasks to others, you can free up time. Just be sure that before you assign the task, you get the agreement of the person. Making sure they are willing to help is the first step. You will be surprised at how willing others can be when given a chance to take some of the burden off of you.

#2 Streamline – Doing each task separately takes more overall time than doing them in bunches. Women tend to be good at this batching tasks, so tap into that skill. If you are driving to the market, find everything you can do on the way there and on the way home. Plan to do them in a sequence so you don’t have to do any back tracking. Efficiency will pay off.

#3 Compartmentalize – When you work keep your focus on business, not other distractions. One way to allow yourself to do this, is to have other activities planned in their own time slots. Don’t feel as if you are ignoring your friends and family. Just schedule this outside of the hours you have planned for work. I started planning every Thursday afternoon to have coffee with a friend. Each week it was someone different. That allowed me to see friends and still devote plenty of time to my business. When I got a call “Let’s go for coffee”, I could reply — “Sounds great. I am free Thursday afternoon.”

Same for other activities. If you are going to do some food preparation on Saturday morning, then also do laundry, water the plants, pay a couple of bills. Make a list in advance of everything you can do. Randomly doing activities takes more time than compartmentalizing similar activities and doing them all at once.

#4 Prioritize – One key to saving time is eliminating tasks that you really can ignore. Everything doesn’t have to be done this week. Some things just aren’t mandatory.

Make a list of the things you think you have to do this week and mark off the ones that really can wait. In the time you would have spent doing them, you can put in some extra work on your business. You’ll be surprised how much time this can open up.

Summary: I am sure you can think of other ways to save time. Valuable time for your business can equal more profits and success. Try these 4 ways to get started. It will really make a difference.

Debbie McNeely is an author of other articles showing women more effective ways to create income in direct sales while still maintaining a balanced lifestyle. Get your free copy of “Intuition Counts in MLM: A Plan By Women For Women” right now. Go to: Best MLM For Women

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After Labor Day Party
Thursday, September 9th
9pm – 11pm Eastern Standard Time

t’s An Autumn Online Party!
Tuesday, September 21st
9pm – 11pm Eastern Standard Time

Business Opportunity Online Party
Thursday, September 30th
9pm – 11pm Eastern Standard Time

If you are in direct sales then you know that life happens. Products get delayed, items don’t meet customer expectations and companies even run out of products and must quit manufacturing them for one of many reasons.

When these things happen, how are you conveying the information to your customers and downline? How you convey these things could make all the difference in the world in keeping that customer or keeping that team member.

I’ll provide a few examples. The company you represent has a popular item suddenly unavailable. This could be a tragedy in that everyone orders this product or this could be a golden opportunity to help your customers try a new product. You might even offer a one time coupon for folks to try this new product.

Another example, new catalogs are coming out and an older product is being discontinued. Again, this could be a tragedy and you could lose customers or this could be a golden opportunity to contact your customers now with a coupon for a new product, or possibly the opportunity to buy a supply of their favorite product before it’s discontinued. If you have samples, use samples to introduce the new product to your customers.

Tupperware (the company I represent) had a huge warehouse fire this past December, yep right during the end of the holiday selling season. Everything was wiped out. This could have been a disaster for the distributors, but Tupperware turned it around and offered us daily specials, which we could pass on to our customers, a few new products that they were able to get from other plants around the world and even some surprise packages which we all ordered as we knew these items were coming from around the world and we all wanted to see these surprise packages. Truly, I only missed a few items for my customers and explaining the fire to them and promising them a new catalog for January kept me from losing sales or customers.

When life happens in your direct sales company, take the time to plan out how you’ll convey this information and how you can use this as an opportunity to increase your sales and build your customer base.

Audrey Okaneko has been in direct sales since 1983. She can be reached at audreyoka@cox.net or you can Become a Tupperware Consultant

Madison Handbags is one of the few new and upcoming trends in home parties – “Design Your Own Purse”. This little company started in 2005 and is growing at the speed of light! We are always looking for enthusiastic consultants to spread the word about Madison Handbags–nationwide.

Madison Handbags introduces a brand new, simple concept in direct sales. The customer chooses from a variety of 18 handbag designs and then mixes them up with over 100 different fabric, liner and handle options to create their very own one of a kind bag that is then handmade in Troy, New York just for them. It’s like build-a-bear for women. It’s highly addictive and SO MUCH FUN!

This is a great time to start this business—it is so new and the bags just sell themselves. There are less than 400 consultants representing 33 states and more are being added everyday. Just imagine where you would be today if you got in on the beginning of other commonly know direct sales companies like Tupperware, Pampered Chef or Lia Sophia. This is a great ground floor opportunity that you don’t want to miss.

The start-up kit costs $299 plus tax and shipping and it includes everything you need to get started– 8 bags from the current collection (with a retail value of over $600), all of the fabric and liner swatches, Madison Handbags handbook, business cards and invitations. The company also has an incredibly supportive team that will help you every step of the way with conference calls, webinars and an online back office.

Consultants earn 20% immediate commission from every party as well as credit that can be used towards free handbags, which are 50% off for all consultants. The company is extremely generous in their rewards…they have an amazing bonus structure and frequent contests and incentives.

Cathy Flynn
Madison Handbags
Sales Consultant
(914) 325-1286
CatherineS110@hotmail.com
www.madisonhandbags.net/cflynn

Social Marketing For Home Base Business – When you run a home-based business, your website will serve as the hub for all your online business transactions. It is where your direct selling customers will go to learn about the products or services you offer, read the latest news and even place orders. Because of this you want to drive as much traffic to your site as possible. Social networking provides just the tools you’ll need to do this while helping you reach a higher volume of customers.

Home Base Business Networking – Social networking has become a common and very popular way for keeping in touch with others. This form of communication ranges widely from personal to business and is limitless in the capabilities it offers. All businesses including home base businesses have seen it as a way to advertise and promote products to a wider range of customers in a manner that is truly personable.

The idea is to add as many people as possible to your social network. In order to do this, you will need to target the most likely customers for your party plan business product. One way to do this is to advertise your social media pages on your official website. The information on these pages should be different from what customers will find on your site, otherwise this method would not be nearly as effective. You can also advertise your social networking pages through your home party plan business blog. You can also place a link to these pages on both your website and in each individual blog post.

Your social networking pages should be used for networking with your customers. You can do this by posting special offers that will take place in the coming month and adding a link to your website. You can also post blogs on your social networking sites pertaining to the particular industry in which you are involved. This lets readers know you are up on industry trends and news.

As stated above, social networking can be a very powerful tool. The key to making it work is consistency. You must set aside time every day to check your various sites for questions and comments. Be sure to answer questions your potential customers may have and take the comments into consideration in a constructive manner. Remember that if they are taking the time to leave you feedback they are reading.

Remain visible. This means logging onto each social networking page on a regular basis. Long absences will send the message to your readers that you aren’t interested in maintaining these pages, which will then translate into a disinterest in them. Also if your pages are not frequently updated, your readers will stop visiting because they will assume there’s nothing new to see. Even if this isn’t the case, you don’t want to give them this idea. Traffic depends heavily on visibility and here it means everything.

Continuously add friends. One thing people look at on social networking pages is the number of friends acquired. If this number remains the same for a long period of time, they might take this as a sign of complacency.

Finally, connect with your customers. Treat each communication on your social networking pages as if it is a personal meeting. Let them know you are interested in their business by showing an interest in them.

Your social network will really grow your sales in your business to people that are not currently in your network of customers. Finding new customers online will create a solid business that will continue to bring you consistent income. Learn more home-based business success.