How to have a (social media) home party

Have YOU ever thought of having Your Own Social Media Home Party to an Online Presence???

It can be a challenge sometimes to find a hostess for a party on occasion. Especially for those in a small town who may not be able to travel around a lot to the next county or city. It seems like some might know more people on Facebook or Twitter than they do in their own towns. Some may be able to meet people online who will host a party but here’s a different idea.

I have heard LOTS of people, when asked if they want to go to a (whatever company) party and they respond “Eh, I don’t really like the parties and I just don’t have time for that but I would like to look at the catalog and order something”.

Often times I make a new friend on Facebook or Twitter or connect with an old friend who is in a business that has a product I like. I often think “I’d like to order from them or have a party but they don’t live close by” and then forget what business they are doing.  SO What IF… they had a social media home party???

Here’s how it works. Decide on a date, and decide on a closing date. Create 3 different invitation types. One is a regular invite you can hand to friends whose social media info you don’t have. Friends who don’t have facebook or twitter or whose e-mail you don’t have. Then create an evite for friends and family whose e-mail you have but they may not be on any social media. Then create a Facebook event and invite as many friends as you like to your social media party.

You HAVE to set a deadline because if you don’t then there will be no urgency with the orders.

On the invite, explain that you are with XYZ business and you are doing a party but they don’t come to a place, they just look at your catalog online. Mark the date and time but let them know they can call you or email you to place the order before the party.

ASK them all WHO WOULD LIKE to be put in the drawing to be the hostess. Then have a drawing to see who will get the hostess specials and benefits (Explain what that is on each invite) not everyone wants to order more than a $50 item so it would be a waste to draw their name in a drawing if they have no interest in purchasing more.

Make it fun, get your flip out and do a party demo at home then post it on youtube or post photos and show case your items just like you would set them up at a party. Even better, you could record your 15 minute presentation with permission from the group, and put that on youtube. That’s how ladies always get the ideas for how they can use your products (ie, show them how the wick cutter works or how the kitchen gadget chops) They don’t want a generic vid, they want to see YOU!

When it comes time to have the party, have a video or pictures of your kids or your spouse or even a good girlfriend helping you with the drawing for the hostess specials, then immediately post it onto your social media who won.

Be sure that those outside your delivery area know that they will had to pay additional for shipping.

Once they see your demo or photos, they will get ideas for what they want to order. They will complete their orders and you will close your party at the close out date and time. Keep in mind that most of the orders will be credit card so you will have to work that out ahead of time to be sure you have everything set up. You can take checks from people who complete their orders in advance because there will be time for them to mail them or hand them to you.

We have a lot of friends on Facebook and Twitter and we know a lot of them have party businesses. We would love to support them and their party efforts. If we got an invite from an old friend, we would certainly take a look  at the catalog and see if there were some items we desired to have. It wold be understood that shipping would be a bit but it worth it to support good friends.

We would love to see photos of your (social media) home parties!!

If you missed our Radio show where we go into more detail you can listen here!

Charlotte and Jody

www.HomePartyPlanningBusiness.com

“Where it’s not just about the Destination, it’s the Journey to get there”

Home Party and Direct Sales Consultant Training

Remember when you had a regular job and you got a training manual? Did you sit there and read the whole thing? Probably not. It’s more likely that someone who had done that job trained you how to do it. I have learned a few jobs in my life time and have had some great trainers and some not so great trainers.

When you are building a team in your business, consultant training is a critical part of your teams success. Not only are YOU training your new consultants but it’s likely that the way you train, is how they will train their team members. The most important thing that you need to do is WRITE IT DOWN!

Develop your own training manual. Then update it as things in your company change.

I know that some of you have been consultants for 5+ years. You might think that you have got it all down, you have trained so many consultants that you could do it in your sleep. You probably know a LOT about the company but will you remember it all when you set up a new consultant? Do you have it all written down? Do you have them take notes? Your new consultant will have lots of questions but only you will know some of the things that she would never think of.

It’s not critical for a new consultant to know everything about the products and of course there is some on the job training during the first couple of shows. What IS important to know before the show starts is a lot of the back office stuff.. making sure they have all the items for demo, forms for the guests to fill in, getting them set up on credit card payment, basic product knowledge, making sure any paperwork is submitted to the company in order to place orders.

So much of this may seem old hat to you but it can be a real mystery to a new consultant. No one expects the new consultant to know everything and there is a lot of leeway when presenting the first couple of shows. When you have your training written down, you will not leave out important information about getting set up. They will also have something to refer to for information. There may even be features or systems that your company offers that you don’t utilize but it’s still good to present that option to your new consultant because they may find it handy. Let’s say that your company has a credit card processing option but you have always just taken checks or cash only, you might not think to train your new consultant on that feature but it’s still a good idea to let her know that she has that option because she may want to take advantage of that and go ahead and set that up for use at the party.

Every home party business has a training system online or in a binder that is sent to the new consultant but it doesn’t have everything in it that they need to know, you need to have your own system of training and show them some of the nuances of having a successful show.

You can’t teach a consultant everything they need to know before they have their first party. It’s good for you to be there to demonstrate how to do a party and how to field questions and show how some of the products work together.  What you can do is set them up for success at their show by assisting them to have the right things in place before their first show starts. They will feel more empowered as a consultant and will more likely feel ready for their next show when you have a solid training plan. Training your consultants will show them how to train their own team members. Having them host their own first show will also teach them how to train their hostesses as well … but hey.. that’s another blog post.

Think back to when you first became a consultant, remember your training? What was it like? Was it good? Was there something you would have done differently? Are you training your consultants effectively? Are you empowering them to take control of their business and run with it? How do you do your consultant training?

We would love to hear from you and find out how many of you have created your own training manuals. If you have not created a training manual and you need some great ideas on what should be covered check out our new system under ‘memberships’.  Make it an awesome day and we can’t wait to see what everyone has to share!

Charlotte Salafia and Jody Maley

www.homepartyplanningbusiness.com

“Where it’s not just about the destination, but the journey to get there.”

Weaving a Web Presence for a Home Party business Online!

Tips on How to Create your Home Party Business to a Beginning online presence can often be confusing!

Where do you start?

How do you start?

Are there online etiquette tips to follow?

This week on Home Party Plan‘s radio program, both Charlotte Salafia and Jody Maley talked about Where you start, some simple how to’s, followed by some etiquette tips!

Here are some of the ideas we shared and the resources we recommend (and yes, some of these resources we do receive compensation from for recommending them)

1) Do you have a Company Website that you use to promote your business? If so, we recommend that:

• That you set up your “own” personal website (perhaps a WordPress, blogger etc..)
• Post on your website tips and ideas about your business…we used a “spice” business as an example throughout our Monday radio program you can click here for more details
• Make sure that having your own website fits in with ‘compliance’ guidelines with your company
• Link on your website to your ‘company website’  (Check out RoseMis.com for info on a blogging site)

2) Make sure your ‘tips’ are relevant to your business

• Many people get confused when they set up a website….and they give tips about ‘being a mom’….’what our family ate today’…..’healthy snacks for your children’…
• while these tips are probably wonderful…they would only be good if you are either: selling a book about parenting, promoting family programs….or in the ‘health’ industry!!!
• You will notice on our front page of Home Party Plan that we give tips to help entrepeneurs get More Bookings and more Sales (in fact, if you haven’t signed up yet to receive your Home Party Plan Kit…we would LOVE to see you there!!!)

3) Blogging can be scary for most people starting out!

• What do you write about? How often should you post?  Who will read what you are writing?
• Again….we gave some great advice right on our show about this…and you can hear us talk about using a Power of 3 when blogging.  Choose a ‘spice’…then 1) blog about the characteristics of that spice   2) talk about the ‘effect’ uses of that spice (shelf life for example) and 3) give one or two great recipes for that spice

• You don’t have to come up with all of this info on your own!!!  A great resource is www.ezinearticles.com (or feel free to use our articles if you are in a Home Party Plan….just ask us first!!!)

4) Add an email signature to all your Emails!

• Here is Jody’s sig….you will see a LINK to the free resource right at the bottom call wisestamps!

Jody Maley

Party Planning|3 Ideas for Low Cost Doorprizes!

This week on Home Party Plan we talked about 3 Ideas for Low Cost Doorprizes!

You can listen to the full show here, but I wanted to briefly highlight what we discussed.

Before you even start shopping for your door prizes it is essential that you decide Beforehand how much you are willing to spend on a ‘doorprize’.  A good budget is between $5-$7.

Here are the 3 Ideas that we gave to help you!

1. Summer is a great time for Yard Sales, where you can buy ‘baskets, display clothes, even candle holders’.
2. A Dollar Store where you can find ‘multiples’….like pens/paper, color cellophane wrap, and small med and large ‘gift bags’.
3. How about getting together with a few other business’s to combine your ‘door prize’.  For example, you sell candles/find someone who sells facial products…..or spa salts….. Gift Certificates…..or even better baskets!  You get the idea!

We also talked about making sure that you have a ‘yearly’ budget that you want to stick to….if you are not sure how to do that…our new Program address’s that at about week number 10 ‘setting realistic goals’.

We hope you enjoyed the 3 ideas for Low Cost Doorprizes and we would love if you had something to share as well!

Jody And Charlotte

www.HomePartyPlanningBusiness.com

“Where it’s not just about the Destination, it’s the Journey to get There!”

The Path: The Way

I recently joined a hiking group, a mommies hiking group. It’s great because some of the hikes I’ll be able to take my kids with me. I took my 8 year old son, Jake, with me on the first hike. It was a 7 mile hike around the base of a small mountain here in Arizona.

In the desert, hiking mountains and desert trails, there are lots of rocks on the trails. The hike can be challenging because there are some types of cactus that will attack you, there are interesting creatures on the trail sometimes and the ground is sloped and has lots of small and large rocks.

Parts of the hike were level and had no challenges and it was a nice break. Other parts were steep and had lots of gravel type rocks that could easily cause you to slip. A couple of us did slide on those rocks. The larger rocks caused a slow down to get good footing but were not loose.

My son was a real trooper on the trail, he didn’t complain about the heat or the length of the hike much at all. Toward the end of the trail he said “Mommy, I wish they wouldn’t have all these rocks on the trail, then it would be easier.”  I responded “The rocks are part of the hike, it’s part of the trail. If we didn’t have the rocks, then it wouldn’t be a challenge.”

Now, most 8 year olds have no idea what that means so I decided to share that with you.

That trail is a great metaphor for life. It gave me an opportunity to commune with the earth, with nature, creatures and people. It wasn’t easy but it was fun and enjoyable. The trail had it’s easy parts and it’s challenges. The rocks kept me focused on my footing, although there was possible danger if I slid, it kept me aware and on track. The larger rocks caused me to slow down but I got a moment to take in more sites around me and stepping the middle of my foot on the larger rocks gave me a nice arch massage. I looked for ways to use the rocks to my advantage rather than see them as annoying. I understood the value of the rocks. I also understood that the rocks help protect the ground from washing away with the rain (what little we get here).

In life when you find the path for your journey, you find the way. In eastern philosophy there is “the way”. Even early Christians followed “the way”. The Way is not just about the path or the lesson, it’s about everything. In Karate or Kung Fu, it’s not just a defense that you learn, it’s about The Way, it’s the way of life, you master your entire world and not just the Karate or Kung Fu. These eastern techniques are not just for self defense but they are a metaphor for the way you life your life, respect others outside the arena, know who you are outside the arena as well.

It’s all about being congruent. Having a sense of who you are and living your life the same in every area of your life. It’s about taking the challenges and turning them into a benefit. It’s about The Path you are on and The Way.

Are you resisting the rocks? Or.. are you finding a way to make the rocks work for you?

Charlotte Salafia

www.homepartyplanningbusiness.com

“Where it’s not just about the destination, but the journey to get there.”