How You Can Make Money as a Party Plan Consultant

Party plan is a term synonymous with fluffy slippers, a host with a lounge room of giggling women, and sadly pyramid schemes. For years this vehicle for making money has been pushed aside, defamed, ridiculed and the butt of jokes. But who’s really having the last laugh? In a tough economic climate, this time tested means for making money has become the salvation for many. Party planners are laughing all the way to the bank, these everyday people who have put aside their prejudices and joined world wide recognised brands like Mary Kay, Tupperware, Creative Memories are making money, flying in the face of a recessionary tornado.

Why are party planners so successful? Simple, they sell everyday products consumed by everyday individuals, in everyday homes, all with the convenience of home shopping. In a time poor society, home shopping has becoming increasingly popular, akin to shopping online but with the added benefit of personal customer service.

According to the worldwide federation of direct selling this billion dollar industry, boosts annual sales of US$114 billion generated through the activities of more than 62 million independent sales representatives members world wide. Even former US president Bill Clinton, recognises the merits of the industry, officially endorsing the direct selling industry, saying ‘Direct selling strengthens the US and its economy, providing an opportunity for a better future’. In fact so popular is party plan, it is estimated, a Tupperware party starts somewhere in the world every 2.3 seconds;

‘Putting aside the statistics, there are too many success stories, to deny the industry its due merits. Well known author Robert Kiyosaki, of the bestseller, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, recognises the benefits offered by direct selling. He has been quoted singing the industries praises, he says ‘A business in direct selling is the ticket to what I call freedom money’. Where the average person can enjoy the benefits of financial success without the hassles associated with a traditional business’.

A complete misunderstanding of party plan, is probably the main reason why it is not readily considered as an alternative and safer option to start a business from home. Each and every day, across world small business owners are hitting the wall, sinking considerable amounts of capital, chasing their entrepreneurial dreams. Whereas a distributor has the opportunity to make money, with the support and stability from multi million dollar icons like Avon who have successfully weathered several recessions.

There are several reasons why party plan could work for you;

• Flexibility work life balance

Party plan allows you to work the hours you want and when you want. Party plan consultants are rewarded according to the effort they exert. Moms in particular are empowered to work around their family’s busy schedule and commitments.

• Equal opportunity

One of the endearing and compelling merits of party plan, is the underlining non-discriminatory nature of the industry.’ No prior qualifications are required to ensure success; you need only possess, commitment, determination and a ‘can do’ attitude.

• Low Cost

Party plan provides anyone and everyone with an opportunity to realise their entrepreneurial dreams, this is in part because the cost to start a business as a party planner, is much more affordable than buying the latest designer pram or plasma TV. This is an important point, many people want to start their own business, but lack the capital to do so.

• Low risk

Going into business for yourself, means you are not only risking personal capital you are exposed to a plethora of business related worries and stress, it can be very overwhelming and very risky. Party plan provides quite the opposite opportunity, you are exposed to a limited risk because you don’t bear the burden of the managing the company, your role is to simply support the company as a party plan consultant.

• Free support

Party plan not only represents a relatively lower risk, party planners receive free training and enjoy the benefits of a well established business, including the support of a national marketing campaign, brand recognition and the strength in established systems and processes. Party planners are free of the cumbersome troubles that plague business owners, they are more empowered to get on with the job of building their business.

• Passive income

Party plan offers the opportunity to earn passive income.  Passive income is money you are entitled to without actually having to work for. For example once you sell a product to a customer, every time that same customer reorders, you will be entitled to a commission on the sale. Alternatively you could gain leverage by building a team, earning commissions from the sales made by your team. Most party plan companies empower their party planners to build teams – that’s money for jar.

For less than the cost of a dinner date, anyone and everyone can ‘Give it a Go’. Party plan is unequivocally the only equal opportunity where, few barriers to entry means no one is discriminated against, from the less educated to the Rhodes scholar, the defining point between success and failure is attitude.

About the Author: Sonia Williams is the author of several books, designed to guide budding entrepreneurs on how to make money from home, her current release Give it a Go what have you got to lose?, is an in depth investigation into how anyone and everyone can make money through party plan. Sonia interviewed hundreds of successful party plan consultants and reveals their secrets to financial success in Give it a Go.www.party-plan-consultant.com.

Can you Make Money With a Direct Sales Company?

Whenever I read work-at-home blogs or message boards, I always see some variation of the question “can I make money in direct sales"? Most of the answers to this question come from those who have recruited a few people so the answers are always very biased.

So back to the question, can you make money in direct sales? The quick answer is yes, you can. However I’d like to offer more details than just a “yes”.

Direct sales companies usually offer the distributor two ways to earn money. One is through the actual sale of a product and the other is through sponsoring or recruiting people to become representatives for the company.

This article will speak of industry-wide averages only. The average commission on the sale of a product in direct sales is roughly 30% to 35%. If in a week, you sell $100 worth of products, you’ll earn about $30 to $35 dollars. This will not pay your rent, but it’s $30 you didn’t have prior to selling the product!

When someone comes to me and says they want to earn $1000 per month, I cringe a little bit. Not because it’s not possible to earn $1000 per month, but because the vast majority of those involved in direct sales never earn this much. Speaking of sales only, in order to earn $1000 per month, you’ll need to sell about $3000 worth of products every single month. If the average customer spends $35 on products, you’re going to need at least 85 customers, each ordering $35 worth of product, to hit that $3000 sales mark. Again, this is not impossible, but almost no one can do this their first few months in business. It’s not easy finding 85 customers each and every month. For those who stick with it, for those who continue to pursue new customers each and every month, it is not uncommon to have several hundred customers in a couple of short years. Direct sales becomes especially profitable when you’re selling a product that has to be re-ordered each and every month.

Now let’s switch gears and talk about sponsoring others. The AVERAGE industry-wide income earned from sponsoring others is about 10%. This means for every $100 sold by those you sponsor, you’ll earn about $10. Again, using $1000 as our target income, you’ll need to create a group volume of at least $10,000. Ten percent of ten thousand is indeed the $1000 you were looking for. Again, this is not impossible to do, but it does not happen as often as the internet leads us to believe it does. Let’s say you sponsor one person per month your first year. This means you’ll have 12 people in your group at the end of that year. If each of those 12 people sold $500 per month in products, you’d have group sales of $6000. Not quite $10,000, but you’re definitely on your way.

The best advice I can give someone is that when they choose a direct sales company, they have to dedicate themselves to at least a 3 year plan. If you get involved with a direct sales company expecting to get rich overnight you may be very disappointed. Big money can be made for the average person but it takes time and dedication.

Author: Chad William Hershey of ManifestYourFortune is founder of his own home based business, The Pinnacle Group. He is a student and mentor of the Universal Law of Attraction, as seen in The Secret, and believes fully in The Master Key System. Chad shares his passion and knowledge of being in the home based business arena for the last 15 years and enjoys helping others succeed with Internet marketing.  

Choosing The Best Sponsor For Your Direct Sales Company

So, you have found the perfect direct sales company to join. But before you sign up, you'll need to decide who is going to be your sponsor.

First, the basics: When you sign up with a direct sales company, you will most likely sign up underneath someone who in turns becomes your sponsor. This person will receive a percentage of your sales, and should be the one to help get you started and give you any training you may need. It is to their advantage to get you motivated and trained, because the more money you make, the more they will also make off of you.

However, sometimes you will find some direct sales representatives that are so focused on sponsoring new members that the neglect the most important part, which is training and managing their downline.

If you sign up underneath one of these sponsors, you may find yourself lost and without much direction on how to run your business.

Most new direct sellers sign up under the first person that introduced them to the company, or the first one that gave them the information that they requested.

It is your sponsor's job to train, teach, and guide you in the right direction so you can build a successful direct sales business. If you don't know your sponsor, how do you know they are the right candidate in helping you build your direct sales business?

Here are some questions you may want to ask your potential sponsor:

1. How long they have been with the company? In general, the longer your sponsor has been with the company the more they know about it and how it works. They also have an upper hand in knowing what methods of selling and recruiting work best for this company. A seasoned direct seller is almost always more knowledgeable than a new one.

2. How knowledgeable are they with the company's history and policies? Knowing the company history and their policies are very important. Your sponsor should be able to tell you a full history of the company, about the founders, and all the products. Company Policies are also important because you will want to know what methods of advertisement and selling may not be allowed.

3. How active they are in the company? Is their business part time or full time? This is also very important. You might prefer to go with a sponsor that makes their direct sales business full time because they will have more time to devote to you. A part time sponsor will also have another job to deal with and may or may not be on call when you need them.

4. What is their experience with training their downline? You might want to ask your sponsor how many people are in their downline and how they manage them.

5. What tools do they offer to help train their downline? Ask your sponsor if they have weekly or monthly conference calls for their downline, and any message boards or chat rooms to go for support.

6. How much time can they invest in you? Ask your sponsor how much time she can take out in the first few weeks to help you get your direct sales business set up and ready to go.

7. How close do they live to you? Location is not the most important qualification, but it is always nice if a sponsor is close by and can be reached easily for meetings. Most training is done online now in direct sales.

Finding the right sponsor is just as important as finding the right direct sales company. Remember, you don't have to join the first person that tries to sign you up. You may even ask to speak to a member of their current downline to get a better account of how good a sponsor they are. Make sure you spend the extra time to find someone that really meets your qualifications and expectations so you can be one step ahead in your direct sales business!

Author: Stefanie Fauquet is the owner of Work at Home Mom Online, a top direct sales resource site with information to help moms make money in direct sales. Visit http://www.WorkatHomeMomOnline.com today!

How To Advertise Your Business On Valentine’s Day

Even on hard times, it is traditional to give someone you love something special on the day of hearts. So don't be surprised if some businesses like flowers, chocolates, greeting cards, postcard printing, personalized notecards and other gift products will be on the boom. Love after all is worth spending on. So, with all that Love and cash being distributed there is something here that you can use take advantage on for your business. You use this as a great opportunity to advertise your business.

Below is a simple guide on how to advertise your business on Valentine's day. If you are new to promoting your businesses or maybe even a veteran owner who wants new ideas, then you will benefit from this guide. It details a few key strategies like postcard printing, product repackaging, personalized notecard printing and others that can help advertise you business and bring in sales. So without further ado, here is the simple guide.

1. Repackaging your products: The first thing you should do is to set aside a few choice products for a “Valentine line”. These products should be the ones that are applicable as Valentine presents, which someone can give their significant other. Of course, if your business is about food, flowers, stuffed animals, balloons and other such traditional Valentine’s presents you should have no problem. Just package them in red containers or plastics, add some ribbons and a color postcard, and they should be all set for Valentine’s. For other products however, it might take a little creative thinking on your part to apply it for the day of hearts.

For example, if you own a shop that sells gadgets and computer equipment, you may want to emphasize on discounted twin product deals that can apply for couples. Those gadgets that are colored red, or something close to red and pink can also be aimed for the “Valentine’s” crowd. Just think of ways to market and package your products so that a person may consider it as a gift to a loved one. Please take note though that if your product is really not related to anything about Love (like building materials, or poisonous chemicals), you mustn’t force yourself in doing some kind of Valentine’s marketing strategy. It just won’t work.

2. Investing in printed gift materials: Besides redressing your products, you can also have a few printed gift materials that you can give away or sell off as marketing tools. These printed materials can include color postcards or Valentine’s greeting cards, personalized notecards, bookmarks and other such paraphernalia. You can design them for the season, with hearts, butterflies, ribbons and other nice objects. Of course include your business logo, or color business card in the package so that the printed giveaway becomes your advertising tool. You can even hide some coupons or integrate them into the designs, to make sure that people will think of going to your shop or business on Valentine’s day.

3. Offering Valentine's day packages: Of course, another way to advertise your business is to offer special Valentine’s day packages. Have a large color poster printed that announces your special Valentine ’s Day deals. Focus on deals for two people of course, or try to have some big gift packages with collections of your products which can be applied as a Valentine gift. If you can, try to offer them in some kind of red packaging, or you can also offer some free gift wrapping so that people can immediately give them as gifts.

4. Creating a special event: Lastly, you can also offer a special Valentine’s event in your shop as an advertising ploy. For example, if you own a bookstore, you can have a poetry reading or story telling event for couples to enjoy. If you own a department store or something similar, maybe you can have some kind of palm reading event for free that can tell people about their Love and destiny. Basically, just think of a nice event that people associate with Love and Valentine’s Day. As people see your business, they’ll be attracted to go in and see what’s going on. It is a nice advertising tool.

Those are just four great ideas for advertising your business in Valentine’s Day. If you have are creative enough, you can also adapt these strategies, or you can even build upon them so that you can use Valentine’s Day as a way of advertising your business. Good Luck!

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

Top 5 Ways to Get More Datings at Your Direct Sales Home Party

The very heart of the home party plan business is dating more parties. Without parties, your business is at a virtual standstill, with no ways to generate substantial sales. With your date book filled with scheduled parties, a world of opportunity opens up for you to grow your business and experience financial rewards.

So how do you generate more parties? Here are my 5 favorite ways to get more parties dated during a home party demonstration.

#5 Offer Incentives
As you go about your demonstration, be sure you point out various dating incentives to your guests. Make sure the guests know that they can receive a gift just for dating a party, and another for holding the party. Go over your party plan companies hostess plans, and when possible, show guests the actual items they can receive.

#4 Stack Your Hostess

Play a game of Show and Tell. You can explain hostess gifts to your guests until you are blue in the face, but until the guests actually see what it is that they can receive, it doesn't mean much to them.

Towards the end of your presentation, have your hostess sit in a chair at the front of the room. Take this opportunity to thank her for hosting the party. Then begin to stack her.

Starting with the gift of least value, hand all the items to her one by one that she has received for hosting the party. Give her the conversation starter gift, the dating gift, the hosting gift. Make sure you stack her with all the items it is possible to receive, even if the party sales are not totaled yet. Does your company offer half price items in addition to other hostess gifts? Stack her with those as well.

When guests see just how much they can receive, they are more likely to date a party themselves.

#3 The Theme Book
Your party guests want to have fun! What better way to get them excited than by offering a wide array of themed parties? Everything from the traditional Auction Party to a Banana Split Party, Couples Party, Children's Party or Margarita with the Girls. Get creative and think of fun ways that your guests can come together with their friends.

Print out a simple information page with each of these ideas and put the pages in a 3-ring binder. Leave the binder on the coffee table before and during the party. When your guests find a theme that interests them, they will be happy to date a show with you.

#2 Dating Games
Most home party consultants offer their guests some sort of prize or trinket for coming to a show. Reserve your most sought after trinkets and prizes for a special dating game. At the end of your show, offer the best goodies to your guests for participating in the Dating Game.

Have all the trinkets in a large bowl or decorated box. On each trinket, attach a note. Half the notes should say "Host a Party" while the other half should have a variety of messages ranging from "Draw Again" to "You've Won a Free Item". Tell the guests that participation in this game is optional. Explain to the guests that on each prize is a note, and whatever the note says is what is to be done. If a guest draws a "free item" prize, you will give her a specified free item, but if she draws a "Host a Party" prize, you expect her to date a party tonight.

This really helps to determine which guests are willing to hold a party. Only guests who are willing to consider the idea will draw a prize.

#1 ASK!
This might seem obvious, but the best way to date more parties at your next demonstration is to get into the habit of asking each guest. Do not feel that you are being pushy. The guests expect you to ask them to host a party! One method I have used to force myself to ask each and every guest when they place their order is this.

At the beginning of the party, I make an announcement. I hold out a $20 bill and say "At the end of the show I will be asking each and every one of you to host a party to be eligible to receive all these wonderful hostess gifts! If, however, I forget to ask you to host a show, I will give you $20 worth of product of your choice!"

This forces me to ask each guest, and makes each guest aware, prepared, and even looking forward to my question.

About the Author: Rayven Perkins Did you like these ideas? See the complete Direct Sales Resources section at Direct Sales Resources.