You'll Get More Bookings When You Make Your Parties Fun! By Karen Phelps

The Home Party Plan business is still booming! As new companies form each year consultants struggle to get their share of the bookings. Are you one of the consultants who struggle for bookings or do bookings fall into your lap? Getting bookings from your parties is easier than you think, however, it may require a change in your thinking.

When you began your Direct Selling business you probably began like most consultants by begging your friends and family to help you get started. Feeling insecure about yourself, you went and did the parties and may have gotten a few bookings but not enough to replace all of the parties you held.

You might have found yourself at a dead end and had to begin again by calling more prospects for new bookings only to repeat the cycle. Most consultants, even top sellers find themselves in an occasional dry spell, however, if you are continually calling to drum up new business you may want to analyze your presentation style. Cold calling for bookings should be used for increasing your percentage of parties, not as the main way to keep your business alive.

At every party you hold you have an average of five to ten guests in attendance. Are you booking at least one third of the guests in attendance or do all or most of the guests leave without booking a party? Do you really know how to hold a successful party?

I'm not sure how long ago they began calling our business "Party Plan", but whoever started with the description knew what he or she was talking about! I have done extensive research, both on my own and with the help of others and I have found one major ingredient lacking in a lot of home parties!

You are probably wondering what the missing ingredient is? FUN! Since I have began my research I have attended twelve home parties for eight different companies and with the exception of a few parties I have been bored to tears.

I have also talked to hundreds of guests that have attended parties over the past year and the major complaint was the presentation was too long and too boring. Even some of the consultants I interviewed felt their presentations were not enough fun.

Where did the misconception that our parties have to be sophisticated, educational and boring, come from?

When I began my business over twenty-three years ago I knew very little about the product, but I did know a lot about having fun. I proceeded to hold my parties and demonstrated the product while I was playing games and joking with the guests in attendance.

My mother used to tease me back then by saying, "If you don't dazzle them with your charm, you'll baffle them with your bull"! I had fun! I had always wanted to be an actress and I used my hidden talent at my shows!

I booked more parties than anyone else in my area and in my first year began to earn monthly recognition for being number one in sales. The funny thing was...I still didn't know everything about the product!

I played booking games with the guests and teased them about having a party. I actually would tell them all of the exciting things they would get for having their very own party and the last thing on my list was, "You get me for another two to three hours! Isn't that exciting?"

Guests would actually tell me they booked because "I was so much fun"! Are you leaving your "fun side" home? Do you believe you have to be serious to be professional? Are you ready to learn a few ideas to help you "Party On"? If you are ready to have fun, these tips will help you.

First understand the misconception about "educating vs. entertaining". If Holly hostess called to invite me to a class where I could learn all about XYZ product, I'd probably pass and stay at home with the family. However, if Holly hostess called me and said, "Come on over Thursday, I'm having an XYZ party, you'll learn about the product and we'll have a lot of fun", she can count me in!

Let's face it...we are all busy! We are all overloaded! Your guests don't want to have to sit and listen for one or two hours while someone teaches them about the product! They come to relax, enjoy, and have fun. And yes, they will buy, even if they don't know everything about the product! Forget about holding classes to educate and begin to hold parties to entertain.

Second, move outside your comfort zone when you are holding parties. I know not everyone is as wild and crazy as I was, but you can still have fun! I encourage you to use fun games that will produce results.

Third, learn people skills. This is a hard one! If you have never been in sales before you might not have had to develop your people skills in the past. Learn how to meet and greet the guests at your parties. Never underestimate the power of a smile and a handshake. Adopt the motto "guests that arrive as strangers will leave as friends." Interaction with your guests before, during and after the presentation is a must!

Fourth, educate about the products by telling stories about them instead of using long boring descriptions about them. I guarantee a long, boring, detailed description about a product won't stay in my overloaded head for long, but a funny or inspirational story about a product will. Use picture stories to describe a product instead of just the facts. Share stories of past successes that previous buyers have had and demonstrate how the product will make a difference.

I encourage you to take a look at yourself and your presentation and if you've been a "stuffed shirt" in the past it's time to lighten up and party on!

Confessions of a Burned-Out Business Owner...Or the Dark Side of the Entrepreneurial Journey

This is an article one of my friends, Therese Skelly wrote...thought we could all relate to this at some point in our life!

"Confessions of a Burned-Out Business Owner...Or the Dark Side of the Entrepreneurial Journey" by Therese Skelly

I was fried. Seriously. Last week I hit the wall of exhaustion and overwhelm.

Why? Was this caused by sleepless nights, and stressed out days? No, it was actually too much of a good thing! It's called the “curse of opportunity” in my book.

I got thrown out of balance by recently becoming a member of two different coaching programs, rolling out a new marketing info product, launching my new Happy In Business Mastermind groups, and oh yeah...trying to be a mom in the middle of all of that!

What makes it challenging is that being in the creative flow is soooo energizing to me, that it's easy to not notice that I was working many more hours and letting slip some of my self care activities.If you are like me and you love the work you do, you may not even be aware that burn out is quickly approaching. Here are some signs –

* You work all day and forget to eat. (And no...coffee doesn't count as a meal!)
* Even though you really need to make that video for Facebook, you haven't washed your hair or put make up on for the last few days and look pretty scary!
* If you have managed to pull yourself away from the laptop to exercise, you are now stinky from not showering (but you tolerate it because you want to keep banging away at your computer and don't have time to clean up)
* Your kids are begging you to make time for them and tell you that they hate your business.
* The only conversations you have are the 140 character tweets with your virtual friends.
* You start getting cranky with your team when they ask more of you.

Do you see yourself in any of the above? (Sure, they may be a bit exaggerated, but I know of at least two of those that are real world examples.)

You need to realize that there is never perfect balance in business. Life will throw you curve balls, computers will crash, you'll fall in love, company will come, kids get sick, and opportunities will come your way. Meaning – you can't count on the flow always being smooth and perfect!

This is my process of the things you can do when you are feeling overwhelmed...

Give up all non-essential activities:
For two weeks put off anything extra. That could mean you stop going to networking meetings, don't listen to those teleclasses, and only focus on the revenue generating activities. I know this seems harsh, but if overwhelm is lurking, you need to get some more time back and this is the quickest way to do it.

Practice increased self care:
Sometimes doing all the mental work can make you even more tired than doing physical activity. So get outside more often, get a massage, take a bath, read for awhile, snuggle with your sweetie, and eat food you love and feel nourished by. For most of us, when work/client opportunity presents itself, we give up our self care and trust me – it will bite you in the butt if you neglect yourself in this area. (We don't want you getting sick now.)

Delegate more:
Do you have a team in place? (If not that's the number one task to do RIGHT NOW!) Look for even more ways you can clear your plate. This could be work related like having someone do writing for you, check your email, or do your books. Or it could be in your personal life. Do you know that you can have groceries delivered? Dry cleaning picked up and delivered? Bills paid automatically? Look for three to five things you can let go of and you'll get some time back. (Mine = I'm going to have one of my assistants manage my calendar and email. Those are huge time ‘suckers'!)

Change deadlines:
Yes, it's ok to say that you need to move things back. Most of us tend to over-promise and not take into account that things can go wrong. For example, I was going to roll out my Happy in Business Mastermind program in June. What I didn't take into account was that my key tech-team member would be travelling for about a week, and then upon return have almost a week of no internet services! I also didn't factor in that the new coaching programs I was in would take about 8 hours a week in the beginning, which exhausted me and so I got way behind in my tasks. Between those factors, the ‘launch' got really overwhelming and wasn't going to be done the right way. So I decided to move it back to July. Whew! I can't tell you the relief I experienced when I finally said “UNCLE” and saw realistically where things were.

Give yourself permission to have it easy for you. If you communicate, people will accept that you have to push things back a bit. It's far better to ask for more time than it is to produce a half baked product that almost kills you!

Nappy time:
Get some sleep! More sleep. If you are in the crazy entrepreneur tribe, you are probably running on adrenaline. (I know because we are all tweeting/emailing at midnight)

Give yourself permission to sleep in, rest in the afternoon, or go to bed earlier. Those toddlers don't know how lucky they have it to get a daily nap.

Remember to have fun:
When was the last time you just let loose? It's almost counter-intuitive that when you are slammed with work that the BEST thing you could do is to go out and do something where you forget yourself. For me it was singing karaoke and dancing at a friend's birthday. It was awesome to pretend I was Melissa Etheridge and rock the house for awhile. I came home so energized and refreshed that I actually got much more done than if I would have stayed home working on my projects.

So what will it be for you? I recommend that it's more than just watching a movie. Use your body, and get some adrenaline flowing! It will go a long way to getting you back on top of your game again.

And guess what? This overwhelm cycle will always be present. You will level out, and then your business will grow so you'll be pushed back into opportunity overload again. Make sure you print this out and keep it handy so you have to tools to stay on track.

I hope you enjoyed the article! I'd love you to leave a comment on my blog at www.HappyInBusiness.com

(c) 2009 Therese Skelly

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEBSITE? Please do! Feel free to reprint this article on your website, own newsletter or message boards as long as you send me an email letting me know and include the following resource information:

(c) 2009 Therese Skelly. Discover a simple, yet surprising secret to getting unstuck in your small business by visiting www.HappyInBusiness.com and signing up her next free workshop.