Work At Home Business Options

Archive for June, 2009

In the world of Direct Sales, most consultants are serious business builders and take great pride in recruiting and building their Direct Sales teams.

We take the time to come up with great recruiting ads, invest in business opportunity fliers and brochures, and invest our time in trying to find quality teammates to join our business opportunity.

Lately though, there has been an increase in people who are joining various Direct Sales Companies just to nab a demonstration business kit and run off with it. These people desire a great deal on the products.

Let’s look at an example:

Business Kit might have $400+ in retail products in it, but yet a company is running a special on the kit for only $50.00 for people to come into the business and join.

Kit-Nappers will usually run around to the various Direct Sales Companies and join several of them to just get the kit. They have no intentions on ever working the business. I have found that they usually take the few products they want from the business kit and sell the rest to make their costs back, sometimes even profiting off it.

Let me make this clear, those who kit-nap, have NO intention of ever working the business. These are not people who join a company and then after receiving their business kits, decide that the company isn’t the right ‘fit’ for them. Kit-nappers are usually people who have deception on their mind from the very beginning.

After you get a new teammate you can usually tell within 2 weeks if they are serious about the business, as they will respond to your communication with them. (Kit-nappers usually don’t respond or if they do, it’s to give you their resignation notice within 2 weeks of them joining your company).

Can you stop it? Not really…you never know who is just a kit-napper and who isn’t because they will not be honest about their intentions with you.

My advice, Don’t waste your time communicating with folks who don’t want the communication. Invest your time with those on your teams who are serious about building a business. If possible, interview your potential recruit leads…sometimes you can figure out who will be serious about the business and who is kit-napping by just spending some time interviewing them and asking some questions.

~Shelly~

Finding a good primary care physician is the most important step in being proactive in your own healthcare.

These days I see way too many people just opening up their local phone books and selecting a physician by viewing an advertisement in the yellow pages or by seeing an advertisement on television. In my opinion, this is the wrong way to be selecting your own personal physician.

Here are the steps you should be taking:

1. Ask your family and friends who they are seeing for their primary healthcare. Ask them for referrences.

2. Call your local hospital or the hospital you prefer going to and asking them for a referral. These days, a lot of hospitals have Physician Referral Hotlines.

3. Call your local state medical board. Ask them to refer a few physicians to you and let them know upfront that you do not want any referrals to problematic physicians who have complaints against them. In addition, any physician that you are considering you should be checking out their credentials with your state medical board.

4. Ask some local nurses. If you don’t know any nurses personally, ask your friends and family if they do. I often find that the best referrals come from nurses who often know who is the best in the area in a specific medical speciality.

5. Call your insurance company. These days a lot of insurance companies will help you find the perfect physician and often times they are also aware of any physician who has complaints filed against he or she, information that you might not otherwise know about.

Sit down and right down the names of the physicians that have been referred to you and go over your list. If you are comfortable with a certain sex (male or female) eliminate the others.

You can call up the state medical board and check out their credentials. You can also get online and go to the American Medical Associations website and find out information there.

I also recommend that you do a web search for the physician you are considering by going to a major search engine online and typing in the physicians name. Usually, a lot of online information will pop up that you can continue your investigation.

You should always do your research before selecting a physician. One of the most important members of your healthcare team begins with the Primary Care Physician so make sure you have one that you fully trust and who is qualified to take care of you and your family.

Shelly Hill has been in the healthcare industry since 1988 both as a healthcare worker and as a patient. This article is copyright 2009 by Shelly Hill, All Rights Reserved.

My husband grew up in a large Italian family and once a month, his mother would make this Italian Sausage Casserole recipe. Shortly after we got married, she spent an afternoon teaching me how to make it for him.

Here are a few tips that I learnt along the way.

1. Peel and slice all vegetables before starting the recipe. It will make preparation easier.
2. Use separate cutting boards for meat and vegetables to avoid cross-contamination.
3. If you like a lot of green pepper in your recipes, you can increase the green pepper to two.

When I make this recipe, I double my ingredients and make 2 at a time. We eat one for dinner that evening and I freeze the second one for a later date.

Italian Sausage and Beef Casserole

1 lb. sweet Italian sausage
1 lb. beef cubes
1 large onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large green pepper, seeded and cut into small slices
4 large potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters
1 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 beef bouillon cubes, dissolved in boiling water

In a large frying pan, over medium heat, brown sausage until done. Cut links in 1-inch pieces and place in a 3 quart casserole dish. Drain fat from pan, reserving 2 tablespoons.

Brown beef cubes in 1 tablespoon of sausage fat, then place cubes into the casserole dish. Fry onion and garlic in remaining 1 tablespoon of fat until tender. Add sliced green peppers and cook for 1 1/2 additional minutes. Add mixture to the baking dish. Add quartered potatoes, sprinkle seasonings on top. Dissolve bouillon cubes in a 1/2 cup of boiling water and pour into baking dish. Stir ingredients together.

Cover and bake in a 350 degree oven for 60-75 minutes or until beef and potatoes are tender and done.

Serving Ideas: Serve with warm bread and a tossed garden salad.

Shelly has been working from home in Direct Sales since 1989. You can visit Shelly at Shakin ‘N Bakin Recipe Blog.

NOTE: This article is Exclusive to Work At Home Business Options and can not be reproduced without our permission.

Copyright © 2009 Work At Home Business Options and Shelly Hill

Are you following up with your customers after they have received their purchase from you? If not, you are missing out on future re-orders, party bookings and referrals.

Following up with your customers is an important part of your business. Customers need to know that you value their business. When you follow up with a customer, make it short and sweet. Don’t badger them to immediately make another purchase or to book a party from you. Customers don’t need to be harassed for future sales. You can do a customer follow-up via email, a postcard mailing or by phone.

Here is a brief script of what you can say via phone:

Hi, is this (customer name)?

“Great, this is (your name) calling from (company name). How are you doing today?” (customer response) (consultant response).

“I wanted to give you a call today to see if your order arrived and if everything was perfect with your items and delivery?” (customer response) (consultant response)

note: If anything was wrong with the order, handle it promptly.

“That’s great (customer name), I am so happy to hear that your order arrived safely and that you are enjoying your new items.” (customer response) (consultant response) “(customer name), I just wanted you to know that in the future when you want to place an order or if you would like to book a party, you can reach me at (phone) or at (email).” (pause for a customer response)

“(customer name) while I have you on the phone today, would you like for me to add you to my catalog mailing list?” (customer response) “Great, I will mail out a catalog to you every time we publish a new one with (company name).” (customer response)

“Thank you (customer name) for your purchase and for giving me a few minutes of your time today. I hope we get to talk again soon.” (customer response) (consultant response).

I find that if I keep my customer follow-up calls loosely structured that I get the best results. I keep my verbiage short, sweet and to the point. My calls don’t take a lot of time, usually less than 10 minutes per customer.

If you have the permission of the customer, you could send them an email to do your customer post sale follow-up…however, you should only do this if you have their permission to contact them via that route. If not, then you can get into trouble with your ISP for spamming the customer.

Your other option is to mail out a customer care postcard. Make sure you include your contact information on that postcard.

The most important thing is to take the time out of your busy schedule and do customer follow-ups. Show your customers that you care and that you appreciate their business.

This article is copyright 2008 by Shelly Hill, All Rights Reserved. This article can not be reprinted without Shelly’s permission and/or proper credit with live links given to the author who wrote the content who is Shelly Hill.

This is the perfect recipe to make on those hot summer days when you want to serve a cold dessert. This ice cream pie is enjoyed by both adults and kids.

1 ready-made chocolate flavored pie crust
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup of crushed chocolate chip cookies
1/2 cup of crushed peanut butter cookies
1 quart of vanilla ice cream, softened
1/2 cup chocolate fudge topping
1 tub of whipped topping

Place mixing bowl in freezer and chill for 20 minutes. In a separate bowl, mix peanut butter and honey. Chop cookies into coarse pieces. Put softened ice cream in bowl from freezer; add peanut butter and honey mixture and chopped cookie pieces. Spoon half of ice cream mixture into crust. Layer with fudge topping. Spoon remaining ice cream mixture into pie crust. Garnish with whipped topping. You can freeze the leftovers!

You can print this Interview Sheet out and use it while conducting your recruit lead interviews.

Recruit Lead Interview Sheet

Name: ___________________________________________________
Address: _________________________________________________
City: _______________________State: _________ Zip: ____________

Home Phone: _________________ Cell Phone: __________________
D.O.B. _____________
SS#: ______________

Interview Questions

1. Do you plan on doing home parties? ___________________________________________

2. How do you intend to work your business? ______________________________________

3. Are you available for training? ________________________________________________
If yes, when is a convenient time for you? _________________________________________

4. Do you have any previous Direct Sales experience? _______________________________
If so, what? ________________________________________________________________

5. How much time can you spend working on your business every week? ________________

6. How do you wish to be contacted by your team leaders? ____________________________

7. Will you be working this business full-time, part-time or just as a personal use consultant?
__________________________________________________________________________

8. Are you interested in being partnered with a teammate mentor? ______________________

9. Are you available for regularly scheduled team meetings? ___________________________

10. Do you have any limitations or concerns that you feel I need to be aware of? ____________
If yes, what? ________________________________________________________________

Notes:

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