Work At Home Business Options

Archive for November, 2009

I am often asked by fellow Direct Sales consultants if they should accept personal checks from their customers and/or party hosts.

My answer to that question is…it depends on your company’s policy.

If your order forms (company order forms) have it printed on them that your consultant accepts checks or if your company catalogs show that a form of payment is personal checks…then YES, you will have to accept personal checks.

However, if that information is not on the customers order form or imprinted in the catalog ordering information page…then in my opinion, you do not have to accept personal checks from your customers.

With all of that being said, I made and follow my own policy in regards to accepting checks from my customers.

If they are local to me, I will accept a check. If they are non-local to me, then I will only take a credit card or bank-drafted money order.

If I meet them at a local vendor show and I don’t know them and they are just attending the event, I will not take a check from them and they will have to use some other form of payment (credit card or cash).

I have been in Direct Sales for 20 years now and I will honestly say that I was ripped off a few times (less than 6 times) by fraudulent check users and learnt my lesson. If at all possible, I really try to not accept that form of payment any more since my company processes credit cards for us free of charge.

Every company is different, so make sure you find out your company’s policy and then draft up a payment policy that you feel comfortable with. (make sure its within the company guidelines).

When accepting checks, here are a few things to look for to help spot fraud:

1. Ask to see their driver’s license and make sure the address on the license matches the address on their check.

2. Make sure you have all of their personal contact information (mailing address, home phone number, cell phone number, email address, etc.)

3. Look for watermarks on the check. Some checks have watermarks or safety features. It is your job to inspect the check.

4. Make sure its written in legible handwriting. If they mis-write something or scribble something out, ask them to rewrite the check.

5. If its for a large purchase, you can call the bank on where the check is drafted from and find out if those funds are available and if the account is in good standing.

Let all of your customers know upfront that if they pay you by check…you will not be processing their order until their check clears your bank…this process can take 3 to 10 days depending on location and banks.

Do You Need More Bookings? If so, check out this site!

I have been networking my home business online since 1997 and I have been working from home since 1989…so I have been networking for a long time.

It never ceases to amaze me how poorly home business professionals act online in regards to networking on forum boards and on social networking groups.

Let me just say this…when it comes to networking, first impression is everything!

When you are networking on forum boards and social networking sites (facebook, twitter, ning, myspace, linkedin, etc) you need to remember to act appropriately on these groups.

Way too often I see folks only join these groups to just spam advertisements and then they leave. They come back and spam another ad and it becomes routine to them.

Networking is not about spamming your business ads 24/7 to those you meet online. Networking is about building quality business relationships with others who are also running and promoting a home business.

To build a quality relationship, you need to communicate effectively, participate in non-business and business discussions and more importantly, limit the ‘in your face’ advertisements.

~ Shelly ~

For the past few weeks I have been giving you an brief overview about online Direct Sales Vendor Events. Today, I will finish up by telling you how to find a good DS Vendor Fair to participate in.

To find online vendor fairs, you need to visit various work at home mom (wahm) forum boards and/or web sites, work at home web sites or Direct Sales web sites. You can also find some by doing a web search on google for the keyword Direct Sales Vendor Fair.

Most vendor fair hosts do charge you a small amount of money to participate, usually $3.00 to $20.00 to help cover the costs of the chat room and advertising of the event. However, you will find a few free ones if you look for them.

When it comes to signing up and participating in an online vendor fair, there are a few things you need to look for.

1. How is the event being advertised? If the host site is charging you to particpate, they are equally responsible for helping to advertise the event.

Look online or ask them directly how they are advertising the event? Is this advertising online and/or offline? Text Ads, Banner Ads, Social Network Ads or forum ads?

Once you have that information, INVESTIGATE and make sure you are seeing those advertisements. Why? In my 5 years of doing online vendor events, way too often I have seen host sites take your money and then never advertise the event, they are clearly doing this for profit. If they are charging you…you have the RIGHT to expect that they are advertising the event. (and not just ads on their site).

2. Are the times posted for the Vendor Fair Time Slots, convenient? What I mean is this, are the time slots great ones that can be utilized by all time zones?

Example: a 9am to 12 noon EST time are NOT good time slots because West Coast Shoppers are still in bed or busy that early in the morning.

3. Fair Spots should run 30-60 minutes in length. Anything under 30 minutes is a joke in my opinion. I once attended a fair that the vendors had 10 minute spots, are you kidding me? By the time they got done with their intro, they cut them off and moved onto the next vendor. Anything over 60 minutes loses the customers attention.

4. Is there a variety of companies being represented? If you sell jewelry, you don’t want to present your items on the same day that 8 other jewelry consultants present their products. There needs to be a variety of vendors with a variety of products.

I once attended a vendor fair online and in a 6 hour period of time, there were 5 candle company consultants…this was candle company over-kill.

5. Reputation and Word Of Mouth. You should always ask other consultants online if they have ever heard of XYZ site and if anyone has ever participated in one of their vendor events. Why? Reputation! Over time, a good vendor site will build a strong following that produces the results that you seek. A newer site will not have the same results as an established one. So, you should ask other consultants who do business online for their recommendations and experience.

In a nut shell, particpating in online vendor events can prove to be a great extension of your business to garner in some additional product sales. However, you need to participate with vendor sites who know what they are doing.

Important Reminder: Just as its important for the host site to advertise and promote the event, its equally IMPORTANT that you help to advertise the event too. A vendor event can ONLY be successful if both the host site and ALL of the vendors help to promote the event.

Do You Need More Bookings? If so, check out this site!

This is a really easy craft project that you can do with older children and it only requires a few supplies. Since there is a little hand sewing involved, I recommend ages 7 and up with adult supervision.

I find that this is a great group project for scouts, youth groups, after-school programs etc. because they are quick, easy and inexpensive to make.

These ornaments would look cute hung off a holiday tree, garland or your holiday packages.

Supplies Needed:

Green Felt Sheets
Red 2 MM or 4 MM Round Beads
Dark Green Sewing Thread and Sewing Needle
Scissors
Red Satin Ribbon 1/4″ Wide
All-Purpose Craft Glue

Pattern: You need a 3″ diameter circle (I used the bottom of a drinking glass). Use a bottle cap to to make a 1″ diameter circle inside your large circle so that you have a wreath shape.

Trace your pattern onto green colored felt. You will need two wreath shapes out of felt for each ornament that you make. Using some dark green sewing thread, hand sew on red beads to the front side of one wreath shape.

Place two felt wreath shapes together and whip stitch the center circle closed. Once finished, whip stitch the outer edges closed. Cut a piece of red satin ribbon that measures 1/4″ wide by 5 1/2″ long and tie it into a bow. Glue this bow to the top of your ornament.

Using doubled green thread, make a hanging loop and attach it to the top of your ornament. Let it dry for 20 minutes and then its ready to be hung onto your holiday tree.

Project copyright 2009, Work At Home Business Options, All Rights Reserved.

Writing doesn’t come easy to everyone, but I believe everyone can write well when given the proper tools.

Here are six ideas that will help you become a better and more confident writer.

1. Start with your basics and review grammar and punctuation rules. Keep a thesaurus and dictionary close by when you start writing seriously.

2. Start writing. Start a blog and write from thought. Let your ideas flow and don’t worry about the mistakes you’re making while your writing. Just keep the flow going and you can always choose to edit after.

3. Find a writing mentor or someone who will help critique your writing. Someone else who writes will be extra beneficial to you as they will provide the best constructive criticism.

4. Read a variety of material as this will expand your vocabulary and expose you to the different writng styles from different authors. Take the time to read each day for at least one half of an hour.

5. You can find free writing tutorials or worksheets online to help with your writing. You can also look in your local library for books, community colleges, or community centers where they may offer writing workshops or courses.

6. Gather your writing material and your topics and start making an outline of what your topic will be about. You don’t have to do it in one sitting if you can’t, but each day add more to it until you have completed your article.

You can also set up your own writing goals, challenges or writing project to keep you focused and keep you writing because the only way to gain confidence and experience is writing consistently.

Last week I gave a brief overview on what an online Direct Sales Vendor Fair was. This week, I am going to go more in depth and tell you how your home business can benefit by participating in an online vendor fair.

When you participate in a vendor fair, you are exposing your home business to customers and other vendors who you normally wouldn’t have contact with which means you are building a relationship with them during the event.

This relationship can yield you some additional product sales or generate recruit leads for you. However, those product sales and leads might not immediately come for that particular vendor fair. Let me explain…

A few months ago I had a woman contact me via email to ask me about a certain product that I sell. She had crossed paths with me 15 months ago at a online vendor fair and she kept my information for future reference. At the time, she didn’t have the funds available to purchase the $55 item that she wanted and I was happy to give her my information for a future purchase. I haven’t heard from her since and never expected for her to contact me again. However…15 months later, she was now in the position to make the purchase and not only that, she had an additional $85 in items that she wanted. I was more than happy to process her order. About 14 days after processing her order, I got another email from her…this time it was for $45 in items that her mother wanted.

The reason I am sharing this scenerio with you is that often times Direct Sales Consultants get discouraged when they don’t walk away from an online vendor fair with a slew of orders in hand. Building up an online customer base takes a lot of hard work and patience.

Product sales from online vendor fairs for the majority…are a lot less than the average home party sales. However, if you keep exposing your business and keep participating in vendor fairs, you can build a reputation for yourself and your business which will yield product orders when you least expect them.

Another benefit of participating in online vendor fairs is that it gives you practice for when you are doing offline events. Some consultants get very nervous when they stand up and speak in front of a group of people. One way to get comfortable with presenting products and information to others is by doing virtual parties aka vendor fairs.

Furthermore, Participating in online vendor events is a great way to fill-in the open dates on your booking calendar. (your home parties and offline vendor events get top priority, but there is nothing wrong with filling-in the other dates with online virtual parties).

With my personal experience, I didn’t get any orders or leads with the first 2 or 3 online events that I participated in several years ago when I first started. However, as time went on and I got more experienced and online party go’ers and vendor hosts got to know me, they felt more comfortable in doing business with me.

Is it worth your time? In my opinion…it is. With that said, you need to look for the ‘right’ online vendor events to participate in.

Next week I will give you several tips on how to find good online Direct Sales events to participate in.

Happy Selling,

Shelly