Home Business – Being Prepared For Emergencies

When it comes to having a home based Direct Sales business, it is important to be prepared for life’s little and big emergencies. By being prepared ahead of time, your business can still operate in your absence.

What do I mean? What if your child, husband, parents or even yourself becomes sick and you need immediate time off? What if there is a death in your family? What if a natural disaster occurs in your area? Is your home business prepared for your absence?

Lets remember…if your business is closed due to an emergency…you are not making any money!

Once way you can be prepared ahead of time is by making a list of everything that you need covered in your business. Here is an example list:

1. Answering emails
2. Returning phone calls to customers, clients, leads, etc.
3. Submitting pending orders.
4. Packaging and shipping.
5. Demonstrating at home parties & events that are already booked & on your calendar.

As you can see, that is just a short list, but there is a lot that needs to be covered in a home business should you need some time off.

As a home business owner, I decided to train a local consultant to me to cover me should I need time off. This consultant would go out and do my parties, events, submit orders, run training meetings and so forth.

If you are a Direct Sales home business owner, I suggest you find someone that you can trust who is willing to be trained by you…to handle your business should a personal emergency would occur. This person should be able to step into your shoes and run your business until you can return.

Customers, clients, hosts, recruit leads, etc. will not wait days or even weeks for your return. Most of the time, these people will move on another consultant who can help them so in essence…you lose business.

Do you have a back up plan in place should an emergency crop up and you need time off?

Shelly

How To Set Up A Direct Sales Business Blog

When it comes to Direct Sales, many consultants these days are chosing to start an online business blog as a way to reach out to their established customers but more importantly…as a way to attract new ones.

Before you make the decision to start a business blog, you need to contact your Direct Sales Company to make sure you are allowed to have one online & to see if they have any company rules regarding online advertising. You also need to make sure you have the time to stick with updating your blog before you even get started.

After you have made the decision, it’s now time to decide where you want to build your blog online. Two of the most popular sites for online blogging is Blogger and Wordpress. You will want to open up an account and get your blog set up. Once you open up an account, you can pick out a design. There are thousands of free online blogger and wordpress templates for you to choose from. Once you select one, you need to install it onto your blog.

Now that you have that completed, it’s time to get busy making some posts onto your blog. When it comes to blogging about your business, it is important to keep your new blog strictly about business and not your personal life. In addition, you don’t want your blog to come off as a big fat spam ad…so make sure you fill it up with informative content about your company, your services, your products and so forth. Once you got some content onto your blog, it will be time to advertise its web address.

You can advertise your blog online by joining a few online blog directories, putting your link in your signature tag, announcing it on your Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In Accounts and so forth. There are many ways to advertise online and you can find additional ways to do that by reading other articles here on our blog.

My best tip about blogging for business is to keep at it. People don’t just magically find your blog…just like they don’t just magically find your business services, so it’s your job to promote your new blog & to keep it fresh & updated with new posts.

Happy Blogging!

Shelly

How to Move Your To-Do list to DONE!

It’s our pleasure to have Melissa H. Dery, The Golden Rule Virtual Assistant (VA) as our guest blogger. She offers her expertise and discuss how a Virtual Assistant can alleviate your daily work load so you can focus on the other aspects of your business.

Thank you Melissa for sharing with us such a great blog post!

Take a moment and look at your current To-Do list. What are the tasks you keep moving from one-day to the next because you just don’t have the time or the desire to get them done? These are the tasks that you know will help your business grow, keep you organized and prepared. However, each day you have good intentions to get them done, but other pressing tasks like talking with customers, meeting with prospects and training new team members takes priority. This is where delegating can be vitally helpful to taking your business to the next level. This is how a Virtual Assistant can help move your business forward.

There are many different definitions of what a Virtual Assistant (VA) is, the way I explain it is, I’ve been an administrative professional for over 20 years, I just decided to provide the same professional services virtually. While you work from home building and growing your direct sales business, I work from my home to provide you the support services you need to help you gain more time in front of customers, prospects and team members.

When you took a look at your To-Do list, did it include the following tasks?

•Send invitations for current parties
•Enter new customers into database
•Create a system to organize contacts and schedule follow-ups
•Send thank you, birthday, anniversary cards to customers, team members
•Create and send a newsletter to customers
•Create and send a newsletter to team members

These are just a few examples of projects I’m working on with direct sales superstars like you. There are many ways a VA can help support your business so that you can focus on growing your business. Take some time to review your to-do list and see what tasks you would love to turnover and get done! Schedule a free consultation call and let’s discuss how you can get some tasks off your to-do list and in the hands of a trusted professional.

Melissa H. Dery is The Golden Rule Virtual Assistant (VA) providing administrative support services to leaders in Direct Sales. A former direct sales consultant, who also grew up in a direct sales family, Melissa has a personal understanding of the “behind the scenes” work required to help your business run and grow.

With over 20 years of experience as an administrative assistant, Melissa took her talents as an assistant and combined it with her desire to help support those in direct sales to become The Golden Rule VA. Where her mission is to treat your business as if it were her very own, with respect, creativity and professionalism…it’s her rule!

Melissa is married to her best friend and lives in New Hampshire with her two boys. She has a Bachelor Degree in Business Management and a “Ducktoratte” Degree from Disney University. She loves coffee, running and most of all go camping with her family.

Business Blogging – Topics That Can Drive Readers Away

When it comes to blogging for your business, you really need to pay attention to the type of posts you are putting up for your readers to read. If you post the wrong topics on your business blog, you will drive your readers away which defeats the purpose of blogging for your business.

I read hundreds of blogs each and every week. Some of these blogs are business blogs, some are personal blogs and some are a mixture of both (which I totally disagree about mixing business & pleasure together on a blog).

There are some topics that should never be discussed on a business blog (unless you have a business blog that is totally geared towards a certain industry) and I would like to touch upon those today.

When a customer or potential customer is reading your business blog, they don’t want to read about the following topics:

Your Love Life
Your Home Life Is A Mess
Your Spouse Left You
Hate Words, Curse Words, etc.
Your Neighbors or Your Boss
etc. etc. etc.

A Business Blog is just that…a place where you can share information with others about your business, the types of products or services you offer and a place for you to give indepth service & product knowledge. It is a place to give your readers more information about your business…it is not a place to gossip about your love life, your family or your neighbors.

Case In Point: Just last week I went to check out a persons business blog…but yet…when I got onto her blog, 90% of the posts were chit chat family and personal stuff. What turned me off even more was when I saw a lot of inappropriate language (including curse words) on what she calls “Her Business Blog”. Geesh, that is one sure fire way to drive your readers away for sure and more importantly, it makes you like UNPROFESSIONAL.

So here is my advice….if you want to post chit chat family stuff, you are better off to make a second blog. Keep one blog for business and one for personal.

You want to draw potential customers to you and not drive them away.

Shelly

Customer Service Tip – Be Nice But Firm About Business Policy

At times you are likely to encounter a stubborn customer or two. It is important to not give into customer demands…especially if those demands go against your Direct Sales Company Policy or Business Policy.

You want to be nice to your customer but firm with issues regarding customer policy. Don’t cave-in just because they threaten to go elsewhere. It is better to stay within your business policy guidelines than to step outside of them and get into trouble.

Shelly

Common Mistakes Newbies Make On Twitter

When it comes to social networking and networking your home business online, often times people will turn to social media sites such as Myspace, Linked-In, Facebook and Twitter.

Today I would like to discuss Twitter and the mistakes I often see newbies (new users) do on Twitter that can drive followers & business away from them.

Here are some things you should NOT do on Twitter.

1. Do not send business information, sales information or business links to people via DM (Direct Message) unless that specific user asked to receive that information from you. This includes automatic DM’s that folks send to everyone who is now following them. (Thanks for following me type of DM’s)

2. Don’t Tweet business links 24/7. No one wants to read tweets that contain your business link over and over and over again. If you do that, you will be labeled as a link spammer.

3. Don’t do keyword searches for your area of interest on Twitter and then send @ reply business spam messages to users. A lot of users will report you for spam & block you from their Twitter streams & accounts.

4. Do not set your Twitter account up on auto-pilot aka, Tweet later type of services unless you plan on logging in every day and tweeting in real time too. Tweet later type of services is where you set up an account with them, draft up your Tweets and have that service post your tweets on Twitter for you.

Part of networking is being real, connecting with and chatting with your followers. You can’t do that if your Twitter account is on 24/7 auto pilot.

5. Watch what you tweet. No one wants to read tweets about what you did in your bathroom, bedroom, etc. Furthermore, leave the trash talking potty mouth at the door. You don’t want to offend your followers by discussing inappropriate content or using foul language.

For Twitter to work for you…you really need to mix up your tweets. Yes, tweet about your business and provide some business tips…but also spend some time chatting with your followers so that they can get to know you and you can get to know them.

Do you have any ‘mistake’ type of tips you would like to share with our readers? If so, leave them in a comment!

Shelly

Online Article Marketing Can Drive Traffic To Your Site

When you write online articles and use them in an article marketing campaign, you benefit in many ways. Let’s take a look at a few of those benefits.

1. You build quality back links to your web site which helps with search engine ranking.

2. You drive quality traffic to your web site and/or blogs. This targeted traffic is obtained by readers clicking on your links in your Author’s Resource Box.

3. Writing articles give the impression that you are a leader in your niche. It helps build credibility to your personal and business name and readers will look to you as a professional.

4. You will generate your own business leads. When people read your articles and click through to your web site, you are exposing them to the products you sell and the home business opportunity that you represent.

When it comes to writing your first article, here are a few important tips.

1. If possible, be personable in your articles. Try to make a personal connection with your readers when you write.

2. Your articles should contain a minimum of 250 words. Use proper keywords in your articles to help readers find the information that they are looking for. Your keyword should be in your title and in the body of your article three times. Anything over three times is considered keyword spamming.

3. Leave the sales pitch out of the body of your article. If you are pitching a product and/or business service, leave your sales pitch blurb for your Author’s Resource Box. You can’t use links in the body of your article. In addition, most article directories will not allow affiliate links in the Author’s Resource Box. If you have a blog, use that link instead of a link to your consultant web site.

4. Always spell check your article for misspelled words or grammar mistakes before submitting it to a directory. I find it very helpful to have a fellow writer proof my articles before I submit them.

Once you have your article completed, you can publish your article on blogs, niche related forum boards or in article directories. If you are publishing your article in a directory, your article will then be used by web site owners to be published on their web sites, in newsletters, ezines or on blogs.

If you are new to article writing and/or article marketing, there are several groups online that you can join. Writers within these groups can help you with your article writing and teach you proper article marketing skills. One of my favorite groups for new and experienced writers is http://www.wahm-articles.com. You can join their online community for free, as well as submit your articles to their online directory.

In closing, article marketing can benefit your Direct Sales business by building quality back links to your web site, improve your search engine ranking, generate your own leads and more importantly…give the impression to others that you are a leader in your niche.

Shelly Hill, copyright 2010, all rights reserved. Please do not reprint this article without Shelly’s permission. Thanks!

Balancing Your Business Budget – Demo Products

When it comes to having a home based Direct Sales business, it is very easy to not balance our business demonstration budget.

We are often times enticed by our home company to buy all of the new demonstration products that are released each season…this can all add up to hundreds of dollars that you spend every year purchasing demo products.

I always like to train my downline consultants to stay ‘within’ their business budget when it comes to purchasing demonstration products. You don’t need every new great product that your company comes out with to show at your home parties and events. I recommend getting just a few items that you feel will be big sellers. Personally, I try to stay away from seasonal items because I don’t want to be stuck with those demo’s after the season ends…so if you do buy seasonal items, keep it limited to just a few.

If you are just getting started, I recommend just getting 3-5 new products every season…if you are a seasoned consultant with a big party line-up, then go ahead and purchase more.

Tax Tip: When purchasing demo’s make sure you keep your receipts for tax time as these items can be applied to your business expenses.

It is important to keep our business in-check when it comes to our spending and one way we can do that is by keeping an eye on how many demo products we buy each season.

Shelly

Don’t Disguise Sales Spam As Newsletters

When it comes to writing and creating an effective newsletter that you email out to your customers & clients, you need to keep the sales ads to a minimum.

Don’t draft up a slew of product sales ads and recruiting business opportunity ads and then disguise it (name it a newsletter) and email it out to your customers. If you do, you will lose subscribers really quickly!

A newsletter should contain helpful and educational information about the products you are trying to market. You can included customer/client testimonials, a blurb about your business opportunity, etc in the newsletter but it certainly should not be full of nothing but sales ads.

Think about newsletters like this: If you signed up to get company X’s newsletter and it arrived in your inbox and you opened it up to find NOTHING but 15 sales ads inside it. Would this turn you off? It would me! I want to know why I need a product, how to use a product, features of the product and how this product can fit into my life. Give me a reason to want to purchase it besides that its on sale for a great price.

Newsletters to me are a tool to reach customers and its a valuable tool if done correctly.

So instead of disgusing your sales ads and naming them as newsletters…put some time & effort into your newsletter and educate your customers about the products you are selling.

Shelly

Direct Sales and Door to Door Marketing

Often times I am asked by Direct Sales consultants if door to door marketing works? If my opinion, it depends on the company you are marketing for.

For example: If you are marketing let’s say ‘cookware’ then door to door marketing usually doesn’t work. However, if you are marketing for a company that sells ‘cosmetics and skincare items’ (like Avon) then door to door marketing can work.

If you are planning a door to door marketing campaign, please realize that it can get expensive. Often times you will need catalogs, brochures, fliers, samples, business cards and then some door hanger bags incase the resident isn’t home so you can leave a catalog and information. All of those items can cost a lot of money if you are marketing on a grand scale.

My personal recommendation for those who are interested in trying door to door marketing is to take it slow and to start out on a small scale.

You should try just your neighbors in your neighborhood first and see what kind of reception you get. (perhaps 15-20 for your first marketing campaign). If things go well and you get some orders or a party booking, you can increase your marketing strategy.

It is better to start small and work your way up. After all, you are in Direct Sales to make money and not waste it.

Have you ever tried any door to door marketing? Did it work for you or was it a failure? Do you have any door to door marketing tips to share with our readers?

Shelly

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