How to move beyond your circle of friends??

One of the most important things in maintaining a successful business is to move beyond your circle of friends.

Sure, some of them may be good customers for a long time but it is best to move on so that you do not become a drain on these people and so that the lines between friendship and business do not begin to mix.

How??

When you first start your business these people are very important to you- they have your initial parties and give you the support that they can. The work you need to do to move beyond your friends starts at these parties.

1. Play a booking game- you really are missing out if you fail to do this. If your friend has invited a variety of people to her party then you may just get a booking with someone (and hopefully they are not one of your friend's as well).

2. Make your reminder phone calls the day before your friends party- remind people of the event the next day and encourage them to bring a friend- this increases the liklihood of someone you do not know attending.

3. Ask for referrals- whenever someone turns you down for anything ask them if they know someone who might be interested and follow up with the referral (Lynn Conway says that few people will be comfortable enough to tell you no twice in a row!) When you call this person make sure to explain to them who gave you their contact information.

Gathering Project for June/July

Summer is often a less busy time of year-a great time to break out the fun and vibrant colours that Close to my Heart has to offer and a great time of year to only have to plan one gathering project for two months!! (unless you know that a group is going to be seeing you more than once during that time).

Below is a picture of the card that I am leading my ladies through during the months of June and July- usually I base my projects on the Stamp of the Months but I found the June and July one hard to work with and make the project FSE (fast, simple and easy). So, I improvised and decided to use the Treetops stamp set and the Animal Cookies Creative Basics Paper- the card pattern for this project is out of our new card book Wishes.

If you are really new as a consultant remember to make sure that you have a "hands-on" portion to your home gatherings- this gives the customers a chance to 'play' with the product and really understand what it is and how to use it. Only when they are confident in the use of some of our stuff will they feel confident enough to buy it!!

When I did this project I had precut all the circle pieces (including the card base). The ladies stamped the top and bottom of the tree and cut those out- the top of the tree is popped off the card with our 3D foam tape. They also stamped the phrase. I always show the ladies one technique (but remember to keep this FSE as well, especially if they are new to our product). For this card I showed them how to ink distress the edge of their paper for added dimension.

Have a question?

Leave it in the comment section and I will be sure to answer it!!

Just getting started

I am not sure that anyone will even stumble across this yet but if so then at least there is a post. It is my intention to have lots of great information on here for my downline to help you maintain movtivation, answer all your questions and give you lots of inspiration.
If you add a comment I will read it and do my best to give you all what you need- so be sure to tell me!!
Watch for lots of fun stuff coming up in the next few days.