Hostess Coaching Tips For A Successful Direct Sales Party!

If you have a direct sales or network marketing business, chances are parties are the lifeblood of your business. One of the most important aspects of to having a successful party is to work with your Hostess. Setting your Hostess up for success is just as important to your business as your sales. Effective hostess coaching is how you are able to do this.

It all starts with a plan, who knew “party planner’ was part of the job description of Entrepreneur Goddess?

Basically, when it comes to having a successful party, it will come down to a strong strategic plan, communication and truly partnering with your host or Hostess. You will be able to increase your party sales, and bookings, by working with them on several different levels. Here are a few things to remember when working with your host or Hostess.

Remember, if they have a successful party – you will have a successful party!

1. Appreciate your Hostess!

• Send your Hostess a handwritten thank you and let her know she’s appreciated. Build a solid foundation of trust and confidence by sharing that you’ll be there to guide her along the way. Include a link or email her a “save the date” graphic (easy to create in Canva) that she can easily send to her guests.

• Mail a Hostess packet with a cover letter, catalogue and order forms. Be sure to place post-it tabs in the catalogue on the Hostess program page and special products. Also, put a few extra post-it tabs in the package, so the Hostess can tab her favourite pages and products.

2. Be A Good Listener:

• Call your Hostess and set up a “Wish List, time it so you call soon after her packet arrives. Write down everything on her list and create an action plan to help her get it all. The plan should include pre-party orders and a pre-arranged booking.

• Discuss any concerns that your Hostess might have. Brainstorm ideas on how to get outside orders, create e-vite reminders for friends and family, not on Facebook, and possibly teaming up with a friend to double-host.

3. Set High Expectations:

• We’ve all heard, “Aim for the moon and you’ll fall among the stars.” So, aim high. Add a Hostess tip and tricks checklist in your hostess packet.

• Don’t settle. Challenge your Hostess to beat your highest or last party. Be sure to recognize her efforts on the event page, using fun graphics, emojis and stickers to build her confidence.

4. Create a strategy:

• If it is an online Facebook event, advise your Hostess to only invite FB friends that she knows well enough that she’d invite them to a home party. That will help keep both you and her in a spam-free zone.

• Encourage rules of engagement: Personal phone calls or send hand-written invitations to the party. Encourage social media engagement by having your Hostess comment on all posts on the event page put up by you and to post some herself. She could tag friends who shop and share her own pics of her fave products.

• Make sure your Hostess builds excitement for her own party: review your “day of party” game plan prior to the event, which should include personal reminders to everyone who is attending, a “party crashers welcome” post on her personal page and an “I’m so excited” post on the event page a few hours before party time.

5. Use your phone:

• Remember that your phone was created to be used as a… phone. Personal phone calls with your Hostess could be the most innovative risk you take and encourage her to do the same with her guests.

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How to Boost Your Productivity.

Boost Your Productivity!
Are you really busy? Is it a good thing or a bad thing?

I came across an article in the Huffington Post on how being busy is actually good for your brain. After reading it, I just so happen to come across another article – again by the Huffington Post – on how being busy makes you unproductive. We can’t win, can we?

“Focus on being productive instead of busy.” – Tim Ferriss

Time is precious and when you are a busy entrepreneur or small business owner you know this more than most. Running your own business is hard work and long hours and it is especially hard when you are a mom, taxi driver, maid, cook, wife, caregiver, the list goes on and on! When you do have the time to focus on your business it can sometimes be hard to be productive. And it isn’t something that can just happen overnight, it is almost a lifestyle change. So, hopefully, we are going to make it that much easier with a few simple steps.

Declutter and stay organized.

If your office is clean and organized you will spend less time looking for things. Make sure everything has a place. If it is to be filed – file it. If it is to be mailed –mail it, and so on.

Don’t get too personal and keep no more than three personal items on your desk. I suggest that you also limit the supplies on your desk to only those you will use daily and ensure your phone is flipped upside down so you don’t see the light go off when you get a notification. Finally maintain an empty paper-sized space on your dominant side to make reviewing, signing and organizing papers easier.

Create a routine, schedule it, and stick to it.

Start with creating a routine, schedule your daily tasks on the same day at the same time. Sticking to that routine will require you to schedule all appointments and meetings around it, making it easier to accomplish those pesky little things that always got tabled.

Prioritize your time and then put it on your calendar. Book time for things like check email only at specific times a day, coffee breaks, update social media accounts, go for a run, eat lunch (you know you work through your lunch, don’t deny it!) and even family time! I know it sounds sad to have to schedule family time, but if you don’t you might just work away your evening and miss out on some great things.

Trust me, as an entrepreneur, I would eat dinner and head right back to the office to get something done. My super supportive husband would take care of dishes, kids, etc… This needed to stop, and so it has.

Focus on that one thing.

When in the office, do not get caught up the check off my to-do list vortex! Yes, you probably have a lot of things that need to get done, but break it down to that one thing. Focus on the single task that will move your day forward. Look at your to-do list, then cut it in half with the highest priority items. Take that second list and cut it in half with the highest priority items. Keep doing this until you come down to that one item on the list that needs to be worked on now. Then, get it done.

Set a timer.

Set timers to complete specific tasks, great apps like Get It Done App or Tomato Timer are fantastic to assist you with this. This may help you with ensuring your time is organized and you do not lose track of it.

Delegate what you can.

Don’t be afraid to have others do some of the work for you! If your spouse was heading out you would have no problem asking them to pick up milk on the way home, right? You can do the same for your business. Why not ask your spouse to deliver a package to the post office, or pick you up some highlighters while they are out and about? Hire a virtual assistant to create your social media graphics, put together the monthly schedule and newsletters, and other administrative tasks such as data entry and bookkeeping.

Take meaningful breaks.

If you are able to step back and have as much of your workload automated, that is going to increase your productivity, a lot. If you don’t have the option to delegate some of the more time-consuming tasks, then consider automating as much as possible.

Consider looking into automating things such as your social media posts, client invoicing, client booking, and more. You can set up a FAQpage to answer common questions for your customers, this way you are not spending a lot of time responding to emails. Or an “If this, then that’ page on your website. Email list automation, bookkeeping… I could go on. So look at your current workflow and ask, what can you spend the time to set up an automated system for that will save you a lot more time in the long run?

Automate what you can.

We touched on setting up your schedule and in that schedule breaks need to be included. These breaks need to actually need to be a small break from work. Not just a couple of minutes to grab another cup of coffee and click through facebook. Schedule breaks for you to recharge, so you can be all the more productive when you return back to “work mode”.

Go for a short walk, meditate, do a bit of yoga, read a trashy novel, do something to calm your body and your mind. As long as you are timing your breaks, you will be able to get back to work and tackle your day.

Just remember that they are not so short that as soon as you start to feel the purpose of the break it is time to get back to it or that they are so long you just lose your motivation for the day. Your breaks need to be purposeful and meaningful.

There you have it! Declutter your office then look at your daily routine and create a schedule that works for you and your family. Look at your workflow and systems, what can be delegated and what can be automated?

Finally, take care of yourself. Those breaks are important for your productivity and your mindset!

How to Boost Your Productivity

Be sure to follow the Studio’s Facebook Page, leave a comment on how you are boosting your productivity, and any other tips that may help. We’d love to hear from you. The page is a free space where you will find business-focused training and support for female entrepreneurs, as well as inspiration and Studio updates!

How to Boost Your Productivity!

Do you know your website bounce rate?

Do you know what a website bounce rate is? I have had a few questions regarding this topic, the first being “What is it?”.

The bounce rate is one of the most important things you should track on your website. It measures is the percentage of how often visitors “bounce” off of your web page.

Why it is important.

It is defined as a person landing on a page of your site then immediately leaving. They could be closing a browser window, hitting the back button to get a new URL or clicking on a link to go to another site. Meaning they only saw the one page, the page they came in on is the page they left on.

This percentage is something you want to pay attention to. In most cases, a high bounce rate is bad. It indicates that someone did not find what they were looking for and decided to leave your site. A visitor arrived for a reason then, maybe they couldn’t navigate or thought the information is irrelevant, there is no way to know why they left, only that they left. What you do know is they came to the site for one reason or another, possibly a google search, a paid ad or a referral click, they expected to see something when they arrived and it was not there. The higher your bounce rate the more you are not meeting that expectation, which means it is time to correct this.

When you see this happen, you need to take action on the pages with high bounce rates and lower the percentage. A lower bounce rate leads to a more effective website that will have visitors more engaged and will help them find what they are looking for.

When looking at your percentages, keep in mind some pages you would like a higher bounce rate than others. Pages that you would like a higher bounce rate on, are pages that will lead visitors to your Etsy store, to purchase products. Or a lead page that does not require your visitors to keep navigating your site but to collect contact information. Essentially, if the goal is to get visitors to this page for one specific reason only, then you may not have to worry about the bounce rate on that page.

So, when looking at your website analytics, look at bounce rates per page and not overall.

My suggestion is to play the video below, bounce to the music why you check out your website bounce rate!

Bounce Rate

Be sure to follow the Studio’s Facebook Page, leave a comment and let us know! We’d love to hear from you. The page is a free space where you will find business-focused training and support for female entrepreneurs, as well as inspiration and Studio updates!

Start that hustle and turn it into a career!

So, what exactly is a side hustle? I am sure you are seeing the term all over social media and I am willing to bet you know someone who is doing it. A side hustle is a way to make some extra cash that allows you the flexibility to pursue your true passion. I could also be how you are following that passion – a chance to jump into photography, fashion, or whatever it is you care about the most, without quitting your day job. Hense the term side hustle.

More and more women are turning that side hustle into their careers, and it is amazing to witness. Most just start out by doing a little bit to start – when the kids are in bed, in the morning before they go to work, or on weekends. Over a time the little side project starts earning enough money to become a full-time career and so – jumping in is naturally the next step!

If you are looking at getting started with a simple side hustle, here are a few tips to help get you going.

Determine your focus.

First, determine what it is you want to focus on. What skill sets do you have that you are passionate about and can get you started as soon as possible? Photography, writing, event planning, project manager, dog walker, tech support? In short, it is finally time to decide what you want to be when you “grow up”.

The idea is to choose something you have some experience with, this way you can get started right away. However; do not let lack of experience stop you. If you are truly passionate about something, I am willing to bet you are already knowledgeable enough to get started.

Test your market.

Second, test your market. Do some market research, is there a need for what you want to provide? Is there a problem out there that you and only you can solve? Talk to family and co-workers, another way is to get social. By using social media you can get feedback on the product or services you want to provide.

Go for it!

Now you know you have the skills, the audience and the motivation to get going, so GET GOING! It is time to set a goal and start with a plan. Jumping in feet first is always fun, but can be full of regret. Sit down and create a simple business plan, this is important because you do not want to start a business you do not love. So ask yourself these simple questions and create an easy “just for you” business plan – and started.

What is motivating you to start your own business?
What problems will you help others solve with your business?
What impact do you want to make?
What is different about you or your product that will make your business a success?
What is your business and personal mission?

Now you have the idea, the target audience, and the plan so what are you waiting for?

Your side hustle is now within reach and it is time to get started! There has never been a better time than NOW to start your own business. So join us inside the Idea to Income Group Coaching Program!

SPACE IS LIMITED

To ensure client success, the Idea to Income System is limited to 15 people per enrollment, so do not wait.

DON’T MISS YOUR CHANCE TO ENROL!

Idea to Income System. You will be a business owner within 90 days. Start that side hustle

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Start That Side Hustle!

The bad news is time flies. The good news, you’re the pilot.

Time Management Tips for Your Work/Life Balance

I once heard that the city I live in has a reputation of everyone lives to work and that the city I love to vacation in has the reputation of everyone working to live. This really stuck with me because all of a sudden I realized it was true.

Here, in my hometown, everyone is always working. Work seems to be all anyone wants to talk about or do, then they do not understand why they are stressed, burning out, and want to call it quits. Work is a necessity, yes – I understand but we should all work to live and not live to work and in order to do that we will need to determine the balance between work and life.

What is balance, really?

Balance, seems to be the trend today, doesn’t it? That everything is all about balance. Well, there is truth to that – balance is the key to everything. However; this doesn’t mean that balance is about equal parts. Having a 50/50 balance between work and home life is not going to happen, and I truly hope it never does happen to you! To me, that means you are spending too much time on your work and not enough time living.

To be able to maintain the balance, you first need to decide on what you want – then schedule around that. You will need to know how to better maintain time than maintaining a balance. There are so many factors on finding that work-life/home-life balance but today, I am just going to talk about time.

Time Management

Time management is something that most entrepreneurs struggle with. Getting pulled into the world of distractions that are: social media, email inbox, and “multi-tasking”. (I put that in quotes because I think multi-tasking it is more of a mythical unicorn than a skill but that is a topic for another day…) When you have good time management skills you will find that there is a lot more freedom in your workday and a lot of pressure to get things done starts to subside. Why? Because you have more time, well, not really. It is the same amount of time, only with time management skills it is better spent.

Look at it this way, time is truth. The truth of time is that there are only 24 hours in a day and 60 minutes in each hour. This we cannot change, yet we are caught saying “There are not enough hours in a day.” That isn’t true, there actually are enough hours in a day – there are 24 of them! Once you accept the things you cannot change, your world becomes a whole lot better and it is that much easier to better utilize the time you do have available.

To do this, start with using only one calendar. I am willing to bet there is a good chance you have more than one or none at all. Be it a traditional planner, a wall calendar or an online calendar – one is all you need. I am guilty of previously having 4! I had Google calendar, my paper planner, the pretty one on my wall and finally my Outlook calendar. What a mess. I would put my shooting schedule in one, family schedule in another – goals in yet another, and finally the fourth was supposed to tie it all together. Ha, I can laugh now… Anyway, now I have one that I use, and one on my wall that I don’t use but it is pretty to look at…. Okay, that is the ONE acceptance of the rule. Pretty to look at, but not written on, calendars are acceptable to have as a second calendar.
(They are more art, right?)

Under plan your time.

Now, when using your calendar, try to under plan your time. What I mean by this is try to leave 5 – 10 minutes for every hour where there is nothing to be done. As a photographer, I always plan sessions and events in 1 hour and 15-minute blocks. Yet, I would ensure that each would only take an hour. With the Virtual Studio, for example, a 45-minute coaching session is always scheduled for 1 hour in my calendar. For both my photography and coaching schedule, that extra 15 minutes gives me time to recollect my thoughts, travel, and for any unexpected surprises. Doing this also allows for tasks to be done at a more relaxed pace and has proven to be a lot less stressful.

A few other things you want to keep in mind to better manage your time are to set deadlines, delegate, stay motivated, and stop multitasking! (There is that magical unicorn again!)

The Virtual Studio’s will be launching a Work/Life Balance System that will go further-in-depth into time management! So stick around, that way you won’t’ miss the launch!

How are you going to better utilize the time you have each day?

What one calendar are you going to use moving forward? Let me know in the comments, I love hearing what systems they have in place!