Welcome to the Home Show Survial Guide section of ConsultantGames.com

Who's The Boss?

So you've got your own business! Congratulations.Now a days with the economy the way it is, and the job market the way it is, you are in the right place at the right time.   You can choose your own hours, work when you want to and be your own boss.  Isn't that what they told you when you signed up? Whether you are a Mary Kay consultant, Longaberger Consultant, Partylite Consultant, Mary Kay consultant, or anyone else, you are still running your own business.  You are your own boss.  Right?

Let's take a look at "Who's the boss?"...

Let's start with the "choose your own hours."  Many of you have children at home.   If you don't have children you may have a 'significant other', or a full time job.  So during the day you must attend to all of the other responsibilities in your life.  You go to work during the day, you come home, fix dinner, get homework done, do the laundry, clean up after everyone else, and finally it is 'your time'.   

The time when you can work on your 'own business'. Only problem is that it is now 10:00 at night.   So what's the problem?  Sure you can get a lot done now because you are on your own, right? No more interruptions from anyone.  So you go to 'work', planning your marketing strategy, designing a great newsletter to send out, organizing your desk area, planning what you will do at your next home show, if you get one booked.   However, it is TOO late at night to actually call any of your customers.  So, once again you had a productive night, but you didn't get to talk to one single prospective hostess.  

Oh well, there is always tomorrow.  Only problem is that tomorrow turns out to be just like today.  And once again, you don't personally speak with ANY of your customers.

All the planning and prepping in the world won't do you one bit of good, won't grow your business, and won't make you one dollar of money,  unless you actually sell something.  The only way you are going to sell something is by actually getting a show booked, following up with the hostess to ensure that she has a great turnout of guests, going to the show, and talking to real people who have real money.

You can not do these things if when you set your own hours, you set them for 10:00pm. You must be doing business when you have access to real, live people.  This means you must do business during the day, in the early evening, or on the weekends.  There is the old saying, "When is the best time of day to go fishing?   When ever the fish are biting"  It would be a silly waste of time to go fishing if the fish weren't biting.  And after a while it would get pretty boring.

So, what does all this mean. It means that unless you set your hours to match the hours that your Pampered Chef (insert your own business name) customers are available, you won't book as many shows, you wont take as many catalog orders, and you won't make as much money.

Your Partylite customers, Longaberger hostesses, Mary Kay clients are the boss. They set your hours.  They decide when you need to be working.    Do you think that the owner of a McDonalds franchise wants to get up every morning at 4:00am to go open his store? Of course not! He would rather be in bed. BUT, his customers want breakfast. So he is there to give it to them.

So I know that you are saying, but I can't 'work' from 5:00pm to 10:00pm, I have things to do and people to take care of.  We will talk about this in future conversations and try to come up with some ideas and ways to change things around so that you have time to work during this period.

It may take some pretty dramatic changes in your life and your families life.  But if you REALLY want to make this business of yours work, your going to have to make the changes.    This is where we come in.  Stick with us and we will help you to figure out how to make this work.

Next time we will talk about "The Power of Positive Thinking".  

Here's a little excerpt....

This is a business where the sky is the limit. It's all about your attitude and outlook on life.  Smile and the world smiles with you.  If you just think positive things will work out well for you!

I tried this method.   I kept telling myself that I was absolutely positively going to be a successful entrepreneur and was going to absolutely positively going to make lots of money.  Guess what,   IT DIDN'T HAPPEN.  That is, it didn't happen until I got off my butt and did something to make it happen.    

Positive thoughts alone will not do it.  You must 'Take Action", and take action often.

Until next time...   Go fishing when the fish are biting.