Top 5 Ways to Promote Your New Business

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Starting a home based business may not be as easy a task as many would think. The market is full of new competition and seasoned players. It is challenging and many lose hope. However, you can always start and run a new business in an effortless way by making wise and informed decisions. You also need to employ the right marketing tips to promote a business and enhance your profitability.

The use of custom promotional wristbands is an innovative and effective method to promote your business. They are popular and effective because you can use a custom message that suits your business to achieve the marketing goals that you have in mind. Additionally, a company logo can be incorporated in a wrist band to enhance its efficiency. Since many people love wristbands and they are products that can use efficiently over a long haul, you will always know that the marketing message has been delivered. They are also stylish and durable. Because of this, you can use them to target prospects on different occasions. They are an effective promotional tool and allow you to achieve your marketing or advertisement goals in a cost effective way.

Using giveaways is an effective way to promote a new business. Giveaways can be used during contests which are targeted at prospects to win prizes and freebies. Many people across the globe love free offers, promotions and to participate in competitions where they can win lots of prizes. They are effective promotional products in the sense that you can print a marketing message on the products so clients can know of the products and services you offer.

The use of social media is an effective and top way to promote a new business. Many people today are active users of social sites such as Facebook. In this reason, it is important to have a social page on different networks where you can reach out to target customers. Run competitions, open chats and interact with clients. Learn what they expect of you and promise to deliver services that meet and surpass their expectations. Identify a network that most of your prospects use and utilize it efficiently to promote the business.

Uses of PR and publicity methods are an excellent way to promote your business. Design an effective press release and send it to media outlets. More importantly, ensure your story has high quality content and an interesting angle because it increases chances of being included in news headlines. This allows many people to learn of the business as well as products and services you provide.

Blogging is another effective way to promote a new business. Set up a blog that will be used solely to enhance brand visibility. Communicate all details about your products, services and business on the blog. More importantly, ensure the information is factual, interesting and informative. This will help to attract more target prospects hence promoting your business in a cost effective way.

Natasha is blogger and writer, interested in various topics, currently exploring best ways to advertise and promote new business from different angles.

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Keeping the Momentum in Direct Sales

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Now that you are going again, are all updated and ready to party, its important to keep your business going and growing.  This can be the easiest thing to do once you start getting parties, but if you are having difficulties, do not give up. It may take a bit of time to get your business growing and busy again, but it will happen if you keep at it.

Organize your Calendar

Make sure you know when you are available for parties and when you are not.  You want to be booking at least two parties at every event you do – one to replace the one you had and one to grow your business. Even if you cannot get a hostess to 100% commit to a date, if you can get them to tentatively commit and pencil that date in, chances are it will follow through.  But if they tell you that they will contact you, you likely will never hear from them again.

Following Up

If you called someone originally about booking a party and they were not ready at that point, make sure you put them on your list to call again.  I keep a spreadsheet of all my customers and who I have called and when.  If they tell me I can call again in a few months, I will make a note of call in September – new baby.  Then, when I call, I can ask how the new baby is which impresses them and I am calling when they asked me too.

Keep Up

One of the biggest things I always tell people is to keep current on all your communications.  If you have social media accounts you should be checking them on a regular basis.  If you have an email account, you should be checking it at least daily.  If you have voicemail, you should be returning calls within 24 hours.  I have had many customers who have told me that they contacted several consultants but that I was the only one that replied.  You want to be the first response as they will likely book/buy with whoever gets in touch with them first.

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Getting those Direct Sales Bookings when Restarting

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Now that you are up to date on what is happening with your company and you have your kit updated, you are ready to get bookings.  Actually, you can work on getting these bookings while you wait for our new products.  So how should you get your calendar booked up?

Contact prior customers

The best method to get your business running again is to contact those that you have already dealt with.  You know that they are interested in the product and they may be in need of more or different product.  Whether they hosted a party or attended and purchased, contact them.

“Hi Jane, its Sharon calling with XYZ company.  You previously hosted a party/purchased from me.  I am trying to get my business going again and I wanted to know if you needed anything or if you would be interested in hosting a party”.

You may find it beneficial to offer an incentive if they book with you.  If they are not interested, you could try asking if they know anyone that they would refer you to.  Do not forget to ask them if you can call them again in a few months time – this can be especially helpful if they say now is not a good time due to moving, a new baby or family stress.

Advertising

Make sure that you get out there and advertise yourself.  This could be ads online or putting up posters wherever you can.  You may want to look for trade shows that you can get involved in and promote yourself.  There are a lot of avenues available to you to advertise that do not have to cost you much or anything.  See my ideas on Free Advertising Offline and Free Online Advertising.

Social Media

Do not forget to promote yourself on social media.  If you have a Facebook, Twitter or any other type of account, make sure that you post that you are back in business and looking for party hosts.  Ask your friends to also post for you to expand the circle.  You don’t know who is out there looking for your company and they see the post and contact you.

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Re-Starting Your Direct Sales Business – Getting Up to Date

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Most of us will stall out in our direct sales business at one time or another.  But a stall does not have to mean you quit, it just means you need a break.  This could be due to a family emergency or just feeling burnt out and needing to step back.  When you are ready to get going again, there are some things to help you make the most of it.  Note: Different companies have different rules about inactivity; make sure you are still active when you are ready to restart. If you are not, you will need to look into the rules to be re-instated.

Find out what you missed

Depending on what type of correspondence your company sends out, it may not be too difficult to find out what you have missed.  But it may be easier to contact your upline and talk to them about what information is important.  It can be difficult to wade through a few months worth of information and find out what you need to know and what you don’t.

Familiarize yourself with Product

It may be worthwhile looking at the training materials you received when you first enrolled as well as information about the products.  This is especially true if product lines have changed since you took your break and new products have been added.  Make sure you know the benefits of each product and how to sell it including upsale items.

Check your Kit

Go through your kit to see if everything that you have is still current.  If an item has been repackaged, you may want to buy an updated version if there is a significant change.  This is likely something that your upline can help you determine.   Pull out anything no longer valid or in rough shape.  Order those products that you need to have a fully rounded kit or to replace those that have seen better days.

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Home based business vs a Retail business?

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Chances are you already know the benefits to having a home based business instead of having a retail business, but just in case, let us review them. Maybe we will stumble upon something you are not aware of.

Flexibility – When you work out of your home, you have the flexibility to do things when you want and how you want.  This is especially important with direct sales as you can book events when you want to do them.  Have a kid’s birthday party?  No problem, don’t schedule an event that day.

Time Commitment – You can make just as much money in a few hours in direct sales as you can working an eight hour shift somewhere else.  If you work your business well, you can pretty much be guaranteed whatever income you are looking for.

Cost – Ever wanted to start your own business but you only have a few hundred dollars?  No problem!  I have not run into any company that costs more than $500 to start up!  And depending on the company, you may even be able to earn that sign up fee back!   Have you ever heard of starting a retail business for that amount?  Chances are you going to pay more than that in rent per month.

Profits – Not only is it cheap to get into direct sales, but you make profits fast!  Even if you do not get your kit for free, within doing a few thousand dollars worth of sales (depending on kit cost and commission level) you have made back your investment and are into profits!  Try doing that in a retail setting.

Tax Write-offs – This is a favourite for everyone, the write-offs you get working from home.  You are able to write off portions of your car, your fuel, the products you buy for yourself and family (product testing is important, right?) and so many other things.  Always check with your tax accountant or buy a proper tax program to help you with this.  But make sure to keep a mileage book and all receipts until tax time.

I have heard some people say that if you own your home, it is stupid not to run some sort of home based business, at least for the tax write offs.  But imagine getting into direct sales and being able to make money relatively easy, and get the write offs to go with it.  Win win!

 

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Waiting for your Direct Sales Kit

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Congratulations on taking the plunge into direct sales.  Chances are you are pretty excited about getting started but have to wait a few days or a week or two in order to get your kit.  But there are some things that you can do to keep yourself busy while it is in transport.

Backoffice – Get comfortable with the computer system your company uses.  Log in, play around.  Enter a fake order to see how that works – just don’t submit it.

Manual – If your company has their manual online, go find it and read it.  While you are there, download the other documents they have available to look at.

Schedule Events – You should be scheduling as many direct sales events as possible in the first month to get your business of to a great start.  This is especially important if there are incentives in the first month or two for a certain amount of sales.  If you are not sure if there are benefits, ask your upline.

Debut Party – If your direct sales company is new to your order, plan a debut party at your house and invite everyone you know to attend.  This way they can see the product and plan their own party or it will cement their commitment.  You will want to be tracking your parcel to determine the best time to do this.

Contact Everyone – Think of everyone you know from all the areas of your life that you could possibly invite over.  People from work, from church, from groups you belong to, groups your spouse or children belong to, people you encounter often, anyone else you can think of.

Watch your Upline – If at all possible, attend an event with your upline to see how things go.  This will likely make you more comfortable when it comes to your own event.

Business Cards – Order your business supplies.  You can buy from your company or a variety of places.  I recommend Vistaprint as they are cheap and fast, depending on the shipping you select.

Labels – Create labels for your products and your supplies.  I use a regular address label to put on the back of my catalogues (the catalogues tend to be glossy so stamps don’t work) and I use return address labels for the bottom of my products.

Meetings – Find out if your direct sales upline has meeting you can attend.  If you are not near your upline, you may be able to find other meetings in your area with other teams.  If this isn’t possible, see if there is phone training or other training available.

Money – Open up a separate bank account and credit card for your direct sales business.  This may seem silly, but if you are ever audited, you will be thankful.  Your bank likely has an option for a free bank account and some sort of free credit card that may also have points.

Taxes – Without getting into a lot of detail here, start thinking about taxes.  For the sake of this article, just accumulate everything in a box to deal with a bit later.

Organization – Figure out how you are going to keep organized.  Boxes, filing cabinets, envelops, etc.  All these are helpful. The dollar store can be a great source of supplies and you can put that receipt in your tax box!

While all these things seem cumbersome and a lot of work, several of them will only take a few minutes to figure out and get setup.  This way, once your direct sales kit arrives you will be ready to hit the ground running.

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Getting Started

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You have decided to start your own direct sales business.  Congrats!  Now, what should you do?  Here are some ideas to help you get your business off to a good start.

What to do while you wait for your Kit?

Ideas to help you get Bookings

Tips to help you with Direct Sales

How to be taken Seriously as a Direct Sales Rep

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Setting Goals in Direct Sales

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This week I am going to post some of my favourite posts from the year.

Goals:

The First Step is creating your Goals and Defining them.

Cynthia Kersey – Unforgettable Woman

Goals need to be SMART.  If you are not sure how to do that, this article will help you.

Smart Goals

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Wow! A Popular Guest Post!

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I wrote a guest post earlier in the year for my friend Angie, and it turns out that it is one of the top posts on her blog this year!  Direct sales is definitely something that people are interested in and want more information on.

Head on over and check it out.  Feel free to comment there or here about what you think!  :)

Choosing the Right Direct Sales Company for You

 

Direct Sales supplies such as business cards sound very expensive! Can I find them cheaper?

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When it comes to your business supplies, you can shop in a variety of places to get what you want.

If you want items with your company’s logo on them, you will have to shop with the company store.  The logo is copyrighted and there are limited places that have been given the rights to use it.  Most direct sales companies are affiliated with a supply company to provide you quality, logo’ed merchandise to use in your business.

If the logo does not concern you, then there are many places that you can shop for supplies such as business cards, magnets and many other items.  Vistaprint!   Chances are if you have been in direct sales for a little while someone has already mentioned it to you.

250 Free Business Cards

The great thing about Vistaprint is that they have a lot of products with a variety of designs on them, and then matching products to go with them.  So you can select a business card that represents your business, and then choose a matching pen, matching magnets and matching brochures.  You cannot always get a match with everything, but you can usually do pretty well.

Another wonderful thing about Vistaprint is that they are always having a sale.  You can almost always get 250 basic business cards for 0 or upgrade to premium (more designs) for 2 to 5 bucks.  By continuing to look around, you will find even more items for free.  All you pay is shipping on these items, and you can select a variety of shipping methods.  Once you have an account setup with them, you will get emails every few days listing the specials.  You can combine them on one order for the best value – I have gotten up to $150 worth of product for $30 shipping!

FREE Deals of the Week. Check out what’s new this week!

 

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