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Thursday, March 31, 2011

Making Phone Calls

Tonight, I read an awesome post and basically, someone was saying she hated making calls for her business.  


Another responded:  Not calling is the same as a NO.


It's so simple, it's ridiculous!

Afterward

We're home after nearly a month being gone and $8000 lighter.  In normal circumstances, I'd have earned money while traveling, but being a military family, this was NOT the time to work on purpose (of course, working after we sent my husband ahead would have been welcomed!).  We're sending a soldier to a scary place for an entire year; we're not even sure he'll have much contact with us, as he had on the last deployment: time away from home was for him.  For us.

Home is good, but we're not out of the woods yet, as he can jet off at any time.  He's more important than any piece of work I do or dollar I can earn. Yet... I don't want to continue losing by being obsolete.  

Ah, the joy of working for yourself! 

Today, I'm solely working on emails and that's about it.  Not too much thinking and not too much making plans I'm unsure I can keep, but it DOES keep me moving forward.

Tomorrow? Perhaps phone calls and dusting. A month is enough time to need to sift through papers and making sure everything important is on top and less important things are filed.  Everything in place for when the time is right.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Email: Blessing and Curse

When you can't meet a client or hostess in person, and you are unable to contact them by telephone, the next best thing is email.  Email can be instantaneous, however, due to that nature, the wait can often drive you mad or, at worst, it can be paralyzing.


Questions creep into your brain: "Did the email bounce into the SPAM box?"  "Does the client or hostess not want to be contacted?"  "Did the client or hostess change his mind?"  "How soon is too soon to contact him again?  What if..."


E-Mail: A Write It Well GuideTo validate your questions, but not your obsessive fear, reread your SENT email and make sure you included your name, telephone number, email address (even though you've sent it via email, you need to include it again in the body of the letter), and physical address if applicable (if it turns out you forget to give contact information, send a follow-up email with a very short message and the information).  If you included contact information, just wait.  Three days for a follow up email (unless time is of the essence), but you can call the following day.




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


SAMPLE EMAIL
for a home-party-based-business to an online Lead
Thank you, Michelle, for sharing your letter!


Dear [Insert Lead's Name Here];


Thank you for contacting us; it's an exciting time to inquire about AtHome America, to host a party and earn free HomeWares or to become a HomeStyle Specialist.


The company is sending you a packet of information, including our latest catalog, and you can also view the catalog online at http://AtHome.com/Teraisa.


April and May have fabulous hostess and customer specials, including HomeWares to share on Mother's Day, which you can have free when you host a qualified home, catalog, or online party or by becoming a HomeStyle Specialist (HSS) yourself.


Whether you are looking to supplement your income, schedule your work hours around your family, travel for FREE, decorate your house, meet new women, or just need to get out of the house, AtHome America (AHA) is the right place to be.  AHA offers the flexibility and the income to do all of these things. Be the first in your area to begin an AHA business with a brand new product line that is sure to please everyone who attends one of your shows.


For starters, you can begin your business for only $49 (INCLUDES tax and shipping and handling) - this means you receive more than $425 worth of products and business supplies similar to those on the attached flyer [be sure to attach any pertinent information].  You KEEP the $49 HomeStudio by submitting $900 in home party sales within 35 days of your HomeStudio being shipped out; you can earn this easily by hosting your own Grand Opening and two other parties ($300 in sales or more each). Talk about parttime!


These three parties not only earn you the HomeStudio, but you'll also receive commission ($225), you'll be on your way to earning a Jeep Patriot (we'll talk!), and you will have earned MORE FREE HomeWares if you hosted your Grand Opening. Don't worry about learning the ropes, once you sign up, you'll have access to training videos and guides, and you can always call, text, or email me (123-456-7890 AHA.Home.Decor@gmail.com) - you may own your business, but you won't be in business alone.


I have been selling AHA since last November and I've enjoyed every minute of it. I can't wait to see what's in store for my team this year. The sky truly is the limit.


If you'd like to host a party, let's get you set up (I'm attaching our hostess and product specials' flyer) [don't forget to attach flyer!] with a date and invitatons your guests.  If you want to join AHA, choose a date to host your grand opening (two weeks from now is perfect) and five friends who will help you practice by hosting your first parties and keep you on track to all AHA has to offer. I'll send you the online application.  Together, we CAN do this!


Teraisa J. Rogers, Hawaii
123-456-7890
AHA.Home.Decor@gmail.com






Friday, March 25, 2011

It Never Ends

Things happen. Good, bad, indifferent, things happen.  We are still stranded at the airport and it's been OVER a week now.  There are ways to bypass this, but after staying at the nearby hotel, feeding the kids, sending hubby home from another city to avoid being AWOL... we are broke.  I'm not kidding. Day by day, we spend less and less on food. I haven't felt this down financially in quite a few years (thanks to my husband, he's a GREAT provider, but this turned out to be an $8000 month).

With the depression-let's call it what it is when you feel like you have NO CONTROL-I have no desire to do anything. This is why people with severe mental disorders (sadness and depression type) probably don't get help; it's like the lower and sadder I am, the less inclined I am to do anything about it. I have no energy. No will of my own (well, it seems that way), and believe it or not, I have most of the tools and things I need to work from anywhere. 

You heard me write. I mean, you heard right. I have the screenplay. It needs work. I have tapes from The U-Haul Murders, I have Ricky Lenn Dyer's case... I have my mind. What's wrong with me?

I know, I'm talking to myself, so I continue... I think it's my self-confidence.  Self, what do you think?

I think you're right! I think the fact you had a few leads with At Home America but knew 1) you probably couldn't personally do the party because you live thousands of miles away on an island, and 2) even if you could do the party, you are stuck in the airport and each hour you don't know if you can contact them much less help them in anyway, and all that made it even more depressing. Out of all my work, AHA is the easiest, really, it's all set up.

YES! That's right.  What do you (Teraisa) have to do?  Five minutes. That's it. Five minutes on each.  Can you do that?  I think you can. No, I KNOW you can.  I'm off to watch five minutes of video, write for five minutes, answer five minutes of email, and I'm going to review my work for five minutes.

And that is how you change your attitude: five minutes at a time.


~~~~~~I'm done. I'm finished feeling sorry for myself. Again, I realize I'm the only one listening, but I'm so appreciative I'm not giving up on myself after all, it's not the first time my mind went on vacation and it won't be the last.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Stir Crazy and Business-less.

Vacation is one thing, not that it's really vacation, but a way for our solider to say "goodbye" just in case... but this is ridiculous. We've been out of our home an extra week now, broken up by about two weeks, and it doesn't look like we'll be back tomorrow.  As we plan each day that passes. 

I'm losing At Home America business because I'm afraid to commit. 

Seriously.  I can't even say "YES" to anyone about anything at all because the truth is, every single day, I MAY be on a plane. I MAY have Internet or not. I don't know. I don't know about tomorrow, much less next week.


So, we have these beautiful Easter gifts from At Home America and no way to even earn them much less sell them.  What a bummer.  Catalog parties, however, started now, can go on for two weeks and I KNOW I'll be home. I have to be.  I have to be.  In two weeks, our soldier may be in Afghanistan. I cannot be here, nor anywhere but where he is until then.  Host an online party through me and maybe you'll bring us both good vibes.

Lest you think why I'm not writing or ChaCha!'ing, it's a matter of sleeping in one stinky room with three teens and major lack of sleep. Everything I seem to write (including this) comes out senseless.  Sigh.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.”  ~Aristotle

 

Aristotle was right-unless... you are repeating a failure.  Find what works for you, repeat THAT.