I've been racking my brain to find an easier way to keep this blog updated. I'm always so busy working on AVON, freelance writing, music rehearsals.....that I don't always find the time to write here. It is sort of like a haphazard journal. I swear to myself that I'm going to make it a daily chore only to "wake up" and it is a week, a month, or more later and I've not kept it up! Perhaps in the morning first thing? Because it certainly is not working in the evening! By the time dinner is done, homework, and other chores...there you have it.....you are too pooped to worry about writing! Maybe an easier designed format instead of this rambling. It's worth a try.....
God is so good.....He is blessing me in all areas of my life! Right now.....doors are especially opening for me for sharing MUSIC! (read more below):)
AVON--
I'm currently working on re-establishing my downline. I have a few leads, but it is slow going at this time. Of course, I've not totally focused on the recruiting end of it. I've been more concerned about building my sales level back up so that when I do make it, I'll have no problem making the personal sales requirement of $250 per campaign. I've consistently added new customers each campaign, but this again, is only by making sure that I get all my regular brochures out PLUS, finding new ways to distribute more. I'm working on getting my numbers together for a business budget (as previously posted) and I've made some progress. With that in mind, I have even checked out some advertising options so that I can have some possible numbers to budget for advertising purposes. Whatever I do, I want it to be different than what another Rep might be doing so that I can find new customers. With the new product coming out...Anew Ultimate Elixir and Anew Ultimate Night Cream.....It is AWESOME!! I'm thinking about inviting everyone that I give samples to maybe submit a comment or perhaps I'll make use of the new "poll" feature that I noticed on the blog! This might drive traffic to my blog, combining two things on my list!
WRITING--
Yesterday....I FINALLY made the FRONT PAGE of Associated Content!!!! YEAH!!!!! Freelance writing has been up and down for me as it is also something that needs built. Just like AVON, the more you do it, the better it gets. I learned a real hard lesson because of the following:
I'd received an offer to be on a writing team for which I had to "sign" away the authoring rights to my articles. I was under the impression that my articles were being used and posted on business websites where visitors to particular business sites would see them but it wouldn't be a big deal for me to have the rights to them because they would only have limited views from those interested in that particular business. One day, I was surfing around on the net and happened to run across and article that I had written...the catch? Well, it was posted on the very same exact ezine that I have written for in the past! Associated Content! Only thing was..it was published under someone else's name!!!! Needless to say, I quit sub-writing for that guy! The reason I was looking for more freelance writing opps was that AC was taking too long to pay out and I needed something regular. Since he was selling my articles to other writers on AC....I said NO WAY forget that! It is better to submit myself so that I get credit for my work! I figured that I was writing 4 to 5 articles for him per day and I could do the same for myself and make more money! Of course, with this comes discipline....I have to actually write the four articles and submit them to get paid. So far, I've not made it to four in one day. That is so funny.....how come I could get them done for him but I can't for myself? Makes you wonder! Oh well, I will keep plugging away! I did have two that were turned down so maybe that discouraged me a little. NOW...with me making front page! That is really motivating!
MUSIC--
I've heard from Russ and we are actually working towards a date when we can meet and discuss laying the first track of my CD!!! Another one of my lifetime dream goals! I can't wait until I can record my original song....Chain Reaction....but that will be awhile yet. Mostly, I want a demo CD with my voice. That way, I can offer a copy to anyone needing a soloist for a special occasion so that they can hear my voice.
On the performance front......my last solo at church was "Jesus Takes the Wheel". Why is it that when you sing in front of people that you have a close relationship with, it is so much more difficult? You would think that it'd be easier to perform in front of those who love you but it is much easier to sing in front of a group of strangers. I only made one small boo-boo, but we are always harder on ourselves than others are to us! Then, I sang the very same song with no errors, at a mini-church service for a nursing home. This is a new opportunity! It came by me very UnExpectedly! Another door that God opened......
I was working the second Saturday FCL lunch at Suttliff and found out that someone I know from AVON (Barb--such a sweet lady) and Tiff.....any way...Barb is Pat's sister! And...Tiff is Barb's daughter! We were all connected to one another separately but didn't realize that we all knew one another until this particular Saturday! In any case, Barb found out about my singing at the lunches and asked if I would like to sing at the worship service she hosts at the nursing home. Wow! Whew! Such a small world. It never ceases to amaze me how God brings us all together where we need to be when we need to be!
Until later.....
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Building, Building Everywhere!
One thing with AVON is that you always have to keep building. You have to keep adding new customers and if you are in leadership, keep adding new recruits. It is not a business where you can sit back, relax and coast along. It is an EASY business because of all the opportunities that AVON provides, but you have to put forth the effort. Just like any business venture, you have to want to succeed. And...totally not UNexpected.....there will be good times and not-so-good times!
Take the fact that this year I finally made Unit Leader. Well, since I didn't have enough representatives under me who were actually producing good sales and maintaining their accounts, I lost my Unit Leader status. Plus, it didn't help that my sales were not where they needed to be either. What did I learn? There are certain requirements that you must maintain both as a unit and yourself. I need to map it all out and write it down so I can achieve over those requirements and push myself for more. However, the unit requirements are a little tricky. You cannot force anyone to do anything that they do not really want to do. If they want to succeed with AVON, you can encourage and suggest, but you cannot hold their hands. Any direct marketing information I've read has pointed out that this is a problem that all network marketing companies struggle with: How to recruit people who follow through, set goals and achieve and how to retain those people in your unit. One statistic says that for every ten you recruit, 9 will eventually fall off, leaving you with one good recruit. AVON requires that you have five members in your downline, but in reality to succeed as a unit, you will need a lot more than that because not all of them are going to do as well as some. You could luck out and have five great producers who are so excited and stick with it. But that would be really UNexpected! LOL!
This time, as I start rebuilding, I won't hold their hands so much. It takes way too much time and really, all the training is available to them through AVON. I will answer questions and lead them in the right direction, but if they want success then they are going to have to work for it. I can't build their businesses for them.
I believe that I spent so much time on my new downline, that my own sale s started to suffer because of it as I wasn't working on adding new customers as much. This lead to my not maintaining my sales level and since my downline wasn't maintaining theirs either no matter how hard I tried to encourage, train, meet with them etc. the acheivement of Unit Leader was shortlived.
The last few campaigns, I've focused on adding more customers and I've picked up a few.
Customer goal......I want to get to 100 active customers this year.
Another goal......I need to do this real soon.....I need to put together a business budget and map out what I actually need to earn. Both for personal use and money that I can put back into the business. I plan to take this to the next level. Reaching more people via mailing brochures and advertising the AVON opporunity. I can't do that until I can figure out how much money I will need to earn.
Freelance writing is also still in the early building stages as well. I took the beauty courses online, but I've not had time to write any articles yet. My current freelance news writing gig seems to be taking some time for my schedule to be adjusted. I can't let it go, though, because it is pretty much guaranteed money earned. I'll keep plugging away at it. Speaking of which, I just checked and I've received my topics for the day...albeit a little late. Gotta run and get that done to make deadline! I really would like to get them done first thing in the a.m. but it all depends on when I receive them. It's been so erratic that it makes it difficult because in the afternoon I have things that need to get done for my AVON business as well. I'll have to work that out...
Until later!
Take the fact that this year I finally made Unit Leader. Well, since I didn't have enough representatives under me who were actually producing good sales and maintaining their accounts, I lost my Unit Leader status. Plus, it didn't help that my sales were not where they needed to be either. What did I learn? There are certain requirements that you must maintain both as a unit and yourself. I need to map it all out and write it down so I can achieve over those requirements and push myself for more. However, the unit requirements are a little tricky. You cannot force anyone to do anything that they do not really want to do. If they want to succeed with AVON, you can encourage and suggest, but you cannot hold their hands. Any direct marketing information I've read has pointed out that this is a problem that all network marketing companies struggle with: How to recruit people who follow through, set goals and achieve and how to retain those people in your unit. One statistic says that for every ten you recruit, 9 will eventually fall off, leaving you with one good recruit. AVON requires that you have five members in your downline, but in reality to succeed as a unit, you will need a lot more than that because not all of them are going to do as well as some. You could luck out and have five great producers who are so excited and stick with it. But that would be really UNexpected! LOL!
This time, as I start rebuilding, I won't hold their hands so much. It takes way too much time and really, all the training is available to them through AVON. I will answer questions and lead them in the right direction, but if they want success then they are going to have to work for it. I can't build their businesses for them.
I believe that I spent so much time on my new downline, that my own sale s started to suffer because of it as I wasn't working on adding new customers as much. This lead to my not maintaining my sales level and since my downline wasn't maintaining theirs either no matter how hard I tried to encourage, train, meet with them etc. the acheivement of Unit Leader was shortlived.
The last few campaigns, I've focused on adding more customers and I've picked up a few.
Customer goal......I want to get to 100 active customers this year.
Another goal......I need to do this real soon.....I need to put together a business budget and map out what I actually need to earn. Both for personal use and money that I can put back into the business. I plan to take this to the next level. Reaching more people via mailing brochures and advertising the AVON opporunity. I can't do that until I can figure out how much money I will need to earn.
Freelance writing is also still in the early building stages as well. I took the beauty courses online, but I've not had time to write any articles yet. My current freelance news writing gig seems to be taking some time for my schedule to be adjusted. I can't let it go, though, because it is pretty much guaranteed money earned. I'll keep plugging away at it. Speaking of which, I just checked and I've received my topics for the day...albeit a little late. Gotta run and get that done to make deadline! I really would like to get them done first thing in the a.m. but it all depends on when I receive them. It's been so erratic that it makes it difficult because in the afternoon I have things that need to get done for my AVON business as well. I'll have to work that out...
Until later!
Friday, July 20, 2007
Way off track
Ok.....so I really got off the beaten path this time with my writing. Oh...I've taken time to keep researching freelance opportunities and kept commitments for which I was being paid, but my creative writing and this blog took a very low spot on my priority list. I've been so busy with everything, but I wanted to be. It was a huge adjustment for me this past year knowing that Deanna would be gone and Brett wouldn't be living here either. Now things are getting back to normal. Well, at least until something UNexpected happens! LOL!
On the musical front.....Liz, my good friend and voice teacher had to move. Her husband is in the Navy and received orders that he was being transferred. Thankfully, Liz had made up some warm-up tapes so that I won't lose all the progress that I've made. My last solo at church was "No Ordinary Man" and so many at church that day enjoyed it. A few ladies even commented that they could certainly hear the improvement in my voice. I've already put out feelers to find a new teacher, but it is so hard to find someone that you are comfortable with. Also, this is something for me, but I can't let it be a financial burden. The next solo will be "Jesus Takes the Wheel" by Carrie Underwood. I'm planning on going into the sanctuary to rehearse with the sound system since I'll be using CD accompaniment. On the lyric writing front....I've not written a thing for a long time now. It fell off the same as the rest of my creative writing. I'm sure that inspiration will strike again and I'll get back on the bandwagon. I did make a contact with someone who has a studio about Chain Reaction, but I've not heard anything back from them yet. Guess I better email them!
Things have been up and down with my AVON business as well. I've reached the conclusion that just like my emotional state effects my writing, it also effects my AVON business. A lot of it is trial and error with a good dose of luck. ATTITUDE is everything! If I'm down in the dumps, then the sales slump. When I say luck is needed, that is because if you are an AVON leadership representative trying to build your downline, like me, you can't control what other people are going to do with an opportunity that you present to them. It's really easy to make money selling AVON, but the business does not build itself without any effort on your part. You have to do something to make it happen. I've been to several direct marketing classes and there is real truth in the statement that I've heard over and over again...."For every 10 that you recruit, 9 of them will fall off"....I know this because it has happened to me. I was so happy when I made unit leader, but now I have to start over again. It didn't matter that I spent a lot of time training the people I'd recruited to get there. They were going to do what they were going to do and I couldn't make them want success. So....back to the drawing board for me! I may have to start over, but I'll start over smarter this time around.
I really want to take both my writing and my AVON business to a higher level. To that end, I decided to combine a little of both. I'm already a Beauty Advisor....so I decided to get my certification and write articles about Beauty! I'll keep you posted on this next venture!
Until next time.....
On the musical front.....Liz, my good friend and voice teacher had to move. Her husband is in the Navy and received orders that he was being transferred. Thankfully, Liz had made up some warm-up tapes so that I won't lose all the progress that I've made. My last solo at church was "No Ordinary Man" and so many at church that day enjoyed it. A few ladies even commented that they could certainly hear the improvement in my voice. I've already put out feelers to find a new teacher, but it is so hard to find someone that you are comfortable with. Also, this is something for me, but I can't let it be a financial burden. The next solo will be "Jesus Takes the Wheel" by Carrie Underwood. I'm planning on going into the sanctuary to rehearse with the sound system since I'll be using CD accompaniment. On the lyric writing front....I've not written a thing for a long time now. It fell off the same as the rest of my creative writing. I'm sure that inspiration will strike again and I'll get back on the bandwagon. I did make a contact with someone who has a studio about Chain Reaction, but I've not heard anything back from them yet. Guess I better email them!
Things have been up and down with my AVON business as well. I've reached the conclusion that just like my emotional state effects my writing, it also effects my AVON business. A lot of it is trial and error with a good dose of luck. ATTITUDE is everything! If I'm down in the dumps, then the sales slump. When I say luck is needed, that is because if you are an AVON leadership representative trying to build your downline, like me, you can't control what other people are going to do with an opportunity that you present to them. It's really easy to make money selling AVON, but the business does not build itself without any effort on your part. You have to do something to make it happen. I've been to several direct marketing classes and there is real truth in the statement that I've heard over and over again...."For every 10 that you recruit, 9 of them will fall off"....I know this because it has happened to me. I was so happy when I made unit leader, but now I have to start over again. It didn't matter that I spent a lot of time training the people I'd recruited to get there. They were going to do what they were going to do and I couldn't make them want success. So....back to the drawing board for me! I may have to start over, but I'll start over smarter this time around.
I really want to take both my writing and my AVON business to a higher level. To that end, I decided to combine a little of both. I'm already a Beauty Advisor....so I decided to get my certification and write articles about Beauty! I'll keep you posted on this next venture!
Until next time.....
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
I Got LOST!!!
Have you ever felt like you've been moving so fast that you didn't know where you were going to end up? Well, that is kind of what like the month of December felt like for me. You see, just before my last post, my oldest daughter told me that she was moving to Florida on December 2nd....a month sooner than previously expected. Now I don't know about your family, but Christmas is a real big deal around here. I've always enjoyed keeping strict rules about family traditions....there are just certain things that we always do. But this year.....it was going to be different and I just didn't want to face up to that. It'd been a rough year all the way around. My son had decided that he wanted to go live with his dad. I barely get through that and my daughter is telling me she's moving out-of-state. Yes, I still have the little ones at home and that does keep me busy, but they are still my children so it didn't make it any easier.
Which brings me to the reason that I've been away from this blog for so long. I guess my way of dealing with all this was to cram every waking moment with something to do. Whether it be working my AVON business, writing for Associated Content, or church activities....for the month of December I did not stop moving hardly at all. I was very rarely home and when I was, I made sure that I had no downtime. Thank goodness many of my favorite T.V. programs are in re-runs during December because I certainly didn't take time to watch any. I religiously made myself so tired that I would simply fall into bed each night too exhausted to think.
Yes, I miss my daughter and my son, too. There are still moments of tears, but looking at the bright side, my AVON business will grow as well as my writing career because of my need to keep really busy during those "sad" times.
Well AVON blog....I do promise to keep you more up-to-date now because I know I've really been neglecting you! I can honestly say that the year end with AVON was really successful. My C25 sales ended up being around $400 and my C26 sales were around $500. Not bad at all! I was able to get every single one of my customer's orders in time for Christmas and I even did some searching for a customer who wanted some Snowflake necklaces----no one was getting them until after Christmas so I filled the order by contacting some other Reps who happened to have some spares. I got one from a Rep in New York and another 5 from a Rep in Missouri....that filled my two that I had on backorder, plus the 3 I needed for the new customer. The extra one....I think I'll send that to my daughter in Florida to remind her of snow.
I tried a Re-order Mania promotion suggestion for C1 to see if I could boost those sales because C1 is always a very low campaign being right after Christmas and the sales for it ended up being around $260 which really isn't that bad for this time of year. I'm going to extend the suggestion to see if I can pick it up for C2....we'll see!
Until later....
Which brings me to the reason that I've been away from this blog for so long. I guess my way of dealing with all this was to cram every waking moment with something to do. Whether it be working my AVON business, writing for Associated Content, or church activities....for the month of December I did not stop moving hardly at all. I was very rarely home and when I was, I made sure that I had no downtime. Thank goodness many of my favorite T.V. programs are in re-runs during December because I certainly didn't take time to watch any. I religiously made myself so tired that I would simply fall into bed each night too exhausted to think.
Yes, I miss my daughter and my son, too. There are still moments of tears, but looking at the bright side, my AVON business will grow as well as my writing career because of my need to keep really busy during those "sad" times.
Well AVON blog....I do promise to keep you more up-to-date now because I know I've really been neglecting you! I can honestly say that the year end with AVON was really successful. My C25 sales ended up being around $400 and my C26 sales were around $500. Not bad at all! I was able to get every single one of my customer's orders in time for Christmas and I even did some searching for a customer who wanted some Snowflake necklaces----no one was getting them until after Christmas so I filled the order by contacting some other Reps who happened to have some spares. I got one from a Rep in New York and another 5 from a Rep in Missouri....that filled my two that I had on backorder, plus the 3 I needed for the new customer. The extra one....I think I'll send that to my daughter in Florida to remind her of snow.
I tried a Re-order Mania promotion suggestion for C1 to see if I could boost those sales because C1 is always a very low campaign being right after Christmas and the sales for it ended up being around $260 which really isn't that bad for this time of year. I'm going to extend the suggestion to see if I can pick it up for C2....we'll see!
Until later....
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