Preparing to Start a Direct Sales Business Part 3

THE PLAN Some of us are inherent planners, while others are inherently spontaneous, fly-by-the-seat of our pants people. Both groups can be wildly successful in direct sales. That being said, it’s vitally important to design a Plan. Your Plan is an overarching guide that keeps you focused, organized, and moving forward along a pre-determined path. Working from home is a wonderful thing. I love answering emails in my jammies, going for a run in the middle of the day, being there when my kids get home from school. My commute is 10 seconds. It’s awesome! However, working from home is a difficult thing. I see the messy house and think, “I’ll just pick up the kitchen and then start working my business.” Two hours later, I’m in the middle of 7 household chores I wasn’t intending to do. It’s time for the kids to come home, and my work time is out the window. There are always opportunities to “not work” when we are home: phone calls to return, errands to run, kids to manage, chores to complete, baskets full of laundry to fold; the list goes on and on. Procrastination rules - there’s no boss standing over you, the work will be there tomorrow, and “home” responsibilities continually stare you in the face. What’s a girl to do? To successfully work from home, a Plan is essential. Without it, we have no direction and life can easily spin out of control. We had real life to deal with before starting our new business, and we’ll have real life to deal with after starting. We are adding a new component into life: we are adding a job. An effective Plan should contain the following: a JOB mindset, a Master Schedule, your MIG (Monthly Income Goal), and your family’s support. YOUR BUSINESS IS A JOB! Many times, we think we can fit our business into our existing life without much effort. “I’ll make a couple of phone calls while I’m cooking dinner,” or “Once the laundry is done and the kids are at practice, I’ll get some work done.” Trying to “fit work in” is a recipe for disaster! Don’t do it! Our busy culture teaches us to fire-fight - take care of the most pressing matters first, and if we have time later, deal with low priority stuff. Your new business will always be low priority, unless you choose to view it as a JOB. Many direct sales people start with the idea that they’ll maybe do a couple of parties and just see what happens. Without a commitment to working the business, what happens is: nothing. After those couple of parties, business start to fizzle, they lose their enthusiasm, and then assume the “I’m no good at sales” statement applies to them. CREATE A MASTER SCHEDULE Set yourself up for success. Design a Plan that incorporates your life responsibilities with a commitment to your business. Start by creating a Master Schedule that includes anything and everything that requires your time and attention. Write down all the non-negotiable commitments you have each week. Include family stuff, kid stuff, household stuff, volunteer stuff - anything and everything that requires your time. Then, determine when you schedule time to work your business. If your days are already jam-packed, seriously consider whether you have the time to dedicate to a new business. Or, eliminate unnecessary commitments to give you additional time. Treat your business as a job. You wouldn’t tell your boss that you needed to fold clothes and run to the mall today for a new pair of shoes instead of coming to the office! You are the boss. Be a good one. Honor yourself and your business by showing up for work ready to work and mindful of what your workday holds. Also, use your work time productively. Decide the night before how to structure the next day. We can waste a lot of time shuffling papers rather than actually doing tasks that make money. When scheduling your work time, be sure to schedule an end time. While it’s easy to procrastinate the day away when we should be working, it’s just as easy to be tied to our voicemail, cell phone, and computer 24/7. When you are done working for the day, shut it down! Otherwise, you may end up feeling like you’re working all the time. Finding and maintaining balance between life and work is a challenging but vital part of running a home based business. Finally, schedule ALL of your commitments. While it may seem silly, even schedule when you’ll clean the house and get groceries. It’s easy to float through the day without a set plan, only to discover at 6pm that you accomplished 1/10th of what you intended. When we create a Master Schedule, we are more productive, more focused, less stressed. IT’S A MIG!! No, not a Russian fighter jet! A MIG is a Monthly Income Goal. What’s that, you say? Set an income goal? Why would I do that? I don’t even know if I’ll sell anything!!! By setting a Monthly Income Goal, you can determine an approximate number of hours you’ll need to work each week. Once you know how much money you want to earn, you’ll be able to define the activities you’ll need to accomplish to achieve that amount and how long those activities will take. Here’s how: first, determine your MIG. Then, break that down into the number of parties/customer sales/enrollments do you need to generate that amount. Now, figure your average profit for those activities. Divide your MIG by your average profit to determine how many of that particular activity you need to complete to reach your MIG. How many hours does the income generating activity require? Multiply the number of hours by the number of activities. Is that in line with the amount of time you can dedicate to your business? If not, adjust your MIG or arrange your schedule to accommodate additional hours. Example: On average, Sue earns $200 for each home party she holds. She also averages $100 profit per month on customer re-orders. Sue’s monthly income goal is $1100. 5 parties at $200 each = $1000, plus the $100 profit from re-orders = $1100 in income. It takes her 4 hours to plan, hold, and close each party, plus an additional hour for re-orders. 4 hours X 5 parties = 20 hours plus the re-order hour = 21 hours per month. To earn $1100, Sue needs to work 4 - 5 hours each week. If that doesn’t fit into her schedule, she either needs to dedicate additional hours to work or lower her desired monthly income. THE FAMILY PLAN Finally, bring your family into the Plan. Because family is different to each of us, determine who represents “family” to you (it could be a spouse or significant other, kids, extended family, friends, neighbors, etc.) and ask them to support your decision to start your business. Ask them to honor you by honoring your work time. You may need to enlist your family to take on additional responsibilities around the house to free up opportunities for you to work. Deal with these considerations up front, and you’ll have a much smoother transition into your new role as business owner. So, as you develop your Plan, set your Master Schedule to help you accomplish all the responsibilities life holds; determine your Monthly Income Goal, which determines the number of hours you will work; and, ask your family to support your new endeavor. Most importantly, follow the Plan.