SailingToSuccess

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I loved this article by my friend Linda Stacy from IRep Network
She's got some great tips and I'm glad she's letting me share them with you!
Enjoy-
Annette
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Should You Stop Wasting Time
by Linda Stacy

While it is commendable to keep on top of things you may be wasting resources by trying to do everything yourself. Home businesses owners frequently wear several hats during the day or week. While it appears to cut costs this may actually be wasting resources. Perhaps hiring someone part-time to help with the filing, cleaning and mail outs would permit you to spend their time at more profitable occupations.

If you work for someone else and you identify this problem you need to discuss your findings with your manager or employer. If approached properly they may see that your time is better spent focused on aspects of your job that are more profitable. Important duties are being compromised by menial tasks that need to be performed.

Whatever you discover to be a time waster you must take steps to deal with. Here are some ideas for four common time wasters…

Top Five Time Wasters

1 - PHONE CALLS: You don’t have to answer every time it rings.

If you have blocked a certain time for working on a task do not let phone calls interrupt your momentum. While you may feel that you need always be ‘on-call’ the truth is that you are loosing productivity by permitting continual interruptions to your work flow.

If you must answer the call and the person can wait ask them for a time when you can call back and discuss the issue. Not only will you set boundaries with your time but you can be prepared to deal with the call without other distractions.

To avoid wasting time with phone calls try the following:
- Turn off your phone or let your answering machine pick up for two hours while you complete your task. If that is too much then do it for one hour or 30 minutes.
- If you answer tell the person you are in the middle of a task so you need to schedule a return call later that day. Decide who will make the return call and when.

2 - DROP-IN VISITORS: “Do You Have a Minute” will always take longer.

Avoiding interruptions can be one of the most difficult time management issues for work at home moms in particular. In addition to your children needing your attention, neighbors and other family members may treat you as if you are continually available to them.

If you have very young children you may need to do much of your work when they are napping or at times when your spouse can take over the parenting responsibilities.

Ideally your office should be in an area behind a door you can close and older children and spouses should respect the closed door and interrupt only when absolutely necessary.

At the office, if you cannot finish a task without a co-worker stopping in to ask you for a minute of your time you may find your whole day is occupied with ‘one minute’ issues. Often the individual will get comfortable and discuss many more items than the one they initially came to you with.

While you may be required to have an open door policy at home or at the office, or you may not have an office you can close the door to, it is important to have uninterrupted time in your day to complete the tasks on your list.

To avoid wasting time with ‘drop-ins’ try the following:
a) Schedule the time you are not available and stand by your decision
b) Close the door or use a ‘do-not-disturb’ sign to discourage idle visitors.
c) If you must deal with a situation or individual ask for the details and suggest you find a time to sit down and discuss it. Schedule it in so they know you view it as important and want to give them your time.

3 - Working at the WRONG TIME: Wasting Your Resources

Are you always planning activities that clash with other people’s schedules? Do you find the time you allotted to make calls (such as lunch time) means you are not able to get a hold of anyone? Do you ask for help when everyone else is too busy?

Rearranging your schedule to make the most of your time will prevent you from ‘getting in your own way’. Find the most opportune times for tasks and your day will be much more productive.

To avoid wasting time with bad scheduling try the following:
a) Do you find more people available to talk later in the day? Make all your return calls then.
b) Do you often need to ask for assistance with big projects? Plan ahead so that your project does not conflict with other people’s schedules.
c) Give yourself extra lead time. Things don’t always work out like you plan; give yourself some extra time so you can make your deadlines even if you have setbacks. Check up on delegated tasks to make sure they’re on schedule and give them early deadlines as well.

4 - Disorganized WORK SPACE:

To use your time well it is a MUST that you have an organized workspace. Every moment looking for a pen, a file or a misplaced check not only means wasted time but it can add to your stress level and interfere with your ability to focus on your work.

To avoid wasting time with disorganized workspace:
a) Give EVERYTHING a home. This includes your cell phone and keys.
b) Keep daily needs easily accessible. Whether you work from your car or an office, place phone lists, calendars and other daily needed items in an easy to see spot or in an easily accessible folder.
c) Put everything else away. Files and tools that are not in use need to be put away. The easiest way to do that is to give yourself at least 50% more storage space than you currently need. If you cram items into a small space you will not likely keep up with your organizing and you will have difficulty finding what you need.

5 - MEETINGS: people in meetings all day are not getting things done.

Meetings have their place. They are an important way to deal with group issues, create plans, get feedback, and provide training. What is a problem is when meetings are called on the spur of the moment with little preparation and no plan. When these meetings start each person has a separate agenda. If the purpose is unclear and the participants unprepared are you going to come to a clear decision?

To avoid wasting time with meetings try the following:
a) Create an agenda giving each item a time allotment – Prioritize the agenda so the most important issues are dealt with first.
b) Send the agenda to each participant so they can come prepared.
c) Focus on getting a solution – scheduling another meeting should not be the solution although it may be a part of completing the plan.
d) Avoid last minute meetings
e) Schedule meetings for the end of the day or week so that all involved can arrange their workflow and jump right into their tasks the next morning.
f) If the issue can be dealt with on the phone or through email don’t plan a meeting.

Once you’ve identified and dealt with key time wasters you will be surprised how much more productive your day can be!

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Reprinted with permission.
For more help to build your business, join Linda Stacy's iRepNetwork.com Tips and Tools Mailing List.
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Here's an article that I wrote for February's issue of the WC.

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Building a strong downline relationship in your Direct Sales business by Annette Yen

 Congratulations!  You've got a strong direct sales downline or are beginning to build one!  This is one of the best parts of being a direct sales consultant, - the fact that you can share your passion for your business with others, help them to earn a little extra money and get paid for helping grow your company as well.  

Now that you are a leader of a team, you'll need to build a strong relationship with downline members to not only help them stay strong in their business, but to help your business grow stronger as well. A strong downline relationship will be one that's mutually helpful and everyone benefits.

But you may be wondering how to insure that downline members feel cared for while still maintaining some type of balance with the rest of your life.  Here are 5 easy tips for maintaining a great upline/downline relationship.

1.  Start off with a bang.  When a new recruit first signs up, it's vitally important that you communicate often with her.  One thing that I have found very helpful here is to develop a series of emails to send to new downline that talks them through those first days "on the job".  It will help them feel like they are connected to the company and to you.  Each day while your new recruit is waiting for her kit she should hear from you.  This is very easy to do with an autoresponder system, but can also be done by just copying and pasting into an email message every morning.

2.  15 minutes a day.  Set aside fifteen minutes of each workday for downline phone calls.  Use those minutes to call one to five members of your group for a quick "just checking in" call.  Leave a message if you get voicemail.  The idea is to let them know that you're thinking of them and giving them a chance to hear your voice.  This is a great time to ask how they're doing with their non-business life as well and get beyond your direct sales company to show you care about them.

3.  A downline website.  Creating a simple website for my group has been the best thing, by far that I did to keep communication open and strong with my group.  We have weekly topic discussions, contests, upload important files and just have fun with the whole group. Through this many relationships between members of my group have blossomed just because the website allowed them to "break the ice".

4.  Meetings and/or conference calls.  This is another great way to foster unity and strong relationships within your group.  Many of you probably have downline that are out your area, so have a quarterly conference call with everyone just to touch base. There are many free teleconference services via the internet that make it very easy to do.  And if you can, have a face-to-face meeting once in a while as well. Some group leaders have meetings monthly or quarterly. Others do a once a year get together with everyone.  

5.  Ecards.  I love ecards for celebrating birthdays, achievements etc.  First of all it's FREE, which is great, but it's so convenient and just plain fun.  Use one of those Internet calendar functions to keep track of birthdays.  Once a month go through the upcoming month and set up the ecard deliveries for the birthdays and company anniversary dates for the next month or more.  You can set these up to deliver up to a year in advance!  It's a wonderful thing. There are hundreds of sites for free ecards on the Internet. Have fun searching for ones that suit you!

The key?  Communicate in any and every way that you can.  You will find that your direct sales team members will stay with your company much longer when you've fostered a strong relationship by keeping in touch!   Have fun and happy team building!

Find more tips for Sailing to Success with your Direct Sales business at my other website:  www.directsalestools.com

SUBJECT:  COACHING CONVERSATIONS that WORK!

If you need help to move beyond “how’s it going?” when calling your team members, we hope the following outline of suggested topics will help your phoning become more effective.

*Please note, these are suggestions, use of all these questions in one phone call could be hazardous to the health of your new recruit!!!!

1.  THE WHY? “When the why is in place the how gets easy” - Jim Rohn
-What excites you about your party plan business -or- Why did you decide on this business and what makes it right for you now?
-Do you know what you’d like to do with the money you earn?
-How will you working benefit your family?
SPECIFICS ARE IMPORTANT!!
-How many nights a week do you see yourself going out?  How many parties do you want to hold a month?
-Do you enjoy working with a group and can you see yourself working with and managing your own team?
(Be prepared to discuss the benefits of management or ask your upline for help if you need it....also be able to  break specific goals into bite-sized chunks ie; number of calls needed to schedule desired number of parties and/or number of people invited to join the business before signing a recruit)

2.  THE ACTUAL BUSINESS/ACTIVITIES AND RESULTS.
BEFORE THE PARTY...
-What shape is your upcoming party in...did you get the mailing list back from the hostess?  Did you or the hostess send out the reminder cards?  Who will be doing the reminder calls the night before? What are you saying (or what have you coached your hostess to say on these calls?)
AFTER THE PARTY...
-Did you have fun?  Were you happy with the number of people there....how many came vs. how many were invited? (This helps to point out percentages to the new e.c. and they in turn to future hostesses and team members)
-Were you able to help your hostess get additional free products by scheduling other parties?
-Tell me about the guests....were there head nodders, someone who came early and/or stayed late?
-Did you give out any recruiting packets and do you feel comfortable with follow-up calls or would a 3 way phone conversation be helpful?  
IMPORTANT...When should we do that?
-How about the hostess, is she interested in joining?
-What went well in your presentation and what will you do differently?
-What will you specifically say during your party to invite people to join? Do you tell your story and do you have it written in your folders?
-How will you organize your customers and potential recruits/hostesses? Do you need suggestions?

3.  TROUBLESHOOT for potential difficulty in accomplishing a new recruit’s goals...
-When do you make your calls?  Do you know who to call and what to say?  How many calls a day are you trying to get in and how are your kids doing while you’re on the phone? IMPORTANT...May I share with you what has worked for me (or other consultants) in the past?
-What does your family/husband think of your new business....have you shared your goals with them?  Have you shared with them what you love about this business and why it’s important to you?

4.  MAKE A GAME PLAN...problem solving as needed, eliciting her ideas first!  Ask permission to tell her what she needs to hear. Share your prospective and tips concretely without being bossy!!!
BEST GENERAL QUESTION YOU CAN ASK IS... “If I can show you a way...(covers most everything!)
-If I can show you a way to get on the phone...come up with the money....work alongside your family...
-How can you make your life easier on party days?  May I make a suggestion, Would you like some ideas?
-Can I share what worked for me (or someone else)...in that situation?
-Would that be possible? Can you see that happening?  Does that sound doable?

5.  HELP FINALIZE THE PLANS...get agreement on each step and set time frames.
-When will we talk again?  Can you call me after your next party?  When is it?  Could you call me after you give out that Just Ask packet?
RESTART THEIR OBJECTIVES...You said you want 2 parties on the books by Friday, correct?  If that hasn’t happened what can I say to help you stay on task?  Do you have a word/words that I can say to help you focus on your goal?  Do you feel clear as to what has to happen this week?  What will you do after this call?

www.TheSuccessFactory.com

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Copyright 2006 by The Success Factory All Rights Reserved

"It's Probably Time for Your Marketing to Go OFFLINE! How to Get Started With Direct Mail" by Alexandria K. Brown, "The E-Zine Queen"

I admit that for some time I was resistant to doing any marketing via old fashioned snail mail. After all, email is FREE (at least for the time being). Why pay to print and mail anything at all? I mean, I'm the Ezine Queen - not the direct mail queen! And I was already making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year using the Internet.

Well, I can tell you I've changed my tune based on several mailings I've done over the past year. A test of sending out few simple postcards and one sales letter mailing helped me exponentially increase my response to two of my programs over the last several months. I'm now SOLD!

If you aren't collecting any physical addresses right now from your clients, customers, and ezine subscribers, please get started now. Because not only will offline marketing supplement your online efforts immensely, but email deliverability gets trickier and trickier to maintain.

Email can (and will) change in the future. How, I can't tell you. But the good old U.S. Postal Service will be around for a long, long time just the way it is. (And if YOU want your business to be around a long, long time, you'd better start getting those addresses now!)

Best of all, direct mail marketing will supplement your online efforts for even better results. It's a no-brainer, folks. Time to get with it.

So, if you're ready to venture into direct mail, here are a few dos and don'ts I'd like to share with you before you get started...

1. DON'T blow your whole budget on one mailing!

Imagine Nissan coming out with a new car and running ONE single television ad spot, never to be repeated. Ludicrous, yes? But many small business owners somehow think one mailing will do the trick. The biggest mistake most new marketers make when venturing into direct mail is doing ONE mailing, and judging the response solely from that. You should plan a campaign that involves at least three steps, and five to seven for best results. (If you want to keep it super simple, you can just mail the same darn thing repeatedly!)

2. DON'T do an expensive mailing your first-time out, even if you can afford it.

Why? I learned this the hard way when I did an exciting, pricey mailing without first realizing how many undeliverable addresses there were on my list. Remember that some people mistakenly mistype their addresses into your system, and people often move, sometimes with no forwarding address. I recommend doing an inexpensive mailing such as a postcard first time around in order to help weed out the undeliverables on your list! (Remember to include your return address so you'll get these back.)

3. DON'T overlook how important your copy is in order to get attention and get response.

The great thing about mailing a postcard is the recipient reads what you have to say right then and there. If you send something in an envelope, it has to get opened first. That's why master marketers recommend printing a headline or teaser on the outside of any mailing that's done in an envelope. Example: "Look inside to learn 5 ways you can increase your sales by next week!" I say just do a postcard to keep it simple (and less expensive than doing an envelope mailing).

4. DO keep your graphics simple and attention-getting.

Don't go crazy paying some designer thousands of dollars to create a mailing for you, when you can keep things simple and get just as good - if not better - results. I used to pay an artist beaucoup bucks on a regular basis to make everything I sent out looked picture perfect. Once I stopped that and started focusing more on the message, I started making (and keeping) a LOT more money. Remember it's WORDS that sell, and the job of graphics is to get attention and support your message.

5. DO give them a reason to take action NOW (and not wait until later).

Include a deadline or expiration date on your offer, even if it's for something free, or emphasize there are a limited amount of spots/products left. Of course this will all depend on what you're offering, but you get the idea! You don't want to risk the recipient putting your postcard or letter in the "get to later" pile (which never gets touched).

6. DO track your mailings carefully so you can judge your return-on-investment.

If you are driving people to a website to opt-in or buy something, make sure you give them a separate and simple URL (web address) that is ONLY for the purpose of this mailing. You don't have to create a new website or anything, just make sure you can track it. For example, I bought BlueprintWorkshopPostcard.com and then had that redirect to a tracking link I set up using the easy ad tracker program in my shopping cart system. This way I could tell exactly how many people typed in that URL, AND also how many people also actually registered for the workshop from the postcard! (VERY valuable information.)

7. DO work with a vendor who can make this all EASY for you.

I tried several different companies this past year, and now I only work with and recommend TWO. For full-color postcard design, printing, and mailing, I use Modern Postcard. (They did all my postcards for the Online Success Blueprint Workshop, including design, printing, and mailing, with quick turnaround too!) For mailings with goodies (called "premiums") inside them and more creative stuff, I use my friend Mitch Carson at Impact Products. He's the consultant I pull in when I truly want to make a BIG impact in the mail!

© 2006 Alexandria K. Brown

WANT TO SEE MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS ONE? See Alexandria's Small Business Marketing Blog.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Online entrepreneur Alexandria K. Brown, "The E-zine Queen," publishes the award-winning 'Straight Shooter Marketing' weekly ezine with 18,000+ subscribers. If you're ready to jump-start your marketing, make more money, and have more fun in your small business, get your FREE tips now at www.EzineQueen.com