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Thursday, October 18, 2007

Guarantee Success in Your Direct Sales Business

How exciting! You’ve started your own business through a direct sales company. You’ve got the support of a fabulous upline, and the promise of building a business that will allow you to have a flexible schedule and all the money you need to support your family.

Don’t forget, this business is, well, a business. You must treat it just like a business that you start from scratch.

Yes, you have the backing of a credible, well-known company, but, you still need to get the word out about the fact that you’re selling these products. There are three things you can do that will ensure your business is powerful.

Make a plan. Every single business must have a business plan. Your business plan will be your roadmap to success. Your business plan doesn’t have to be complicated. The essential components to a business plan are a vision for your business, a mission for your business, your goals and your strategies.

A business vision is where you see your business at a point in the future. For example, “in three years, Jenn’s Home Comforts will be bringing in an income of $XXX,XXX. I will have 10 consultants under me and I will do 4 home parties per month.”

The mission for your business describes why you are in business. An example of a mission might be, “the mission of Jenn’s Home Comforts is to help women feel great about the space in their home.”

The goals in your business plan are specific, concise achievements that you want to accomplish in a certain time-frame. These are tied directly to the vision. Taking the vision above, a goal might be “recruit 1 new sales consultant at each home party.” Another goal might be “hold 6 home parties per month.”

Strategies in a business plan are the steps you will take to accomplish your goals. For example, how are you going to ensure that you’ll hold 6 home parties per month? One strategy might be to start by sending a letter to 100 contacts introducing your business. From there, your strategy might be to have incredible host(ess) incentives.

There are many other sections you can include in your business plan. The sections outlined here are easy to set-up, easy to maintain, and easy to follow.

You must market your business. This means, just like every other business, you must tell people what you do over and over and over again. And, you must be consistent. Create a marketing plan that includes marketing activities that you enjoy doing. Put your marketing activities on your calendar and do them.

A great way to start marketing your business is to create an e-zine. Your e-zine can be simple, and you can send it for free using a service like Yahoo Groups. By creating an e-zine, you’ll be developing a list of prospects that you can market your business to over and over again. You can offer special deals and incentives through your e-zine to encourage people to sign up. Just be sure that you send your e-zine on a regular schedule.

Create space for your business. Create space in your office and on your computer that is devoted to your business and nothing else. Also, carve out time for your business as often as you can. If you can only work on it a few hours a week, make sure you spend those hours having laser-sharp focus on your business.

Follow these three steps and you’re on your way to guaranteed success in your direct sales business!

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