Easy Guide to Direct Selling $$$ - Getting Started! Joanie Clarke Easy Guide to Direct Selling – Getting Started Joanie Clarke Copyright 2012 by Joanie Clarke Smashwords Edition All rights reserved. 2 DEDICATION This book is dedicated to my readers. You are starting an adventure! My advice? Have fun and move at your own pace. Make small investments and build from there. Don’t take yourself too seriously and…Go for it! 3 CONTENTS Acknowledgments It’s All About You Attitude is Everything Inspiration – Real Life What is Direct Selling? Should You Become a Direct Seller? What Will I Sell? How Will I Do It? Business Structure Questions and Answers 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks to my children for their love and support. They kept me going through the hardest times of my life and we are all now enjoying the fruits of that labor. 5 1 It’s All About You You’re reading this book for a reason! Whether you’ve: • Always wanted to be in business for yourself; • Just want to make a few hundred extra dollars a week to help pay the bills; • Tried before and quit and want to know how to succeed this time. Regardless of what motivated you to read these pages, the important fact is that that you are reading it! By reading this book you are saying to yourself (and maybe to others) that YOU want to stop talking and dreaming about making money in your own business and start DOING something about it!! Remember, nothing happens unless you take the first step! And that, my friends, is why I wrote this book. It is written for YOU, for the ones who are ready to take the plunge. And this powerful little book can lead you to where you need to be to have that success you’ve always wanted in your own business. I am a 40+ year old woman who had worked most of my life for others. I thought about starting my own business many times but life just seemed to get in the way. I’ll bet many of you know exactly what I’m talking about. I tried a number of part-time opportunities unsuccessfully. Even though I had not succeeded I knew way down deep inside that I had it in me to be successful. I wanted badly to be my own boss and I believed I could make it on my own if I tried and just didn’t quit. 6 Oops! Did I use the “Q” word? You know, the word, “QUIT”. To be successful in your own business you have to know that quitting is NOT an option. You must know that you WILL make mistakes, some like to call it a ‘FAILURE’; you know, the ‘F’ word! But, mistakes are GOING TO HAPPEN!. That’s OK because failure is nothing more than another way NOT to do something. To be successful you must take failure in stride so you learn from mistakes, or failures if you like, and just don’t make the same mistake twice, if you can help it. You have to take the mindset that failure is just the other side of success! Just don’t QUIT! Don’t let making mistakes (Failure) get the best of you. It’s really not personal, it’s just another way not to do something. Just ask Thomas Edison, the inventor of the electric light bulb, and I might add, later to become the founder of General Electric Co. Perhaps you’ve heard of him! When Thomas Edison was interviewed by a young reporter who boldly asked Mr. Edison if he felt like a failure and if he thought he should just give up by now. Perplexed, Edison replied, "Young man, why would I feel like a failure? And why would I ever give up? I now know definitively over 9,000 ways that an electric light bulb will not work. Success is almost in my grasp." And shortly after that, and over 10,000 attempts, Edison invented the light bulb! Thomas Edison had the right attitude. Although he failed over 10,000 times he did not take the mistakes as personal. He knew he would succeed and he did! 7 2 Attitude is Everything My mother told me when I was very young that, “Attitude is Everything”. And I thought, “OK, sure mom, whatever you say”, and I blew it off. I didn’t have a clue what she meant. And it took me until I was nearly 30 years old before I realized how wise my mother really was. Attitude is Everything! Another way of saying this is YOU MUST KEEP A POSITIVE ATTITUDE! Believe this for most people keeping a positive attitude is VERY DIFFICULT. It’s true! That said, if you want to be successful, and REALLY MEAN IT down in your gut, you MUST LEARN HOW TO KEEP A POSITIVE ATTITUDE. Have you ever heard the phrase “fake it ‘till you make it”? Sometimes you do have to “fake it ‘till you make it”! I don’t mean ignore reality and get in over your head on a project. I mean feel in your gut that you are already successful! There are lots of methods you can use to help you to keep a positive attitude. One of the best for me is a technique I call my ‘Merry Christmas Attitude’. I bring up in an instant a specific memory I had from a past Christmas that was good, positive, and without any phoniness. The emotion I had experienced at that time in the past was very real and I bring it back up and use it to overcome negativity. I can instantly get my positive attitude where I felt great and, regain my confidence. With my Merry Christmas Attitude, I know I will be OK. It was a bit slow for me to bring up that memory when I first began 8 trying it. But now I can go there in an instant, and that quickly my negative thinking is gone. I can get right back on the right track instantly. It’s a great technique, because it is not artificial. It is not superimposing emotion because the emotion is real and valid. You might want to try this technique for yourself. Remember, it is very important that the memory be valid. You must have really experienced that feeling of ‘everything is just great’ and meant it. This is important because you are going to use that memory to revisit every time you feel your attitude dropping and you are getting into a state of negativity, of ‘woe is me’, of ‘I can’t do this’. If you do experience times when you are feeling in a hopeless situation and don’t know what to do or where to turn, just bring up your own ‘Merry Christmas Attitude’ and it will help you get back on track and in control. 9 3 Inspiration – Real Life So, you’ve decided you want to be your own boss and to get started making money on your own. Although I commend you on your decision, please understand this decision doesn’t mean you quit your day job (your current primary means of employment) but that you will dedicate the time it takes to succeed in this new venture of being your own boss in your own business! Take slow steps initially, be patient, be positive. This is a tremendous learning experience for you. With the right attitude you will succeed, slowly at first, but, in all reality, the sky’s the limit! There are numerous examples of young men and women, some of whom never graduated high school, and others who dropped out of college to work their dream, who have become multi-millionaires, in some cases billionaires, because they didn’t quit and kept their positive attitude. Here are a few examples: • Richard Branson of Virgin Airlines and Virgin Records, and a multi-billionaire, dropped out of school at 16. • Bill Gates of Microsoft dropped out of college at 20. • Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of college at 19. Please don’t get me wrong, I am not encouraging you to drop out of school. I’m simply giving examples of young and not-so-young men who kept the positive attitude and didn’t quit. 10 [...]... to direct selling for part-time income or as a full-time career Some use direct selling to earn just a little extra money for essentials such as unexpected medical bills or to pay off a credit card Some use direct selling to earn money for a new car or a family vacation Some people use direct selling as their primary, career income Direct sellers often find unexpected benefits from their decision to. .. about products to sell! You know to become successful as your own boss you have to be able to sell something to someone whether it be a product or service How else are you going to bring in the cash? Now let’s talk about direct selling Direct selling is independent, personal sales There’s no fixed location Just you selling naturally to the people with whom you are in direct contact and to whom you provide... choose between using an established direct selling organization or to be your own distributor Do an Internet search today and you will get pages and pages of 13 information on direct selling companies There are direct selling companies offering products for almost every consumer product or services Distributor for an Established Company If you are new to direct selling, working with a company with... statements, direct selling might be for you! Reasons to Become a Direct Seller • I want to earn extra income • I want to buy products at wholesale • I want to build a strong, secure, high income future with no limits on my income • I want to meet more people • I want the tax advantages of business ownership Once you decide that you want to sell direct to consumers, the next consideration is to choose... benefits from their decision to become a direct seller Direct selling is perhaps the best entrepreneurial skill building opportunity in the world There is no limit to the income potential with direct selling It is NOT easy income,” you will NOT “get rich quick” The secret to direct selling success is a four-letter word: WORK! The work involved and the reward are tied to one another Work a little bit and... own name How much money does it take to start a small business? 30 In the beginning you should be looking at spending no more than 300 to $600 to start Most of this should go into your inventory of product to sell to your warm market You should have additional funding available to invest in as you grow! However, it is not unreasonable to need $5,000 to $10,000 to start your new business, depending... demonstration time, if any Keep it simple Your customer should be able to see immediately what your product does or how to use it It should not be heavy and cumbersome, and should not be large You are going to be storing your inventory at your home You should be able to buy your inventory cheap enough so that you can sell it at a discount to your customers and still put a good bit of cash in your pocket... good news is these types of Distributorships already know exactly how you should sell their product and can teach that to you, if that’s what you want Be Your Own Distributor Another way is to be your own Distributor by buying products from a wholesale supplier and selling them yourself to your customers If you really want to be your own boss, being your own distributor is the most profitable method!... this route it is best to have a branded product that is recognizable to many people I started my business as my own Distributor selling already branded products, like the Hitachi Magic Wand If you’ve got some entrepreneurial experience, creating your direct selling business on you own will bring you the 14 most ROI (return on your investment) Franchise Another way is to buy in to a franchise A Franchise... a direct seller? Whatever your goal, if you set achievable goals for day -to- day activity for your business, and if you consistently achieve those daily goals, you will have a thriving income from direct selling Direct selling offers an equal opportunity for everyone, regardless of age, sex, race, religion or level of education Women earn dollar for dollar the same as men If you can answer “yes” to . Easy Guide to Direct Selling $$$ - Getting Started! Joanie Clarke Easy Guide to Direct Selling – Getting Started Joanie Clarke Copyright. to sell direct to consumers, the next consideration is to choose between using an established direct selling organization or to be your own distributor.