by Annette Yen
In my many years of Party Plan direct selling I have seen it time and time again… women come home from their annual convention fired up, determined that by next year they’ll be able to walk the stage in the top 10, earn the cruise and have enough income to purchase their dream home on the ocean. It is great to come home motivated and excited about your company. Having big dreams is a wonderful thing!
Sometimes, however, it’s just not realistic for the average WAHM who wants a life outside of her business. Because she has just heard some wonderful goal setting advice from the top leaders in our company she sets those wonderful goals, posts them on the fridge with a picture of the dream home circled in red pen and she looks at them every day.
But the reality of it is, many work at home moms have life boundaries that they are unwilling to cross. And those boundaries will make it very difficult to achieve even one of those goals. Because of this, unfortunately, many women who could have a wonderful and fulfilling career in direct sales quit because the goals they’ve set are just plain unrealistic for where they are in life. Instead of enjoying the benefits of a business with the freedom and flexibility to earn some money while still living the rest of life, they assume they’ve failed because the unrealistic goal was just that… unrealistic for now.
That said, if you’re a mom like me who has a full life with other involvements and time commitments that you are unwilling to shelve even temporarily for your direct sales business, you might enjoy an unorthodox approach to goal setting. I like to call it Goal Getting.
With Goal Getting you are looking at your life and determining exactly what you can expect from your Direct Sales business based on your priorities and life commitments. Basically, you’re working backward from the usual goal setting process.
First, let’s lay some groundwork. If you are married, talk with your husband about your schedule. If you were to say to him, “Honey, I’m planning on being out four nights a week for the next 6 months so I might earn a cruise,” what will he say? What about three nights? Two nights? Is one night a week or even one night a month the more realistic schedule for you? You can always come back to him after you’ve written down your schedule (see next step) to add in an extra day or two or more.
Now, here’s where the work comes in. If you don’t already have a master family calendar, it’s time to get one! Get a nice big calendar with room to write in each day of the month. Pull out all the schedules you have, school, church, mom’s groups, bunco nights, etc, and put them all on there for as many months out as you can. Do you have date nights with your hubby regularly (if not, you should… but we’ll save that for another day)? Is there a TV show that you absolutely will not miss for ANYTHING and are not willing to record? Be realistic here ladies…some moms come into a business and say, “Oh, I can sacrifice ‘Survivor’ to do a party” but then the first time a party comes along on that night, and they resent having to give it up. Do yourself a favor and admit it…and schedule around it!
Do not just look at evening activities, but write in the daytime stuff too. Think through a typical week for your family. You want a realistic picture of what is there. So few women do this but it’s a worthy exercise no matter what home business you are in but particularly with Direct Sales where being away from home for a party or workshop is a given.
Now, take that full calendar back to your husband and work together with him to determine how many and which nights would be best for you to be away. Meet with the rest of the family and talk over what this is going to look like so everyone is on the same page.
The groundwork is laid…now let’s GET the goals…
1. Find out from your company what their average party/workshop sales are. This will likely be your average too and even if your totals are higher, use this average for the goal getting process since it will allow for cancellations, reschedules and the like.
2. Based on your commission structure, and basic costs of doing business, determine how much you’ll take home from an average party.
3. Multiply that number by the amount of parties you’ve determined you can do in any given month.
Ok, now what do you think of that number? Not bad, huh? Do you want it to be higher? Talk with your family again and see if there are any changes that can be made, but remember that those changes will mean sacrifices in other areas of your life. That’s fine but just remember that you cannot have it all!
Although many hope for it, most in the home party plan business will not reach the $100,000 annual achievers club and the company incentive trip while still being the president of the PTA, singing in the church choir, being the Girl Scout Troop leader, having a date night with your husband and maintaining a spotless house where husband comes home to every night to a rested wife ready to meet his every need!
However, even with a full life, you CAN make a nice additional income, purchase your own products and gifts for others at a discount and maybe even earn an incentive or two. And who knows, when the kids are older and the scout troop no longer needs you as leader, you can add a party or two to your schedule and earn that cruise.
Annette Yen lives a full and happy life as a homechooling work at home mom. With over 20 years of direct sales experience she loves sharing her love for direct sales with other moms. You can get a free Goal Getting Worksheet and other tools for your direct sales business at her site http://www.directsalestools.com