Christmas party for my hostesses

November 5, 2012 Leave a Comment

I have to plan my time and Christmas promotions carefully to fit in with my family and husband. One thing that I do every year is have a Christmas party for my hostesses.

One Saturday afternoon when my husband is off with his mates and my Mum can take the kids and I send an exclusive invitation to everyone who has hosted a party during the year. In many ways, it runs like my school holiday Open House, but this is only for my hostesses.

I do what I can to get a special gift for each of them, I can usually get some samples or end of season stock items that I wrap. Where I know a hostesses has a particular interest in something, I do my best to give her that.

This is also an opportunity for my hostesses to do some Christmas shopping before the rush. Generally I hold this party before I give everyone the Christmas catalogue so it is a special preview showing especially for them.

I also make up some extra special offers for them, both for ordering something and for making a party booking. I also have some fun Christmas themed games and do a Mystery Hostess.

The am of this (as well as getting some sales in the lead up to Christmas) is to say Thank You to my hostesses for supporting my business. They feel special and appreciated. It's a nice thing to do to show them how much they mean to me, after all, if there are no parties, I don't have a business.

Do you spoil your hostesses at Christmas time?

Party on!

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Living by my diary

October 24, 2012 Leave a Comment

To fit everything in, I live by my diary. I have all the times of parties and my admin time listed there as well as kids activities and any dates I need to remember for hubby. 

I've already shared some of my party date tips here. These dates are also marked out in my diary.

I also have any ordering deadlines I need to remember, any dates for new releases, dates for new catalogues, and any other dates relating to my business. I even colour code my entries – blue for business, green for hubby, pink for the kids, yellow for school events, and so on. I have a packet of coloured pens I keep next to my diary. My whole life is in that diary.

Even my family knows that if an activity is not in my diary, it doesn't happen!

For the next year, I get a new diary early in December and start adding in important dates, such as birthdays and school holidays, and I start booking parties in January. I love getting my new diary, it's so clean an empty.

I hope this tip is useful for you. I know diaries don't work for everyone, but it works to help me with my time management.

Party on!

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School Holiday Open House

October 3, 2012 1 Comment

School holiday tip, this one is hard… with the kids home for the holidays, I'm not able to have my daytime parties which can impact on my monthly sales target.

One thing I've started doing is choosing a morning and an afternoon during the holidays and having a low key open house.

I send invitations out to all my hostesses and invite them around to look at new products. They are welcome to bring their children over to play with mine and I put on morning or afternoon tea as a buffet. I also have a prize draw and a mystery hostess as well as special offers and a booking bonus.

Sometimes the open house is really busy with the house full of women and children and noise and I make a lot of sales and other times it's really quiet and my kids and I enjoy a yummy afternoon tea on our own. It's a bit hit and miss, but it's still worth it as I still get sales from those who don't come and ring and apologise for not coming.

My hostesses are also encouraged to bring a friend, so I also get introduced to new people.

The kids enjoy themselves as they have kids to play with and yummy snacks they wouldn't normally get. I enjoy it as I can keep my business going without missing out on too many weekday parties over the holidays.

Party on!

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The things I know – party dates

September 14, 2012 4 Comments

I finally have a few minutes to do my blog post. I must get more organised with this blogging thing…

I was going to share this last week, but I hadn't introduced myself. So here are the things I know about booking party dates so they don't interfere too much with family life.

At the start of each month, I print out a blank calendar template I download off the Internet and mark in the days I can take party bookings.

My husband has a hard time with me going out to do parties in my party plan business. We have negotiated one weeknight per week I can go out and he looks after the kids. It's usually a Wednesday night, though sometimes it's a Thursday. Other nights are crossed out. My hostesses don't need to know why I can't accept bookings on these days.

I also have one Saturday afternoon a fortnight I can accept bookings as well as during the day.

I look through our family calendar and mark off any doctors appointments or school events that are on and mark those off as times I can't have a booking.

Where my Mum or friends can mind the kids on an extra night or weekend, I mark those times as available.

I know that this system works for me and I have party bookings when I know I can go out as someone is looking after the kids. If someone wants a party booked at a time I can't do, I pass it on to one of my team. The other evenings I'm home and my husband is working late or out with his mates is when I do my admin time – but I've been told that is a topic for another post.

I hope the things I know about organising party dates around family time is useful for you.

Party on!

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Party on with Heather :)

September 8, 2012 1 Comment

Hi, I'm Heather, a party plan consultant. I was meant to blog yesterday with "The Things I Know"… but hadn't introduced myself, so that post will be up next Friday.

I'm married and have primary school age kids, and one preschooler. My husband isn't very supportive of my business, so I have to be creative. I have one night a week when I can have parties, and one Saturday a month. These are times hubby will "babysit".

I love what I do, however I wish my husband was a little more supportive… I've learned to be creative with my business, not only with the parties but also with how I manage my time.

I'm looking forward to sharing some ideas with you. If you have any questions, ask away and I'll do my best to answer them.

Party on!

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