Do You Know What the CHFA Does?

From the Children's Hospital Foundations Australia website:

Funds raised nationally through Children’s Hospital Foundations Australia are divided equally between the five partners and directed into the areas of most need in each hospital.

Each of our hospital partners utilise donations to transform competent care into extraordinary care. The focus is on the provision of excellence in each hospital key area - whether that be through funding ground-breaking research projects leading to childhood disease cures, or by engaging the brightest medical science minds that Australia has to offer to constantly improve upon treatments, or by purchasing state-of-the-art equipment that provides faster, more thorough diagnoses for our sick children.

Read your Reflections and look at the CHFA website and be aware of what they do; your knowledge will make you look really smart and caring in front of your guests. That has to be a good thing. :) WLC.

Raising Money for Charities

With the Victorian Fires and the Queensland flooding, lots of you are asking me about fundraisers. PartyLite Australia’s official fundraising is done for the CHFA. Officially, PartyLite encourages us to do all we can to support that charity at our shows. Any additional fundraising is done and funded by the Consultants themselves.

I do heaps of fundraisers. You can do it a variety of ways (or combinations therein):

• Sell raffle tickets to guests and raffle off the hostess benefits. Donate the raffle ticket earnings to the charity. (No cost to you.)
• Donate cash to the value of the product credit earned. I keep the product credit for myself. (You can only use the GCs for product so are giving up your 40% discount.)
• Donate an item to a mystery raffle. (Cost of item.)
• Pre-purchase some raffle prizes with your own cash and then make up gift baskets to be raffled off. Take the product credit to pay yourself back for the expense. (Pre-pay for gifts but you get it back – you give up your 40% discount – also you are guessing at the dollar amount of the product credit)
• Offer to donate some of your commission to support the fundraiser (Suggest you make it a percentage of sales to encourage people to buy big).
• Offer a 10% cash donation for all outside orders brought to the show (decide if you be giving that from your commission and replacing it with product credit or just giving it from your commission)

Those are just a few ideas. Make sure to balance your giving with your income. Only give what you intend to give. Most often I give them the product credit in cash, take the product credit for myself, and give up my 40% discount when I use the GCs. I have lots of gift certificates from sponsoring people and I do use those for nice raffle prizes which I’m happy to donate.

FYI, I have decided to donate 10% of my profits in May to Susan G Komen for the Cure. Why May? Because I will be out of town all but 8 days and I want those 8 days to be filled with bookings. Why Susan? Because that cause is important to me. Why 10%, because I thought that would be a good number.

It’s all up to you. Be creative, but don’t give up everything. Make it worth your while. WLC.

P.S. You might have read on the CBC that PartyLite has made a substantial donation to the Red Cross on behalf of all Consultants. Yay!

WLC Q&A

Hello! I'm so happy that people are sending me questions. Why answer them in an email when I can share the answers here.... Here goes:

Q: How many products do you actually talk about?

A: I bring 10, but I talk about more – I use the catalogue to show off items I haven’t brought. Here's a link to a picture of what I'm bringing to a show this month.

Q: How long is your total presentation?

A: I always try to finish in less than an hour. I have a completely interactive style. I ask each person to introduce themselves, say how they know the host, and to tell me about the last time they burned a candle. I then provide some information that relates to their candle story. Then I ask them to read out their card and hand it to me. I cover the contents of the card and then go to the next person. When I get to the end, I’m done.

Q: What percentage of time do you allow for introduction - range - promoting Hostess Showings etc.

A: Here is a good summary of my show structure:

• 30 minutes to arrive, set-up and talk to the host before guests arrive
• 15 minutes to greet guests as they arrive
• 45 minutes for my “show” – I don’t stand, I sit with everyone
• Pass out door prize slips, pens, and scent pots, Extinguish candles, and set up ordering area
• 45 minutes to take orders and payments and chat with guests (I also take bookings and set up opportunity meetings)
• 15 minutes to pack up
• 15 minutes to get host order
• Leave with a smile on my face and a promise to email the host the order summary the next day so she knows what everyone gets when the boxes arrive (confirm delivery location for order).
• When I get home (or at most the next day) it takes me about 20-30 minutes to put in an order - I put in all of the guest information.

My way isn't the right way. My way is my way. Find what feels comfortable for you and provide platinum customer service and you can't go wrong. Everyone should go watch someone else do a show. If they are more seasoned than you, you will probably learn something. If they are new, you will probably learn something. Keep learning and stay fresh.

When the shows are fun, people want to come back or have a show themselves. So no matter what you do - keep it fun. Go get 'em! WLC.

Altruistic Sponsoring Seed Idea

Here's an idea I just posted to my client website. I thought it might be a good sponsoring seed that you could use too.

Candles and Charity

All the best! WLC.

Improve Your Business Over 100%

My thought for the day.... How long has it been since you had a look at the PartyLite Consultant Guide?

I bought and received the $30 printed version from the CBC this week. I do have other copies somewhere, but I've loaned them out over time and lost my own copy (please return mine if you have them so I can loan them to other people, too).

I also have the CD with the guide, but I love the printed version. Spending the $30 is a smart investment because I value having a book. Reading on paper is so much better for me than reading on a screen. I love to make notes.

Wendy's Idea: Reading the Guide From Start to Finish Will Improve Your Business Over 100%.

Why? Because it will give you inspiration, answers, ideas, challenges, processes, games, information, and opportunities to think about your business. As I put the printed Guide into the 3 ring binder and the dividers that come with it, I was reminded about the wealth of information inside. It's choc-o-block!

By the way, I think it will improve my personal business over 100% if I read it, too. So I'm doing just that... again.

As the Rainbows team grows, I will need to rely more and more on you consulting the Consultant Guide to answer your questions. Once you get it, I think you'll agree it is worth the time spent reading it and applying it to your business.