Using Fundraising to Grow your Direct Sales Customer Base

If you have been in direct sales for a while, sometimes finding new customers can become a chore, if you let it. You may be having a bad day and you don't want to talk to someone, or you think you have run out of people that are interested in your product. Never fear! There is a way to find more customers and that is through fundraising.

Many direct sales companies and thousands of direct sales reps have been successfully using fundraising in their business. There is a fear sometimes associated with it for some reason. But it is a viable method of growing your customer base. The reason is that through fundraising you are in contact with so many other people than you probably have talked to or have reached in your regular methods.

When you host a fundraiser, you are putting into people hands your books, your contact information and your product line. This is your chance to shine and reach new customers. Since you will be the one placing orders and probably packing orders, you have access to these new contacts names and addresses. Now this is not an opportunity to hound them to death to buy your products again, but it is certainly considered a warm contact and you can add them to catalog lists, email lists, if they okay it, and other contact methods.

If you have been involved in a school or little league fundraiser, you can imagine how many people participate in those. If you work hard and land a few small events, you can and grow into larger events. Learning how to smoothly and effectively run them is a key point. But once you get going, your customer base will continue to grow right along with it.

Do some research today and see if fundraising with your direct sales business is an option for you and your company. You are going to love watching your sales and customer base grow!


About the Author: Jill McCarthy is a Scentsy Director from Florida with Scentsy Flameless Candles. She enjoys helping others start and maintain a candle business in the US, Canada, Puerto Rico, and soon Deutschland and the UK. You can find Jill at http://www.WicklessElite.com All articles are free to use as long as you keep the author bio intact and provide a live link to the WicklessElite.com website

Branding your Business In Direct Sales

Joining a direct sales company is a fabulous way to start a business for a small amount of cash outlay. When you start your business you may realize that there are a lot of other representatives in your area or online that is selling the same type of item. So how do you make a name for yourself in a sea of similar products? The answer is called branding.

What is branding? It is usually the logo, colors, or tag line of the business. Most businesses brand themselves and it is also very important for a direct seller to be branded as well. Since the company that you are working with has the rights of the brand for the main company, you as an independent consultant need a brand that we can market to others.

So where to start? Well, one of the best brands that you can market is you. You are you and no one is quite like you. Sounds like Dr. Seuss somehow, but it is true. You want to be effective in getting your message across that you are an individual business, not just a consultant. To start branding you, purchase a URL that represents you or your business. If your name is available, then by all means get that. You will be able to use it the rest of your life. If you want to create a special URL for your business, you can do that as well. Make it something that you can brand for example, Sally’s Sewing or Jill’s Jewelry or something like that. Try and make it memorable as you will use that in your marketing.

So now you have your URL, start marketing yourself as your URL name. If your company has representative websites, redirect your site to the new URL. Your main goal and purpose is to set you apart from the rest of the consultants out there. Get business cards, tag your books with your brand, some even have a design and specific color scheme. You need to become the brand and people will remember you. So instead of being yet another representative out of thousands, you have become the individual business owner. Now that is branding and a smart way to market your business.

About the Author: Jill McCarthy is a Scentsy Director from Florida with Scentsy Flameless Candles. She enjoys helping others start and maintain a candle business in the US, Canada, Puerto Rico, and soon Deutschland and the UK. You can find Jill at http://www.WicklessElite.com All articles are free to use as long as you keep the author bio intact and provide a live link to the WicklessElite.com website

Visalus Challenge Day 4

Today is Tuesday. Day 4. I have to start by saying, that I am not a Visalus Distributor, I am just blogging about my experience doing the 90 day Visalus Challenge. I have tried every diet and every shake under the sun so when I try something I usually do a review online of the product on about 40 websites and read about it before I buy it. For a couple of reasons I decided to blog my experience. One, to hold me accountable and motivate me to follow through and Two,  for the people who do reviews like me and would like to hear how Visalus actually works before they jump in full force and buy one one of the kits.

So far so good. Last night I felt great. Had a shake around 5:30 because I knew I had Scentsy orders to deliver and wouldn't be able to eat till later. It worked out perfectly. I was Scentsy Santa till around 8:30 and then went home to eat. I had whole wheat pasta, a small piece of steak and broccoli. I drank 2 more bottles of water and didn't have a snack all night. On top of it all, I haven't had a cluster headache for two days. I didn't fall asleep till around 1 but that is because I have been obsessed with a new hobby. More to come on that later.

Today I woke up a little tired but I know I need 7-8 hours of sleep, however I jumped up for water and felt ok instead of exhausted. I started the day off with a shake and the Strawberry add in. It smells so good. Just like strawberry milk.The funny thing is I have not been hungry at all. Considering I was skipping meals, my body is problem thanking the gods I found Visalus. Its so easy. I have a thermal tote bag and I put two scoops of the mix in 2 zip lock baggies to be ready for my day. I bring my blender ball bottle. This mixes it right up. No clumping or anything.

For my first snack, I had an apple and string cheese. I had my next shake around 3 then raspberries, turkey and a hard boiled egg for my 2nd snack. For dinner, I had sushi with brown rice. Yum, my favorite. Today I also managed to get in 5 bottles of water.

Everything is pretty normal for me. I use to eating like this quite a bit. What I never get use to is how much I go to the bathroom. : )  I am less bloated. The hydration helps. A pair of jeans I wore today fit much better, so that is a plus. Mostly positives so far. I am definitely not perfect on the eating habits but I have improved quite a bit in 4 days. I think once you start feeling better and seeing even a few results, it makes something like this so much easier.  So first steps, I have more energy and a pair of jeans fit better. Good enough for me for now. I have to comment again how much I love the taste of Visalus with the milk. Its a really good flavor.  They go down very easy.

Tonight, I am not hungry at all and I am just downing water. No sweet cravings but yup trips to the bathroom all night long until my body gets use to the water intake. Want to join me on the challenge. Check it out here. VISALUS 90 DAY CHALLENGE

Day 2/3 Visalus Challenge

Today is Monday so time to cover both days in one blog post to update my Visalus Challenge. Sunday was an average day. I had two shakes and filled in between with snacks such as low fat string cheese, an apple, hard boiled egg for snack 1 at 3:00pm. Oh the first shake was at 11 am. We'll consider it brunch. LOL. I then had a small burger with only avocado and jalapenos on it. This was my cheat. My next shake was at 6 pm. No difference in energy or anything. I know I am still skimping on water so I need to add that in as well. 8pm was my normal healthy dinner consisting of chicken and whole wheat pasta. I didn't crave a snack and drank lots of water before bed.

This morning, I was pretty tired when I opened my eyes but when it came time for my first shake, I was full of energy. I can't really explain it. I didn't mix today's shakes with anything special, because the vanilla cream taste is pretty awesome but you can do all kinds of stuff. I got instant coffee and cocoa as well as lots of fruit, yogurt etc in case I get bored or have a little more time. I am really considering buying a magic bullet to keep at the office or carry with me on trips etc. This way I can mix all kinds of fun stuff in them. They really fill you up. I have not been hungry all day. For my morning snack, I had string cheese, apple and that egg at 2pm. At 5pm, I just had my second shake. Both shakes have been mixed with non fat milk.  Now I know I don't have nearly enough calories yet but I feel great and weirdly, I am not hungry. I have had 3 bottles of water. I need at least 2 more at minimum. I finished everything on my to-do list for my day job which is Compliance. December is always our audit month, so it is a lot of checking and double checking to make sure things are up to date. It gets repetitive but I completed quite a bit today. Last night I finished my Christmas Cards, tonight is more Scentsy deliveries. I am just getting stuff done. : )

For workouts, I started the one I always go back to. Well there are two. I either start on the C25K which is a running program or Jillian Michaels 20 minute workout. I don't get bored with either of these and I see results pretty fast.

I am  not measuring or weighing myself except for weekly and I am going to do the sissy thing to do. Not post any of my weight of measurements till I start feeling a difference in my body. We'll base everything on energy and eating habits right now.

Hopefully soon, I can create a poster with my before and after pictures on it like the one below. : )  Join me on the Visalus Challenge. So far so good and why not lose a few pounds before the Holiday. I gotta make room for my Mom's meatballs. : )

Visalus Pre-Challenge Prep Day 5 and Day 1-Challenge Start

So today is Saturday, yesterday was the last day  of the Visalus Pre-Challenge Prep. I got tons of goodies today. 4 boxes of Scentsy and my Visalus Box.

Of course I skipped breakfast, drank tons of water and then had a turkey sandwich on wheat bread for lunch. I had a protein shake around 5 and then sushi for dinner. Not a bad day all in all. Once I got the shakes and really realized how poor my eating habits are, I switched my auto ship to two shakes a day. That is 60 meals a month for $99.00. I watched quite a few You tube videos about the results and I haven't really seen anything negative. In fact, there are quite a few people who were losing 10-20lbs without even working out. 

So I opened the Visalus Box and here is what came in my kit.

First was the bag of Shake. This is a 30 day supply and will cover one meal a day. I plan to order another bag to cover me for the month, so I can change my challenge to two meals a day. Next was the shake mixers. These are different flavors that you can add to your shake. I got Banana Energy Charge, Peach Complexion Care,  2 Strawberry Phyto Power and Orange every day defense. Next was my Body by Vi Progress tracker, The Body By Vi Program Guide & a Quick Health Profile. 

To Maintain your weight, Visalus recommends having 1 shake a day for breakfast because 40% of adults don't eat breakfast. This slows your metabolism incredibly. If you eat breakfast, not only do you keep your metabolism running bu you will typically eat less all day. I have always loved shakes. They are much better than the average starchy breakfast of cereal or bagels. Shakes help you keep your metabolism running, fuel you with protein, fiber, prebiotics and other minerals for fewer calories and fewer dollars than other breakfasts. So one shake a day will keep the pounds away.

To lose weight, I will have a shake for breakfast and lunch. Then a couple of snacks as need such as a fruit, or vegatable or 10 raw almonds or 1/2 cup of cottage cheese, or string cheese. Then at night, I will have a sensible meal. This will be a salad, protein, vegetables or fruit. On the Body By Vi Challenge, you can even cheat every now and then and still lose weight.

This is easy and I love it!! I know skipping meals slows down my metabolism just as you can't train your car to run without gas in the tank, you can't train your body to have a healthy metabolism with out food. You can't too many calories, or you will slow your progress. My calories goal will be between 1500-1700 calories per day.  This takes the guess work out of thinking of meals every day. I just don't have the time. This makes it easy. 

So today is Saturday and my Challenge begins. To Start my program, I took my before pictures. Ah yeah these will not be posted until I reach my goal weight. I would love to inspire people but I am not crazy. I'll inspire people with before and afters, not just befores LOL. Then later this afternoon, I will be taking my measurements and putting them in my progress tracker. I forgot a tape last night but I am definitely going to do this today. After my pictures, I drank my first shake. They taste really good. I didn't mix them with milk, which you are suppose to do because I forgot to get it but I will have my lunch shake with milk. 

So far so good, but isn't Day 1 always great. : ) I really love easy programs and I think this will be great. I have started Jillian Michael's 20 minute video again. Its quick its easy and keeps you motivated. We'll see how that goes too.

Going back to the pictures. OH BOY. Putting on swim suits that you love but they don't fit. Ah yeah if that isn't motivation enough. Visalus is going to give me the energy I want back and the body I want back. I'd love for you to join the challenge with me. I need help keeping me on track. Check it out here.

Pre Visalus Challenge ~ Day 4

Day 4 ~ Waiting for my shakes to arrive. Not a great day. Had a fabulous Scentsy Party last night with amazing Hostesses. I always love consulting at parties. I have the most enthusiastic hostesses. They get so excited to see the warmers and have their friends over. When I was a kid, the home parties seemed so long and drawn out. The Scentsy parties are so fun and I just love listening to each guest as they smell each scent. Their memories come flooding back, filling the room with laughter as they smell each scent.

Because of the party, I rushed around, skipped dinner and had a couple glasses of red wine. Two bad things. Was feeling a little tired this morning but not bad. Burnt my toast so skipped my shake and had coffee and water. Lunch time consisted of Greek salad and Slovakia chicken. So not bad with that meal. I'll have a shake when I get home and then create something for dinner.

I skipped blogging yesterday but I did post on Facebook a quick Day 3 status. I am impressed that I have actually written and tackled this 4 days in a row. I just checked my Visalus shipment. It looks like it is in Orlando and arrives tomorrow. How exciting. Now to start this weekend or start Monday!  I am sure I will have to start this weekend.

What a crazy month. Scentsy is insane with the holidays, now tackling getting healthy before the new year. I guess no better time than now. I haven't changed much during this prep period, but I have added a lot more water and tried to focus on meals. I am also going thru Dana Wilde's "Train Your Brain" program.  So working on the Mind and Body.

I am only doing one shake a day right now, but if I really like them then I will increase to two a day. 2 shakes, 3 mid snacks and a good dinner. I think I can do that. I just may need to add eating to my google calendar for pop ups to remind me...LOL

Wish me luck on the rest of the night. Tentatively, the Visalus Challenge starts tomorrow. Let the quest begin!!

Visalus Challenge-Pre Challenge Prep Day 2

Day 2 of getting my mind ready for my Visalus Challenge coming up.

 Let's catch up from yesterday. I still didn't get enough water. Maybe 3 23.7 FL ounce bottles. Writing this blog is making me down one right now during my lunch break. LOL. So I am up to two today. And so last night, I had an early dinner. Just some scrambled egg whites and turkey sausage. I am always nervous about an early dinner because I feel like I will snack through out the night. Most nights I do very well and just continue to drink my water with my MIO drops in them. Have you heard of them? They are awesome. Just these little drops you add to water to make it taste better. I need that or I wouldn't drink any. I hate the taste of water. I only put in a couple and they are perfect. So I had this early dinner and did quite well. The key is to keeping busy. If you keep busy you tend to not fall into that habit of being a TV snacker. I am not really a snacker but I just pick and when I really add up what I am snacking on, it is the size of a meal. Very bad. I kept busy all night and then it hit. The infamous craving at 12:30 am. Looked through the pantry, the fridge, the freezer and you give all of those THE GLARE. And so as much as I wanted to fight the craving and I did to a point. I had a "midnight snack". It isn't good to go to bed hungry either. So as long as its just a little something, you are usually ok. I had half a piece of wheat toast with low fat peanut butter. Not the greatest snack but certainly not the worst.

This morning, I woke up exhausted again. Eyes felt like they were sealed shut. Grabbed the water bottle. The crazy thing is I do very well with water the first thing in the morning. I know my body is dehydrated and I know its what I need. It also helps when I have the headaches and I have them so much that I have made it a habit to grab the water. No headache this morning, THANK THE LORD. I fall short in time as usual because I stay in bed until the very last minute and grab what I can to eat through out the day. Today I did well. I actually grabbed some other shakes I had to start getting my body use to drinking them again. For breakfast when I got to the office, I had a whole wheat english muffin and a protein shake. Not bad. But then the second bottle of water has sat until I started writing this post. WOW. 6 hours, no water. Really makes you realize how bad I do at being consistent. Ok, so pause, I am going to go fill up my water bottle and get through bottle number 3 before I finish this blog. Wow, you all are motivating me. Thanks. Be Right Back.

Ok Great. 3rd Bottle. On track for today. For Lunch, I had one of those horrible, awful Lean Cuisine Pizza's. I really didn't want to eat it, but it is better than skipping meals. Probably around 4 or 5, I'll drink a protein shake just to wait a little bit for dinner and avoid that same craving scenario.

So far so good on the Mind and Body prepping. It sounds really funny, but I think you do have to change some things before you get your mind in a place to be successful with weight loss challenges. I am fully aware of what to do in order to reach my goal weight. My issue is that I don't remain consistent because of emotions or my agenda. You can join me in the challenge. I'd love for people to help me stay motivated. You already helped me continue this blog for 2 days and drink a 3rd glass of water. WOW. What can happen in 3 months?

The Visalus Challenge: Pre-Challenge Days

Forever Sparkling can mean so many things. For me it is tips, tricks, ideas, goals...anything that will maintain a lifestyle that will make you beaming with that inner sparkle. I have slacked off on blogging during this busy time of year with Scentsy but I finally found the motivation. Today I got my Incentive warmers. They are gorgeous. Scentsy had a Summer Incentive where if you beat certain goals, they created these "no holds barred" if you will warmers. The warmers are ginormaous and just simply amazing. Along with that, I was reminded by my Scentsy family on Facebook, that in January I am going to Mexico on the Scentsy Leadership Retreat. Now I live in South Florida so of course the sun and ocean are normal ways of life but for some reason, Mexico seems so far away and it will be a VACATION!!! So what comes with sun, ocean and vacation...yeah the dreaded word...BATHINGSUIT. 


So yesterday I finally decided to bite the bullet and take the 90 day Visalus Challenge. The ViSalus Sciences® Body by Vi™ Challenge is geared to help you reach your goals, no matter what they are. From simply losing a few pounds, to getting fit and toned, they have the tools, the products, and the community of supportive people to celebrate your success. The Body by Vi™ program is easy, fun, and guarantees results.

The Body by Vi™ Challenge is not another fad diet. The program is based on nutrition that helps you burn fat and keep lean muscle, boosts your metabolism and helps control hunger.  I chose to do the $49 challenge package to get started.

My biggest problem is I skip meals. I know better too. I just get so busy and before I know it, it is dinner time. I know with age, my metabolism is already slowing down so getting my self on a healthier eating pattern is what I need to do. My cousins are distributors for Visalus. They have been trying to convince me to try this for months. I am not a distributor but I am taking the challenge. That is the great thing, anyone can refer people to join the challenge with them. If that is all you want to do. We all know making a lifestyle change is much easier to do with people.  Take a look at the links above. There are kits that fit everyone's lifestyle. Right now, I am only replacing one meal a day but I am sure I will increase to two because if anyone knows me, they know I hate waiting. I am already feeling inpatient waiting for the shakes to arrive. 

And so, here we are. I am about to share my experience with all of you. Pretty daring huh? I don't think I am daring enough to post a before picture. Maybe when I am at my goal weight, I will show you where I started. That is fair. : )  Who am I kidding? I don't really care about being fair. I am just not posting that picture on the internet. Mexico is in 6 weeks, so maybe before that trip. That will be half way through the 90 days.

A cool extra too is if you invite 3 friends to do with me, then mine will be free the next month. It would be like that for all of you too. For some that would be a really cool incentive, but more of an incentive for me is fitting my butt into the bathing suit I want to wear so the time is NOW. : )

So, let's see. Day 1. I haven't officially started the challenge yet because I haven't gotten the shakes but I think I will make this a 95 day challenge. 5 days of just gearing up while my goodies ship. Opened my eyes this morning and of course once again, two things are consistent, I have no energy and I have a headache. Let's see if that too can be another goal. To get rid of both of those things. So I let my dog out and come back inside to down a ton of water. This usually helps with the headaches. I got to work today and up skipped breakfast. Well I didn't totally skip it. I drank coffee. Real healthy when I know better. Then I had tuna salad mixed with eggs, olives, relish, cottage cheese, almonds, onions and I think that is it. Yeah no mayo. VERY DIFFICULT for me. But the relish helps. I put it on top of a whole wheat english muffin. This was at 11:30 and surprisingly, I haven't been hungry at all. Of course I know the key to eating less is eating the right foods that don't spike your sugar. So sad that I actually know all this and don't do it. Now my next problem...dehydration. I don't freaking drink enough water. I get so mad at myself. You have to drink water. So easy too. Pick up the bottle and drink, finish the bottle, do it over. 3 simple steps. My god. It is time to stop this.

Well that is today so far. Skipped breakfast, good brunch, not enough water, low energy and not consistent meals. Real nice. Do other people have an eating plan that looks like this?  I have tried all diets, weight loss, eating plans in this universe. My entire issue is that I need something easy that will give me what I need fast. I don't need a book of 300 recipes that are low fat, I won't cook them. I need easy. And so I'll try this. I have read the reviews and have actually tried the shakes in the past, just never jumped on and ordered it.  Continue to reading each day to see how I am doing. Feel free to shoot me a message if I don't blog. I really need to stay on top of this and would love everyone's help and support and if you would like to take the challenge with me....Click here We can comment and blog together and help other people. Everyone needs the right system to be motivated and be healthy. Let's see how this one works.  I'd love to hear from anyone who have already done this. Let's add Body by Vi to my list of ways to FOREVER SPARKLE.