Day 3 - My First Sales

My first day collecting catalogues, as well as delivering them, and I made two sales! Not bad considering I overlapped with another distributor.

 

This is so simple a business compared to other Network Marketing/MLM opportunities out there. A little bit of effort and the rewards are there, commensurate with the activity.

 

Roll on my next day's collecting.

Day 2 - Getting My Feet (and everything else) Wet...

I spent another hour tonight bundling some catalogues together, then set off out with a catapuller full of Kleeneze packs, ready to take on the world.

And it rained. For the last 10 minutes of my first venture outside. For those minutes, the catalogues were a darn sight drier than I was.

I smiled, a lot. For somebody who enjoys walking, this job is so easy. I was even brave enough to smile at people in their gardens and announce "Your Kleeneze catalogue" in a loud and cheerful voice. Nobody rejected me, nobody complained. Mind you, one catalogue got shoved back onto the doorstep faster than it went through the letterbox, but I understood why when I saw another distributor's catalogues on a doorstep further down my route. That's bound to happen occasionally.

I'm looking forward to putting the rest of the catalogues out tomorrow.

Day 1 - Starting slowly

Today was a classic example of life getting in the way of planning.

I got home today to find I'd received 4 large boxes, all rather heavy. Catalogues weigh a lot, collectively. I cleared a space in the living room and got on with creating my catalogue packs.

Two and a half hours later, I'd done 100 packs, it was past 9 pm and I'd forgotten to eat anything...

I'd also listened to the DVD and CD in my official starter pack, so I was still fired up at the end of all that activity.

I still have another 100 catalogues to bag up, but I will deliver what I have tomorrow night.

In the mean time, all new Kleeneze distributors need the following AT THE START before they can be serious about their business:

1.  Day slips - these tell the customer when you will collect the catalogues. They are not supplied by Kleeneze, you need to make your own or buy them from one of the printers supplying Kleeneze stationery.
2. Recruitment advert slips - self explanatory, advertise to your customers that you are trying to build a team. These are not supplied by Kleeneze.
3. A paper trimmer. A lot easier/safer to use than a craft knife for trimming your own day slips.
4. LOTS of name and address labels with name, address, contact number and Kleeneze number. If you've got 200+ catalogues, the 650 that Kleeneze send you barely cover the 200 x 3 catalogues they send out at the same time. Again, try Able Label or one of the printers that supplies basic labels if you don't want to print your own.
5. A laser printer - essential if you're going to print your own day slips. Don't bother with an inkjet - head for Argos or other similar shops and work out the cost savings over a year.

Day 0 - Preparing the Ground

Having committed myself to actually sticking to a 90 day plan, I decided to organise myself a bit more.

First step - put up the new lockable postbox, so that my mail is in one place. That'll cut down the frantic hunting around the house for the latest repository created by my offspring. I've found 3 week old "pay now or else" bills behind the TV before now...

Second step - tidy the office. Easier said than done, as it's seen as a dumping ground for things that my eldest son doesn't want. Filed a lot of paperwork by the simple expedient of shoving it into a cupboard and closing the door. I'm obviously not that organised yet.

Third step - rough out the 90 day plan.

Of course, the simplest solution would be to map out identical blocks of time on every week day. However, this is the real world and as a single parent with a full-time job, not to mention full-time parenting, identical blocks of time is not an option.

So, I have set targets for both retail and recruitment lead generation. I will be keeping a record of planned activity, actual activity and results and I'll update it here on a weekly basis for the next 13 weeks.

Weekly Targets:

200 catalogues out, 3 times a week.
500 recruitment invites, door to door. 200 of those are going out with the catalogues.
10 clubs/organisations contacted with the suggestion of fund-raising parties based on the Christmas catalogue.

I'm bursting with energy and really looking forward to my first day of action. Here's to eventual success.