Incubator Intensive Saves the Day

Within the past few weeks, amidst the frenetic Christmas/Thanksgiving preparations and festivities, I have taken an Incubator Intensive 4-Week Course with an organization for women called “Ladies Who Launch.”  First of all, I am incredibly proud to be a part of this organization of talented, motivated women who are sagacious in their business endeavors–it has been my pleasure to observe their natural methods of running a business, which translates into my own ultimate business success.

The course progressed like this:  vision, clarity, action, and then, success.  During the first week, we were to begin by writing about our secret sauce and what makes us unique to our field, and from there, identify our weakness.  We then used these insights to write business plans for everyone ELSE in the workshop, and thus, we would receive seven business plans written for us.  Incredibly importantly, we detoxed our space, which I am still in the process of doing, due to its being so backed up.  For the second week, we were asked to write a launch map, an elevator speech, unique voices for everyone in the class, and most importantly, write a Five Plus One email to everyone.  People then responded and tried to help us find what we needed, according to the Five Plus One email.  For the unique voices, my colleagues said I am:  “Effervescent Avon,” “Bold Annie 3000,” “Sassy in Sales,” “Effervescent Engergizer,” “Avon Calling Success,” and an “Energetic, determined leader.”  Not bad, eh?  Finally, for the third week’s homework, we were to author a vision for our future, write a yearlong business plan, and do something nice for one another.  My plan for the “something nice” is that I am going to send important contacts to everything regarding types of people they need with their business.

Below is a quick blurb from my first week’s homework, which will give an example as to how the class worked:

1)     Identify your blind spot.  Wow, this is an interesting one.  First of all, I have many blind spots, so I assume this means that I should identify the one that makes all of the other blind spots easily visible, or the one that makes those blind spots a moot point; if I am in the grasp of this blind spot, I will not even begin to be able to see other blind spots.  Hmmm.  When I really think about this, I am actually looking past my blind spot.  The one area in my life, my work ideology, my relationships, even my house cleaning style, is that I cannot see the forest for the trees.  Yes, I understand themes and large goals, but I have a terrible time being able to leap from details to these large goals and a business plan.  I tend towards to-do lists and running all of the minute details of my business, but much of the time I forget that I have to have a goal so I can actually make money in this business.   This is something I would like to explore in much greater detail (or overarching theme!!) in this amazing workshop.

2)     Identify your secret sauce.  I believe that the best way to run a great Avon business is to provide amazing customer service.  People can choose the hundreds of thousands of other Avon reps throughout the country and even the world, so why would they choose me unless I provide something unique to them?  I am the difference between myself and all of those other people.  What I like to provide for my customers, especially at parties, is an Avon experience.  I bring out the food, drinks, talk with people, make them feel special, and then give them a chance to look at the products, either in person or in the book, without making them feel pressured.  Not everyone who attends one of these parties is necessarily going to buy something, but they will all leave with a good feeling tied to Avon.  Online, I need to work on this, but when people ask, I always answer their questions straight away and never hesitate to send them what they ask for!

3)     Notice forward movement.  This past week, I feel that the forward movement was not in my business as much I as would have hoped:  I was dealing with closing on a condo and both sets of parents were in town.  One thing on which I excelled was detoxing my area.  Not only did I do several things that had been waiting on the sidelines for ages—returning library books, going to the post office, depositing a zillion loose coins—but I also threw away several boxes in my Avon area that were obsolete and did a deep clean of my apartment with the help of my husband.  Also, the act of dealing with and closing on a condo was a detox in and of itself because we have wanted to do this for over two years and everything was finally in place to go through with it now.   Although I have several things to do this week to continue with this assignment, I really gave it a lovely start and feel that this will be an ongoing assignment in my life.

Vision for Chana

Chana is a woman with talent and skill and she will certainly use these to her benefit in starting her business, Little Big Girl.  She can use her ability to write stories to provide workshops for aspiring playwrights and film writers.  She will be able to use her connections to people in the business to connect these aspiring creators to the appropriate people who can help them move their careers forward.  They will be connected to these people through productions that Chana herself will get people to sponsor and produce.

Vision for Darlene

Since deciding to start her business using all of her talents from her 25-year career working for production companies like NBC, Darlene has decided to start a consulting business for medium to large production companies, using her contacts from her former company.  With assistants to work on all of her administrative tasks, she is unstoppable; she was able to hire this assistant with her first large freelance job from NBC.  Her website is so spectacular, listing all of her amazing accomplishments that it also catches the eye of new clients and has been linked with many amazing new business consultants, like Constance, who will recommend her for their new clients.   Finally, she has decided to connect with accountants and other related services to extend her network.

Vision for Susan and Lori

With their business, Stitchuary, Lori and Susan are sitting on an absolute gem—a real goldmine.  In fact, two years from now, they have not only acquired hundreds of farmers in several different regions of the United States, they have branched out to other continents, first and foremost Australia, which has hundreds of different types of sheep and wool.  They have started international shipping and have a referral “prize” for farmers and knitters, as well as wholesale stores going to such retail giants as Gap and Abercrombie & Fitch, as well as major designers like Maxmara or Ralph Lauren.  Finally, they will be giving workshops to up-and-coming graduate fashion students for gaining connections and using different types of wool for their new designs.  **The key for all of this is to determine:  What is your market?  To whom are you selling the yarn?

Vision for Marla

Marla’s business, 123 Organize,  has not only reached the level of FedEx, she has surpassed it.  FedEx cannot do what Marla does.  She has reached out to contractors in all areas possible.  She has been able to hire (as contractors) people from building, moving, yard work, office organizing, animal sitting, house cleaners, window washers, interior designers, feng shui, cooks, nannies, tutors, babysitters, and many, many more.  She has a rubric/qualification for each type of contractor and has hired an “HR” person in different regions of the United States, which will allow her to franchise the business.  She even provides workshops in local organization shops and for large businesses.

Vision for Constance

Constance started Global Visionary Start-ups three years ago and has really taken it far!  She not only helps to consult people in their start-ups, but she invests in some of them with the money she has earned through the years.  In order to inspire the next generation of young professionals, she speaks at universities, visits career fairs, and does workshops with women and men looking to break out into the business world.

Vision for Akiyo

Akiyo has the ability to do some amazing things with her business.  First and foremost, her goal is to make money with the pregnancy and wedding henna application business.  She was featured on wedding and baby shows on TLC and in large print publications.  In order to make the world better and to really help people who need a smile, she has started a non-profit for applying cancer on henna patients.  She has gone to the Health Department to get permission to do her workshops and application of henna to patients in hospitals.

It’s been a while…with great reason!

Wow, so I haven’t posted forEVER, and the reason is:  Dan and I just had our offer for this amazing apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn ACCEPTED.  This is absolutely one of the most exciting times I have ever had, and I cannot believe that it is actually happening to us.  It started about two weeks ago, when I was in a training class for volunteer work I’m doing.  Dan was walking around the East Village with his friend, Siy, when he happened upon Halstead Realties, where he met Gina Tramontano, our awesome real estate broker.  It all moved forward from there, good, bad, stressful, etc.

     When I had wrapped up my training session, I met Dan at an awesome vegetarian Indian restaurant on Lexington in the Grammercy neighborhood, and this is where he broke the news.  Let me tell you, I was resistant at first, because we’re both in a really busy time of our lives, and this seemed like it might be the straw that broke the camel’s back.  I was both correct and incorrect.  In the early afternoon the following day, we embarked on a quick, wild ride that included visits to open houses in Washington Heights, Harlem, Downtown Brooklyn, and Williamsburg, meetings with brokers of all types, lawyers, tears both good and bad, asking for money, bidding wars, and the like.  Fortunately, it ended in success, and all Dan and I have to do is solidify our 80% mortgage (we are approved for a 75% mortgage, but that’s way too much down).  Lotsa fun, and wow, we get a condo of our very own in Williamsburg.  Exciting!

      During this time, I was trying to run a business, and I was having quite a time of it indeed.  I believe this was the time that I began sending out letters to businesses for holiday gifts for their employees.  So far, out of 50 people, I have only received 1 buyer, which pays for the envelopes and paper (not the stamps, unfortunately).  I’m going to have to reshape this project next year to incorporate phone calls to each company, confirming the person in charge of gifts and the address (several came back unsendable).  You live, you learn.

     Also, right now, there are several fundraisers on the website, including The Star Equine Foundation, two Avon Walk for Breast Cancer walkers, The Robbie Page Foundation for Tri Sigma, a fundraiser for a child with a bone marrow disorder, and a fundraiser for a girl trying to go to Thailand for community service.  Although these are all great causes, they seem to be having some trouble getting new customers!  I’m going to go on a campaign to help them with marketing, send them forwardable emails, and explain how easy it is to communicate through simple conversations with people they meet on a daily basis (the power of 3!). 

     Although I started this blog post a week ago, because I’ve been so busy that it’s now “Black Friday” and I am finally posting it.  Happy Thanksgiving to all, and good luck with the crowds.  OR, you can avoid them by visiting www.youravon.com/jenniferward and receiving gifts for the entire family.

One Crazy, hazy week

Wow, this week has definitely followed through on the promise I made to myself from last week.  I forced myself to never become complacent, always say yes when an opportunity arises, because of the ebb and flow of a self-employed life cannot afford to think itself too busy ever.  I actually improved myself to such a degree that I signed three restaurants in one day:  DeRobertis Bakery, Three Tarts Bakery, and L’Orange Bleue Brasserie.

I also signed up for an amazing charity this past week, which took up much of my free time. The training is about as intense as Teach for America during Institute but is less time.  The leader is incredibly harsh but in a tone that shows how much he cares about us:  no questions, constant participation, let go of all inhibitions, etc.  We are also expected to spend hours at home between classes studying and doing extra learning.  For example, I went to an Open Alcoholics Anonymous to learn what it’s like to listen, not talk.  We are also to read several books and write a response paper, in addtion to studying the material and completing worksheets outside of class.  Incredible time commitment.  And this is just the training class.  From there, we are to give up 6 months of our time at a minimum.  I am so proud to be part of this organization.

This week also marked a real turning point in my tutoring of Eliza.  I spent some time talking with her principal, who gave me the emails and numbers of each of her teachers.  I was truly able to understand how to help her in each subject, especially after she received her first report card and was not pleased.  This makes me feel better, because before, I seemed to feel as if I were blindly helping her on her different subjects each night.  Now I can really make an impact.  We’ll see where it goes.

Either way, I’m so excited for next week.  Constant improvement, keep on going!

Today is Brought to you by the Word “Success”

Today is the type of day that I have been working towards these past 2 months.  All of the hard work, the constant thinking about improvement, the meetings, etc. have led towards a day like today.  Before you get too excited for me, though, realize that today is the type of day that I believe is successful in a new business.  If I’m still working at this level in a month or even next week, then that won’t be the same type of success.  I have simply reached important goals today that I will rework as of now.

First of all, last night, which I will count as today, I found this amazing professional development website called “Ladies Who Launch.”  The entire point of the website is to allow female entrepeneurs to be connected with each, develop, grow, and learn about how to succeed by others who have done so.  The reason I’m so excited about this website is simple.  I’m eager to feel part of a team of women who are working towards similar goals as mine.  I’m able to pick up success stories as I see them, since I’m an incredibly quick learner and don’t feel the need to reinvent the wheel (that’s a phrase I heard quite often as a teacher, and I believe that it applies in many cases in the business field).  Additionally, I have signed up for an “Incubator” workshop, which meets during four consecutive Mondays and is apparently incredible.  People have come out of these workshops inspired and connected; one woman claims that it gave her the tools to increase her business 500%.  So let’s hope it helps me do this!

So today was a triple threat (in a good way of course).  Sucess in all three main areas of my entrepeneurial life.  First, tutoring was great and I was asked to work with them throughout the entire school year.  Second, in Avon all of my emails about fundraisers were worth it and I have received several bites from people needing me as a fundraiser.  Third, I signed a merchant on delivery.com called FATS (or Fat Annie’s Truck Stop), which is a cool Irish bar type of restaurant.  I’m so excited for all of the delightful residuary earning opportunities there.  Oh yeah.

Since today’s success was quite straightforward and successful, I am going to relay a humorous story from the subway on the way back from dropping off an Avon order with a friend down at Wall Street.  I was leaning against a column when I saw this metal guy with long black hair (natural actually), a huge pointy mustachey thing, and piercings everywhere.  All of a sudden, this guy bites it down the entire flight of stairs, rolling head over feet, tumbling like he was a rag doll.  Everyone on the platform is staring like, WTF, is he ok?!?  He stands up like nothing has happened and starts banging his head like he’s at a Metallica concert in the mosh pit.  This lasts for the next 10 minutes while I’m waiting for the train, occasionally bumping into the column and completely ignoring it.  The people around me are standing in complete disbelief and group of school kids takes the opportunity to film the entire thing and send it to youtube.  I really hope to see it!  So, when the train comes by, he’s still banging his head and I feel a huge wave of long black hairs hit me like I’ve walked through a freakin spiderweb.  Unbelievably disgusting.  I spent the next minute trying to get the hair off of me in disgust and walk into the train.  The guy continues to bang his long black hair for the 20 minutes to the Columbus Circle stop, occasionally banging his head into the pole and completely ignoring it!  Nuts. Only in New York, for sure.

See ya next time!  Yay for success.

At least I can help in some way!

The word of the day is fundraising.  Actually, it’s been the word of the week so far, starting on Friday.  I was searching through Craigslist for some surveys and studies to participate in (a great way to help science while earning some dough), when I discovered that the Volunteer section of New York is evenly divided between studies and people looking for money–I guess the posters think that volunteer means to “volunteer your cash.”  Whatever their reasoning, I was quite excited to discover a vast wealth of untapped…well, wealth for my business.

So hear me out:  fundraising automatically gives a 50% cut of the sales to me, the Avon rep, to allocate to myself and the groups for which I’m fundraising.  To avoid being a complete jerk–and um, to help people–I give 40% to the groups and 10% to myself.  It’s actually a great business opportunity in many ways.  First of all, I actually do want to help people, and trust me, businesses who help people are much preferred to those that don’t.  I am a human, with a human-run business, reminding people that I understand humans.  Second, I do get 10% for doing very little, except providing services when needed and a venue for the organization to raise funds.  Third, I get new customers.  Great!  I truly think that may be the very best part.  People buy the products to help their favorite charity, realize they cannot live without said products, and voila…a new customer is born.  Residual income, here I come!

Because I’ve been working so incredibly hard all day–remember, I’ve tutored, worked Avon, delivery.com, and oh yeah, have a life and husband…I’m gonna head off to bed.  Just remember, the moral of the story is, when you’re catching customers, I mean, uh…flies…or customers, or whatever, use the sugar and honey of a nice charity. 

P.S.  Much of this was tongue in cheek,but I do care about the charities I’m supporting.  Check them out on www.youravon.com/jenniferward and click Online Events.

Coming Back to you from One Month Later…

Ok.  So let me tell you about my journey during this past month.  Actually, this was the busiest I’ve been, and so I haven’t even thought about posting a blog.  But it is important for me–and other people trying to start a mini-business–to understand how much time and thought actually go into it.  It’s like my baby!

First things first.  My life is crazy.  When I was in England with Dan on his business trip, I actually started working for delivery.com as a Partner.  This mainly consisted of emailing every business I could find on menupages.com and asking them if they are interested in applying to be a member of this amazing online ordering system (yep, I’m still publicizing as I write!).  I used my spare “work” time to practice Spanish on Rosetta Stone and to tie up any loose ends with my Avon business.  I can tell you, there were many loose ends then and there still are.  It seems that running a business means acquiring loose ends you didn’t know existed before!  Well, as I was doing my work and enjoying a bit of touristy fun in places like the Southbank of the Thames, Regent’s Park, St. John’s Wood, and Richmond, poor sweet, little ol’ Dan decided to come down with the flu.  Not just any flu, but the swine flu.  Yep, you heard it.  Things were coming out both ends and Dan was giving me crazy talk–something about his feet being characters in a play and a bunch of bollocks like that.  When this flu was through (the day before I was to leave England and a week after he was to have been in Brazil), we were more than ready to return home.  I was chomping at the bits to improve my Avon business, as well as my new delivery.com Partnership.

Upon returning home, my business really took off.  This was mainly because I was working 24/7 to make sure of it.  The first day of return, I hosted a Sigma meeting at my house and did a little dress rehearsal of an Avon Party.  Although I only made a small profit, it was really telling to me, and I learned a lot about the products that I could only know from answering people’s questions.  Plus, I planted the Avon seed in a few people’s minds, and a much bigger sale resulted down the road from one of the attendees.

This was only the start.  I had sent out hand-written invitations to my Grand Opening and Avon Fundraiser Party, which excited many people about the Avon cause, including neighbors and old friends from Teach for America.  Once it was time for this party to begin, I had a large list of people who were excited about Avon’s products and much of the work that the Foundation does.  The party was an absolute blast and an utter success.  Most everyone donated at least $10 to the cause, including the man at the wine store, who donated half a bottle of wine to me (I paid for the other half, because his store is in financial need right now).   I was able to give $80 to the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer and $35 to the Light the Night Walk for Leukemia and Lympphoma by the end of the night.  Also, I got 8 new customers who all placed large orders, including buying some of my current stock.  I truly appreciate the event that night and had a blast with my friends to top it off!

From there,  I targeted the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer as an indpendent seller.  This was my first gamble, and let me tell you, I lost.  If I hadn’t done this, I would have regretted it, to be sure.  I think my main flaw was thinking that I would need a large stock for the event.  I spent $1,000 on the merchandise (with a $200 profit), but really, I should have spent half of that.  It was my first time, and I thought I knew the number of people who would be purchasing items, but man, was I wrong.  First off, the week before the event, I kept receiving phone calls from everyone related to the Avon office and the Foundation, the Walk and my metor, all telling me different things.  I started to feel panicked, and by the time of the event, I was exhausted and anxious–hardly someone who’s ready to crew for the weekend.  I made a $400 turnover, but it was just not enough to justify what I had bought or done.  I’m still paying off this merchandise on my credit card, and will be selling it at any opportunity from here on out.

There are so many things going on, I could seriously write forever, but I’m not going to do that.  I will just say that being an entrepeneur has been a blast and an incredible challenge, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.  I am an Independent Avon Representative, a delivery.com Partner, a Tutor for a delightful child, a Fundraiser for anyone who needs it, and a publicist for the Metro Scooter of New Jersey.  Yes, I have my fingers in every pot and I’m hungry for more!

In England

I had decided to go along with my husband on his English business trip before I actually began running the business.  Literally, I booked my ticket on Monday, and the meeting to open the business was scheduled on Wednesday.  What luck!

This, of course, puts a huge cramp in my plans and definitely is causing trouble with the momentum that I was building.   The main problem is that I have trained myself with the Avon courses, have done everything I needed with organizing the business binder, wrote my family/friends letters, did as much publicity as one can do on the internet, and now it’s really time for me to get out there.  Quite a difficult task when I realized that I won’t actually be…there.  England has its own Avon company, and the one in the United States does not ship internationally.  That’s a problem when, like me, and Avon Rep. has a large number of family members outside the country.  Also a problem when an Avon Rep is physically outside the country.

I could have used this opportunity to actually recruit people to become Avon Reps or to buy my products.   I don’t feel like it’s entirely wasted time, though, because there are a few more things that I need to complete to really have “set up” my company.  I need to look at all of my expenditures and convert them to my Simplaz123 record and tax program.  This needs to be done bit by bit and not all at once—that would truly be a nightmare.  Also, I need to start understanding what can be expensed as business expenditures.  What about my telephone bill, because I need the telephone to contact customers?  My internet bill is used to do the same thing, as well as to set up my erepresentative website.  Those are obvious. What about the less obvious ones, such as my Metro Card to visit clients or the lunch during which my cousin talked to me about starting a business?  The cab that took me to pick up my training materials?   These are things that really make business taxes quite difficult!

On a change of subject, I am constantly trying to explain to my husband that much of the time I have spent in organizing my business is not wasted time or money.  He believes me, but to an extent, he doesn’t have confiendece in my ability to actually support our family.  I know that with my plethora of good ideas and my contacts, I can truly do wonders with this business. By year two, I expect to be within the Avon Rose Circle (or even the Inner Circle), having sold $120,000 per year.  This is a huge expectation, but when I want something, I get it.  I will just have to work incredibly hard for it.  Currently, having these ideas and not being able to put them into action is quite difficult.  But I will be back in the States soon enough…

My Business Process: A Year in the Life of Avon

I am an Avon Independent Sales Representative who is blogging about her experience with running a business for the first time, with virtually no training.  I’ll be writing about the trials, successes, questions, and ideas I have throughout the process.

Below is the letter I have sent to my friends and family that explains that I’m starting a business.

__________________________________________________________________________

Dear Family and Friends,

Hey y’all!  I have decided to take my destiny into my own hands and start a business.  I am now an Avon Independent Sales Representative, meaning that I run my own business selling Avon products and recruiting other people to become entrepreneurs as well.

Avon is a company that empowers women through international campaigns to eradicate Breast Cancer and to end Domestic Violence—their products mean something and go toward important causes.  Avon also gives me the opportunity to fundraise through throwing parties at residences and hosting fundraising sales for teams, schools, and organizations; I can donate an agreed-upon percentage from my earnings to go towards these causes.  I believe that a company that allows people to thrive and grow in these troubled times is a company with whose products I want to be affiliated!

First of all, I am writing to you so that you will know what I am up to right now.  Second, I really want to let you know how amazing Avon products are.  There are products for men, women, and children in apparel, jewelry, shoes, bags, makeup, fragrance, personal care, and skincare, as well as products for the home and holidays.  Everyone uses shampoo, conditioner, soap, shower gel, and deodorant—and many women use makeup—and these are all products that you can buy on Avon at a price heavily discounted from drug stores.  Plus, all of this can be delivered straight to your house for free IF you use the free shipping code (FSWER).  My website is www.youravon.com/jenniferward.

In order to build my business, I need referrals and recommendations.  If you have any time, please tell your friends and family about my Avon website, and do not hesitate to pass along the free shipping code (FSWER).  I will be more than happy to help anyone in choosing the correct products (by discussing or sending samples, etc.), and I will be a great resource for you during holidays and birthdays, when you do not want to deal with the hassle of a mall.

Thank you again, and I hope to hear from each one of you sometime in the near future!

______________________________________________________________________________________

This entire process is an entirely new concept to me, but there are several things I have been doing over the past week and a half to really set things into motion.  First of all, I notified my friends and family through this letter.  I wanted to let these people–who are behind everything I do–know that I am starting a new venture.  It’s truly exciting starting a new process, but scary if you don’t have the support of those closest to you.

Second, I have begun a small inventory of demonstration products and samples, so that my Avon Grand Opening party can truly be a success.  For this first party (which has to be in late September, due to going to London for two weeks), I wanted to combine it with a Breast Cancer fundraiser, because many of my friends support this cause.  This will bring people to the party, and then they can see the products that Avon offers, as well as the wonderful causes, such as the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer (of which I am a participant of three years and a crew member this year).

Third, I have begun putting flyers in front of each doorway in my HUGE building.  I have given brochures to the bank consultant who set up my brand new business account, and I tried to talk to my dental hygienist during my appointment and realized that she loved Avon.  So many people have told me that they buy Avon from people they don’t know and are excited to finally support someone they do know in this business endeavor.

My next hurdle will be going to businesses with free gift wrapping deals if they will buy my products, and also going to schools for fundraisers.

Off to bed now (really busy day taking Avon courses online), but I will try to write an update tomorrow.  Yayy!