Fundraising is hard. Most of the time it's not much fun.
When I was in school, my mom made me wear my color guard uniform and go door to door in the neighborhood selling wrapping paper or cartons of citrus fruit. In the snow.
Going door to door is kinda scary these days, limiting those school fundraisers to nearby friends and family. And most programs only offer customers over-priced products grossing the organization only 15-20% of the profit.
Most of you know I've been an Avon representative for about nine months now. It's a way, in addition to my writing, to help put food on the table and take care of my family's needs.
What's in it for you?
I'm making you aware of an opportunity to help whatever group(s) you and your kids are involved in raise money.
Avon has a great fundraising arm. An ONLINE fundraising arm. Yup. You read me right. I can create an online event for your group offering all of Avon's deal-priced products to your group's supporters. Church groups, scouts, band/music programs, non-profits... groups with that tax exempt status can raise money through Avon.
What we do is register your group, assigns a special promo code unique to your group. Your group leaders and members do a publicity blitz. Customers go online to my website and order Avon products using that unique code. All of the order and profit activity is tracked and reports are emailed to organizers.
Customers order and pay online. Products are shipped to their door. No little kids banging on doors, collecting pocketfulls of money or juggling armloads of product (unless you really want to do it that way.)
Non-profit organizations earn up to 30% of their sales. Try to beat that with butter braids (15% -20% earnings) or entertainment books. And you get the creative, enthusiastic support of me!
Showing posts with label AVON. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AVON. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Friday, April 03, 2009
Confessions from an ADHD business owner
Ya never realize how much ADHD affects your life until you try to work for yourself.
I'm self-employed as a freelance writer/author and AVON independent sales rep. Both careers are in the growing toward a profit stage - emphasis on the growing part - requiring hours of attention.
So.
Two weeks ago I was taking orders from staff at an assisted living community for AVON products. Everyone was eager to get their stuff. Much to my horror, when I got home I realized I jumped the gun on my campaign and was handing out brochures two weeks ahead of time! I was out of my newer supply of brochures before the older one. I had to explain that I oopsed and some items wouldn't be available for another two weeks.
Then there's the finding stuff. I touch something (a book, research notes, AVON business materials) and it disappears for several hours to several days. Each day I spend an average of two hours looking for something business related, forget the time spent looking for my car keys.
Invoices. They're supposed to make life easier on a sales rep. They list what each customer bought, calculate sales tax and total amount due. Great if after you print them out you can find them! Knowing things tend to walk away (Booger powered), I put things in a safe place.
My safe places must be super-safe b/c even I can't remember them! Something else grabs my attention, I forget my search for said invoices by a cat barfing, tweets from uber important people or the sudden realization I didn't publish an article to examiner, until a customer asks how much they owe for their stuff.
I should be able to hand a crisp invoice to them. Instead I bumble, stumble and tear my office apart for the tenth time that day looking. Knowing I had them.
I've got customers in all my different contexts of life. So, when I leave the house I not only need my purse and Booger stuff, I need AVON brochures, fund-raising materials that were requested, my judging stuff (if I'm going to judge a colorguard show) and writing stuff.
To date I have yet to arrive at any location with everything I was supposed to have. Oddly what I most forget is my wallet or Booger's diaper bag. Or appointments.
Scheduling.
When it was just me, I didn't have too much of a problem being where I was supposed to be when I was supposed to be there. My Palm Pilot served me well.
Now, I get phone calls from doctor offices asking if I remembered I was supposed to be there thirty minutes ago. Crazy thing is, I had it all written down not only on ONE calendar, but also on my Palm. I looked at the darn thing in the morning, then over the course of all the Stuff to Do, my brain transposed the times. Here I thought I was making good time. In the three years I've been a mom, I've NEVER been able to get the time right on dr appts.
I go from feeling proud of myself for being "ahead and prepared" to panicked and hurried, forgetting something crucial.
Yesterday I was organizing new brochures. I gotta stamp my contact info and the expiration dates on the back of each. Of 100. With five left, I realized for the past MONTH of brochures, I'd been putting the wrong dates on the back! I mis-calculated another two-week cycle! I cut myself short two weeks for the current campaign and have handed a bunch of material out. Great.
Catagorization? What's that? I can't do it. When someone does it for me, I get confused. When my stuff is thrown into a box, I get confused.
Making a list of "priorities"?
Yeah. Don't make me laugh. I can't decide what to do and start staring at the list getting NOTHING done.
With all the writing and AVON stuff I have a lot of password protected thingies on the 'net. Do you think I can remember my passwords? Do you think I can remember the answers to the hint questions I thought at the time were Darcie proof? Hah! I waste hours each week retrieving passwords.
I DO write them down. Don't ask me where I put them! My safe place must've moved again.
Money = numbers. Do you know how embarassing it is to go into a bank and not only confuse yourself as to which money goes where, but you confuse the teller so bad she gets it all messed up too!
Deposit 40% in time-savings for taxes, 20% in business acct for expenses, 20% to personal to pay myself and while you're at it, I need this check cashed.
I only do drive throughs and dump it all into one account and do transfers when I get home via net. Forget the whole split deposit thing! I wish my windows were tinted b/c even when I roll up to the window, I see the eyes of the teller widen in horror.
Sorry Danica (our writerly tax expert), my recipts all go in a ziplock. Hey, at least they are all in one place! It's either that or they are lost in the vacuuous void of my desk for eternity. Danica told us at Words for the Journey that we need to be uber organized in case the IRS audits us.
If an IRS agent came into my working space and tried to look at my stuff, he'd burst out laughing. Laugh until he hyperventilated, became hypoxic and the ambulance needed to come to put on a oxygen mask. Then I'd be arrested for second deree attempt at homicide.
Yes I have a psychiatrist. I've tried Ritalin, Aderoll. I've even had cognitive therapy in the past (after a traumatic brain injury). So far I've baffled every professional whose tried to help me wrangle in the ADHD.
I baffle myself.
Now, what was I supposed to get done this morning before the Psalm 42 concert tonight?
I'm self-employed as a freelance writer/author and AVON independent sales rep. Both careers are in the growing toward a profit stage - emphasis on the growing part - requiring hours of attention.
So.
Two weeks ago I was taking orders from staff at an assisted living community for AVON products. Everyone was eager to get their stuff. Much to my horror, when I got home I realized I jumped the gun on my campaign and was handing out brochures two weeks ahead of time! I was out of my newer supply of brochures before the older one. I had to explain that I oopsed and some items wouldn't be available for another two weeks.
Then there's the finding stuff. I touch something (a book, research notes, AVON business materials) and it disappears for several hours to several days. Each day I spend an average of two hours looking for something business related, forget the time spent looking for my car keys.
Invoices. They're supposed to make life easier on a sales rep. They list what each customer bought, calculate sales tax and total amount due. Great if after you print them out you can find them! Knowing things tend to walk away (Booger powered), I put things in a safe place.
My safe places must be super-safe b/c even I can't remember them! Something else grabs my attention, I forget my search for said invoices by a cat barfing, tweets from uber important people or the sudden realization I didn't publish an article to examiner, until a customer asks how much they owe for their stuff.
I should be able to hand a crisp invoice to them. Instead I bumble, stumble and tear my office apart for the tenth time that day looking. Knowing I had them.
I've got customers in all my different contexts of life. So, when I leave the house I not only need my purse and Booger stuff, I need AVON brochures, fund-raising materials that were requested, my judging stuff (if I'm going to judge a colorguard show) and writing stuff.
To date I have yet to arrive at any location with everything I was supposed to have. Oddly what I most forget is my wallet or Booger's diaper bag. Or appointments.
Scheduling.
When it was just me, I didn't have too much of a problem being where I was supposed to be when I was supposed to be there. My Palm Pilot served me well.
Now, I get phone calls from doctor offices asking if I remembered I was supposed to be there thirty minutes ago. Crazy thing is, I had it all written down not only on ONE calendar, but also on my Palm. I looked at the darn thing in the morning, then over the course of all the Stuff to Do, my brain transposed the times. Here I thought I was making good time. In the three years I've been a mom, I've NEVER been able to get the time right on dr appts.
I go from feeling proud of myself for being "ahead and prepared" to panicked and hurried, forgetting something crucial.
Yesterday I was organizing new brochures. I gotta stamp my contact info and the expiration dates on the back of each. Of 100. With five left, I realized for the past MONTH of brochures, I'd been putting the wrong dates on the back! I mis-calculated another two-week cycle! I cut myself short two weeks for the current campaign and have handed a bunch of material out. Great.
Catagorization? What's that? I can't do it. When someone does it for me, I get confused. When my stuff is thrown into a box, I get confused.
Making a list of "priorities"?
Yeah. Don't make me laugh. I can't decide what to do and start staring at the list getting NOTHING done.
With all the writing and AVON stuff I have a lot of password protected thingies on the 'net. Do you think I can remember my passwords? Do you think I can remember the answers to the hint questions I thought at the time were Darcie proof? Hah! I waste hours each week retrieving passwords.
I DO write them down. Don't ask me where I put them! My safe place must've moved again.
Money = numbers. Do you know how embarassing it is to go into a bank and not only confuse yourself as to which money goes where, but you confuse the teller so bad she gets it all messed up too!
Deposit 40% in time-savings for taxes, 20% in business acct for expenses, 20% to personal to pay myself and while you're at it, I need this check cashed.
I only do drive throughs and dump it all into one account and do transfers when I get home via net. Forget the whole split deposit thing! I wish my windows were tinted b/c even when I roll up to the window, I see the eyes of the teller widen in horror.
Sorry Danica (our writerly tax expert), my recipts all go in a ziplock. Hey, at least they are all in one place! It's either that or they are lost in the vacuuous void of my desk for eternity. Danica told us at Words for the Journey that we need to be uber organized in case the IRS audits us.
If an IRS agent came into my working space and tried to look at my stuff, he'd burst out laughing. Laugh until he hyperventilated, became hypoxic and the ambulance needed to come to put on a oxygen mask. Then I'd be arrested for second deree attempt at homicide.
Yes I have a psychiatrist. I've tried Ritalin, Aderoll. I've even had cognitive therapy in the past (after a traumatic brain injury). So far I've baffled every professional whose tried to help me wrangle in the ADHD.
I baffle myself.
Now, what was I supposed to get done this morning before the Psalm 42 concert tonight?
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Busy, busy, busy
I've been a bad girl. My poor blogs are being ignored and shoved to the bottom of the priority list.
What have I been doing all this time besides chasing after the now 3 year old Booger, trying to get him to use the potty not his pants?
For the past two months I've been writing for a cool website called examiner.com . Examiner is an info/news site specific to a particular city. They are servicing about 60 cities nationwide. Examiners are writers who are experts on a particular topic. Readers can expect at least 3 or 4 articles each week from any given examiner. Sometimes more if the examiner is a "breaking news" kind of writer.
Me? I'm the Denver Outdoor Recreation Examiner. I get to write about anything and everything outdoors. I do a lot of local stuff, but sometimes take things to a broader level (state or national). Scouring local news sources and Google Alerts keep me up on breaking news about anything outdoor rec.
Yes, I do get paid for it, but I get paid by page hits, so visit me, make me one of your favorite examiners and hit my pages often.
Several of my friends from Words for the Journey are examiners as well and I'll do a post real soon with their pages so you can read them as well.
My novel is being shopped to acquisition editors by my agent. So any day to forever I may or may not get a book contract. In the mean time, I'm working on novel #2.
To make enough money to pay for groceries and medical needs I've started an AVON business. A lot of hard work goes into building something from the ground up, but I'm encouraged. AVON unlike many other direct sales companies requires very little capital to get started as a representative. Get this - $10. Yep. That's all I had to invest to start making money. They have incredible training programs that are all free. I'm seeing small profits each 2 week campaign.
Building my customer base is key to making money. The more product I sell, the greater the percentage I make. My goal is $550 per campaign. I'm at about $200 and need more customers!
Before you think of spicy scented old ladies with blue hair, AVON has radically changed. It's actually cutting-edge when it comes to skin care products and undercuts Wal-Mart and Target!
My friend Susie is working on a price point comparison chart featuring commercial brands like Cover Girl and Almay as opposed to Clinique and Lancome. I'll share it once it's done.
AVON is quite high-tech. I have an online store from which people anywhere can order products and have them shipped to their door. There are a heap of free shipping coupons available and if shipping is needed, it's about $3.
Psalm 42 keeps the music flowing. We have are singing for a sister night at New Life Lakewood for a multi-housing ministry sister night. The one we had at my church, Bear Valley, went really well.
Finally, John's attention has been focused on taking the remaining units of his Architectural Registration Exam. He has one tomorrow and has been studying like a mad dog. I'm on Booger duty 24/7 and carry more around the house so he can get this done.
Whew. I'm tired thinking about what I need to still do today.
What have I been doing all this time besides chasing after the now 3 year old Booger, trying to get him to use the potty not his pants?
For the past two months I've been writing for a cool website called examiner.com . Examiner is an info/news site specific to a particular city. They are servicing about 60 cities nationwide. Examiners are writers who are experts on a particular topic. Readers can expect at least 3 or 4 articles each week from any given examiner. Sometimes more if the examiner is a "breaking news" kind of writer.
Me? I'm the Denver Outdoor Recreation Examiner. I get to write about anything and everything outdoors. I do a lot of local stuff, but sometimes take things to a broader level (state or national). Scouring local news sources and Google Alerts keep me up on breaking news about anything outdoor rec.
Yes, I do get paid for it, but I get paid by page hits, so visit me, make me one of your favorite examiners and hit my pages often.
Several of my friends from Words for the Journey are examiners as well and I'll do a post real soon with their pages so you can read them as well.
My novel is being shopped to acquisition editors by my agent. So any day to forever I may or may not get a book contract. In the mean time, I'm working on novel #2.
To make enough money to pay for groceries and medical needs I've started an AVON business. A lot of hard work goes into building something from the ground up, but I'm encouraged. AVON unlike many other direct sales companies requires very little capital to get started as a representative. Get this - $10. Yep. That's all I had to invest to start making money. They have incredible training programs that are all free. I'm seeing small profits each 2 week campaign.
Building my customer base is key to making money. The more product I sell, the greater the percentage I make. My goal is $550 per campaign. I'm at about $200 and need more customers!
Before you think of spicy scented old ladies with blue hair, AVON has radically changed. It's actually cutting-edge when it comes to skin care products and undercuts Wal-Mart and Target!
My friend Susie is working on a price point comparison chart featuring commercial brands like Cover Girl and Almay as opposed to Clinique and Lancome. I'll share it once it's done.
AVON is quite high-tech. I have an online store from which people anywhere can order products and have them shipped to their door. There are a heap of free shipping coupons available and if shipping is needed, it's about $3.
Psalm 42 keeps the music flowing. We have are singing for a sister night at New Life Lakewood for a multi-housing ministry sister night. The one we had at my church, Bear Valley, went really well.
Finally, John's attention has been focused on taking the remaining units of his Architectural Registration Exam. He has one tomorrow and has been studying like a mad dog. I'm on Booger duty 24/7 and carry more around the house so he can get this done.
Whew. I'm tired thinking about what I need to still do today.
Friday, January 16, 2009
I'm crawling all over the web
I just started working as an Examiner for Denver. What is that, you ask? What am I examining?
examiner.com is an information site customized to a geographic location. On the Denver site, there are continual articles and feeds of entertainment news, heath issues, skiing article, and now my journalistic and adventuresome love of anything outdoors. I am the Outdoor Recreation Examiner.
I must submit four articles each week on anything outdoors that Denverites will find interesting. I get paid by traffic through my page, and comments etc. You can subscribe to my examiner feed by going to my site. It's free!
When my article goes up, I'll post the addy for it.
Also, I've started selling AVON and have my own website. AVON is doing well in these tight times b/c their products are reasonably priced. Some are priced lower than Wal-Mart! Soon, I'll do a post to show a comparison.
Ongoing medical expenses pushed us against the wall. My health costs more than we make currently, so I'm trying to do everything I can to bring in some extra $$.
Ever hear of Digg.com? It's a networking site for short articles on the web. Writers submit a post from a blog or other internet source, then people read it and if they like it, they digg it. Articles with the most diggs, get moved to the front of the line. to read the full article, readers are directed to your site which in turn icreases your traffic.
Digg, Facebook, Twitter, Examiner, Blogspot, AVON... I'm spreding. Come with!
examiner.com is an information site customized to a geographic location. On the Denver site, there are continual articles and feeds of entertainment news, heath issues, skiing article, and now my journalistic and adventuresome love of anything outdoors. I am the Outdoor Recreation Examiner.
I must submit four articles each week on anything outdoors that Denverites will find interesting. I get paid by traffic through my page, and comments etc. You can subscribe to my examiner feed by going to my site. It's free!
When my article goes up, I'll post the addy for it.
Also, I've started selling AVON and have my own website. AVON is doing well in these tight times b/c their products are reasonably priced. Some are priced lower than Wal-Mart! Soon, I'll do a post to show a comparison.
Ongoing medical expenses pushed us against the wall. My health costs more than we make currently, so I'm trying to do everything I can to bring in some extra $$.
Ever hear of Digg.com? It's a networking site for short articles on the web. Writers submit a post from a blog or other internet source, then people read it and if they like it, they digg it. Articles with the most diggs, get moved to the front of the line. to read the full article, readers are directed to your site which in turn icreases your traffic.
Digg, Facebook, Twitter, Examiner, Blogspot, AVON... I'm spreding. Come with!
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