So I know some of you are wondering how my experience with direct sales is going.
Truthfully? It fluxuates. I'm inspired to write because I just reached my first goal: paying off my inital investment. It took me twice as long as it should have- Premier says you make about $200 a show. Our area's average is higher at about $250/$300. It should have taken me 6 shows to pay off my investment. It took me eleven. Now, to be fair, I knew some of these shows were going to be teeny tiny. Janie, my Premier "mama" and I were talking about how it seems to go one way or the other at first: either you get a lot of bookings- and therefore low retail, because people are saving their purchases for their own show, or you get a high retail and no bookings, which is rough because then your calendar is empty. I've been experiencing the first scenario, she's been getting the second. I'd rather it be this way though. When you're building a new business, it should build slowly and steadily. And it's hard to be able to plug into all the groups and meetings available, because I'm already wearing out my babysitting welcome to cover my shows. And anytime I'm not doing a show, I'm not in Jeweler mode, making the most of every personal interaction- I'm in Mom or student mode, cooking, cleaning and multitasking.
I know this company has so much potential, especially in my own life. And I can't wait to see what God does with it in a year from now. But until Jon is out of school and things quiet down a little, I'm just grateful for the small ways (that mean so much to me) that this is helping in my life: sharing this with my daughter, making a part time income doing something fun, and getting me out of the house to meet other women and not feel guilty if I have to leave the girls with a sitter to do so. I'm probably not a good advertisement for this company right now, in terms of inspiring people to join. But I'm doing okay. My lowest show was $0. The show fell short of the required $100 to qualify as a homeshow (otherwise it's just considered an individual order) and the hostess felt so bad and thought she'd wasted my time. So I used my profit to buy her "free items." It was not a waste of my time, and though she doesn't know I did that, I love to work a job where I can. On the other hand, my biggest show to date was exactly one week later. The retail totaled almost $1200.
I never know what I'm going to get going into a show, and I kind of love that. Right now, what I need from it is so small, that I trust everything is going to be just fine.
Now that my investment is paid off, I'm really excited to start making a profit and contributing to the bills. Any extra I make will go toward completing another NYR: paying off half of my school debt!
Other than that, my next goal is to way overbook the summer months while Jon is in an internship, and also to sign on another jeweler. I have one Premier daughter and she's off conquering the world now. I'd really like to sign another soon; mentoring, training and supporting new jewelers is actually a lot of fun. I know a couple of girls that I think would be a good fit. So I think I'm ready to take one on! Slowly, but steadily. :]
