It's Here!

The kit arrived this afternoon, and I just finished reading nearly all 80-some pages of it. It really sounds legitimate, and I think that by Monday I will probably start actually making calls. I want to read it again tomorrow, and get a few questions answered, before I actually take the plunge.

Apparently the $148 the course costs is just a deposit that will be refunded after you start earning commissions. Also, it seems that the cost of anything you order, such as stationery or directories, will also be reimbursed after you have made a certain number (not large) of commissions. You can make your own stationery or have a printer do it; there is no obligation to buy from them. But you can't reimburse yourself! The reason for this is that they don't want to send out a lot of free stuff to people that won't use it--which makes sense to me! It's a way of cutting their losses.

I sent them an email today with a number of questions, and when I get the reply, I will post the relevant answers in this blog. For those of you who were wondering what they meant by opening and closing the offer for new associates to join, that is one of the questions I asked them, and the answer will definitely be posted here as soon as I get it.

It Really Is a Numbers Game

If I were to give my uneducated, inexpert opinion of the course and how it may work, I would say that it looks like it could work, but it's not for someone who expects to get something for nothing. I remember well my days of door-to-door selling. I had days where before lunch I had sold maybe $20 (my commission was 50%, so $10 for the first 3 or so hours of work). Then after lunch, I suddenly started selling, and by pick-up time I had sold $150 more. Sometimes the majority of those sales were on the last street. If I had given up at lunch, I would have earned almost nothing that day. But because I persisted, I got decent earnings (it was a scholarship program, it case you're wondering). It's a numbers game. Knock on so many doors and eventually someone will get something. Learn to sell well and the door-to-sale ratio will get better. I earned over $3,500 my first summer (10 weeks).

Likewise in this program, the more calls you make, the more likely you are to find someone interested. If it takes 30 calls to find one interested company, and I stop with 28 or 29 calls, I've wasted my time. But the 30th call could net a nice commission. Also, not all positive contacts will turn into commissions. But even if I only made two deals a month for $2,000 each (a low estimate, by their standards), I would be making more money than my husband will with his new job (yes, he got one, and is due to start Monday). If I make calls 1 hour per day, 4 days a week, I would net roughly 16 hours a month, and in 16 hours, odds are I will get at least a few commissions! I'm going to give it a shot, anyhow.

Repeat Customers Are the Best

When I was selling door to door, one thing our leader taught us is that working a territory every year made it better. People remembered someone from the time before, and every so often we would find someone who bought something every year. We established a reputation that way.

In the business world, it works that way too. When my husband and I went shopping for a bed, we went to 3 stores and picked the one with the best deal. When we needed to buy a refrigerator, he didn't bother checking the other stores. He went straight to the one that sold us the bed and picked one. For those who really get into this business and stick with it, I can see how that would happen. Someone that successfully got rid of excess merchandise once would remember us and come back to us with more in the future. But that will only happen to those associates that stick with it. I can see how all the try-it-but-didn't-like-it associates would not do much for the company's reputation!

But It's Too Early to Come to Conclusions

Now I really need to get in there and try it. I really hope this can work. If it does, it would mean the end of our financial worries, and we could also help our church and missionaries and do a lot of good in the world. So I hope we can make it work! I will keep you posted with our progress.