Stamping Is My Business!

Planning Ahead - Is Your Schedule Where It Needs To Be?

As we approach the beginning of September, its important to make sure that your schedule is planned far enough in advance to take full advantage of what should be a busy season for stamping business owners.

At this point, you should have your class schedule planned out for the rest of 2008!

That doesn't mean you have to know exactly what you're going to be doing in every class, but every class should be on your calendar and in front of your customers.

The three themes/holidays you should be focusing on in these classes?

• World Card Making Day (Oct. 4)

• Halloween

• Christmas

If you don't have your calendar set, take a little time this weekend to do so.  Then, make sure you get the word out in your September newsletter (which should be coming out next week)!

25% Cash Back from Office Max When You Use PayPal

Now thru September 30th, OfficeMax.com is offering 25% cash back on online orders when you pay with PayPal.  There is no minimum order amount, but the maximum cash back payout is $50

For more information, click here.

Quote of the Week

"The wrong investors can suck up an amazing amount of your time and force you to divert resources away from building the business."

 - David Deeds, Assistant professor of entrepreneurship, Case Western Reserve University

NOTE FROM JOHN - In your case, "Investors" means customers and downline.

FTC Updates CAN-SPAM... No More Incentives to Forward Newsletters

The Federal Trade Commission recently updated the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 to include new rules on incentivizing your readers to forward your e-mails.

CAN-SPAM is the federal law which defines spam and lays out what is allowed and prohibited in your e-mail marketing.

The new update specifically addresses the use of incentives to compel your readers to foward your e-mails to their friends and contacts.

For example, an e-mail that promises a 10% discount on an order if you forward the newsletter to 10 friends would now be considered spam.

For more information on the CAN-SPAM Act, and to make sure the e-mails you send out are compliant, click here.

Make Your Business Cards Stand Out!

Here's a great idea from SU Demo, Mary Fish (www.stampinpretty.com):

"I purchase inexpensive (business cards) through VistaPrint (they look charming and professional).  I add a large eyelet at the top of each card and a little Stampin' Up! ribbon to create a bookmark.  If I'm sending a catalog (large or mini), I put it in the catalog so the customer clearly gets the idea for it's purpose.  Better longevity that way . . . conceivably until the catalog expires."

Thanks, Mary!  To learn more about VistaPrint, click on the graphic below.

If any of you have any business-building ideas you'd like to share, please feel free to e-mail them to me.

Do You Take Credit Cards? Here's Why You Should!

Credit cards increase your sales by 20-50% AND they encourage impulse buyers!

Not only should you be taking credit cards for your product sales, but for your class and event registrations, as well.

Also, the more payment options you have, the more sales you make.  So, don't forget to accept PayPal!

Finally, if you have a Constant Contact newsletter, make sure to use that PayPal Pay Now button at least once in every issue!

If you have any questions about credit cards or Constant Contact, post a comment below and I'll be happy to answer it.

Quote of the Week

"What do you do if you find yourself reacting to a rival's agenda instead of setting your own? The answer is to break the cycle as fast as you can."

 - Joel Spolsky, Founder and CEO, Fog Creek Software

Link to August SIMB Newsletter

For those of you not on my mailing list, here’s the link to my August newsletter.

 

This month’s newsletter features the following articles:

 

 - Now That My Company Is Adding Online Ordering, Do I Still Need A Blog?

 - The NEW Stamping Is My Business Blog!

 - Bad Idea of the Month... Offering To Match Any Other Stamping Business Owner's Discount

 - The Online Ordering Boot Camp - Space Is Running Out

 - Win A Complimentary Boot Camp Membership.  Enter the "We've Moved" Card Contest!

 - Now Booking 2008 and 2009 Live Presentations

 

To view this month’s newsletter, use the link below:

 

http://www.stampingismybusiness.com/newsletter081308.htm

Win A Complimentary Boot Camp Membership - The "We've Moved" Card Contest!

While many of you were at Convention, we spent a few days moving into our new house.  Once we found out Liz was pregnant, we thought we might need more space.  Over the last year, though, we've realized we had no clue how much space we'd need!

To celebrate the move, as well as the new blog, I'm happy to announce:

The "We've Moved" Card Contest!

To participate, simply send us your best "We've Moved" or "Congratulations on Your New Home" card.

The winner will receive one complimentary Boot Camp membership!  (If you win and you've already registered for the Online Ordering Boot Camp, we'll refund your original registration.  Or, you can give the complimentary membership to someone else).

You can e-mail the sample, or mail the actual card to:

John Sanpietro, Stamping Is My Business, 43 Fir Street, Jay, NY 12941

Please include the recipe (stamps, inks, cs, accessories, etc.), as well as your name and e-mail address.

All entries must be received by August 31st.  The winner will be announced right after Labor Day.

Good luck!

Giving Away the Catalog - Success Story!

In case you don't want to take my word for it that giving the catalog away for free to your customers is the way to go, here's a testimonial from an SU Demo:

I just wanted to let you know a result from your discussions on giving away the Stampin' Up catalog.  You are right on target on that...Sunday, I signed a new recruit up that came to me by word of mouth, because I had given a catalog away.  I was at a craft show almost a year ago and gave away a few catalogs there along with the wording you suggested, that I would call in a few days to see if there was anything they needed.  My new recruit's sister was one of those girls.  Sunday, my new recruit gal said, "you hooked my sister when you gave her the catalog."  She said when she started talking to her sister recently about signing up with Stampin' Up, the sister said she should call me as I had made such a good impression on her (almost a year ago because I gave her a catalog!)  That is the kind of public relations I want!

 

Thanks for all the good advice.  Keep it coming.

Quote of the Week

"Make your product easier to buy than your competition, or you will find your customers buying from them, not you."

 - Mark Cuban, billionaire internet entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks

How to Use ShareThis... On This Blog and Yours!

You've probably noticed this little green box at the bottom of every blog post:

                       

This is the ShareThis logo.  By clicking on this logo, you can share the associated post with your friends and colleagues by e-mail, blog post or adding it to your social networking site.  

In addition to using the ShareThis box to share posts from this blog, you should be adding this feature to your blogs, as well.  The easier you make it for your readers to share information, the more they'll do it! 

As you can see from the graph above, the majority of people ShareThis via social networking sites, but a strong number also use e-mail.

To share this, or any other blog post with whomever you'd like, just click on the little green box at the bottom of the post.  To add ShareThis to your blog, go to the Widget Gallery (TypePad users), or visit www.sharethis.com (everyone else).

Why Charging for Workshops Is A BAD Idea!

Every few months, an idea pops up and several people ask me about it.  The idea that's popped up this week... probably due to Convention, is whether or not you should charge for your workshops.  There are some Demos who charge a small fee... say $5 or $10... to workshop attendees for projects. 

Personally, I don't believe this is a good idea, and here's why:

1. You're making some money on the front-end, but losing more on the back-end.  A $5 fee is the equivalent of what you would make if you sold about $15 in product.  Therefore, if you are averaging more than $15/person in workshop sales, you could be losing money because you're giving the attendee a cheap way to not have to buy product.
2. It's harder on the hostess.  Most of your hostesses don't make enough of an effort to fill up the workshop anyway.  A large number of them are going to find it even harder to invite people if they have to charge them up front, as well.
3. It's not as rewarding for the hostess.  Giving the attendees a way to not make a purchase not only decreases your sales (and commission), but it also decreases the hostess benefits.
4. You're setting a bad price-point precedent.  By offering up what is, essentially, a $5 class, it's going to be much more difficult for you to then market an actual $20 class.  You may see the distinction between the two events, but your customers will have a much harder time.

Workshops take a lot of work.  And there's a direct correlation between the amount of work you and your hostess put into it and what you both get out of it.  Shortcuts like this are usually not actual shortcuts, but detours away from success.

Please feel free to post your opinions in the Comments section below.

SIMB Coaching Clients Have A GREAT Year!

Congratulations to my SIMB Group and 1-on-1 Coaching clients.  While numbers were down for many stamping business owners, I'm happy to report that these dedicated stamping business owners showed huge gains in 2007-2008.

SIMB Group or 1-on-1 Coaching clients:

• Increased their sales an average of 23%!
• Increased their profit an average of 32%!
• Increased their recruiting an average of 18%!

AND just under 100 clients (Group, 1-on-1 and Aloha Group) qualified for SU's Hawaii trip! 

Congratulations to you all... and Aloha!

And for more information about SIMB Coaching services, click here.

GoDaddy Offering $6.99 .com Domains

GoDaddy is offering a 30% off sale on .com domains thru August 31st.  That means that any domain name you register, renew or transfer will cost you $6.99, instead of $9.99.

To get the discount, click on the GoDaddy logo on this page and enter the code gdp0804c at checkout.