Hi, I'm Linda Levine.
And I'm Kerry Cox.
Congratulations on your decision to start your own successful business with SMC.
Over the course of more than 50 years, thousands of people have been right where you are now,
eager to get started, ready to make some money, but maybe a little unsure about how to begin.
If you haven't reviewed the introductory video, Getting Started, take a few minutes
to do that now.
That way you'll be familiar with the catalogs and other materials we'll be referring to
here.
And you'll already know how to take care of simple business matters, such as how to
place an order, how to contact SMC, how to read your price list, and so on.
Right, and once you've done that, you're ready to review the nine solid money-making
programs available through SMC.
And remember, you're not limited to these nine.
Heck, if you can come up with other ways to sell your merchandise, as some of our most
successful members have, just go ahead.
It's your business.
Run it any way you like.
In this video, Carrie and I will take you through a kind of audio-visual version of
your program manual, the white binder in your business kit.
Follow along in the manual if you like.
Right, and if you still have questions, jot them down and give member services or your
business coach a call.
Just dial this number.
Now, there's no charge for SMC's Business Advisory Service and no limit to the number
of times you can call, so feel free.
Remember, if you prefer, you can also email questions to the email address on your screen
or fax them to this fax number.
It's important to emphasize that these programs are proven.
They really do work, and they work well.
In fact, in most cases, we'll be letting some actual SMC members pitch in with some
inside advice of their own.
So let's get started with our first program and probably the fastest and easiest way to
put some money in your pocket.
We call it catalog distribution.
I'm able to pull in an extra $100 a day profit without even much effort.
I distribute maybe 10 catalogs, and my goal before Christmas, the fall of this year, will
be to see if I can get sales up to maybe 10 times that amount.
I say, this is my catalog, if you see anything you like, let us know, okay?
And the sales just start, and then they tell a friend, and so on, and so on, and we make
money.
Okay, it doesn't get any simpler than this.
Catalog distribution is simply getting your catalogs out where they can generate orders.
Here's all you need to make your first sale.
Take one of the catalogs or brochures you just got in your kit.
Take your pick and your order pad.
How's that for traveling light?
Now, all you do is show that catalog to someone you know.
It doesn't matter who, a workmate, a classmate, a neighbor, a friend, even a relative.
And don't forget, if you really want to stack the odds in your favor, offer a nice discount.
You've got plenty of room to knock 10 or 20% off the price, even more if you want.
Once they find something they like, and they almost always will, you just accept payment,
call SMC and fill their order, and put the profit in your pocket.
Almost seems too easy, doesn't it?
Well, let me tell you, this works.
In fact, I'll tell you a true story.
Now, I'm the guy responsible for producing all of SMC's TV advertising.
Every time I sit in the edit bay, I bring a catalog along because the editors always
ask me if they can buy something, and they always expect a great discount.
So big shot that I am, I say, sure, for you, you bet.
Anything in this book is yours, half price.
Of course, my price is the super bonus price, same as yours if you're a super bonus member,
which is a third minus 5%.
So I can sell at 50% and still make up to 60% on my money, especially since I hand deliver
the items instead of shipping them.
Of course, as soon as the editor sees this segment, my little money-making scheme is
blown.
But hey, the important thing I'm showing you is that virtually everyone can find something
they like among more than 3,000 items.
Now, here's a quick review of the tools in your catalog distribution campaign.
World of products filled with over 3,000 great gift items and general merchandise.
Showcase with a few hundred of the top sellers.
Now, this is a very cost-effective catalog to order lots of copies and distribute all
over because it doesn't cost much at all.
Bayberry Lane, which is primarily a mail order book but still works well as a leave behind,
especially thanks to the bound-in envelope.
Thing is, you'll have to honor the mail order offers, buy three, get one free, and the early
bird free gift.
So you may want to stick with Showcase, which has the same products, and order a bunch of
item 4110, the response envelopes you can insert into Showcase.
You've also got a great selection of brochures you can hand out or use as order stuffers.
Plus, the new arrivals flyers to give your customers advance notice of items that are
available for purchase but are so new they're not even in your catalogs yet.
Now, if you're still sitting there wondering how you're going to distribute these catalogs,
I want you to take a look in your manual.
We've listed more than 20 ways at the end of the chapter, and I'll bet once you set
your mind to it, you can think of 20 more.
Now, just to give you a preview, we're going to scroll them for you right now.
This is kind of a speed reading drill, so don't worry if you miss any.
They're all explained more fully in your manual.
That's all there is to it.
Like I said, catalog distribution is the easiest way to put immediate profits in your pocket.
On our first day that we took the products to the swap meet, we did over $400, and that
was exciting.
We came home and went, yeah, and said, well, if we can do it one day, we can do it every
day.
My average sales here are running roughly around 300 days, $300 a day, excuse me, but
can go up all the way up to $600.
During Christmas, this last Christmas, we did over $7,800 in sales in 22 days.
I just like it because I think it's given David a lot of self-esteem.
It's nice to be your own boss.
There's no doubt about it.
It takes a little work, but I'd rather work for myself than someone else.
Call them swap meets, flea markets, bazaars, craft fairs.
By any means like these have been the launching pad for many successful SMC members.
You'll find them at drive-ins, in large parking lots, warehouses, parks, just about anywhere
is enough room to put up booths and draw a crowd.
If you're like most people, you've probably spent plenty of money at swap meets.
Now it's time to learn how to make money and love.
There are three distinct swap meets.
And when I say swap meet, I'm referring to flea markets, craft fairs, and similar types
of events.
First, there's the outdoor meet.
Merchandise at these meets might run the gamut from rofdovers to high-end electronics.
Generally, the shoppers at outdoor meets are bargainers looking for great deals.
Next, the indoor malls.
They're not malls in the strict sense, but the booths are strictly regulated and attract
a more professional class of marketer.
Rather than tables full of a variety of items, the vendors tend to sit in product categories.
Finally, the craft fairs, which may be held indoors or out, and may be part of a local
carnival, civic celebration, or county fair.
Many of the booths feature homemade, handcrafted items and collectibles.
Each of these three will call for a different merchandise mix and different pricing policies.
So how do you get started?
We'll let the swap meet specialist from our SMC business coaching team show you the fast
track to swap meet success.
Way to find out where you can find your local swap meet would be through your low throwaway
papers.
Sometimes I have also throwaways at the supermarket or at little neighborhood kits.
Very often you can call a chamber of commerce and find out.
You can do it through the internet and it will give you every state and it will give
you every city.
You could do it if you know you're going to be in a certain city at a certain time.
You could ask, request a newspaper from that office and see all the ads for them.
Every swap meet pretty much has an office and a man in charge.
A lot of times you can just call on the phone and line up your space for you.
I think that it's a great idea to go to a swap meet before you attend to check the types
of merchandise that's sold.
I always think it's a good idea to check what isn't sold that maybe you can fill that need.
You want to have enough merchandise to last you through the day or the middle of the day.
So you might want to invest approximately five or six hundred dollars in merchandise.
We carry a kit that helps our new members that call the swap meet sample kit, item number
500.
It gives you a tremendous amount of merchandise.
We have over 50 of our best selling items and employee items and there's over $590 worth
of merchandise and your cost is only $170.50.
So it's a great bargain for our customers to make money.
Aside from products, you need some basic supplies for your first day at the swap meet.
You'll probably need a folding table and a clean tablecloth.
You'll need some folding chairs, a cash box for small bills and change, a rubber stamp
for endorsing checks and a calculator for toenails.
Be sure to bring plenty of business cards along with some extra catalogs, brochures
or new arrivals flyers to stuff orders.
You'll need your two-part order pad and cord white priceless so you'll know your bottom
line when it comes time to bargain.
You may want a large umbrella or other protection from the sun if you're outdoors and a roll
of clear plastic just in case it rains and you need to protect your merchandise.
That's it.
You're ready to be here making money.
To set your bottom line in terms of price, you know what your costs are.
You know what your ship or your booth costs to you.
You have to figure all that in and then with the SMC merchandise, there's such a nice profit
margin that if you double your money, you've pretty much, you've taken care of good profit
and made back your expenses plus cost of your merchandise.
Every time you get a customer, get his name, address and phone number.
And then after he's purchased from you, he's obviously happy with what we have because
he purchased from you.
At a time you send him a flyer in the mail in regards to your next swap meet event, you've
got customer for life.
When the swap meet's over, one of your first things you're going to want to do is you're
going to replenish all that merchandise, so that's A, that's the first thing you want
to do.
And then you want to continue through with a thing that has to do with mail order that
mailing was.
That mailing was important.
You wanted to get maybe a new wire out to them within the next week or two.
I do swap meets myself and getting out and being with the people and having a chance
to make some extra money and just enjoying the day is really what it's all about for
me.
I have my wife, my family, and everybody can take part and it's just, it's a very enjoyable
thing.
A lot of the great things about swap meet for several, number one, you're making a
lot of money, a lot of profit.
You can invite your family to join you, whether you get some quality time and some time.
Also, just have fun.
The idea is to have fun.
Remember, Manuel covers all the steps of swap meet marketing at Yale, so be sure to take
a few minutes to do that.
This is a great way to make extra money on the weekends.
Supplement a retirement ink, or as some people have done, you can make more in two days than
you could all week at your killer job.
So follow your 30 day plan and we'll see you at the swap meet.
When was it about SMC that convinced you that this was the right decision?
First.
That first sale to Agnes, thanks to SMC's try true home party plan.
Asked my merchandise, and what if I didn't order the first week that I started.
A great start, but then Agnes' business took a dramatic turn when she had the manager of
one of the largest retail stores in the nation.
So I packed up my suitcase with $300 worth of merchandise to set a show up.
And I got what they wanted.
You heard right, she's $80,000.
Tennessee grandmother Agnes Gray came a wholesaler old with a gigantic $80,000 order.
Of course that's an extreme example.
Fact is that one of the best ways to get large volume orders of SMC merchandise is to become
a wholesaler.
What that means is you'll become a supplier to retailers.
You sell to them at a profit, they mark it up to a retail price for the consumer.
SMC members are selling to retailers types from corner mom and pop stores, high end gift
stores, the largest chain stores in the country.
So how do you get started?
Well we asked Arthur Maxx to join us and give us the benefit experience and insight.
They may have seen Arthur on SM's television show.
He's the basic as you can get on the hood of his car.
In a short time though, he found himself snapping together shelves and stocking $1400 worth
of merchandise every weekend.
And then what?
Well, you tell him Arthur.
I'm kind of ironic.
One day I happened to walk into a convenience store and kind of pitched on putting some
product in.
He told me I should talk to the corporation because they just fired at it with stocking
in the store.
The next day I was down there.
Yeah, sure.
The following day I had a court with all of the franchise owners and the following day
I had 22 stores.
Overnight from working basically out of the truck stop or where was it?
By the road, right?
Just down the road up in the hills.
Putting stuff on the hood of your car and then suddenly you were at a street of 22 stores.
Now did that scare you when you heard you had a quit meeting?
That sounds kind of scary.
I panicked.
I went in there and I put on my sundial to meetings and I was all gussy up and in it was
just regular everyday folk.
I talked to them about what I had to offer.
Let them know that it would take me a month to two months to set up 22 stores because
I wasn't capable of doing it.
So the corporate president had everybody write me a check there.
I bought every first order prepaid and from then on it was collect.
What do you have to offer as a member versus some other supplier, the one that got fired
for instance?
What do you offer?
One of the best things I have is a quality product.
The products SMC offers, the quality is so good it beats any of my competition.
There are times a year certain items are not going to sell.
I don't care what you do with them.
I offer a trade out system with my customers.
If it's seasonal item I trade out for the next one.
I also guarantee my sales to that if something's not and I come in two or three times just
sitting on the shelf I'll put on something else.
This really gives them satisfaction knowing that the product's not going to sit there
and they're just going to inventory.
So we talked about serving important.
How did you first make content?
300 stores, you got to go to each of them right?
You had to make a personal appointment.
How do you assist them?
Well that's correct.
What I did was I walked in to say a corporate store and asked for the store manager.
I'll ask him if he's the one I talked to or if he has a by-doc to and if I can set up
an appointment.
And when you say corporate store you're talking about a chain store.
Can you give me an example of a chain store that you...
Well like an old example would be a large chain drug store.
I have two of those.
One of them I work strictly with a level.
Everything is bought through the corporate.
Through a buyer?
Through one buyer he buys for hours.
The other large chain I have is unique.
They're the only large drug chain that I know of that lesser managers do their buying.
So I call on an individual store, there's 360 of them in California, I'm running around
a bit.
But I'll go in and I'll talk to this manager if he's the buyer or if he has a buyer and
I don't try to sell them at this point in time.
I've got an appointment.
Now if they give me the opportunity of pitching them while I'm there I'll go for it.
What do you take in when you see, and we're staying in stores right now, what do you
take in to sell?
In other words do you take sample products in, do you take a catalog in, what do you...
I take a catalog is all I take.
Products or...
The world of product catalog.
You take the big catalog.
Sure, because I want to show them the wide selection that we have.
I don't want them to think that just into gifts where I also do fragrances.
I have a full line of...
Do you use the new arrivals flyers or anything?
What kind of aids do you use?
The new arrivals flyers have been one of the multiple aids that I've had.
The main reason I can give it to a customer to hear are new arrivals.
They're not in the catalog that I...
And the first thing to grab them open up to see what's new.
Good.
On the way down here today as a matter of fact I made one stop at the new arrival catalog
and she ordered two pages out of the new arrival catalog.
I know a lot of people, well how do I get paid?
I go in and make the appointment, yeah they say they want the merchandise, now you said
the one place cut you checks for that store to write off the bat, is that typical or ordinary?
Let's talk with the independent stores first, how does that work?
Okay with the independent stores what I do is I have them on a COD base, when the merchandise
delivered I cut, it would be cash or check.
Full payment.
Now when you get into the corporate organizations, if you have a corporation each store is paying
its own bills, you can sometimes go with a COD, not too often, a lot of them want at
least a 10 day net.
10 day net so now do they give you any kind, 10 day net means that they don't even have
to pay that bill or live that bill for 10 days, is that right?
So do they give you any money up front?
No.
Nothing?
No nothing.
So you have to flow that kind of money?
You have to flow, you have to be able to watch that money sit there for anywhere from six
to eight weeks on a 10 day net.
Oh really?
So it says 10 days, they don't necessarily say that.
I have some 10 day nets that I get my check in 12 days, of others that it takes six to
eight weeks.
Okay.
Now if you have a store that wants a third day net, be prepared to have your money tied
up for tonight.
So do you use the yellow price list, the gold round price list, do you use any price or
do you just give a discount on retail?
I just give a discount off the retail.
Which is ordinarily what you just said?
30 to 40 percent.
Okay.
So regardless of which store, except for when they feel they need the 50.
If I have a store that I know is going to have a high value, I'll go with the 50.
Sure.
I have some truck stops that do a five to six hundred a week with me.
Wow.
So they get 50 percent.
Sure.
It's no work for me to go on my way down to SMC to stop this truck stop with an order
every week.
Right.
So if I give them 50 percent off, the orders seem to get a little bigger.
Do they?
Well, that would help.
What about consignment?
Have you ever tried that?
A couple of consignment stores.
Maybe we should explain what consignment is.
Well, consignment is when you are footing the bill for the product.
Okay.
So you load it up and you put the product store, they don't pay you for it until it's
sold.
Okay.
Which means you have to maintain it.
Right.
So you have to go collect your money and you have to restock gold.
Right.
I don't give 40 percent on consignment.
Sure.
You get 20 percent on consignment at the store.
That's 20 percent for handling your merchandise.
Okay.
You get a larger profit.
Right.
But you have to remember you are tying up inventory that you could make money on in
other stores.
Right.
So I keep my consignments to a minimum.
Maybe it's a way to break into it just doesn't want to do business with you or whatever.
That's a low risk way for them, isn't it?
That's the reason they have stores.
Right.
Have you experienced any kind of resistance in terms of going in and trying to set yourself
as a supplier and had to overcome resistance?
You're in sales.
Yeah.
There is rejection.
Mm-hmm.
There's a lot of rejection.
I would say that 40 to 50 percent of your contacts are rejections, but I don't give
up.
Okay.
They just 60 percent let you in, right?
No, they just said no this time.
Oh, okay.
If I get back to them enough, is one of these times they're going to say yes.
Okay.
I don't stop going because somebody says no.
Okay.
So I have one that I'm still trying to get into, which is a store, and I know it's a
hot store.
I've been to them about 25 times, and 25 times he's told me no.
I'm not going to stop there on the way home again.
I will end up having that store in my stores.
Okay.
Thanks very much for coming.
Appreciate it.
I'm sure that all our wholesales out there can benefit from our order.
Let's get started.
Here's what you need before you make your first sales call, business card, letterhead
and envelopes, a sample kit, some additional catalogs, your white list, and your yellow
price list.
Remember, the yellow price list reflect a 40 percent markup over your cost, your order
book, and a small calculator.
Check your manual for all the item numbers and order what you need right away when you're
ready to start selling.
Habitants usually drop off a catalog and then calling in about a week.
Customers tend to look at the catalog and I say, you know what, order it if you don't
like it.
I'll take it back.
I just go to customers, they hand me the money, and I mean it's as easy as that.
All you really need is your catalogs and the help I'm seeing.
Let's talk briefly about what the retailer expects from a professional wholesale.
Number one, a saleable product volume.
You've got over 3,000 of them, licensing.
Your yellow to be competitive with virtual holders and bill margin still allows you room
to negotiate.
Consistent pendable quality, SMC tees its quality, and you can pass that guarantee on
to your customers.
Prompt delivery, SMC ships within 24 to 48 hours of receiving your order.
So, this part is up to you.
Sensing a retail account means stopping in on a regular basis.
Be weekly, maybe a little less.
Sometimes you can get a better price for your goods if you handle housekeeping and maintenance
of your items.
Show an interest in your customer's business.
Keep your items in stock.
Make suggestions for new items.
Be ready to show new arrivals flyers.
In other words, blow up.
Finally, we'll wrap up this segment with four qualities that can lead to great success as
a wholesaler.
A positive professional attitude and ability to turn rejection into opportunity.
Perseverance and patience.
A genuine interest in your customer's business.
Can you imagine having 11,000 people out there selling for you?
That's an extreme example, of course.
But the idea of having others selling your SMC line while you stay at home and fill their
orders over the phone?
That's the sub-wholesale program.
And it's a great multiplier income.
Like all the SMC programs, it's simple and easy to do.
And at it's simple, it goes like this.
Show your friend a world of products cap and show her the yellow price list.
That's her cost.
She sells at the retail and orders through you.
She pays you the price, so she's made a profit.
And since you pay the white price, you make a profit too.
A 40% profit to that.
And that's it.
If she sells $300 a week at retail, she pays you about $140 and keeps the $160 as profit.
You $100 and keep $40 profit.
And remember, for that 40 years, all you had to do was make a phone call to SMC and place
the order.
So you can get five, even ten sub-wholers each bringing you a profit of just $40 a week.
Suddenly, you could be making $400 a week just by making phone calls.
And that might addition to your other sales efforts because it really doesn't give you
much time to fill those orders.
First thing you have to do is find immigrant sub-wholesalers.
Most people start with friends and family.
But if you want to move beyond that, you have to advertise.
Check your program manual.
A specified ad you can use word for word in a local newspaper.
Plus, you can post notices on community boards, job centers at schools, and public places.
When you get a response in two ways, first, try to set up a personal or telephone appointment
to discuss the opportunity.
When you're talking to someone about your sales-sailor, you would call them a distributor and tell
them the following.
On most items, you more than donate in profits.
It only takes a few a week and you can make a lot of money.
You keep all your profits.
I don't take a percentage of your sales.
You don't need to spend time and energy recruiting others.
This is a multi-level.
I can help you.
You're not on your own.
There's no quota pressure.
Tell me how much money you want to make and I'll help you.
Once you've made personal contact and you decide that this person is serious about selling
and would be a good sub-wholesaler, set them up with a sub-wholesaler kit.
You can charge a $25 deposit for this or you can give it away.
The sub-wholesaler kit is packed with a WorldEx catalog, a supply catalog, training manuals,
order forms, a list, and a certificate for a $25 deposit.
At a recent SMC member success convention in Las Vegas, a panel of highly successful
people gathered to share some of their experience with the care and feeding of a sub-wholesaler
network.
What I do, first of all, I get out a packet, I send catalogs, and I send out a letter that
I sign, and I give them a little goal.
I give everybody a goal.
I say, in your first month of business, you want to do at least $250 in business.
At that point, when you do $250 in volume, I want you to call me and we'll go over the
business.
We'll go over the plan that you decide to use, we'll go over maybe the plan that you're
thinking about using, and I'll give you my insight on that plan because I talk to all
my students all day long, and I have insight that I can share with them, but I want to
give them a goal.
I want them to call me up who haven't really taken the first step and opened up the catalogs
and shown them to people.
I want to talk to the people that are actually motivated and out there working the business.
That's one thing that I do.
The other thing is that I don't give samples, but I do give everybody to purchase a kit
because without samples, you can do just the catalogs, but the samples you're going to
do three, four, five times as much business.
If you could show somebody the actual quality of the product, and so I encourage all my
videos to purchase the sample kits.
Charles, what do you do?
For those customers who are on the internet, I do a daily email broadcast on the newsletter,
and for those who are not, I do a monthly newsletter, and I try and give some topics
of people having trouble with and ideas that other sub-wholesalers that I have had made
money with, friends share that with other people, much like you're, in a sense, being
a swim sea.
Don't just send them out there and expect them to be surveyed.
Is that a good summation?
I do have an 800 number, and I give the toll-free support and training, one with every one of
them.
Okay, so that's a lot.
There's no limit to that.
I've spent hours and hours with individual people to produce anything.
I think it's worth the time.
Do you sell the sub-wholesaler kit, or do you give them the sub-wholesaler kit, Charles?
Yes, I sell them.
Yes.
It's the sub-wholesaler kit that you buy from the supply catalog, and through that I add
a couple other catalogs from a couple other suppliers of my own, things which I also do.
It's a bit unique, and then I add to the product samples, and I charge $80.
The more you charge, the more they actually do something.
$25 is easy to give away.
They spend $80, they'll do something.
As you can see, once your network grows, you'll be running an active sales organization.
Be sure each of your sub-wholesalers understands the following.
They may charge whatever price they like, sell using whatever method they think.
The sub-wholesaler kit contains manuals on marketing methods they can use.
They may charge their customer the shipping costs, absorb the costs themselves, or personally
deliver that.
This is assuming you don't want to absorb shipping.
Make it clear that you will not ship to the wholesaler's customer.
The Dropsham SMC will have your name on the packing slip, which will be your sub-wholesaler
source.
One of the most attractive parts of the SMC sub-wholesaling program is that your recruits
don't need to spend a lot of time recruiting.
This is not multi-level.
Your sub-wholesalers are in business for themselves.
They work on a profit and profits from their sales.
Plus, they don't have to buy merchandise until they've sold it.
However, it's a good idea to encourage them to buy at least one sample kit, like the Beller
kit.
As Gordon said, sales can go up three to five times as much when customers actually see
and touch them.
The sub-wholesaling program is a great one to use when you get a few sales yourself and
have a good understanding of the price structure, the sales materials, and so on.
And when you're ready to start, be sure to refer to the 30-day plan in your program manual.
Schools, churches, lodges, youth sports organizations, fraternal organizations, charities, they
all have one thing in common.
They need to raise money, lots of money as frequently as possible.
That's where you come in.
Your town wear fundraise program is designed to compete on a level playing field with those
gift wrap or candy brochures you probably see after a year.
In any fundraising campaign, an organization is generally going to expect a percent cut
of the total revenues.
So to protect your profit margin, you'll notice that the retail is in town square, your fundraising
product brochure, four times cost.
People pay this slightly higher price?
Absolutely.
Who doesn't buy at least one roll of overpriced gift wrap when their kid comes home with that
brochure?
It's an oblique tour purchase.
People aren't really buying the item as much as they're made a donation to a worthy cause.
What's great in your case is Towns offers a terrific gift item exchange for that donation,
something people really like.
And remember, fundraising is a voluminous.
Think about it.
A school full of kids will be talking 400 to 700 little sale people out there, each
selling to mom, dadbers, maybe relatives, whatever.
Now see, each one sells only one item.
It's a $12 item, and that's it.
That's anywhere from $4,800 to $8,400 in sales.
School gets half, which leaves you $2,400 to $4,200.
Now subtract the rest of the $12 item, which is about three bucks, and you're banking anywhere
from $1,200 to $2,100 in profits.
Even if you reduce your margin by offering prizes from Cade Prize Brochure, you still
end up doing really well, and that's just one school.
Any potential here?
Here are the steps to a successful fundraising campaign.
First find an organization that needs to raise funds.
Easy enough.
Here's a set of organizations and groups that rely heavily on fundraising.
This list is straight out of Program Manual, so you can look them up.
Along with these, you should use your local phone directory and Chamber of Commerce to
identify eventual prospects.
Step two.
Once you've got a target, it's time to make contact with Raising Chairperson.
You can write a letter, a sample is included in your Program Manual, or make a phone call.
Either way, your goal is to set up a personal appointment.
Hi, I understand you're the chairperson of the PTA Fulfillmentary School.
Be in charge of selecting the lender for this year's fundraising campaigns.
Oh great, my name is Laura Williams, and I represent the Town Fundraising Program.
Our books show a great selection of collectibles and gifts that are perfect for the holidays
at very reasonable prices.
Our items sell very well, and of course, Brookford would receive 50% of all revenues received.
I'd love to show you our line.
I think you see a huge potential for big sales.
It's a simple turnkey program.
It's very easy to run.
I'll provide everything, including prizes for the kids, and I personally oversee the
ordering and to make sure your merchandise delivered on time and in X condition.
I'm able to meet Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday next week to show you some samples.
Which of those day best for you?
Once you have a personal meeting, explain how Town Square works.
Chairperson will catch on quickly because this program is modeled exactly along the
lines of the most prominent fundraising programs out there, so you shouldn't have to explain
much.
Once you've gotten to go order enough packets so each fundraiser, in this case, the kids
of school, will have one, it are the Town Square Product Brochure, an Arcade Prize Brochure,
a two-part form, and a collectible.
By the way, one packet will always contain an instruction you can use for quick and easy
reference.
Remember, the Arcade Prize Brochure is optional.
You want to come up with other rewards, such as donations from local pizza parlors, bike
shops, and so on.
What's up to you?
It's more legwork, but it allows you to hang on to a larger chunk of the product.
Explain the payment.
All checks for purchases of Town Square should be made out to the fundraised entity.
That way they can get their 50% share right off the top.
Most of them will insist on it.
Sales tax must be charged when applicable.
Consult your local Board of Equalization for specific details.
Now once you've delivered packets to the chairperson, they'll distribute them to the kid.
During the two or three weeks set aside for the campaign, offer to help with any adding
additional sponsors, whatever you can do to generate publicity, and of course more funds
for the fundraising efforts.
You want this to be the start of a long-term relationship, and the best way to do that
is to put in the time and energy, get involved, and be helpful.
Once the fundraising deadline has arrived, the chairperson and the committee will take
care of totaling orders and casading those into a final order for you.
You simply place that order promptly with SMC.
Good idea to get a deposit towards the final check for merchandise.
Try to get it off so your costs are more than covered, and you don't have to go out of
pocket.
In some cases you may be asked to pay only upon delivery, in which case you'll have to
front money.
Now as a little tip, pot members use a credit card to float the valves alone until the order
comes in and full payment is received.
If all of that happens within 30 days, which it certainly should, it can be an interest
free loan and it could go.
You can have the order drop shipped directly to the school or wherever the chairperson
designees, or you can deliver it personally, whatever you want.
In any case, be sure you're there to check off the dice against the order, and make sure
everything arrived.
Take care of any problems immediately, for good service as well as good results earns
a big business.
And after the campaign, it's important to follow up with a letter and phone call.
Thank the chairperson, the principal, the Lodge president, whoever.
I just wanted to say thank you for giving me the opportunity to work with you.
I'm so glad that the Towns program was such a huge success the first time out.
Please let me know if there's anything else I owe or if you'd like to start to plan another
campaign.
Town Square publishes great brochuring season with Mother's and Father's Day gifts, Easter
bunnies, just lots of fun stuff.
If you'd like, I'll give you a call in December and set up a time, or are we canceling a date
right now?
Great.
I'll go ahead and do that.
What works out best for you?
Okay.
That's great.
Why don't we go with that?
Excellent.
I'm looking forward to it.
Thank you again.
Okay.
It's my pleasure.
Follow up is what brings in repeat business.
Take the time, make the effort, and the rewards will be great.
This was kind of a quick overview of the Town Square program.
This is an exciting program with a huge potential for extremely high volume orders, so I hope
you give it a try.
Remember the Town Square packet comes with quick reference instructions, and of course
sure to check your program manual and follow the 30-day action plan.
I can easily make anywhere from $100 to $300 and need $400 in one party.
And if I make three parties, then I don't have to work nowhere else.
O-House is the name of the SMC party plan, and what makes it so different from any of
the other parties out there is that it's not multi-level.
You're going to operate on a straight profit margin.
Representatives are going to work on a straight profit margin.
Simple as that.
You've got several who do this.
You can host parties yourself.
You can encourage friends to host parties, or make a sales presentation.
You can recruit open-house representatives, people you put into business representing
you, and they take care of finding hosts, and they show up and make the sales presentation.
Or you can do all these.
However you decide to run your open-house program, the basic idea is the same as all
those other parties.
You've probably gone to one time or another.
A group of people get a home, and the sales representative makes a presentation.
If you make the sales presentation, you'll keep the profit margin between the price you
charged and the white price.
You have a representative handling the sales.
You'll keep the profit margin between the Goldenrod list and the white price list, a
60% markup.
That's because your representative ordered from you off the Goldenrod list, and keeps
the profit margin between that and the final selling price.
See?
Everyone's on a profit basis.
No multi-level up-lines, down-lines, or anyone else keeping your profit.
SM open-house program supplies include everything needed for a successful home party sale, whether
you're handling the party yourself, or supplying a rep.
Once you include a selection of samples, SM has pre-selected some great sample kits for
this program, but there's almost no selling to do.
Like so many SMC members say, these parties really do sell themselves.
The home that we had was fantastic.
We had much dice for them to look at catalogs if they wanted to browse.
The next thing we know, they have the catalogs up.
They're ordering out of them, and we're not selling or trying to sell them anything.
They're ordering.
And they're money.
It was fantastic, and we're very happy as we go to the back.
Because you've got choices as you want to run this program, we're going to cover two
different aspects, how to throw a successful party, and secondly, how to recruit representatives.
First you need to have the party.
You can host the first one yourself, or ask a friend or relative.
Invite people you know, and encourage each to bring a friend.
The idea is to fill the room with a dozen more people.
Most will be from hosting a party, because she can receive free gifts, or earn point
items you'd like to buy.
You can use your open house guide to recruit hosts.
It explains all the benefits of hosting an open house party.
Once you have a list of attendees, be sure to send them the open house confirmation invitation.
As the day departs, ask your host to reconfirm with a phone call.
I'm just checking in to you, we're still planning to stop by Friday at 4.30 for our gift party.
Great.
And did your friend decide to come?
Fantastic, that's wonderful.
I'll look forward to it.
So we'll see you then, it'll be fun.
Bye.
You'll want to have a brief meeting or phone discussion with your host to let her know
all about her free gift and of gifts, plans for refreshments, and so on.
Your program manual gives you some specifics to cover before the actual party.
Once the party day arrives, get there a little early some time to rearrange the furniture
so everyone has a clear view of the product presentation, or your samples on the table.
By the way, a few plexiglass cubes and cylinders can help you set up a simple yet very appealing
display.
Make sure you have plenty of catalogs on hand.
Showcase probably the one you'll rely on, but it never hurts to have extras of your
other catalogs as well.
As the guests arrive, have them fill out a name tag, unless of course you know one already.
Blank name tags are available as an open house supply item.
People will start looking over the samples and asking questions right away, and that's
great.
You should encourage that.
But once everyone's arrived, have them all sit down and begin your presentation.
As you talk about an item, you might want to refer guests to the catalogs for more items
in the same category or collection.
Lots of times that can lead to additional sales.
If you're a little shy about standing up and selling the products, you can use the Home
Video Shop.
It's a video catalog that features most of the best sellers in Showcase.
Each item is beautifully presented, and a host and hostess team do a great job of selling
the products.
Use the Home Video Shop.
Be sure to order the Master Pack, so each guest has a worksheet that corresponds to
the show.
Also, it's a good idea to have as many samples of the items from the Home Video Shop as possible.
Once you've resolved the products, the host should bring out the refreshments and let
the ordering begin.
You can help guests make selections by asking questions.
What kind of decor do you have at home?
Do you enjoy collecting?
Are you buying for someone else?
Do they have any special hobbies or interests?
These kind of questions can help you make suggestions.
Some people will pay in cash, while others will want to write X. Be sure the check is
made out to you or to your company's name, whichever you prefer.
Now it's a good time to present the host with her free gift.
And then, as the orders come in, you can point out the credits she's accumulating toward
purchases of her own.
As everyone congratulates us, you should suggest that some of the guests might want to host
a party of their own.
That way they can earn money as well.
Have a supply of open host guides on hand, and give them to anyone interested.
Get their name and phone number so you can contact them later to set up a party.
In fact, be sure you get names and addresses of every guest, whether they bought something
or not.
These are excellent additions to your mailing list.
So that's a quick look at the basics of a home party.
You may choose a different way to organize yours, and that's fine.
The main thing is to have a positive, enthusiastic attitude.
Take good care of your host, and have fun.
Okay, now let's look to exponentially increase your open house business by recruiting representatives.
This is very similar to the sub-wholesale program we talked about earlier.
And you can use the same method to find open house reps.
Ideally, you're looking for people who want to make money, have a wide circle of friends
and acquaintances, they're outgoing and energetic, and enjoy selling.
You can find reps among your friends, workmates, or even hosting guests at a few of the parties
you threw yourself.
You can even advertise for reps.
There's a sample ad you can use in your program manual.
Use your open house recruitment brochure to sell people on the benefits of being an open
house rep.
And once you've gotten a candidate, arrange for an interview, either in person or over
the phone.
Explain the simple pricing structure.
Your rep orders from you at the golden rod price.
She sells it at the retail price in the catalog, or offers a discount if she wants to.
You'll want to provide her with a complete open house representatives kit, and explain
each of the pieces in the kit.
You can charge a deposit for this kit, or simply provide it at no cost.
It's up to you.
What you do want to do is to encourage your rep to immediately order catalogs and a sample
product kit.
Over the years we've found that reps who have had to make at least some financial investment
are much more likely to be motivated and productive.
You can give your rep the benefit of your advice and experience with home parties if
you've had some yourself, but the representatives kit also contains a thorough manual on recruiting
hosts and planning parties.
The text of that handbook is in your program manual for your reference.
Then you set your representative loose with the instructions to book as many parties as
she possibly can.
The more parties, the more orders, and the more money she makes, and of course, the more
money you make.
That's the beauty of the open house party plan program.
Be sure to follow the 30 day action plan outlined in your program manual.
This is a fun, exciting way you can make hundreds, even thousands of dollars a week.
So get out there and have a party!
98% of all my customers I have never seen.
All is done by mail, telephone, and fax.
That is the amazing thing, you know, when I tell this to my friends, they can't believe
it, you know.
Every day is a treat to go to the mailbox.
That never wears out, because that's where all the money and all the fun comes out of.
And I've done it for 25 years, and I'm going to do it for another 40 years.
Now here's the dream of a lot of people.
The place they show up for work is right here, their mailbox.
Getting money in the mail is exciting, no doubt about it.
So the idea of having a business where people send you checks, and you just fill orders
and have them shipped right to your customers under your name, well there's a lot of appeal
there, that's for sure.
And there's no doubt that lots of people have made lots of money in mail order.
No reason you can't be one of them.
But before you start, let's take a brief reality check.
Mail order is one of the most expensive marketing methods.
Mail order is a numbers game.
The industry response rate is less than 1%.
The best mailing list is your own.
With that in mind, I should add that there's a lot to be said in favor of mail order.
You can do it part-time, yet generate orders all day, every day.
You don't have to do any face-to-face selling.
You can run a significant mail order business from your home desktop or kitchen table for
that matter.
And your age, gender, education, or physical mobility are not factors that can stop you
from succeeding.
Now you may have already noticed that the mail order chapter in your program manual
is pretty long compared to the others.
Well, that's because we really made it a step-by-step, buy-the-numbers kind of guide that covers
everything from permits to postage to advertising to order fulfillment.
Now we're going to do just an overview in this video because it's extremely important
that you read the program manual carefully before you launch your first campaign.
Your primary tool is Bayberry Lane by Giftworld.
This catalog is specifically designed for mail order, complete with a bound-in return
envelope for orders.
You'll want to stamp that envelope or apply labels.
SMC can't customize the inner envelope for you, but we can imprint the outside with your
company name if you like.
Order imprinted catalogs using your red imprint order form.
Now before you decide to order catalogs, you've got to know where you plan to send them, right?
Well, the very best list, as I said before, is your own, meaning every customer you get
through any of the other marketing methods, every sale you make, you've got to get that
name and address.
Now, if you can also capture a phone number and email, all the better.
But at the very least, be sure you add every name and address to your mailing list.
These are the people who've already bought from you.
They're your best bet for sales.
When you rent a mailing list, you'll include your names in that mailing.
That's what we call salting or spiking the list.
It can go a long way toward getting you a higher response rate.
Okay, so now you've got to get a list of other names.
You want hot names, people who have bought through mail order before, and you want to
pay as little for that list as possible.
Your best bet is to use the company recommended in your program manual.
They offer special rates for SMC members and guarantee that they're not selling you names
that have also gone to other members.
You'll be renting what's called a response list, and next to your own list, this is likely
to be your most productive list.
Now, I say renting because that's what you do.
You get one-time use of a list for the price you pay.
Usually you're charged in increments of 1,000 names.
Check your program manual for the latest rates and for a few important tips about renting
mailing lists.
It's easy to send a letter.
Just slap on a stamp, and away it goes.
Now, mailing a catalog is a little more involved, but don't worry, you can do it.
First, get yourself a postal permit for third-class bulk rate mailing.
This alone will save you more than 50% in mailing costs, and all you'll pay is a one-time
fee plus an additional optional fee to have the bulk rate indicia printed right on the
catalog, saving you the trouble of stamping thousands of books.
Let's assume that you've got your list and your catalogs.
Now, first, you need to stamp the inside envelopes or apply labels.
Rubber stamps and labels are both available through SMC.
Now, just stick the labels from your rented list, that's how you're going to get them
on labels, onto your Bayberry Lane catalogs.
Your labels will arrive in zip-sorted order for your convenience, and that's a good thing,
because bulk mailing requires you to sort and bundle your mail according to zip codes.
You'll sort in groups of at least 10 catalogs according to identical zip codes, or at least
10 or more pieces with the first three digits the same, or the ADC codes, which is the Area
Distribution Center, or when you can't make a 10-piece bundle for one ADC, make a mixed
sort bundle of at least 10 pieces, and add a note to the bundle that says mixed sort.
Once you've got at least 200 pieces ready, head for the bulk mail section of your local
post office.
They'll be weighed, the count verified, and you'll have to pay the postage on the spot.
Now the fun part, when the orders come, open the envelope, set the checks aside, verify
the order and the math to make sure you receive the right payment amount.
Remember to check shipping and handling fees.
Order the requested merchandise from SMC.
You might want to fill orders in batches, say on a weekly basis, but it's up to you.
You can ship the order directly to your customer under your name, or you can have it shipped
to yourself.
The good thing about doing it this way is it lets you stuff the order with additional
offers.
For instance, I'd want to put a new arrivals flyer and another catalog in every package.
Of course, I now have to pay to have the item shipped to my customer, or I have to personally
deliver it.
And that does cut into my margin, but I'm hoping to make up for it with additional orders.
Unless it's a rush order, I'll just ship it the least expensive way possible to keep
my costs to a minimum.
If you do have your order shipped directly from SMC to your customer, be sure to follow
up with a phone call or a letter.
Good service is what generates repeat business.
There are all sorts of mail order tools you can use for follow up, including specialty
brochures, the new arrivals flyers, seasonal updates
of Bayberry Lane by Gift World, even other catalogs.
In fact, follow up is a key component of a successful mail order campaign, which is why
some members stay in touch with their customer base through newsletters, postcards, email,
and so on.
Some members, such as Finn Skiesvall, who you saw earlier, actually produce their own
flyers based on a product they strongly believe in.
That flyer can be sent to your customer list, or you can do what Finn did and send it to
buyers at major catalog houses where you think your item would be a good fit.
Here's Finn at a recent SMC member success convention talking about mail order.
What I did, I concentrated on the mail order houses instead of selling one Cs and two Cs.
I sell like 5,000, 10,000 at a time to the mail order houses, like Finger Hut, Walter
Drake, Miles Kimball, Harry Carter, there's 6,000 mail order houses in the United States,
and in Canada there is about 150.
I concentrate on the major ones, and when you do it, you have to send them a brochure,
say of the product, you can't send the whole catalog, you pick out one product, say, so
you think it would be a good seller, and one other product I picked out from a SMC catalog
was the rose lamp, a beauty glow rose lamp.
I sold about half a million of those, and I couldn't believe it myself.
One final word of advice about mail order, and this really holds for every program.
Keep accurate, up-to-date records.
Again, there's no more valuable list than your own, so nurture it, safeguard it, and
above all, work it.
That's how you can have a successful mail order campaign.
Every day is a treat for me to go to the mailbox, because that's where everything happened for
me, and some day I have a $100 order, and another day 10,000, 5,000, up to 50,000 other
orders coming in, and my mailman is my best friend.
We started with one little booth, and we kept on buying more booths, and now we're probably
running in the neighborhood of a quarter million dollars in sales with all our stores.
For some who start with SMC, the dream is to one day own a gift shop all their own,
and thanks to the great sellability and profit potential of the SMC line, this dream has
become a reality for many, just like it did for the Fishers.
Starting in a swap meet as they did is pretty typical.
It's a good way to be in the retail gift business without having to deal with the expense, time,
and operational concerns that come with running a store.
Another way to sort of ease your way into the gift shop business is to lease a kiosk.
Kiosks are those charming little wagons or carts you see in malls, or along sidewalks
and tourist areas.
Usually they specialize in particular type of merchandise, and your SMC line offers a
lot of choices that are great for marketing in a kiosk.
You might specialize in birdhouses, or patchwork ceramic figurines, classic wildlife and other
collectibles, or SMC's fabulous assortment of glass and spun glass sculpture.
Whatever you choose, there are some basic steps to follow and things you need to know
in kiosk marketing.
First, find a location, and then contact the management office of the mall.
They usually handle the kiosk leasing agreements.
An introductory letter is a good way to start.
While you're waiting for a reply, if you don't have a business license yet, go get one.
It's easy and inexpensive, and you'll need it for this program.
Check with your local city hall for information on how to do this.
Once you've made contact, you'll set up a personal appointment with the mall manager
to show your merchandise.
At that time, they may also ask about a visual concept you have for your display.
In other words, what will your kiosk look like?
Give this some thought before your meeting.
Remember, smaller items work best, especially since everything will have to fit into a closed
and secured cart at the end of each day.
Once you get the okay from management, you'll have to sign a lease agreement.
The fee structure varies so much from mall to mall we won't get into specifics, but
you'll probably be looking at a basic monthly fee, a percentage fee, which is a portion
of your weekly sales, a security deposit, and what's called a CAM fee, a common area
maintenance fee that goes toward all the mall maintenance around your cart.
There may be other fees, including a one-time signage fee, a nominal monthly advertising
fee, and possibly a monthly cart cleaning fee.
You may also need to provide general liability and property damage insurance as stipulated
by the individual mall association.
Premiums will vary.
Check with your local insurance agents or other people using kiosks for local rates.
Generally, electrical hookup to your kiosk is provided for lighting and a cash register.
Telephone service is usually not available.
So if you want to accept credit cards, you may need a cellular phone hookup or a radio
transmitted credit card authorization machine.
There will be individual regulations with each mall, including opening and closing policy.
Usually you'll be required by the mall to be open prior to the opening of the mall and
close after the mall has closed.
There may be a dress code.
There will probably be rules to govern the appearance of your cart, and most malls don't
allow eating, drinking, reading, or listening to personal music players while doing business.
When you're all alone working your cart, the mall will generally show some lenience with
regard to eating and drinking.
One chair is usually provided by the mall for the cart operator.
When resting breaks become necessary and you're on your own, it's customary to ask an employee
in a nearby cart to keep an eye on yours while you're gone.
You'll take care of all restocking of your cart and trash disposal while the mall is
closed.
As you can see, running a kiosk is a bit more involved than you'd think, but it can be a
highly profitable and fun way for you to market your SMC line on a retail level.
The next step up in terms of retail sales is to have your own shop.
Again, your first concern is location.
Our members tell us that you're looking for a location not only with lots of foot traffic,
but more importantly, lots of browsers, people who are in the area specifically to shop.
Tourist locations are best of all.
Spend time in your prospective location and watch the shopping patterns of people.
Research what the other stores in the area offer and figure out what will make you different.
In short, do your homework.
A gift shop is a significant investment of money and time.
It's not something you just want to jump right into.
Pay particular attention to square footage.
You'll need to decide how much merchandise you can afford as inventory and compare that
to how much square footage is available and then stack that up against the cost of leasing
the space.
Once you've decided on a location, you'll enter into a leasing agreement with the property
management, whether at a mall or a standalone store.
These leases may be month-to-month, or they may run for a year or more depending upon
what you and your landlord work out.
Leases are negotiable, so don't be afraid to work for the best possible deal.
In general, you'll work out a basic lease price and a security deposit.
Utilities may or may not be included in the lease price, and you'll almost certainly
have to set up your own phone.
If you're planning on hiring employees, you'll need to not only figure that into
your budget, but also inquire with your state office for workers' compensation insurance
for their requirements.
Once you've got your location, you need to order your inventory and get your shelving
and display units in.
You'll also want to get your credit card authorization equipment installed and operational.
Then, with merchandise on the shelves, a key to the door, a working cash register, and
a smile on your face, you're ready for business.
Owning a gift shop is a major undertaking.
Make no mistake about it, but ask many who have done it, and they'll tell you that the
rewards can be well worth the effort.
Iman Hatami realized his dream by opening a gift shop in Los Angeles, California.
I started to swap me, like we talked about it, and then a year later, I opened a store
at the Glendale Galleria, which is a mall.
I was there for one year.
So in two years, I was able to save about 80% of the capital that I needed for this
store.
When you go to these shows, you basically find a lot of vendors for everything.
Showcases, cabinets, gifts, anything you name it, you find it.
That's how I found it by the showcases.
It's not a hard work.
You have to put a lot of hours in it.
Just like anything else, you have to be dedicated.
You have to look for new products.
You have to know your market.
Your customer is what they're looking for.
Of course, the price point should be right.
If the customer likes you, most probably they're going to buy the product.
So it's very important how to treat your customer.
I would say 99% I usually tell the customer is right.
I try to keep them satisfied so they come back.
I think it's a lot of fun because it's what I want to do.
I have a lot of goals, but still it's a start for me.
Hopefully I want to make a change to the start of this business.
So it's just a start for me.
I place free ads on the Internet.
I get the email messages back.
People want the products.
I go to the Internet website from SMC.
I fill my orders there.
They ship them to the customers.
All I have to do is go to my mailbox and collect the check.
I never really leave my house.
I just go into my second room.
I boot up.
I go to my auction sites and I view my SMC products to see how they're doing.
And I sell a lot of products on the Internet.
Welcome to the Wild West of this century, the fast-moving, anything-goes world of e-commerce.
Putting together a training tape for this is like trying to study water by staring at
a single point in a stream.
It's all moving so quickly.
As soon as you know something, it's gone and something new has come along.
But we'll do our best, and in combination with the more detailed program manual instructions,
you'll get a pretty good idea of how to use this powerful new marketing tool to generate
orders and grow your business.
First off, be sure you've signed on to SMC's members-only website at www.smcorp.com.
Complete instructions for how to do this are in your Getting Started video and manual,
so we won't repeat them here.
Suffice it to say that smcorp.com provides all the tools you need to do business with
SMC over the net, including what is one of the most essential functions for building
your own website, the ability to download photo images of your product line.
You'll find them on the File Transfer Protocol site.
That's where we store image files of every new arrival we receive, and you can download
them as GIF or JPEG files to use on your own website, or print them out for flyers, newsletters,
whatever.
Your program manual walks you through the downloading process step by step, so if you're
not sure how to do this, take a look there.
It's real easy to do.
Now if you're watching this segment, it's probably safe to say that you're interested
in selling SMC products and communicating with your customers with your own website.
And why not?
With a website, you can distribute catalogs by having people click on a Request to Catalog
button, which automatically adds to your mailing list for the mail order program.
You can email your swap meet customers with special offers based on the kinds of items
they bought before.
You can recruit sub-wholesalers and open house reps.
Having your own website is a touch of professionalism that will help you sell your services to fundraising
institutions.
If you own your own GIF shop or operate a kiosk, your website is a perfect place for
special offers.
It's great for advertising your business, and of course it can generate back-end sales.
Your website is your 24-hour storefront, where you sell products to new and existing customers.
Let's face it, to be in business nowadays, having your own website is kind of like having
a business card.
You pretty much have to have one to be considered a real professional.
And when it comes to building your own website, there are two ways.
There's the easy way, and the other way.
The easy way is to let SMC do it for you.
Fact is, we're already hosting a number of sites for those of you who received a website
when you signed on, and now we're set up to offer the custom e-commerce website option.
Now some of you may already have obtained a four-page website from SMC, and that site
allows for catalog requests, sub-wholesaler inquiries, offers a few products on display,
and provides an attractive home page with customized text.
This is a fine initial site, and it may be all you'll need.
But if you want your website to really be a fully functioning business site, well the
upgraded custom e-commerce website option is for you.
With this site, you can offer what's called shopping card technology and secure credit
card transactions, both of which are musts for e-commerce.
The site is self-managed so you can swap product and text in and out as often as you wish.
You can choose from several designs, and of course new features and functions are being
added all the time.
So you'll want to call member services and ask for the web support department to find
out the latest details and costs.
These are great sites.
I really recommend you go this route, especially if you don't have the expertise to build
your own site.
So that's the easy way.
Now of course, you don't have to use the website SMC offers.
You can build your own.
Okay let's start by planning your site.
Now first, you've got to select a server, or ISP, for internet access, and that's true
whether you use the SMC custom e-commerce website or build your own.
As you may already know, a server is simply your connection to the internet.
America Online, EarthLink, Microsoft Network, Prodigy, all those and many more are examples
of internet service providers.
Many of them will also host your website, meaning they use their hardware and software
to store and maintain your site.
What's the difference between a server and a host?
Well think of your website as a TV show.
You need a company to broadcast the show, and that's your host.
Your server lets you turn on the set so you can view your show.
Make sense?
Using the TV analogy, it's like CBS is the host, while your local cable company is the
service provider.
So as I said, your service provider may also host your site for a fee, or even offer a
very limited site at no cost.
Here are some other questions to ask.
Do they offer a secure commerce server?
What's the amount of storage space for your site?
How do they provide for CGI services, meaning email forms or shopping cart programs?
Are there email services, self-management capabilities, technical support?
What's the setup fee structure and so on?
The best thing to do is inquire with a number of servers and see who offers the most for
the least amount of money.
Your program manual lists some specific sites that can help you find ISPs.
Next find a website host.
As I said before, your ISP probably provides a hosting service.
There are lots of web hosting entities out there.
You can find them through sites you admire, or just flip through the local phone book.
Part of planning your site involves picking what's called a domain name.
This is just a name of your choice, followed by.com or.net.
For instance, I might set up a business called carriesgifts.com.
Then I'd have to make sure that name isn't already taken.
To check the availability of a name, go to any of these addresses for InterNIC and follow
the instructions.
Once you have a server, a host, and a name, take some time to sketch out what you want
your site to look like.
Maybe you'd like it to be simple and straightforward, or maybe you want lots of bells and whistles.
What kinds of paths do you want to offer your customers?
How will each page look?
You can hire out this kind of work to a website designer, of course.
If you go with the SMC custom e-commerce website option, you don't have to worry about any
of this.
It's all done for you already, and probably for a lot less money than you'll end up paying
web designers.
There are loads of books in your library or bookstore about how to design effective sites,
and there's relatively inexpensive software available that helps you build your site,
so we're not going to go into specifics here.
If you do decide to build your own site, I strongly recommend you take a few minutes
and read your program manual.
It's filled with excellent design tips and how-to information that'll be real helpful,
whether you're building your own site or hiring it out.
Now, just having a website is great for keeping your current customers, working what's called
the back end, another way to say repeat business.
But what about getting new customers?
How will anyone know about you?
Remember the movie Field of Dreams where Kevin Costner heard that voice saying, if you build
it they will come?
Well that's not true of your website.
If you build it, you've got to advertise.
Advertising is the only way to let people know you're on the web.
First, you've got to get registered with the major search engines on the net.
There's a list of some of them in your program manual and simple instructions on how to submit
your name and keywords.
There are also software programs and sites, such as SubmitIt.com, that make it easy for
you to make multiple submissions.
Other ways to advertise your site on the internet include banner ads, buttons, and email mailing
lists.
Again, your program manual gives you detailed information on how to use these resources.
But as in all advertising, be careful, test small because it can get expensive and there
is no guarantee you'll see any results.
Of course, you should advertise your website through more conventional means too.
Your web address should appear on all your business cards and letterhead, on sales flyers,
on any email you send out, and so on.
Also, try to set up linking relationships with other non-competitive sites.
You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours kind of thing.
So now you've got a website up, you're driving traffic to it, you're taking orders, you're
changing the product offers so your site always looks new and fresh.
You're in the internet business.
Congratulations!
I want you to think of your website as your own personal store.
And like any store, you've got to pay attention to it, keep it clean, keep up with the orders.
Just handle it in a professional manner.
Your website lets you compete on a level playing field with all the big boys, but only if you
stay on top of things and run an interesting, appealing, easy to use site.
One other tip, some SMC members have had success picking specific products and submitting them
to internet auction sites.
Check into that.
It might be a great way for you to make some fast money in this exciting marketplace.
I hope we've given you a good introduction to SMC's marketing methods and that you're
ready to go out and put them to use and start making some money.
Right, and as you get going, feel free to call SMC's member services department with
any questions.
Just dial the number on your screen and hit 2.
That'll take you straight to them.
Once again, congratulations on making the important decision to take control of your
life and start a business of your own with SMC.
We're in this together.
We're going to do everything we can to help you succeed.