Five Organizational Tips To Calm The Overwhelm

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when running a direct sales business around all the other things you’ve got going in your life. You might be running your business around another job, while raising a family as well as a home. Without some organizational tips, pretty soon you’ll begin to feel like you want to pull your hair out!

Here are five organizational tips to calm the overwhelm:

Office in a box

One of the main organizational problems my downlines encountered was not having a dedicated office space! Without an office that they could go into and close the door, they felt as if every part of their house was littered with papers and business products etc. This made them feel as if they could never step away from their business always having it in their face. It made things very hard to relax with their business cluttering every part of their house. Organizing a business in a box will go a long way in helping with this. Get a sturdy plastic box with dividers at any office supply store where all your business paper supplies can be housed when you are not working on them. This will include all the supplies to go in hostess and sponsoring packages, potential booking/consultant phone lists, tax information etc. You can carry the box with you to the room you are working in and then put everything away to store when not using. Not seeing papers strewn all over the house will go a long way in calming this overwhelming feeling!

Ordering/Assembling Preparation

Another common organizational problem my downlines faced was feeling disorganized when they went out to do their demonstrations and/or their sponsoring coffees. They felt they never had the necessary supplies and were always running out or scrambling at the last minute to find the supplies needed. My advice was to set some time aside at the beginning of every month (put this task in your paper or electronic calendar every month) to get supplies ready for the month! Get 10 hostess packages and 10 sponsoring packages together as well as do any product or business supplies ordering needed for the next month. By doing this at the beginning of the month, it will make your prep time before your demonstrations/parties/sponsoring coffees that much less time consuming and stressful. You’ll be immediately ready to do business! 

Be organized and ready to sell, book and/or sponsor

“I met a great potential hostess but I wasn’t carrying my business card” or “If I had a hostess package, I would have booked a show right then but I had nothing!” I can’t tell you how many times I heard similar statements from my downlines! So many missed opportunities could have been avoided if they had just been organized and ready! Always carry a booklet to take contact information and business cards in a holder in your purse. Carry a bin/folders in your car with business supplies, catalogues, hostess and sponsoring brochures to be ready to book or sponsor on the go. Don’t let a perfect opportunity to sell, book or sponsor disappear because you weren’t organized. Always being prepared will make you feel in control of your business and ready to create opportunities wherever you go!

Block time for what’s important

Another common complaint I heard was “I’m so busy now I don’t get to (insert the thing you love)” Once people get busy with different aspects of their business alongside the things they need to do for their life, it can be hard to do what you love.  Why did you get into your direct sales business in the first place? Was it to stay home and play at the park with your children? Was it to put them on the bus? Was it so you could have a flexible time to spend on other things like health, family and other passions? My suggestion is to block the time for what you love first! Before you schedule working on your business be sure to block the things on the calendar that are non-negotiable. If taking your kids to the park is important, block that time in the calendar first for the week and work your business around that. If your health is important and you want to go to the gym three times a week book that into your calendar and work your business around that. If going out with your husband on Friday nights is important then block that into your calendar and book your parties/demonstrations around it. The beauty of direct sales is its flexibility and the things that are important should come first. When I was running my business, it was important for me to spend weekend time with my family so I scheduled my business around being home on the weekend. I did my shows Tuesdays and Thursday evenings (when my family didn’t have after school activities) and offered one weekend a month for shows. Block the time important to you first and build your business around it!

Schedule time for each part of your business

Sometimes I would hear from consultants, “I just don’t know why I’m not booking shows” or I just don’t know why I’m not sponsoring” or “My team isn’t booking shows” or “My team doesn’t sponsor”. I would ask them to log how much time they spent on their business. Sometimes they were spending time on their business but not on the activities it took to make things happen in their “problem” area. So they spent a lot of time on selling, booking and having demonstrations but no time at all on the activities it took to sponsor or coach and grow their team. My advice to them was to schedule time every week to spend on prospecting for booking, prospecting for recruiting new members, time to coach new recruits and time to coach emerging leaders and beyond. Setting a given time each week will help you grow each area of direct sales; booking, sponsoring and team coaching.

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Please leave me a comment with your top organizational tip for calming the overwhelm in your direct sales business.