By Mary McLoughlin.

The bell has rung and the kids are back in school. You are eager to fill up your calendar with parties and appointments. You may even have called the school to get all the upcoming dates for open houses, meet the teacher night, etc. You know that there will be a soccer parent meeting and the kick off event for PTO, you just don’t know when. With all this uncertainty, you are reluctant to set dates, particularly when you add it the uncertain calendar of your host or customer. What is a determined direct seller supposed to do?

These tried and true, ‘Plan B’ options have worked for me and many other determined direct sellers. Put them in your scheduling ‘bag of tricks’ and you are certain to meet your goals, even during the first month of school!

  1. When you schedule your dates, select a back up date. You can even put it on the invitation – let people know it will be ‘invoked’ if a Mommy must attend event happens to be scheduled on the original date. (You and your host can both invoke the backup date.)
  2. Try a consultant buddy system. Find someone in a different school system and agree to back up each other. Send someone else to the event so that you don’t have to cancel on your host or customer.
  3. Confirm all your dates with your spouse so that they can attend the parent event if you are working. You may want to confirm a babysitter, too, so that you will both be able to go out.
  4. When all else fails, send Grandma to the parent meeting. She has lots of experience and will know what to do as your ‘proxy’!

Communication is key to the success of Plan B options. Who needs to know? You, your host or customer, your spouse, your back up buddy or the people invited? Your hosts and customers are often dealing with the same challenges that you are, so be open with them. Share these with your team, too. Make September a record-breaking month!

Besides practicing a back-to-school business, Early September is a great time to sort out which of your future leadrs are going to promote this fall.  When you build leaders on your team and help them have the opportunity that you’ve found, your business will thrive as well.  Team Connections is offering a 4 part webinar series that starts on September 15 and runs for four consecutive Tuesdays at 10:30 a.m. Central.  We want more people joining this series that any we’ve had in the past, so your cost is $47.  You can find out more details about Launch More Leaders on its information page.  We’d love to have you join us.