Wooooohooo!

Ok, so this will be fast but I'm just SO excited!

So I'm trying really hard to meet a HUGE business* incentive for Thirty-One (a $1,300 amex giftcard that I could use for my wedding! Um, hello! That would be a HUGE help!)

Well, I decided to host an online auction with a bunch of items that I don't need anymore for my display.  It was a great success!  With everything sold, I will be getting $178! Woo! So with that, and some cash I had from my party the other day with some display items, I can put it in as my own party which means I'll get the hostess benefits (at least $25 to spend in addition to the $200 I'll have to put towards replacing the display items with newer prints and all)!  AND it'll go towards my goal! BAM!

So here is where I am with my goal...

Between April and August I need to sell $15,000 in sales to get a $1,300 AmEx gift card.  So far, I have earned a $100 best buy gift card.  But I haven't redeemed it yet, because I'd rather wait until AmEx.  I am about $600 in sales away from earning the second incentive which would be a $500 best buy gift card, which would put me at $600 in rewards so far.  

So as it stands now, I'm about $600 away from having $10,000 in sales between April and August, and $5,600 away from having $15,000.

So if I break it down, I need to try my best to have at least $2,800 in sales in both July and August to meet my goal.  Normally, this would be fine because lately my sales have been around $3,000. However, the Summer months, especially July are really tough to get sales because everyone is away on vacation or they don't want to spend money since they are spending it at the beach.  So I'm trying a bunch of creative ways to earn my goal.

Here are my ideas to get more sales in July and August:

• Have an online auction - Did this! Success!
• Do another lotto game - the last one I did was successful, but time consuming.  But it gives me a $75 order and a lucky winner a great prize! - Thinking about doing this next week
• Send out coupons to past hostesses/customers 
• Reach out to my hostesses from last year to see if they want to host again - maybe offer them an incentive?
• Email all of my customers with a daily deal calendar and be honest with them about what I'm trying to earn for my wedding - I did this yesterday and I've already gotten three responses! Yay!!
• Try to focus on getting more online/catalog parties going if house parties aren't an option.
• Have a fundraiser for my school PTA in August (I wouldn't get much commission for this, but I would get the personal volume credit which means it could still count towards my goal).  - I have already talked to my principal about this, and she seems on board! We shall see!
• Reach out to my fellow direct sales friends and maybe do a swap? I host for them and they host for me? 

Anyways, as you can see, I am very motivated and determined! I just hope it pays off! If I end up with the best buy gift card for $600 that's totally fine because I can get a computer which I have needed for a long time.  And obviously, I'll still get the commissions which is going towards the wedding. But MAN! I really want that amex card! 

Do you have any ideas about how to get more parties this Summer? Maybe I could try and emphasize early holiday shopping!  Skip the store lines, and shop online with me! Hmmm....I'm on fire! :) Haha.

Amen.

*Despite being a teacher and working with spelling and grammar on a daily basis, I cannot for the life of me spell business correctly on the first try! EVER! Ha. Old habits die hard, eh?

Busy Bee

**Stupid blogger won't take off the white highlight behind my text! Sorry if it hurts your eyes to read this!

Yep.

I have been a bit MIA lately because I have been so flippin' busy!

List time! 

Why I've been such a busy bee:

*Work-- Spring time is the busiest time for 5th grade teachers! We have field trips galore, the simulated congressional hearings (which we study and work on for a month and a half), articulation with two different middle schools, the moving up ceremony and preparation for it, puberty education, and trying to get the rest of the curriculum taught in the meantime.  It's crazytown!  At least puberty education is entertaining!  One of the boys asked how long and big "it" actually gets to be (they used the term "maximum height and length"! Haha.  I guess the fascination with their genitalia starts young!

*Grad School -- Groooooaaann! My research class is kicking my butt and it sucks!! It's a lot of work, and every stinkin' little point counts! I have an 89% in the class.  How annoying! I would rather have a solid B, or a solid A. Not a freakin' B+! What a tease! I still have one more assignment left and an extra credit assignment too.  I'm hoping they can help me out with getting that A.

*Thirty-One -- I have been working SO hard to make my goals.  The first goal was to get the Ready, Set, Sell incentive.  I set my sights on the $500 goal (if you sell $500 in the first two weeks of April you get some free products).  BUT somehow I managed to pull off the $1,000 goal which got me more products for free! BAM! I also wanted to make it to the silver level for the National Conference incentive.  I am currently at the bronze level which means that I had a good chunk of the conference fees paid for and I also get a special kit of free products.  That level was for if you sold $4,000 from January to April.  Well, if you sell $8,000 in that time frame you can get to the silver level which gets you an additional $100 cash card to spend at the conference on whatever you want as well as special "perks."  Well after having two parties re-schedule last minute, I didn't think I'd make it. But I wanted it so badly, so I started offering lots of incentives to my customers and it worked!  I offered free shipping for two weeks.  I also offered an additional deal all day yesterday - a different one each hour...and I got 4 orders from it! SCORE!  So with those orders I was able to help out one of my hostesses...our goal was to get her party to at least $600 which we weren't sure we could do.  Well now it's at $850! Yeah baby! I freakin' love this job.

Why is it that I always find my energy late at night? I've been tired alllll day and now all of a sudden I want to stay up late and get more things done! Ugh! Figures!

Have a great night!

Excited

My current excitements:

• I'm having a jamberry party: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/events/572753029401724/  I'm excited! I love these things and can't wait to get some for free.

Love these!

•  I'm moving to a new place, and although the moving part of it sucks I get to style a new place! Yesssssss
• My thirty-one calendar has been filling up! I started out with a couple parties in March and only one in April.  Now I'm up to five in March and five in April! Score! I have a lot of business goals and incentives that I'm trying to work towards so I'm really happy about this.
• Spring Break is almost here! Thank goodness! 9 school days left!  Although I'll be spending a good amount of my break unpacking and settling into the new place, I will also be sleeping in every day! And I'm determined to get a tan!  I've always been interested in trying a spray tan so I figured that's a great time to try on.

Have a great week everyone! 

Motivated!

So what they had said about the Thirty-One conference was true!

• I got LOTS of free stuff! I counted up the value of it all, and it's over $400 worth! Awesome!
• There were a TON of women there! About 14,000 of them, believe it or not!
• After going, I am super motivated for my business. Wanna know how motivated? I had a thirty-one party the very next day at my house and sold over $1,000 for just that party! Then I had another party a couple days later and sold over $600! Sweet! 
• I've already booked some more shows, done some email things here to some customers, and in a couple weeks I plan on mailing out some new catalogs to get the buzz going on the new products and prints.   
• Being there was so exciting, and completely worth it! I am so glad that I decided to go, although I still don't like to fly.  Ah well. 

Seeing the salary scales that are possible with this company was so surreal.  There is a lady who made $943,000 in commission last year! Holy crap! This company is the definition of the pyramid idea, and as you make your way up, the people under you help you make even more money.  It's pretty great, if you ask me.  I couldn't be more excited about that, because I have two girls who want to sign up under me in the next week or so! I really hope they do, because when they do (and qualify with a certain amount of sales) I will start making 2% off of each of their sales, in addition to the 25% of my own sales that I already get.

 I just love this job!

27x27

I know a lot of bloggers do this, and I've always thought it'd be kinda cool to do.  So I'm doing it...

I'm hoping that I can get these things done by October 7th, which leaves me about 4 months.  I already have a few of them under way.  Wish me luck! :)

Yo

So let's see, what's new:

• School is out
• Summer School starts on Monday
• I have spent the past 2 weeks relaxing, doing a lot of 31 stuff, and sleeping in. It has been glorious.  I also got to spend some time with Baby Fin and also Kins and Parker! :)
•  It soooo flippin' hot outside! I'm a bit worried that if it's this hot in June, that we will all be melting by the time August rolls around.
• I am teaching 6th graders for the first part of the day for Summer School and then first and second graders for the second half of the day.  It will be interesting! And exhausting!
• I'm going to try and walk around the lake every day after school with two of my co-workers.  One loop around is around two miles, so I'm hoping that a lot of that will help me lose some weight! 
• Tomorrow is wine day with Chris and Erin!  The 4 of us are going to a couple wineries in Northern Virginia tomorrow all day!  We are bringing snacks along and we're making a whole day out of it.  I'm really excited about it.
• 31 has been going really well.  I did really well last month (I sold over $2100! Bam!) but of course there's always room for improvement.  In the next couple weeks I plan on reaching out to my neighbors with some mini catalogs and my business cards, starting some more catalog parties, talking to my summer school staff, and also trying to find some vendor events to do.
• I start my master's this Fall! OMG.  Ok, that's enough about that.  I don't want to think about it yet!

 Ok, well I know that was incredibly sporadic and random, but that's me for right now!

Enjoy the weather and have a great weekend! :)

I'm baaaacck

Wow, it's been a long time! Sorry about that.

A lot has happened...

1. 

I was in a really baddddd car accident.

 2. I got accepted into Grad School!  I will be starting my STEM master's program this Fall.

3. Thirty-One is officially my new favorite hobby. 

My flip flop bin! I know you're jealous :)

4. I have two SUPER stinkin' cute nephews...

 

Baby Finley

Baby Parker

5.  There are only 24 school days left.  The kids are driving me crazy, but still making me laugh...

This is supposed to be "toothache."  Ha!

6. I got a new car! Wooooo! I feel much safer in this car, now that I'm sitting up higher! I LOVE it! 

2010 Honda CR-V :)

Gotta go to bed...I'll chat more later :) Night!

Lots of Updating to do...

I'm a list lover, so let's make this post list-alicious :)

Bf Update:

• D and I are still doing well, living together.  However, this house is much too small for us.  We need our own office space.  If he scoots his chair back, he runs into me.  Hopefully the next place we move into will have more room for us.
• We're about to go to Puerto Rico tomorrow for a week! We're really excited.  I had to go to the Minute Clinic this morning and it turns out what I thought was just my usual allergies, is a sinus infection that I've had for a little while. Yuck! At least I have some meds to help me get over it, to take with me on our trip.

Thirty-One Update

• I LOVE this company!
• I am going to the national conference in Atlanta this Summer and I'm so excited about it! I'm a bit terrified of travelling by myself and sharing a room with 3 people that I have only communicated with online, but I'm still so excited!  I also think it's crazy that I'll be in Atlanta in August (holy hotness) but that's ok.
• I just earned two incentives! I earned the March incentive and also my Startswell for having 3 parties within my first thirty days as a consultant. 



This is what I got for the March incentive - I LOVE that giant rolling tote! Perfect for travel!



This is my startswell incentive that I got - skirt purse with fitted skirt, thread swatches, catalogs, and nail files.

School Update:

• Report cards are due the day after we get back from Spring Break! Ugh, whose idea was that?!  Well to make sure that I didn't have anything to stress about when I get back, I did them a week in advance.  It was a lot of work, but completely worth it!  I'm glad that's out of the way. 
• I can't believe that when I get back, it'll be 4th quarter already! This year has flown by!
• I got hired again for Summer School :) I'm excited, I love teaching in the Summer - more pay, less kids, and I'm done at 1pm! Sweet!
• So apparently not enough people have signed up for my Master's program, so they have moved the start date from this Summer to this Fall hoping that more people will sign up.  Either way, it looks like it's still a go.  I really hope so, because I'm really interested in this program and I really need to start my master's degree sooner than later.
• We just went on an awesome field trip to the Newseum in DC.  If you've never been before, you should definitely go! It's awesome.  I keep meaning to go back when I'm not chaperoning/teaching so I can actually focus more on the exhibits instead of the kids.

I am loving the weather lately! Flip flops are officially in full swing! Yessssss.

Anyways, have a great week! When I return, I'll have lots of pictures from Puerto Rico!

No wonder I love this new job!

Mini Zipper Pouch



All-In-One Organzier

I get to sell cute bags like these...and when I buy them it's great marketing for me, since everyone sees them and asks questions!

Score!

I'm using the top one as a pen holder for when I do 31 parties (I figured it would be good because then everyone is passing it around and admiring it!)

I'm thinking of using the pink one as a (cute and stylish) car trash can. 

:) 

I'm so excited -- my first Thirty-One party is tomorrow and I'm hosting it at my house.  This will be the first time we will have a lot of people over at once since we've moved in.  I LOVE hosting and having people over, so I'm excited I can finally do it!

Business Cards!

I took out my phone number for this picture, but on the real thing that is included.  Aren't they so cute?! I LOVE the pink and black, the polka dots, and just how Jessie they are! This is definitely my kind of business card!  I'm so excited for when they get here!

I even ordered a business card holder that is personalized as well!

Can you tell that I'm really excited?

I'm a 31 Consultant!

I just became an independent consultant for Thirty-One gifts!

I'm so excited!

I am in love with all of their products, and I'm already a frequent customer.  So now as a consultant I can sell them and make some extra money!

My kit just came today, and it makes me even more excited!

I even have a website!

http://www.mythirtyone.com/jstrunk/