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* UPDATED: I'm seriously considering becoming a demo BUT
to be honest, I'm nervous about the sales minimum. I want to start slow, I have a number of friends who are also into it but that's no guarantee of making any minimum. I'm wondering what others have done about this when they first started.
ANY advice or things you've learned would be TOTALLY appreciated.
I did do a search to see what people have said before but couldn't find exactly what I'm looking for, I hope it's ok that I started a new thread about this b/c I'm sure this has come up before.
TIA!
ETA: I DID IT!!!!!!!!!! I took the plunge and my upline will be here tomorrow so I can get my forms going. THANK YOU ALL for your kind words and advice. You'll certainly be hearing more from me in all my newbie glory!!! LOL
If you have a group of friends who would be buying, you can always do a stampers group - where they spend so much each month, and rotate as being hostess, it will help you meet your quarterly.
Try to think of it this way:
Stampin' Up!'s average workshop total is $350.00. So one workshop a quarter and you have your minimum. If you're goal is achieving the miniumum each quarter. You only have to do 4 workshops a year to reach your goal.
It's me, Mootsie/Susan!! :-) Glad to see you over here and you're asking a very valid question. I had the same concerns as you, and I started at the end of July. I had an Open House in August - I knew only one person who was into stamping, and she had another demonstrator. I had about 6 people and they bought about $500 worth of stuff!! Now of course, I added a lot to that since it was my first Hostess Order!! But it was $500 and that was easy.
I had a workshop and there were only 3 people here, but that was another $150.
Then I had my book of cards and a catalog sitting on my coffee table and one of my piano students' moms who had NEVER stamped, immediately wanted to make birth announcements for her granddaughter who was due to be born soon! She didn't even know what rubber stamps were - I had her stamp an easy card to see if she really liked it, and then she ordered $250 worth of stuff! And now she's planning her Christmas cards and she'll be ordering more very soon!!
All this to say that the products do really sell themselves. You're an awesome stamper and your love for stamping will be contagious. Newbies are the most fun for me - they get so excited about things and stamping creates such happiness!!
I haven't even had the kind of workshop yet when I go to someone's house. I'm planning a November workshop - this time I'll do two consecutive nights. I'm charging $12 for 4 projects.
I really don't think you'll have a hard time meeting your minimum! If you have ONE workshop per quarter, that should do it!! But I think you'll do more than that. I achieved my Stampin Start ($1500 in sales) by the end of September and my two free stamp sets (Everyday Flexible Phrases and Brushstroke double alphabet) are on their way to me!!
Hope this helps! Please feel free to write me privately:
Go for it!!!. It really isn't that difficult to make the minimum requirement. You could do a Hostess club like mentioned. What I do sometimes is a stamp camp in my home... I offer 10% off any orders placed at my stamp camps... It's an incentive for them to buy and I may not get a large instant income that day but I always make my quarterly minimum. January and February are awesome because it's SAB... For each $50 order you get a free stamp set. I've had customers spend $100 just so they could get 2 sets for free.... And your orders count too... As long as it's not for supplies. But demo orders and orders you place as a customer help as well and you get the 20% instant income ;o) Keep us posted on what you decide. If your friends are interested ask one to host a workshop for you.... they will have friends that you may not even know and you can go from there...
Blessings
Kristy
Hi there! First of all, do you realize that if you signed up right now, you wouldn't have to sell anything until the end of March???!! You see...SU wants you to have a complete quarter to meet your minimum, and our current quarter starts in Oct and ends in Dec, so you get another 3 months (the next quarter) to sell your minimum.
AND... there will be a big promotion in Jan/Feb which will help you easily get orders because the customers have a great incentive-free stamps!
AND...do you realize how easy it is to sell $300 in SU products? Think about what you have invested. It may mean getting a friends together every month or every other month to scrapbook, or make cards, or do projects for girl scouts, kids classrooms or whatever. You won't have a problem meeting the sales minimum if you love to stamp and aren't afraid to show people what you love to do, even if you don't do lots of workshops or any at all.
AND......we get an awesome monthly magazine with all kinds of ideas, techniques, contests where you can win 3 stamp sets, recognition, and sales tips. I look forward to going to my mailbox on the 15th more than any other magazine I get..then I take a bubble bath with my glass of wine and peruse.....
AND..... you can go to CONVENTION and be in a place with thousands of other SU enthusiasts swapping stamped stuff, learning stuff, sharing stuff. It's awesome.
AND......you can earn free stuff when you sell, you get a discount, you get access to the website with tons of ideas and helpful info, workshop wow's. And the starter kit has $340 worth of stuff for $195
AND......when you first sign up, you get some very cool and very doable incentives in your first few month to help get you going and help get extra product. I wish I could do that again!
AND....because of SU, I wouldn't have met the most wonderful people that I can't imagine not ever knowing......both customers-who are now friends and other demonstrators.
AND.....If you sign up under someone who is an active upline, they will most likely have fun meetings with their group and do activities like shoebox swaps, and other fun things to share and look forward to.
AND.....If you really like your current demonstrator, it may be that by your signing up-she gets to go on a cruise she has worked very hard for, or she may get a promotion, or she may earn a reward if there happens to be a recruiting promotion going on....so you may make someone who shares what she loves, very happy. And that's always a good feeling.
WOW! Count on you ladies to offer so much help so quickly!!! LOL And here I was just going to post and go to sleep!
THANK YOU!
Susan: What a riot to hear from you and your nice comments. And just the fact that you remember me made my day!
What's great is that my friends have been bugging me to do this for years and I just wouldn't. I haven't even told them yet, I can't wait for their reaction. I get SO much enjoyment from the craft and I know myself too well. I'm genuinely worried that if I get stressed, I will not enjoy it the same anymore. I really think I'm going to do it b/c DH is also very supportive. He says if I just break even and it's a way to get what I'd buy anyway at a discount, then it's worth it. Plus it's not a huge commitment and if in the end I decide it's not for me, it's not like I'm stuck with some odd product, like knives or cookware... I'll have all the things I already love... right???
Another question: If I place an order and buy stuff, does that also count towards the minimum. I'm thinking I'll still need more than what I already own plus what comes in the kit. For sure I'll need more full-sized pads & paper.
Thank you karingephart! I'm so grateful that you took the time to write that all to me. You're a great salesperson!!! And you provided a lot more info.
Let me ask yet another question...
If you don't happen to meet your minimum. What exactly happens? Are there penalties?
SU is huge...if you don't meet your minimum, they have their own enforcement section with divisions all over the country. Then when you're not home, they break into your house and reposses your starter kit and projects you made with it....
just kidding...actually if you don't meet the quota, you go into a pending status and they actually GIVE YOU ANOTHER MONTH to make up your shortage plus setll $100. I imagine if someone can't manage that, then there are just not really stamping period.....end of story...don't you?
My demonstrator just sent the contracts to me and I'm going to fill them out and return them this week. She's been after me for awhile to sign on because I spend a lot myself. I hostessed a party last Sunday and booked 3 parties before even getting the contracts, so here I go!!! I, too, am VERY nervous about doing it, but my uplink is VERY supportive, VERY nice, and promised she'd help me all the way. I live in rural Vermont, and it's hard to get together with a lot of people. I have just started scrapbooking, and a Creative Memories demonstrator I've met through a mutal friend is offering to have our two products "hook up"; kinda like one hand washing the other. Both companies have great products, and she's very open to us doing workshops together. This should open a new door for us both. I love to watch DIY Scrapbooking, which also showcases Stampin' Up! sometimes, so I'll get good ideas to share with everyone. I'm not an assertive person and am shy, so who knows how the party thing will go. Stamp camps, workshops, and open houses may be enough to help make the minimum for us. Like a previous writer said, at least we're not out anything as we're getting products WE can use in our starter kits. I wish you the best of luck and hope you, too, will sign on as a demonstrator. By the way, my demonstrator won an Alaskan cruise last spring!!! And she's only been doing this for a few years. WE CAN DO IT! :lol:
* UPDATED: I'm seriously considering becoming a demo BUT
