Party Plan stole my wife
I always worry when my wife gets invited to a home party plan. How much can the credit card bear? Will we have room for all the new [insert product here]? And, don't we already have enough of [insert product here]? are questions that quickly flood the mind.
But the biggest question, and fear, is only answered when she walks through the door and confidently tells me "I've booked a party here next Tuesday." Oh, brother! What makes it even scarier is the night before you held her in your arms as she wept openly about her lack of significance in this world. Like party plan is going to help you become significant?
Don't get me wrong. I'm not against party plan sales per se. I don't mind at all if other women want to spend their evenings out, making endless phone calls to a woman called "Wilma" (who's a Pearl direct and drives her own [insert product here] car) or buy [insert product here] ad nauseum. So long as it's not MY wife!
I can hear all the women libbers getting stirred up now but it's not an issue of equal opportunity - I wouldn't want to do party plan either. There are copious opportunities available for stay-at-home mums. I've even mentioned a few on this blog. So why party plan?
It's okay, I've settled down from my rant now.
Setting off into the wild frontier of party plan is like any other business and while you're obviously infatuated with the rewards it may be a good time to consider the costs.
Firstly, before you consider getting too involved in a party plan concept review the Don't start a home business without answering these 7 questions checklist. Most people fail in party plan because they see the dollars and rewards scheme without calculating the costs involved.
When you look at a home party plan idea try and be objective. Ask yourself these questions;
- How long will it take to achieve my dreams?
- How much time do I need to give to this to realistically achieve them?
- Can my family sustain all this extra activity?
- What investment of money is required (this will include filling the car with fuel on a regular basis, buying product samples and all the training videos etc)?
- When am I likely to begin to recoup these costs?
Secondly, think through the product line itself. You may have fallen in love with these items but are they something that will sell and sell easily? Are you likely to go night after night without seeing any purchases? Many product lines that are sold through party plan are also highly reliant on a good economy. If the national current account deficit heads south it's more likely that your sales will follow.
Finally, if you're really serious about joining a party plan, find one that you enjoy. If the product is good and other women at the party liked them enough to consider parting with their cash (or at least swiping their Visa) then the only thing left is to make sure you like the way the party plan company works.
If there is issues about the concept that bug you from the start they are unlikely to be rectified unless you have some control over it. If it's 'Company Policy' then it maybe easier to 'cast a mountain into the sea'.
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