Time to get serious about the Holidays

Boy oh boy sometimes I can be one of the biggest procrastinators around. Well, it's not always that I'm a procrasitnator but more of a time issue. I tend to get way more ideas than I do have time to accomplish them. But, if I want to get in on the holiday shopping I better get myself moving! Gotta love blogs ... they tend to help keep you accountable when they leave the mind and go into print.

For my DS companies http://www.HandmadeFriend.com and http://www.EasyBakeGreetings.com I'm planning on offering a combo price. I'm thinking for offline I'd like to create a catalog of my own that shows all my "friends" I have available and also all of the Christmas cakes we have. Then an order form where they pick a friend and a cake for one price. Then handle everything just as I would a catalog show. I figure if I do it this way I can also save big time on shipping and handling cost and be able to pass that onto my customers. Doing this I will be able to offer a really nice deal. The only only thing I'll have to work on with this is all the accessories we have available. I think with these I'll just offer them as add ons. The main I idea I have is to make ordering as simple as possible. With the idea of "Quick Christmas Presents" in mind.

I'm also thinking with the cakes I can market on the "something more than just a card". Know what I mean? Market on the idea that these are great inexpensive gifts for the people that you need/want more than just a card. Example, mail carries, beauticians, teachers etc.

Now, doing this all online?? This I haven't figured out how to make it work. I mean don't get me wrong, I can do it ... I just won't be able to save on shipping and handling prices and of course making it a bit more expensive for online orders. This I'll have to put a bit more thought into...

But, I do want to mention that gift packages, combos ect are a great way to market for the holidays. I highly recommend taking a few of your best sellers and combine them into package deals. Saves the customers money and remember sometimes it's better to take a small cut per item to win big time in the long run.

Let's see what else do I need to do soon. Keep in mind I'm going on vacation from November 17th through the 28th (Going to Florida - YAY!) So, I really need to get things in place now.

I need to finish up The Ultimate Direct Sales Guide. I am just so excited to see the finished product of this! I'm still waiting for some info from some advertisers. I already have an over-abundance of distributors which I think this is going to be the Perfect time to hand these out! There's going to be so many more shoppers out this time of year. (Acutally, don't tell hubby but have so many distributors that I've gone over-budget here ... This project is going to cost me money! LOL! But, that's okay, I feel this is going to be a premise for future editions and I'll have a great idea of exactly what everything's going to cost. I had to kind of guess when setting my pricing.) Thanks to some very smart advertisers I'm also going to the pdf version of the guide. Some plan to print it out themselves to hand out and some plan to offer a downloadable version on their websites, in the ezines/newsletters etc. I'm so thrilled to see how receptive everyone has been to this and the distribution is going to be phenomenal! Here's to future editions through 100!!

I've decided this year has been a great year for all of my online efforts and truly have all my visitors, clients, customers etc to thank for that so I thought this year I'd like to give a little something back. But, I want to give something "real". Not too give away too much until it's time but I see a lot of work at home moms wearing Wahm Bands before the end of this year ;-)

Oh, and Kara and I have been working up a little plan for the VERY near future especially for our faithful subscribers of Direct Sales News from http://www.DirectSalesHelpers.com. You know, and this is just my outlook and opinion, but the subscribers to that newsletter are really serious about their business. Not that others aren't but, I've found that our subscribers to that list have been the most responsive that I've ever seen! Seriously, we have about 500 subscribers to that newsletter and we have almost 900 subscribers to Mommy's Helper's - Mom's Market Ezine. We receive probably double the response from our DS newsletter vs. the other. These folks deserve something extra special for their job well done ;-)

I have one other project that I can't wait to get finished but there's no real time-restraints on that one so I can let it simmer for a little bit longer. I'm excited to get it finished but ... could someone please invent the 48 hour day for me?? PLEASE!

So, what's your holiday plans??