Party Time

April is a great time for house parties. The month is the official start to the new season. It’s when people do spring cleaning – especially in their kids’ closets. It’s the time to retire the stained, ripped and outgrown clothes from the winter to make way for new ones. There are end of the year teacher gifts to purchase, mothers to shop for in preparation for their upcoming day of honor and camp trunks to start packing. In other words, it’s shopping season!

We like to think of LikeWear as not your typical direct sales company as we differ in many ways from most of the companies in the industry. However, there is one very important concept that all direct sales companies share: house parties. The more sales events that a rep has/attends, the bigger their network becomes and the greater the potential for more sales events, more parties and more sales, etc., etc, etc.

In fact, so many LikeWear independent sales reps are hosting or organizing house parties this month that I thought it was important to reiterate our Hostess Rewards Program and guidelines in this week’s Monday Morning Message, excerpted below:

LikeWear funds the Hostess Program for Catalog reps. We do not provide hostess benefits for Cash & Carry sales events (due to their higher discounted “wholesale” price), however, we strongly recommend that C&C reps follow these same guidelines.

House parties are a primary way to grow your business and you want to encourage people (friends, relatives, neighbors, customers, etc.) to want to host them for you. When people host sales events for you, they are doing you a huge favor and helping you to promote your business and generate sales. As such, they deserve something special for their efforts! Everyone likes to get discounts and credits on their purchases – even if they are your sister or your best friend!! In fact, you should explain what a hostess earns to any interested customers (or even with a flyer or table display card) in an effort to line up additional home sales events. The more sales events you have/attend, the bigger your network becomes and the greater your potential for more sales events, more parties and more sales, etc., etc.

The LikeWear Hostess Rewards Program is :

• One half-priced item – party hostesses are entitled to one half-priced item as a “thank you” gift (this should be the most expensive item that the hostess is purchasing that day)
o This discount is applied to full price items only
• Hostess Credit - $5 credit for every $100 spent at the party
o This is calculated once the party is over and all sales for the event have been totaled (i.e., a sales event that generates $1,238.00 will earn the host/hostess a $60 credit)
o Purchases made by the hostess do not count toward total party sales
o This credit is to be used towards the hostess’ purchases that day (this credit is not transferrable nor can it be held over and used towards a future purchase)
o This credit cannot be applied to their half-priced item
• Free Shipping on all hostess orders (we waive the $3 flat rate house party shipping fee)
• Exclusive Access to Sales, Specials and Discounts – although we have not implemented this part yet, we fully intend to in the near future!

As mentioned, the hostess credit and half-priced item are funded by LikeWear if you are a Catalog rep. It is very important to properly note the house party identifier on all orders originating from the same party so that we can calculate total party sales (and the accompanying hostess credit) properly. Similarly, please make sure to indicate which order from the party is that of your hostess so that we can also apply the half-priced item discount as well as the earned hostess credit.

As a Cash & Carry rep, the hostess credit and half-priced item are funded by you and should be treated as a cost of doing business – a very important and worthwhile cost. Keep in mind that as a Cash & Carry rep, these hostess rewards are just guidelines. You are permitted to alter them as you wish but know that the above is what we recommend.

In concluding this Monday Morning Message, remember: the more hostesses you have, the more rewarding your business will be! Don’t forget to mention the Hostess Rewards Program during any sales events you have – your best potential host is a happy current customer!!!

I Like Big Butts

As a parent it is so rewarding to teach your children something new. But, it’s even cooler when they figure things out for themselves.

My son, Ryan, has always been big for his age – especially big given that he is one of the youngest in his grade. From the time he was 18 months old, his height and weight measurements were off the percentile charts. At doctor’s appointments his stats were delivered to me as if/then statements – “He’s now 18 months, but if he was a 2 yr. old he’d already be in the 75th percentile”. He was like a bull in a china shop no matter where we went. He was in constant motion – constantly. I lost my baby weight in record time and was always glowing (okay, in a full body sweat) as I tried to keep up with him. Add to that, the fact that I come from a large family that is comprised of lots of girls, and it’s not hard to see why none of us seemed to know what to do with a boy – especially one that was a whirlybird of energy like Ryan. I have often described my mother’s interaction with him as akin to someone who is clearly not a “dog person” trying to play with a Saint Bernard. One of my favorite quotes is from my grandfather as he watched a then 2 year old Ryan at our Passover seder. “What’s wrong with the boy?” he asked with what can only be described as a mix of confusion and horror.

As Ryan grew I found that most of what I said to him started with the word “no”. “No Ryan, that’s fragile. No Ryan, don’t push your sisters. No Ryan, stop splashing in the mud. No Ryan, don’t throw that ball in the house. No Ryan, I definitely do not enjoy being smacked from behind when I’m not ready for it.” I was worried about what all this negativity would do to his self-esteem.

Instinctively I knew that I just had to channel his “spirit” in a positive way – ya know, put all that energy to good use. I was so excited when he could finally be involved in organized sports. As soon as he was old enough, I quickly signed him up for the 2 most popular sports in town – soccer and baseball. He hated them both. He practiced, he played in the games, but he didn’t enjoy it – at all. He’d run after the soccer ball and wind up barreling into other players (some of which were his own teammates!) knocking them down like pins in a bowling alley. On the baseball field he could make good contact while up at bat, but he was a slow runner. And the speed of play for baseball in 2nd grade was equally pathetic. He didn’t care that these were the sports most of his friends were playing. Soccer and baseball were not for him - he just wasn’t interested. Okay, I thought, so he’s just not going to be a sports kind of kid.

Then Ryan started to play football and his world changed. Now his size, energy and aggression were attributes! His face lit up the first time he tackled someone to the ground and received not only a “way to go” from his coach but also a clap on the back for it! Knocking people over, not being afraid to get dirty, and having a tough enough butt to withstand the knocks (literally) of playing the position of center… that’s what it took to play football – it was the perfect sport for him!

Then spring came and lacrosse was a similar eye-opener - less pads than football but fast physical game play. And his body was made for defense. In fact, Ryan has perfected a move that we have named the “butt hole”. When a lacrosse ball is on the ground, often there is a swarm of players all trying to pick it up with their sticks. Most players shove head first into the fray. Not my son. Ryan likes to back up into this type of gathering . He leads with his butt – shoving and bumping players aside – essentially creating a hole in the crowd by using his rear end to clear the way for him to pick up the ball. And it’s effective!

It’s what every parent hopes and dreams of– that their children can try and try again until they are able to take his/her own unique personality and physical traits and use them to a successful advantage. We’ve been commenting on (okay, and sometimes poking fun of ) Ryan’s broad build his whole life. Who was to know his big strong butt would be the thing to perhaps lead him to greatness someday?!?!

Monday Morning Meeting

Okay I admit it. I hate Monday mornings. It’s when “my list” is longest and sometimes I just don’t know where to begin. That said, I usually try to wake up a little earlier on Mondays so that I can have a half hour of quiet time (while even Ken is sleeping!) to organize my thoughts, make a game plan for the week and try to get motivated!

During this morning’s solitude I was thinking about the fact that I speak to 5-10 of our independent sales reps each day to discuss various topics – table set up techniques, sales tax rules, hostess benefits, boutique store sales tactics and strategies, vendor event sales and website ordering, just to name a few. Over the past week or so, each time I hung up the phone from one of these conversations (or completed an email exchange) I thought how much all of our sales reps could benefit from what had been discussed. So with that in mind, I’ve decided to start a Monday Morning Message. Each Monday morning I plan to offer a brief tip, suggestion or helpful comment that will hopefully help our reps to organize, promote and advance their business.

The first Monday Morning Message:

Consider inviting another vendor (or a few) with non-competitive products to attend/help coordinate a party. There are entrepreneurial moms in every community. Whether they are selling jewelry, stationery, handbags, cosmetics or women’s apparel (just to name a few) they will likely have a customer base that differs from yours. In that way, you’ll all benefit from a more varied and (numerous!) invitee list which will hopefully translate to a better attended event – and more sales! You should give a brief description in your invitation as to what each of the vendors will be selling. Just think, someone who comes to the party looking for a handbag may just not be able to resist your LikeWear clothes!! You’ll likely find too that these vendors will in turn invite you to some of their future events as well.

I hope (and will encourage) our reps to reply to the Monday Morning Messages with any comments, feedback or personal suggestions they may have on that day’s topic or anything else they would like to add. I’m hopeful that this will help to foster a greater sense of unity. Most of our reps don’t know one another but we are all part of the same team – if we all succeed on an individual basis, it makes the company stronger as a whole. To that end:

"The greater the loyalty of a group toward the group, the greater is the motivation among the members to achieve the goals of the group, and the greater the probability that the group will achieve its goals." --Rensis Likert

Giving Birth Again

It has evolved and developed over the past few months. So many have awaited its arrival. It is a composite of blood sweat and tears - a piece of me and a piece of Ken. We even had what seemed like Braxton Hicks contractions over the past few weeks – ya know like a false start that faked everyone out. I am talking about the release of our Collection 5 Spring/Summer ’09 catalog!

Well, to be more accurate, it’s actually in “sell sheets” format – a layout, if you will, from which the official catalog will be printed. We’ve released it to our independent sales rep force for their use to sell-in the line to boutique retail stores and to generate some buzz (and even pre-orders) from customers. The additional sets of eyes (besides just Ken and I’s!) have proven to be helpful in catching any typos or errors before the official catalog is printed. Amazingly, you can get a little fuzzy on the details when you’re doing this kind of work at 3am!!

This is the 5th time we’ve done this - catalogs anyway (I’m not including the birth of our 3 children in this count!) - and I must say it does not get any easier. Given that neither Ken nor I have any real background in catalog production, we’ve both certainly learned a tremendous amount (and if I do say so myself, improved the final result an even more tremendous amount) since Collection 1. That said, there are so many bumps along the way… blurry photography – go back and reshoot, too many pink tank tops – go back and redesign, not enough options for boys – research and find new blank garments (and ones that meet all our strict criteria!), licensors have changes to the creative – rework designs, resubmit and “re-wait” for approval. The entire process is 2 steps forward, 5 steps back. It is so difficult not to lose your footing along the way. Especially when there are so many other things to work on simultaneously… web site construction and launch, new Consumer Product Safety Commission guidelines that directly impact our business, implementing a new accounting program, updating and modifying our GuideBook, staying in touch and motivating our sales force, attracting new independent sales representatives, etc. But, all those other things really mean nothing if there is no product to show and sell, so completion of the catalog had to resurface as our top priority.

We’ve now entered the post birth groggy phase where all you can do is stare in awe with bleary, exhausted love-struck eyes at what has been created. A little dramatic? Perhaps. But it’s hard for us not to be excited about LikeWear’s Collection 5. You can download a copy of it here. It’ll also be up on the website soon. Oh yeah, and please let us know if you find any typos!

Great Quotes

The time to relax is when you don't have time for it.
~Attributed to both Jim Goodwin and Sydney J. Harris

A "Site" To Behold

I’m incredibly proud (and often awestruck) that we’ve been able to say we are going to make things happen and then watch those said things actually become a reality. Like finding a bookkeeper, deciding on a company to manufacture private labels and another to sew them in, reconfiguring our warehouse space, obtaining new licensors, advertising for and adding to our independent representative sales force, designing and producing new creative concepts, art files and heat transfer images etc., etc. All of these accomplishments are the result of hard work, deep concentration, intense strategizing, a fair amount of stress and more than a few arguments!

Our most recent milestone has been the launch of our revised website. The new site not only has e-commerce functionality (which it did not have before), but it also allows for personalized “web stores” for each of our reps. Aside from a minor advisory role, I must say that I had very little to do with the website’s creation. The whole enchilada was a “Ken thing”. He worked tirelessly (okay that’s not completely true given that most of the website work occurred between 1 and 3am) to ensure that it would all be in place and ready in time for the upcoming season.

I mentioned that I had very little to do with the site’s actual construction, but I must also confess that I did not allow myself to get too excited about the whole website thing because I just couldn’t fathom how we were going to get everything in place and running within the timeframe we had hoped. I am so excited (okay beaming a bit) to be able to finally have this very timely and important selling and advertising method in place. I think it will exponentially increase the income potential of our reps and hopefully enable us to be found by what I hope are a jazillion online shoppers through web and google-type searches.

And, perhaps most relevant to what I’m doing literally right now, we have changed hosts and moved “Blog What You Like” to www.likewear.com/blog. Just like blogspot (former host), there is a way to subscribe to the feed (if you so desire). Not that there was anything wrong with blogspot… we just needed to keep everything under one roof - so to speak.

With all that said, we will continue to set goals. A part of me knows that we can’t always make it all happen (despite all of our best efforts) and even if we do make it happen it won’t always be on time. I also know that Ken and I have set our bar pretty high. We like that high bar – it keeps us moving forward. We just have to remember to keep looking back at the same time to be aware and proud of the work that has already been done. At the moment, it’s marveling at www.likewear.com - shop on.

Curing What Ails You

There are few things worse than the 4am wake-up call of a vomiting 5 year old. Their glassy, sad, scared eyes as they cling helplessly to the rim of the toilet bowl are enough to bring me to tears. I feel instant “sympathy nausea” which I always overanalyze – “ooh, I don’t feel so good myself”, I think as I’m holding back hair and administering a soothing back rub. Truth be told, the worst part I admit selfishly, is the middle of the night linen changes, towel washings and carpet blotting.

Well, that’s how I started my day this past Saturday – ya know, the one day of the week I actually have the opportunity to sleep in until 7:45am. But, what’s another night with less than 5 hours of sleep? The ironic thing is that all week long I was looking forward to today - what I was calling “the afternoon of me”. I desperately needed some relaxation time. My husband, recognizing I was on the brink, was kind enough to offer to drive my older daughter to her camp reunion an hour away. And, he was going to bring my son and other daughter with him to kill 3 hours at the nearby supermall before picking my daughter back up (oh yeah, and 3 of her friends that he was also carpooling. You see, I was desperately in need of a little R & R – and I’m not talking about rock ‘n roll. There’s so much “rocking” around here lately as we prepare for “rolling” out our Spring/Summer line that I needed the kind of down time that involves just me, myself and I (okay and maybe my manicurist!).

But, Lily’s early morning projectile party (sorry, too much detail, I know) changed all that. So, there I sat, all day long, trying to focus on relaxing while I was snuggling (not too closely mind you) and watching what felt like a Suite Life of Zach and Cody marathon! Never before did I think I would utter these words: damn those DVRs!

I didn’t get my nails done. I didn’t catch up on my very behind photo organizing. I did no laundry. I did no shopping. I didn’t check e-mail. I didn’t even walk the dog. I spent the day on the couch with my ill 5 year old who didn’t feel like eating, speaking or even sitting up. But, we were there for each other. I comforted her while she wasn’t feeling her best and she showed me that sometimes the best way to recharge your battery and get a little R&R is to do nothing at all with the ones you love most of all.