A Chance to win Rosetta Stone level 1 of your choice!!!!!!!

Now is the perfect time to give your child the gift of possibilities for the holidays with Rosetta Stone Homeschool — and you can WIN a Level 1 Homeschool program, language of your choice (valued at $249)!

Right now Rosetta Stone is having a special Holiday promotion on our Homeschool Edition program and we’d like you to help spread the word! Everyone can save up to $150 on Rosetta Stone Homeschool by visiting our website at http://www.RosettaStone.com/hsw1110.

By helping us spread the word you can win a Rosetta Stone Homeschool Edition Level 1 program, language of your choice, valued at $249.

This is a computer based curriculum and Rosetta Stone will also include a headset with microphone, and a supplementary “Audio Companion” CD so you can practice lessons in the car, on the go, or where-ever!

Students participate in life-like conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone incorporates listening, reading, grammar, vocabulary and writing along with speaking and pronunciation lessons. For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program to allow parents to easily enroll up to ten students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, grade completed work (the program grades the work automatically as the students progress), and you can view and print reports for transcripts. Homeschooling a lot of kids at your house? This program is designed to enroll and track up to ten students (five users on two computers) and will work for nearly all ages — from beginning readers up to college students.

To win this program, copy these paragraphs and post them in (or as) your next blog post, and/OR post about this contest on your facebook page. Then go to the original page at

http://www.othersuchhappenings.com/2010/12/rosetta-stone-giveaway-yay.html and leave a comment saying that you’ve posted about, or have linked to, the contest. Please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post, and good luck!

Veering off topic for a very good reason!

Baby Cheapskate is giving away 12 BumGenius diapers!!!! You know I want to win those!I love my 1.o and my 2.o dipes, but I have yet to try the 3.os. Oh, how I want to win this giveaway! Ends August 6.

Win a great prize!

Win the Essential Babywearing Stash from Along for the Ride (one Beco Butterfly, one Hotsling baby pouch, one BabyHawk Mei Tai, one Zolowear Ring Sling, and one Gypsy Mama Wrap)

Isn't that amazing?! Five baby carriers of your choice of style! I've been wanting to get a Mei Tai for some time, and I hope to win this one!

Solution #1 Don't do things by the book!

Many MLM companies have a set of things to do and say and dream and believe. However, 95% of the people involved fail. That is not a good track record. If I want to succeed, I need to do something different.

I am working on a couple of different strategies and I will blog them as they play out. First, I am studying a system of marketing that real companies that actually make money use. I will study, learn and apply those techniques. Harassing friends and family is not a winning technique, and that is not the one I want to follow. There are, however, friends and family that I really want to bring this opportunity to because I know they will benefit from it and they deserve a good life.

One of the strategies that I am currently looking at and would like to share with others, regardless of the business you are in, is generating leads that are LOOKING for what you have to offer. Using a marketing company to make ads for you and send them out for you is a smart business tool. Aligning with a company that will not only help you find genuine leads, but will also help you sell your business by showing prospects that they, too, will not have to force themselves on friends and family and can still succeed is a very smart business move. I am checking the validity of a company right now.

Problem #2 Selling your product

One of the problems with home business is selling your product.

A couple of popular businesses sell vitamins and weight loss products, either exclusively or mainly. Yes, a lot of people do use vitamins, but why do they want to buy from you? Are they the best? Are they priced right? What if you find that most people you know don't take them, and are not interested in it? You have to convince them to try yours. You have to convince them that they are better off paying for a higher priced product that they may not even want.

I want to sell a product that everyone already uses at a price that is at least the same or less than they are already paying. I really am not going to buy a pack of vitamins that cost $75 a month, even if they are better quality, because I can pay $15 at the store. If I even take them.

OK, so everyone cleans, right? Well, we hope so! However, not many people can be convinced to spend $8 on a bottle of cleaner that they can get at the dollar store for $1. Even organic supplies are more expensive than making your own from vinegar and baking soda.

Make-up? Well, it is certainly cheaper in the store, even for good quality make-up.

The next problem is that you want repeat customers, you don't want a one time sale or you have to keep searching for customers to make money.

What do products do people use every day that they will not go without that has a monthly cost? Wouldn't that be ideal? To have a monthly bill that you get paid a commission on with a contract? How about that contract being with a different company but they pay you while they take care of the billing, collecting, and problems?

That is what I am doing. I don't want to have to convince people that they need something that they may not want. They already have a cell phone, they are already paying for TV channels, long distance, etc. It is just a matter of when they renew their cell phone contract they go through my website and then on to the company that furnishes the contract, and I get a commission for the life of the contract. It is the same prices as if they didn't go through me. I hope my friends and family would rather let me have the commission that give it to Wally World or Radio Shak. People are paying for TV already, so using Dish to help us is an easy adjustment. What I love about our company is that you are approved without the large down payment Dish sometimes charges.

Why would all the cell phone companies and Dish Network want to put their products in a MLM company? Well, it is a legitimate company with LOYAL customers. If you are getting paid to use their products, you are not going to switch. The retention rates with our company are 90% after 5 years while retention rates with Wally World are only 48% after 2 years. We make better customers for these companies.

Pick your products wisely when starting your home business.

Problem #1 Friends and Family

OK, so you have a business that you believe in, and you want to share it with those you love the most. What happens when you do that? Well, you find out who your friends are. Your friends are not measured by whether or not they join your business or if they buy your products, they are measured by how they treat you.
Here is our experience in a nut shell.
We call a few people to show them what we are doing, this person, that couple gladly listen to us. Some respond positively, some are hesitant, but glad we like it. Then there is another couple, one that we thought we were close to. He is looking for a business to bring him home from a job. He has tried many business ventures, even. Here is something that he would be great at, something he is looking for, but when we ask him to see it he blows us off. Then suggests it is Amway, when we say it isn't, he says we are probably in Quixtar and don't KNOW that it is Amway. Nope, it is not Amway in any way, shape or form. Still, not going to talk to us, even stops talking to us pretty much knowing NOTHING about what we are doing.
The reason this is so hurtful is not that he isn't going to get in or even purchase from us, but that he doesn't trust us. We are not trustworthy enough to just look at it. What harm would that do? We wouldn't harass him to join, we wouldn't drop him because he didn't join, however, he doesn't trust us. Obviously we are also too stupid to even know that we are in Amway under a different name, even though we are IN it, and he has never heard of it.
Now we are hurting personally, and I have no idea how to continue a friendship that never really was.

There are a few ways to avoid this scenario.
Don't:

1. Say you want to "Show" them something
2. Say you want to "share" something with them
3. Say that you have exactly what they are looking for

Do:

1. Ask them to do you a favor as a friend and just listen to something
2. Ask them to listen and give you their opinion on something
3. Convey excitement, but don't be too excited.

A balance needs to be found somewhere between feeling like you need to bring your friends and family along and destroying relationships forever.

The Beginning

This blog is here to chronicle our journey from in-debt, close to jobless to being able to support our family with our home business.

We have done plenty of things in the past: Tupperware (manager, even), Avon, even Quixtar. The tough parts were always convincing people they needed things that they could get elsewhere, get cheaper, or just didn't need, or want. At least with Tupperware and Avon your family and friends don't start hiding from you or treating you like you have leprosy. Selling a business to people gets even more sticky.



So, why am I doing it again? This time is different. Very different. We have motivation. We have need. We have a product everyone IS using, so there is no convincing. And we believe in this business whole-heartedly. It is exciting!

I'd love to show you are products and also offer you the same, exciting opportunity we have been given. In this time of recession, it is the perfect opportunity to start a business.
Check out the May 2008 issue of Inc. magazine.

The perfect time, a recession, with the perfect products, things everyone buys already, with the perfect reason, Donnie soon to be out of a job; all combine to make this a perfect opportunity for us!

There are still heart-aches and struggles. Fears to overcome. We are well on our way to an exciting life! This blog will be where I post the problems, the successes, the fun, and the best resources and things to know about marketing and owning a home business.