Saturday

I practiced the answering machine message scripts today while I was cleaning up some areas of the house that needed some MAJOR attention. Unfortunately, I did not get to spend as much time as I would have hoped actually making calls. I got started, got through three calls (two of which actually answered...). Then I managed to lose my balance while I was reaching down to get a toy for my son (I forget my balance is a little off as I get bigger). Well, anyway, to make a long story short, my foot's not broken and I think the swelling is down now to where I can wear shoes again...but that ended my calls for today. I did make a video of my script used for when I call business opportunity leads. Please check it out by clicking here or going to my participants page. There will be more videos from when I leave messages with the businesses and personal contacts that I have.

As for the two that answered, one of them said "I have put my search on hold for while," after I told her why I was calling. I said "okay, but do you mind if I ask why?" and she hung up. So I guess she did. The second one was much better. He said he wasn't sure how he was suddenly getting all this information about home based businesses (my lead source is not exclusive) because he doesn't remember requesting it. I asked, "would you be interested in hearing some information that could show you how to earn money simply by buying groceries, gasoline and anything you would need to buy anyway?" He said he thought so, but when I started in on the script, he said it wasn't a good time to talk. I gave him my url (which is www.earnrebatesandmore.com, in case you haven't watch the video yet) over the phone to let him know where he could find out more information and set up a time to talk to him on Tuesday.
So the day was not a total lost....I will have to start earlier tomorrow...

Follow up with Answering Machines

For those of you who missed the evening call (which is mostly everyone), Ginny spent some time helping me with spicing up the messages that I leave on answering machines to see if I get a better response. (By better, I mean any response at all). I am actually looking forward to calling people over the weekend to see if I can get some results. I would like to try to call everyone at least once this weekend (especially those I didn't get to call yet this week). I know that's alot and probably a lofty goal, but I need to keep working to meet my goals. (considering I have 70+ contacts)

I want to practice them some tonight and then I will share them with you in video format tomorrow.

I also made it to a gas station today, but did not really get the opportunity to talk to the owner/manager. The clerk took my card but was anxious about giving me someone else's information on their behalf without talking to them first, so I will have to follow up later.

-Happy Friday to everyone!
-Sandy W

I am realizing that as the week drags on it gets harder for me to find the energy to complete what I need to do each day...It's not just MPM related. Everyone has been so helpful and encouraging..I know it keeps me going.

Well, my plan to get to some gas stations today did not work out. I did have to get gas, but overslept and did not have time on the way to work to do more than top off the tank. We had a new employee starting today, so I had to make sure I was there to unlock the door and get him started. (There are now two people working at my office, including myself).

I really want to try talking to businesses in person, now that I have sent them letters and talked to them on the phone. So tomorrow...I have my business cards ready.

I am still trying to find different ways to develop relationships with people. I know that there is no room for excuses, but it's difficult to get out with a little one, not to mention a really tight budget right now. Mainly I have been using the USPS and phone calls to make contacts, as well as attempting to talk to people that I meet. I am interested in the social networking aspects. Don't worry, I'm not planning on building my business "hiding behind the internet" blasting ads on websites. But I do want to learn how to use social networking sites to help me develop relationships. I think up until now I have made it too complicated. I am also interested in local groups. So I have joined the triangemom2mom.com forum. I have been reading other's blogs and have been making comments on their blogs as way to meet some of the other members of the forum.

I also joined a meet up group tonight at meetup.com and am going to try to make it to their meeting in February. It's a group of people who work for non-profits. I made sure to include the "Together We Can Change The World, Inc" in my profile.

That's about all I can muster for today's blog. Here's to a good night sleep and a refreshed tomorrow!

-Sandy W

Wednesday-

Today was much better. Not in the volume of calls that I was able to complete, but in the quality. I talked to two business owners that seemed much more open to the Business Partnership Program than those that I had spoken to last week. Discussing the other benefits to the program in addition to advertising seemed to help me get a better response than "I'm not looking to expand my advertising". Instead, I got a "I haven't seen your letter, but please email me the information". It's amazing no one pays attention to their regular mail anymore.

I printed out some business cards tonight and am going to try to stop by some gas stations or other businesses tomorrow. I do need to get gas... the light is almost on...

--Sandy W.

My Follow-up/Contact Tracking System

I don't have an autoresponder (I'm trying to keep my out-of-pocket costs to a minimum), and I know that they are worth their weight in gold, but for right now, I had been keeping track of all my contacts in an excel worksheet. I put the date that I met them, the date that I emailed them, and date of any follow up calls (and what the result was).

This weekend, I made sure that they were all added into my email contact list AND I made "mailing lists" and made sure each contact was included in at least one mailing list. For example, all of my business contacts emails went on one list in my yahoo contacts while the ones that I met "on the street" were in another and the leads were in yet another. Those contacts that had asked to be removed from my list were deleted from my yahoo email contacts. (They were still in my excel sheet I just "hid" to row so I would not call them by accident).

I also made a list of of all my contacts that I needed to call/email on a weekly basis to follow up with. I highlighted portions of the list a different color for each day of the week. They are listed in order of most important to least important. Once I call them, I remove the highlight and make sure that the call result's are recorded in my original excel file. If for some reason I did not get to call them that day, I simply change the color of the highlight to the next day and readjust so I can still fit all my calls in for the week. This is the new system I am trying out this week. So far, it's worked okay....although my follow up list is so large it is difficult to squeeze everyone into a week's timeframe. It doesn't help that I'm not getting breaks at my job either to squeeze MPM into.

I did get to make a few calls today (resulting in answering machines) and made sure everyone on the list "to email for the week" had been taken care of. I did have some reply to emails that they were no longer interested and asked to be removed from my list.

I'm hoping tomorrow to see better results with my follow up calls. It's difficult to force myself to make the calls when I only talk to machines or get negative responses. Everyone has been very supportive and helpful, so I know that's why I keep going!

--Sandy W.

Refreshed for a New Week

I spent quite a bit of time this weekend going through my contact list and removing those who had asked to be removed and making an email list for those who are left. I realized it had been a while since I had followed up with some of them...it's easy for a contact or two to get lost in the mess of all the others. I feel like I'm organized now and have split them up so I can call them all within a week and hopefully get them on a weekly schedule. I only got to about 1/2 on the day's list today (it was a busy day) and was not able to call anyone from my breaks at work so that means I was not able to talk to any additional businesses today (because I really didn't get one today...I felt like I was on one conference call to the next. I used up my entire cell phone battery on conference calls...)

I did get a chance to call few and leave some more messages. I have a good tracking system so I think I will be able to make up those that I didn't get today later this week. I have another set of business letters ready to go out...

Talk to everyone tomorrow...

--Sandy W

Another Week!

I'll be honest to say that I'm glad its Friday. I'm exhausted and it's only 10 o'clock.

I also have to admit that I am starting to feel a little more comfortable when I talk with the businesses that I am sending letters to. I called 15 of the 20 I wanted to reach today. I still left quite a few messages, but I did get to talk to a few business owners. Some of them had not received the letter yet. Except for the first call I did (where I politely told them I'd call them back in a few days once they had looked at it), I asked them if they had a few minutes I could explain a little bit about the program so they would know what to look for. I then explained about the advertising opportunity on the local merchant mall for all of the members of the My Power Mall Community. I also stated that there were lots of other benefits of the program that were explained in the letter. Most of the responses I got were that they were not sure they were looking to increase their advertising, but they would take a look at it. I think on Monday (when I follow up the 5 I missed today and the 10 letters that went in the mail today), I will also make sure to emphasize that there are up to $600 in rebates (in gas and groceries), a chance to raise funds for the charity of their choice and a chance to earn money on everything they spend--in addition to advertising.

I got another 10 letters ready to go out with the mail tomorrow. I also am planning on completing a round of follow up calls for all of my individuals that I've contacted so far. By the end of the weekend, I also want to have emailed everyone remaining on my list, just so I am keeping in touch and they are thinking about My Power Mall.

Good night to everyone--I'll talk to you soon...

--Sandy W.

Thursday January 22

I was disappointed when I talked to the first set of businesses, I still mostly got voice mails and answering machines. I guess business people can do the same thing as individuals: screen their calls by caller IDs.

I prepared another 10 letters to go out to 10 more businesses. Tomorrow I will call today's businesses again and call the 2nd set that I sent out--a total of 20. I also want to follow up with the contacts on the top of my list: the few PM dialer leads that are still considering MPM and some others that have had positive responses. I also need to check in with my world changer; he was going to meet with his pastor and try to work with his church. It should be a busy day tomorrow.

I know this is short, but its been a difficult day. I've been under the weather slightly and my husband got two more rejections for jobs that he applied for and thought he had a chance of getting. That means tomorrow will be much better....

-Sandy W

Getting into the routine

I sent out another 10 letters to 10 more businesses today. I will call the 10 businesses I sent letters to on Monday tomorrow. I will also call the 5 non-profit organizations that I emailed today. I started with the local business non profit organizations (like the home builders associations, chamber of commerce, etc).

I did not have much luck on the phone today to follow up with my existing contacts. I had some errands that had to get done, and it ate into my follow up time. I attempted to make some contacts while I was running the errands, but was not successful.

I'm excited about hopefully setting up appointments and so forth tomorrow...

--Sandy W

A Snowy Tuesday

So many people who live in cold places have talked about snow in their blogs, so I thought since this is likely the only day this year Raleigh will see snow, I should talk about it too. We got about 6-inches by the end of the day. I have lived in places that get much more snow than this, so I did not raid the grocery store for bread and milk, but I also did not really get out of the house. My son's daycare was closed and I decided to work my primary job from home today.

Big Z and his Mom so politely pointed out that yesterday, I never really said what my passion was...just that it wasn't calling free business opportunity seeker leads. Honestly my passion is helping people. I'm interested in sponsoring people to help them reach their goals. But I realize that I have to invite people to join My Power Mall in order to sponsor them.

Working with businesses is just one way that I am going to bring people into My Power Mall team. I also would like to work with non-profit organizations. I have already contacted two private schools (which have non-profit status) and of course, the non-profit that I am building my business for. I have also contacted a company whose business is to help non-profits raise money. I plan on (starting tomorrow since I didn't have time today) contacting 5 organizations a day by email and then following up with a phone call. I will likely start with professional organizations (chamber of commerce, etc). I also want to work with organizations that I have a connection with or have been a member of in the past. We just moved to NC a few months ago so my local connections are lacking, but I will contact some of the ones in VA, MD, and PA that I have been connected with in the past...stay tuned for more information.

--Sandy W.

I have a confession to make...

...I have been listening to the morning boot camp calls during my lunch break on the public code. I usually get there late and end up getting several phone calls in the middle...but it helps me to hear what others in the boot camp are doing. There are some who cannot make the evening calls, so I can hear what they are up to on the morning calls.

Anyway, today, Ginny was asking Andrea about what her passions were. She has been working with several schools (private) and was considering what to do with while those that she is working with get their participation in a WCM approved.

It got me thinking about my passions and made me wonder why I was building the business the way I was. I had been struggling to get enough contacts each day, especially in the beginning and had even turned to free leads (not the PM dialer leads but free leads from a free leads source). I had been picking and choosing a few each day to try to contact but was not having much success getting a hold of anyone. On Saturday, for the fun of it, I downloaded a new set of 60 leads (they end up being a few days old) and started calling down the list..calling everyone. Of the ones I got through (before my son woke up from his nap) 25% were bad phone numbers, 50% were answering machines, and the other 25% that actually answered asked to be removed from the list.

Instead of going through that again, I decided to focus this week on accomplishing what I have been planning to do with the business partnership program. I am going to send out letters, contact business and set up appointments. It's been fun to see what various businesses are around that I had no idea that existed. I'm picking ones out of the phone book that had a bigger ad (because I figure they have money for an advertising budget) and a website. I am going to send out 10 letters/day and follow up with them a few days later. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Tomorrow I will discuss some of the other ways I will be building my business daily in order to reach my goals...

-Sandy W.

Another Week!

Even though it's Friday, the week is not over yet...I have more follow ups to do and contacts to make in order to reach my goals. I am excited about what has been accomplished this week and looking forward to what will be accomplished this weekend.

I made a few phone calls today to businesses that I had previously contacted and asked if I could email them information about our Business Partnership Program. I only got machines...I guess at 4:30 on a Friday afternoon before a long weekend (for some people...not me...I have to work Monday) people leave early.

I have a few PM dialer leads to follow up with tomorrow as well as some of my contacts and my new World Changer...stay tuned...I'm looking forward to reporting more sign ups soon!

--Sandy W

Thursday-Where did the week go?

I needed a little bit of a break today to take care of some things not Power Mall Related. However, I did follow up with My World Changer to make sure that he is getting the support that he needs. I also spent some time researching some local (college) student organizations to see if they may be good groups to work with. I never belonged to a "greek" group in college, so I do not have a "legacy" connection to work with, but there were four different student organizations that I thought might be interested in raising money for their associated non-profit using My Power Mall. I could not find their phone number contact information on their website, just their emails, so I was sure to put their organization name and "fund raising" in the subject line so hopefully they will get read.

Tom was talking tonight about how he had found his "calling" working with NPO's and how he looked forward to going out and talking to them each day to build his business (and help them out as well). While I am feeling more confident, I too am looking for that connection...whether it be businesses, individuals, or organizations that I can help and feel good about helping them. I feel like I am lacking that connection with some of the people that I am following up with, making the follow up more difficult. So I'm trying to find something in common with those contacts I have and broaden my reach for contacts that I will make in the future. I joined an online network for buisness owners in the "919" area code. It seems like they have some meet up groups and so forth that will help me broaden those people that I meet and I can make some connections.

Tomorrow I am going to call the funding organization that I called and emailed yesterday to make sure that they have watched the video and see what they think!

--I signed up for the $300 in grocery rebates while Jacki was talking about them...I'm so excited!

--Sandy W

Wednesday January 14th...

Good evening everyone!

I spent most of my day (well besides working my other job and taking my son to the doctor) doing follow ups. I was a little disappointed that I have been unable to reach another PM lead that I had a good conversation with on Sunday. We got the point where she was interested in watching the video and then when I called her back she had not watched it yet. We set up another time (after she was going to watch it) but each time I try to call her its busy or no one answers. I will keep trying though.

Most of my other calls were either people who told me flat out they were interested (one person hung up on me twice) or they were not home and I left message. I feel like I am more confident now when talking to my follow ups so I hope that it is showing to the people that I talk with.

As discussed on the call, I did contact a company that is in the business of helping charity organizations find funding. There are probably 30 similar companies listed in the phonebook so I will be contacting them as I can.

I also had someone sign up for more information on my NPO mall. So that was a very nice surprise. I sent them email (they did not leave their phone number). I am interested to find out how she found the website because it was not a contact that I had made previously.

-Sandy W

Tuesday-January 13th

My husband was out-of-town on an interview (since he has lost his job and is looking for work) today but I was determined that I was going to get some work done for My Power Mall. So inbetween getting myself and my two year old dinner and keeping him entertained...

I did a follow up call to the two of the non-profit private schools that I had emailed. I had to leave a message because it was after hours, but I realize that it may take them hearing my name a few times before they realize that I am not a sales person looking to make a sale and I can really help them. I also called back three of my contacts as well as two of the PM dialer leads that I had gotten on Sunday. One of my contacts told me they had found something else and were no longer looking.

I am very happy to report a new World Changer on my Team as a result of one of the two PM dialer leads (the other I was unable to get ahold of). He lives in Georgia and is interested in building an income for himself and his wife. He was also interested in working with churches to help them. I am very excited to be able to help him accomplish those goals.

It was exciting to hear on the call tonight (once I got on...) that there were others who also had some sign ups recently....

I spent the rest of the evening trying to get caught up on what I could do for my business once it was too late to call my own contacts...I left some messages with some businesses. I sent an email to some businesses requesting permission to send them information about the business partnership program.

Tomorrow I want to follow up on the New Years Letters I sent out.

--Sandy Warner

Monday January 12th

I had plans today to follow up!

..to follow up with some PM dialer leads from yesterday...

..to follow up with some contacts I had made previously...

...to follow up with some NPO's that I had contacted...

I called both of the PM dialer leads from yesterday that had requested I call them back today. One of them was not there...bummer...but I left a message and sent him an email. I will put him on the list to call back tomorrow. The second lead was really interested in building a business and liked the idea of My Power Mall (who wouldn't). I need to call her back after I'm done this blog to see how she liked the presentation.

I have also been practicing talking to people about MPM by calling free leads. The leads are only a day or two old, but it's not exclusive, so they are getting bombarded by a lot of people, especially emails. I have changed the way I email them...first, I call them. Typically (if the phone number is not wrong) I leave a message because very few people seem to answer the phone. Caller ID has ruined that. Once I leave them a message, I send them an email with a subject line of "I just left you a voice message at _____". Then for the body of the email, I use the following text:

Hi. I wanted to follow up a little with you regarding my message today. I have your information because you are interested in a home based business. I am trying to find out a little bit more about what you are looking for to see if it would be a good fit for the company that I work for, called My Power Mall, or if not, if I can help you find something that would be a good fit.

Here is some information that would be helpful for me to know if you would be willing to share it with me...

1. How long have you looking to generate an income from home? What happened that made you start looking?
2. What is your current occupation? Do you enjoy it?
3. How many hours a week are you looking to invest in your home based business?
4. What type of income potential are you looking for?
5. Have you ever tried to have your own business before?
6. If there was one thing that you could change for the better in your life, what would it be?

I understand that you are busy and I do not want to take up too much of your time. If you have a few minutes please give me a call to discuss these items or send me an email as to when the best time is that I can reach you. I would really like to help you find the best home based business for you.

I had at least one positive response from this, so i will let everyone know how they liked the presentation!

--the other follow ups had to get moved to tomorrow....

-Sandy W

Whew! It's Friday!

Friday! Finally!

I am looking forward to the weekend although I am excited about all that happened this week (well, not ALL that happened this week...but at least all that happened with My Power Mall).

1. We got a new website, with new excellent video presentations--that are shorter!
2. World Changer Malls are now available to NPO's free!
3. We discussed how to add the chamber of commerce into our potential contacts...
   
4. We discussed how giving a free world changer mall to a school can really benefit the school...
5. We sent out New Year's letters to those we contacted in December...

Although I did not get as much done today as I would have liked, I was really excited about what I did do. I was looking at private schools in my area and came across one that is a school for children with autism. What a great opportunity for My Power Mall to help with the school fundraising and help the children raise funds for themselves as well. I sent them an email that was listed on their website that was adapted from Andrea's letter. I am actually excited about calling them on Monday to make sure they got the letter and try to set up an appointment where I can go and share MPM with them. I also had a follow up call where someone was actually home. Of course they said they could not talk right then, but they want me to call them back tomorrow afternoon! That's a lot better than a wrong number, an answering machine, or a flat out "take me off your list".

I spent the rest of the evening reviewing the World Changer Team Script and writing some more letters for New Years...just have a few left to go. Was sorry that the evening call was cancelled but I'm looking forward to having a lot of follow ups to report on Monday!

-Sandy W

January 8th!

Today was a really tough day for me, but not because of MPM. I had trouble sleeping for some reason last night and had trouble concentrating on my work all morning. It's still pretty busy and I'm falling behind, so I really needed to make some headway. I got a call from my husband mid afternoon saying that he had been laid off from his job effective immediately, but he was getting paid until the end of the month. So that makes my goal for the end of January that much more important!

I wrote some more letters, made some more calls, sent some emails, got some contacts, did all the usual things today. I think I am really beginning to understand the difference that My Power Mall can make for non-profits. I sent an email to local private school today. They actually had a list on "passive fundraisers" on their website that they participate in. It included several stores in the area that give money back to the school when you shop there. I think adding My Power Mall to the list would really help them out. I'm not sure how many students they have...but even 5 can really help out!

Just wanted to thank everyone for their helpful comments and support on the calls and the blogs. It has been really helpful, especially on days when nothing else seems to go right.

Looking forward to reporting on sign ups soon!

-Sandy W

January 7th

I called several people today to follow up and to get my contacts for the day. There were lots of answering machines and one person that was very clear that she wanted me to take her off my list. I also sent out some follow up emails.

I am going to contact 10 businesses per day each evening and leave a message about the business partnership program. I think this will help me even more to reach my goal.

I also worked on my New Year's Letters. I wanted to get that done yesterday but then got sleepy and had to go to bed. I am trying to make them as personal as possible, so it is taking a little while since I am writing each one out old fashioned style.

I feel like any day now the flood gates are going to open and I will end up with more sign ups than I know what do with...in the mean time, I will just go on planting my seeds and watering them so they will grow.

-Sandy W.

January 6th-New Year, New Power Mall

I am so excited about the new My Power Mall website, video and all the new things that Ginny has launched.

I did okay with my contacts today, although my trip to the pharmacy (and trying to wait with a 2 year for 40 minutes while your prescription is filled) was not the source of my leads. However, I feel excited about what was accomplished today. I followed up with my NPO that I am raising money for and got a response from one of the Avon representatives that I sent an email to yesterday. She is going to check out the video and I am going to follow up with her later this week to see what she thinks.

I am very excited about the opportunities for me to build my businesses using NPOs and businesses as well as individuals...so much potential!

-Well I'm too tired to write anymore today...am still getting back into the swing of work and MPM after a few weeks having time off from one or the other or both!

-Sandy W

A New Year and a Fresh Start

Today the Boot Camp Started up Again...

I am glad. I missed the calls and I missed reading everyone's blogs. My goal for this month is to have 10 people in my downline that are actively building their business as well. Honestly, I think that simply getting 5 good leads/contacts per day and making sure I follow up with those 5 the next day (or in the days following) would allow me to reach that goal. (These are the minimum requirements for the bootcamp).

However, I realize that the quality of my contacts each day may not be as good as they could be. I know...there is no such thing as a bad lead...I just mean that sometimes I think people just give me there information out of pity and they are not really interested in the opportunity. Sometimes the phone number or email address is not correct. This has to do with my struggle with talking to strangers, not with the method of collecting contacts. I spent most of the Christmas break trying to learn everything I could in my back office and in the training materials to make sure that I am taking advantage of all the ways that I can build my business, not just collecting the contacts using one method. I am trying to think of creative ways that I can collect contacts from a more targeted audience...meaning that they are people who I think will definitely read my emails and are definitely interested in what My Power Mall has to offer. That's really what building a business is all about: Building relationships with others who are interested in building their business. The sign-up will just happen if the relationship is in place. I'm going to work on building my confidence with business owners and the business partnership program and then work on getting comfortable with talking to every random person I run into. As time allows, I am also going to run some free ads and so forth, but only after all the other "goals" for the day are accomplished.

So to work my plan "backwards" here is how it works out:
Week 1: January 5-9:
No. of Contacts Each Day: 6 Weekly Total: 30
No. of Follow ups Each Day: 4 Weekly Total: 20
No. of Emails to Generate Contacts: 50 Weekly Total: 250
No. of Sign ups during week-1

Week 2: January 12-16:
No. of Contacts Each Day:5 Weekly Total: 25
No. of Follow ups Each Day: 5 Weekly Total: 25
No. of Emails to Generate Contacts: 50 Weekly Total: 250
No. of Sign ups during week-2

Week 3: January 19-23:
No. of Contacts Each Day:5 Weekly Total: 25
No. of Follow ups Each Day: 5 Weekly Total: 25
No. of Emails to Generate Contacts: 50 Weekly Total: 250
No. of Sign ups during week-3

Week 4: January 26-30:
No. of Contacts Each Day:5 Weekly Total: 25
No. of Follow ups Each Day: 6 Weekly Total: 30
No. of Emails to Generate Contacts: 50 Weekly Total: 250
No. of Sign ups during week-4