It was only a little panic attack…

I got my starter kit yesterday from Stampin’ Up, and thus began my career as an independent demonstrator.

I started with an “oh, crap, what have I gotten myself into” moment, followed by a “the kids are never going to let me work on this stuff” moment, and concluded with needing a lie-down and a pat on the back. So I called Friend, who did the right thing and kicked my butt. She’s quite effective, even over the phone.

I still need to go over some things with my “upline”, but I played around a little more on the website, put together all my new sets, and tried to get somewhat organized, even if I didn’t get anything made today.

My biggest concern, of course, is meeting my quarterly goals. I need a newer, fresher base of potential customers, I think. Friend and Handy Girl will do their part, but they don’t have a need for a lot of stuff. There are some people at church who I will try to tap into. I will also try and exploit Auntie and all of her friends. Hey, what are sisters for?

One of the ideas for finding people to invite was this “40 guests” exercise sheet that came with some of the literature I received. It broke down people you know into 10 catergories, and then you are supposed to think of 4 people to invite from each of those catergories. I was not really successful with this exercise. Here are the catergories and why this doesn’t work:

Family: My mother and Auntie are pretty much it. Little Cousin’s Mommy is several states away, as is my sister-in-law, and my in-laws are two hours away.
Friends: I did pretty well here, but we all have busy schedules, so there are no guarantees.
Co-workers: Ha! I guess I could invite the Webmaster, but it’s not really his thing.
Neighbors: Not much opportunity here, since we are one of two young families in the neighborhood, but I did come up with one person.
Church or social group: Several names come up here, but I know that some of them already have their own demonstrator, and I don’t want to steal anyone away. But Auntie’s friends in the youth group, though they wouldn’t buy much of anything, may attend for the crafts.
People I do business with: The list suggests people at your bank, store, salon… um, I’m not exactly going to invite the checker at Albertsons’ or the barista at Starbucks, who don’t know me at all.
People who have previously invited you to a workshop: See “friends”.
Spouses’ co-workers or their spouses: The Webmaster works in the tech industry, and 90% of his co-workers are men. And while I’ve met some of their spouses, I have no idea if they are into stamping, or crafts. I’ve told the Webmaster to keep his ear out, though.
Previous co-workers or neighbors: It would be nice to see some of my former co-workers, but we have very little contact anymore. The Webmaster and I lived in an apartment before buying our house, and the only time we had contact with our neighbors is when we were calling the police for various reasons regarding them.
Contacts through your children: They suggest PTA, Boy/Girl Scouts, sports, teachers… my kids are 28 months and nearly nine months! We have no activities yet! Generally, I’ve heard that kids need to be potty-trained before beginning some of these things.

This is making me bummed out all over again just writing this out. But maybe I’ll get lucky. In the meantime, I just need to get my feet wet, have my own first workshop, and remember what Friend told me: I didn’t sign a contract in blood. If this really ends up not working out, I can quit with no penalties. I don’t want to quit – I do really want to make this work. I love stamping and card-making and I really want to see what I can do.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 3rd, 2006 at 1:12 am and is filed under Being Crafty.
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