The Body Shop at Home

DonnaKennedy

Hiya

After going to my first Body Shop at Home party last Wednesday i am seriously considering becoming a consultant as it sounds great, Not only would i be able to get out and meet new people (as i am fairly new to the area) i'd also earn a bit of extra cash to help with saving for a house. The consultant who did the party that i went to is a family friend anyway so i could ask her all i needed to and i've recently emailled body shop to ask for more info.

What i'd really like to know however, is other peoples experiences of doing it? And also how i would go about signing up?

Many thanks

skylight

Done this. It was okay. (And Ann Summers)

You do have to pay for your kit - mine was on special at £25 - and its yours then. You are expected to keep it up and current and pay for stuff yourself.

You earn a reasonalbly good commission on sales and specials etc. You have to purchase your own "prizes" and petrol etc. I always did a small raffle each party to cover at least my petrol costs, so no matter what happened I was never out of pocket!

The only downside is actually finding parties. You do have to look for them - they do not come to you - regardless of what anyone/ consultant says (as your consultant will eventually get commission on your earnings should she get enough women to join!)

I found that difficult - you really do have to be forward and a bit pushy to get people to have a party. Advertising alone doesn't work (shop windows, small local paper ad etc)

This one is pay with order - so the good bit is no running round getting the mone BUT its a real bummer if everyone pays by credit card, cos it goes onto your account and you don't get the commission back out again (you just keep more cash on the next party)

But for pin money (It took me a years worth of this one and Ann Summers to get enough for a small family holiday). If you are a forward person then for you it should be great!

Good luck!

DonnaKennedy

Thanks for your reply.

I was also wondering what happened once you have sent the order off. Does it come back to you or straight to the hostess of the party? And also for items that you order to add to your kit, do they allow you to specify a desired delivery time at all?

cuffie

Hi
Been at the BS@H since April now and really enjoying it. I bought my kit on special offer (£37-50), but special offers aren't on all the time. The kit is currently on offer for £80 plus the christmas kit free. I still think this is good value though. I use the products myself, so I get 25% discount on what I'd normally buy. I figured that if it went pear shaped, I'd keep what I used and sell the rest on e-bay!! Haven't had to do that though, and have had no trouble (so far) getting parties. I have no more evening dates before christmas now and although Jan will be a bit slow, I have dates booked into Feb, March, April and May already!!! I would say give it a go. If you don't try it you'll never know. January sees a 25% off sale over the whole catalogue...you can then buy stuff yourself for nearly 50% off!! You would place the orders over the website and can select orders coming to you as the Consultant, the Hostess, or another address. Most of my parties have been around where I live, so I normally get the boxes delivered to me and then I can add supply bits for myself. If the Hostess is a little way away, then the stuff gets delivered direct to her. All comes in bags with the guests names on, so you dont need to sort any procuts out yourself (like you so with some of the companies who do party plans)....
If there's anything else you want to ask - feel free. I'll be totally honest. I ummed and ahhed about it for ages...and its true, whoever recruits you gets 2% of your earnings as commission, but remember, if you recruit anyone, you get the 2% yourself on that person and so on.... You win products based on sales you do each month which is an added incentive.
Good luck with whatever you decide - please write again if you want to know anything else.xx

Forgot to answer the last bit of your message...the company states that orders are delivered within 5 working days (although has been around 3 in my experience). There is a little space where you can write additional comments to the courier (UPS in our area), like "please deliver to No.2 today", or " please leave in garage" or whatever...

DonnaKennedy

Thanks for your reply. The more i think about it the more i'm interested. Apart from family and friends etc, what other ways do you use to get parties? And how would i get signed up? Should i ask the girl i know to do it? (She's my future sister in laws friend).

cuffie

To start off you need to have 6 parties booked anyway so this would be family and friends. I had 2 of the 6 parties at my home (the free gifts that the Hostess go to you, as you are the Hostess...another way of adding to your kit for nothing!!). I got 2 parties from my first party which was at my mums (my sister, and re-booked my mum...always try to re-book the host 6 months later - even if you move the date nearer the time, you still have them "booked" in). I got no parties from my next party, and then at the 2 parties at my house, I stood up and said "this is a new thing for me. To make it work, I need you, my friends, to help me. I am asking you to have a party for me to help me get this started..." and I got 5 parties out of that! I didnt even have to ask!! As they were my friends, they were there to help me out which I'm sure your friends would do. It just went from there really.
I meant to mention earlier that although your kit will cost you £80 its actually worth £450.
Its up to you who you get to recruit you. If you liked the consultant who did the party, then give her a call - I'm sure she'd appreciate it (I would!), but if you don't fancy that then log onto their website and you can fill in a little form and they will then get in touch with your nearest area manager.
Its probably nicer to go through the consultant who did the party though. If you placed an order, her number should be on the form, or contact the party Host - she would have the number.
Best of luck. I hope you have as much fun as I've had. My party last week was over £400 in sales (my biggest yet), and I earnt £100 from that......not bad for a couple of hours work!


(not wanting to miss out on an opportunity....you could always join me!!!!! Had to put that in really!! xxxx)

DonnaKennedy

I'm really interested in it now. So once i take the plunge and contact BS or the consultant and tell them i'm interested what happens next? I realise i'll have to book so many parties at first but how about after you've done all that, do you advertise anywhere else? And our consultant mentioned a meeting she had to go to with other reps?! How often do these generally take place? And are there any targets etc? I really appreciate all of the info you're sharing!

nursemolly

i tried it for a while. but found most of the parties were by word of mouth and the same group of people turning up. eventually my profit was virtually non existant.
still fun at first but i got bored after a year and packed it up.

DonnaKennedy

That's what i'm worried about.
How do others advertise their parties aside from word of mouth?
Any advice appreciated! x

cuffie

DonnaKennedy wrote:

I'm really interested in it now. So once i take the plunge and contact BS or the consultant and tell them i'm interested what happens next? I realise i'll have to book so many parties at first but how about after you've done all that, do you advertise anywhere else? And our consultant mentioned a meeting she had to go to with other reps?! How often do these generally take place? And are there any targets etc? I really appreciate all of the info you're sharing!

Some Area Managers may do it slightly differently, but my Area Manager is my sister in law so it was easy for me to pump her for information all the time! I signed up, got my starter kit, had training for the first week and then started my parties. If I remember rightly your 6 parties have to take place within the first 6 weeks and you have to earn a certain amount within that first 6 weeks (I think its £500, but I did that in my first 2 parties!).

I have put little notes in the newsagents and around the school, but that didnt produce much. I have got my parties mainly from having the parties, and I am not pushy at all (in fact, thats why some people say they don't mind having a party because I am not pushy!..I suppose it works both ways!). I have done a few christmas shopping evenings and that has produced a few parties. I always ask everyone who places an order if they want a party. If they say "no" straight away, then thats it, I leave it. If they um and ah, then I ask them what their concerns are...you can usually work it out with them (ie, who will I ask? Then I say"do you know many people here tonight?" and normally she says yes so I say"who will come to xxxx's party?" )and I havent had a bad response yet! Also, like I said earlier, always re-book the host. There are incentives for the Host with 11 ordering guests plus 2 parties booked. Always mention the gift they will get, and if one person books, its so easy to get another - you just say"xxxx is only one party away from this gift...". The thing is, the Host always enjoys her party so its not like you are forcing her to do something. I've always gone home and the Host has said she's had a good time.

You will be in contact with the Host beforehand and I sometimes ask if there's any of her friends going who she thinks would like a party and then you know you to ask where you might get a more positive answer.

There are monthly meetings - I can't attend them all, but I try to make as many as I can - its very motivating and you always get good ideas. Why dont you ask your consultant if you can go along to the next one as a guest and then you aren't committing to anything, but you will see the other reps and get a feel for how they are doing. The normal target is £400 of sales per month (thats a party a week of £100 of sales which is so easy to do), but you dont get penalised for not doing that - its just a target for things you can get at special prices etc. You get prizes for winning other things - this month you have to hit £500 worth of sales to get some of the Spa products free, £1000 to get a bath robe and £1500 to get a 5% bonus on top. I am on target for the bath robe at the moment, and I have only done 4 parties this month (last week is next week).

You get out of it what you put in to it. You have to have the parties to get the parties and I'm sure there will be highs and lows, but I'm enjoying it at the moment and thats what counts. At least I can say I tried it.....

I'm sorry to other readers - this is probably boring and not the place to write all of this - perhaps I should have sent a pm (not that I know how to do it!!). Sorry if I've gone on a bit! I remember wanting to find out loads and loads before I took the plunge and then wonder why I just hadn't gone ahead and done it!

Best of luck! xx

Anya

I did a different type of party plan and advertising the parties elsewhere was pretty pointless. The best way to get parties is to push them at the party you are doing, however... most of the people at the party are a group of friends so they won't keep booking and booking as they don't want to keep buying products every 6 weeks!!! I found it really difficult - probably because I don't like feeling pressured and therefore I don't like pressurising other people. I had to be having a certain number of parties a month and when I couldn't reach that number I was supposed to phone round all the previous people who had had parties and get them to book. I didn't want to do that so I quit after about a year. I was quite happy doing parties on an as and when basis, and the company - even though they say that you can work as and when you want, did want you to have so many. The area organiser also wants you to have quite a few as she makes a percentage of your sales. If you are good at hard sell and can be pushy and persuasive then you will do fine. But for me if they wanted a party then that was good but if they didn't that was fine as well - that gets you nowhere. At least people knew me though for being friendly and not the one who kept ringing them up and bugging them!
Good Luck whatever you decide!