AVON Business In A Crate

by  PHYLLIS CONCORDIA, Independent Sales Representative

Mananging your business need not be complicated or difficult.

This system works for many AVON Representatives.

Try it for the first year and adapt it as you go!

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

FILE CRATE

Do not invest in file cabinets until you are maintaining a profit level to match these needs! You may prefer having narrow plastic file boxes that will fit on a book shelf near your desk... or you may prefer one square box to keep on your desk or on the floor. Just be sure that whatever you select has grooves to support hanging files.

HANGING FILES

Select two colors.

You will need 10 – 12 files of color one and 21 of color two.

The first 10 – 12 files are for managing your business of a daily basis.

1. PENDING – This is your "to do" file and is managed daily. Take out each morning to "start the business day" and file any leftover work here until your next business day.

2. CORRESPONDENCE – These are letters to and from you.

3. UPCOMING EVENTS – These include Career Seminars, Beauty Advisor Classes, Conventions, Extra Training Sessions… Keep all event information here such as hotel confirmations, airline information, and actual tickets and papers. Also include information on events you would like to participate in including any local craft-type fairs, church events, carnivals, community day events, and more. This will assist you with planning.

4. FINANCES – Keep all bills here until paid and then move to next set of files.

5. FORMS – These are any papers with blanks to be completed including, Product Replacement Forms, Contracts, Order Forms, and more.

6. HOSTESS PACKS

7. INCOME PLAN AND RECORDS – Weekly Plan Sheets and Weekly Accomplishment Sheets.

8. INVENTORY – Keep your personal copy of your most recent order until your order arrives. Then keep all of your product invoices for the current quarter here.

9. CUSTOMER AWARENESS – This file should be used for any Newsletters you produce, Brochure Inserts, Special Offers, and more. You can use this as a reference and for more ideas later on.

10. PREFERRED CUSTOMER PROGRAM – This is where you will keep you information about you customer’s buying trends. You will utilize these records to keep customers aware of what products they frequently purchase and this will enable you to provide them with great, personalized service. Use this for you frequent buyer incentive tracking. You can keep a manila folder for each customer if you would like.

11. RECRUITS – If you are in Leadership this is a place to keep your copy of their contracts. If you are not in Leadership you can omit this file or name this file

RECUITING PROSPECTS if you are considering Leadership at some point.

12. FUNDRAISING – Utilize this folder for any resources about fundraising, if you make it part of your business. (And it is wise to make it part of your business – as just two or three successful fundraisers can drive you right into President’s Club!)

The second sets of files are for keeping business receipts according to usual business deductions. Each year check the current tax guide and keep this in your crate for easy reference. You can obtain the current tax guide each year for free from the IRS either by request or you can opt to download it online.

1. TO BE FILED – This is your "I can’t decide today" file. Do not mistake this for an "I don’t feel like it today file!

2. ADVERTISING – This is where to keep paid bills for any direct support mailing companies you may use to ship brochures, any printing expenses, and any advertising records including tearsheets for print or online ads. It is a good idea to comment about the results of your advertising and cross-reference any contacts, new customers or recruits from each ad.

3. ASSET PURCHASES

4. BAD DEBTS – You can see this file dwindle sown as you gain success as an Avon representative.

5. BANKING RECORDS – For Your Business Account

6. AUTO EXPENSES – If you are going out tossing in your car, track the mileage and apply it as a write-off when applicable – keep track of any mileage that pertains to your AVON business such as sales meetings, appointments with customers or recruits. You should keep a tracking sheet in your vehicle and transfer it to this file at the end of each week or month.

7. CONTRIBUTIONS – This includes any gift baskets, items, products, or cash your business contributes to charitable organizations. Gift baskets used for raffles do not apply to this file. They are considered to be a business expense not a contribution.

8. EVENTS – This is a file for records of completed events and any receipts for the cost of participation.

9. DUES AND PUBLICATIONS – This includes any memberships such Chamber of Commerce or other civic groups that pertain to your business. You should also include receipts or invoices for books and magazines you purchase of subscribe to for your business. Since your business is a beauty business you can even write off some subscriptions or books pertaining to fashion and beauty. Any business publication receipts or invoices would apply here as well, anything involving learning more about business news and management can be stored in this file.

10. FREIGHT – Keep track of any shipping expenses which your business incurs in this file.

11. INSURANCE – Make sure you have adequate insurance in place for Inventory replacement if necessary. Keep paid invoices in this file. Your insurance policies should not be kept in this file – they should be in a fire-proof box at the very least but should preferably be kept in a safe deposit box. You can make a copy of your policy and keep that in this file to refer to.

12. CREDIT PROCESSING – Keep record of any credit card processing fees your business incurs as a result of your customer sales involving a credit card.

13. INVENTORY – After each quarter file inventory sheets here.

14. LEGAL AND PROFESSIONAL SERVICES – This file is for any services your business uses involving legal or professional needs including lawyers and accountants.

15. OFFICE EXPENSES – These include the basics such as paper, pens, ink and toner for printers, and more.

16. POSTAGE

17. OFFICE EQUIPMENT – This file is for invoices regarding the purchase and repair of equipment purchased for your home office.

18. STATEMENTS – Three manila folders needed to save monthly statements including:

A. AVON SAVINGS – This is the account you will use for profits which you can use to pay yourself when applicable.

B. AVON CHECKING – This is for your expense account, to pay Avon, and to pay for other expenses pertaining to your business.

C. CREDIT CARD – Put statements in this file. Only business purchases may be put on this card.

19. SUPPLIES – Use this file to keep track of any sales tools that you do not purchase from Avon. This includes items such as cotton balls and swabs, for example.

20. TELEPHONE – Paid phone bills should be filed here.

21. TRAVEL AND ENTERTAINMENT EXPENSE – You can use this to store receipts involving meetings with customers, recruits, sales managers, and more. For instance meeting a customer for coffee, or even something such as taking a recruit to a lunch.

RESOURCE NOTEBOOK

Start with one two-inch hard-backed binder and use this to store handouts and other information you accumulate. This includes your unit newsletters and anything else you may want to refer to such as information and magazine articles pertaining to skin care and beauty or directly to Avon products – such as published product reviews and advertisements.

WORKING FILE NOTEBOOK

Start With a one-inch flexible binder, sheet protectors, and tabbed dividers. Slip anything you may want to reproduce later into plastic sheet protectors. You will need to take these out of the sheet protectors when you want to copy your materials and slip them back in to protect the original.

Suggested tabbed dividers could include (use the ones that pertain to your business needs) and create additional ones as needed:

PARTY BOOKINGS

PREFERRED CUSTOMER PROGRAMS

CLIP ART

PRODUCT KNOWLEDGE

COACHING

RECRUITING

TRAINING

CUSTOMER SERVICE

POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

CAMPAIGN PLANNER

HOLIDAY PLANNER

OPEN HOUSE PLANNER

BEAUTY AND FASHION TREND INFORMATION

PARTY GAMES

ADVERTISING IDEAS

GOALS

BEAUTY BASHES or GIRLS NIGHT OUT

HELPERS

CALENDAR

FUNDRAISING

SCRIPTS – fundraisers, cold-calling, customer follow-up

MARK UPDATES

COMPUTER FILES

You can make files similar to any mentioned files on your computer hard-drive to help organize your work and make it easy to find again! Appropriate file names may depend upon your operating system. For Windows it’s a good idea to use the following format example when saving or renaming a file: "AVON – name of file 01" changing the numbers as you gain new files of the same type. Always add a zero before a single digit number so they list accordingly when you have several files with the same name, such as  "AVON – customer newsletter – campaign 01 2008". (2008 denotes the year.) Using this naming system will also help to keep things pertaining to Avon separate from other files, you can use a similar method for other areas of your life – for example if you are a Girl Scout Leader, a file name could start with "GIRL SCOUTS" or "GS". These are some organizational ideas that will help make your AVON business a success. Paperwork can be hard to manage… hopefully these ideas will make things easier. Use them as shown, or use them to help create ideas that suit your own needs.

ROLODEX

Yes, even with a computer system making things so easy to maintain contacts and customers… it helps to keep a good old-fashioned, ever-so-indispensable Rolodex file handy. Use it for names and addresses, account numbers, passwords, and more. If you are keeping sensitive information in these you should keep it in a locked drawer or cabinet when your office is "closed". Otherwise these are great even if you have to run out of the house for an appointment and cannot take your laptop for whatever reasons. You can still make calls to clients, or have all of your information you might need to make calls involving billing discrepancies and such… you can have all of your account information written (or printed out on your Rolodex). They come if different card sizes, so it helps to get one that accommodates business cards as well. Ahhh… the Rolodex.