Archive for July, 2008

Hitting the phones

July 25, 2008

So tonight I had to do the least favorite part of my job – calling people to try and get some more parties booked. This is not cold-calling in the strictest definition of the phrase, because these are not totally strangers. They are mainly past hostesses or people who have at some point in time expressed interest in hosting a party. But it’s still quite intimidating to have to explain your reason for calling to someone who has only met you once many months ago! I often chicken out and resort to email instead, but I know it’s not really as effective. However, tonight I called 8 people and got 7 answerphones. This is the problem with the summer!! The one person I did actually speak to is a “maybe” and wants me to call her back in a couple of weeks.

One of my hostesses for next week FORGOT about her party and has rescheduled for August. It amazes me that people can write these things in their calendar (I saw her do it!) and still not remember. Sigh. I guess I should have made a reminder call earlier. Lesson learned.

Oh, and I was just about to leave the house to do a party the other night when I did one final check in the mirror and realized my shirt was on inside-out! That would have been an auspicous start…

Apologies for my absence

July 19, 2008

Sorry for the recent silence on the blogging front. There hasn’t been a lot to post about that was business-related. I had a couple of last-minute party cancelations due to that old standby, the “family emergency”. It’s the perfect vague excuse to get out of hosting, as no consultant will dare to question its legitimacy. Then we went on a family vacation for a couple of weeks.

Now we’re back but it’s the height of summer, and most hostesses or potentials are not returning phone calls. It’s a little frustrating because I’m anxious to get back into the swing of business and ramp up for a productive fall season, but I keep hitting brick walls.

I will share the most recent grammatical clanger that made my eyebrows shoot skywards. I received an email from a fellow consultant and her email signature was phrased as follows:

Name and phone number
You’re xxx consultant

She’s very successful – presumably not because her customers are impressed with her grasp of basic grammar!