Working From Home

This particular forum post prompted me to say what it is like being a Kleeneze Distributor from my point of view. http://www.ukparentslounge.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=50625 in particular this thread http://www.ukparentslounge.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=901310#p901310 so a big thanks goes to Arwen for a kick up the backside.

So what’s it like being a Kleeneze Distributor? Apart from the routine and consistency of it all, something that I do not do very well, consistency and repetition but that’s my challenge, very little. Having recently been on an International Conference to Vienna and met with some of the managers of the company in formal and informal settings. e.g., Conference Dinner and Dance and all getting drunk at the bar to name a few. It’s not a bad firm to work with. They are extremely fair and listen to the network, a very good symbiotic relationship.

Retail wise, well when I left lorry driving, which was a fill in, albeit a 9 yr fill in. I wanted something that would earn me a few quid but enabled me to look after our son of 6 months at the time as my wife was the principal earner. With driver’s wages, which are pretty piss poor where we live, being around £6.00 to £9.00 p/hr and not only that working 60 hours plus away from home all hours, Kleeneze seemed to do nicely. The money I lost in wages seemed to compensate with what it would cost for childcare. I went out with catalogues under the pushchair and put catalogues through letter boxes, I had gained some custom not life changing sums but at least people bought.

Hear lies the mistake one of the posts on the forum link above makes:

Alexand states “I have done it and absolutely failed. One catalogue drop I got 2 orders out of 50 catalogues.”

“I got 2 orders out of 50 catalogues”, those 2 orders are people that have chosen to give you their custom. Show some bloody respect to your “orders” and treat them like people, you might just lasted a little longer in business.

Those orders or customers that I had gained on that first day out with my lad soon became a few more and then a round was established whereby I could put out to customers only. Some would order every week and some would not but that still produced a small income for the effort involved. £400, £500, £600 per month once we even managed to get over a thousand. The work time had not increased. All businesses need time to grow focusing on an insignificant amount in your first two weeks is in my opinion very short sighted. Even if you got no custom what so ever on your first time out it quitting would be folly. What an experiment, tried it once nah didn’t work the light bulb theory is a myth. No wonder you failed at chemistry. Now that one customer base soon became four customer bases and that was my yearly business plan.

Yes I did loose catalogues along the way and I still do, very few these days if any, as now they are not lost just in my customer’s house and being a good customer I trust them that they will look after it for me until my next visit. Strangely, I get two books back the next time. This is a business expense at the end of the day and must be treated like one.

Now when we talk about customers, don’t forget they have chosen to shop with you, now the onus is on you. Don’t moan and bitch because your customer is not in or has not left your book outside for you. I don’t want to dent anyone’s ego but your customer probably has one or two more important life choices to make than remembering to put your catalogue out. Secondly, you may have only been to your customer’s house once. That is a meeting of individuals lasting anything from 30 seconds to 2 -3 minutes.

Over the period of a year,  if that customer orders every time, you have spent approximately half an hour in their presence. They might not remember you the second time or third time round. Giving a good service usually helps in them remembering you. Now I can spend 30 minutes in one house. Why? Because we have built up a relationship with our customers and we get chatting.

This takes me to one particular customer who met me at the door and apologetically returned my catalogue with out and order. My reply was simple, “No worries, thank you for your custom in the past.” She thought I was leaving and I had been delivering to this one lady for the past 3 years. “You’re not going are you? We have only just got use to you.”

The great thing about this Kleeneze malarkey is, if you move you just start again as we did. It worked once before and that was rural so it would work again in a town and it did. We have around 800 – 1000 customers and this number is sufficient to our needs. The work required is exactly the same as before 10 – 20 hours a week I can still take my lad to and from school and the extra spare time has enabled me to start a gardening round and concentrate more on sculpture. It’s a no brainer for me personally. Obviously if your needs were greater you could put more work/time into the business and it would pay you a very respectable living wage on retail alone but that’s all it would be. If you stopped your retail your income would stop. This leads straight into the Network Marketing although not mandatory the aim of this side of the business is, to create a residual income. For the uninitiated, this means you get paid weather you work or not. But you are building a business so why would you stop that is unless your fed up with it.

I joined this business to earn a few quid, I achieved that on retail alone within my first week and paid back the initial investment in the first month. It worked not once but twice and if it has worked for me then it can work for others too. All you have to do is tell the masses about it, mmmmm, right on. I am not the person to be in your face about the business and yes we have had a number of distributors quit through one reason or another. I sport a sign on my beat up old £450.00 Peugeot 306 saying earn extra cash blah de blah. Apologies for that as my cash priorities may differ from you. If people want to know I will let them know if they don’t they don’t, that’s cool by me. The last thing I would want is to cajole someone into something that it is not. Network Marketing is about relationships, relationships with your team and yourself. The majority of network marketers have a vested interest in self development they are positive people and encourage success and self belief into others. Mind you if your outer world needs changing isn’t it easier to change by changing your inner world.

After all, the part time business works, many people are earning what they wanted to earn in the beginning on the retail and are getting bonuses for the volume of sales the group produce. If you are only in it for a short time, a year or two and earn what you want out of it on retail that’s fine, if you come into the business and learn about the industry and treat it as a career move or even a career hobby, that’s fine as well. It pays what you put into it and it pays quicker if you are consistent at it, it is net “work” marketing not net “play” marketing or net “I’ll have ago” marketing. You will have to learn a new industry, be show the system that the network uses, although there will be several different styles but that’s all down to individualism.

Networking and training for me is not really my bag again my challenge, however  my good friend, wife and wonderful mother thrives on this aspect of the business but then we work to each other’s strengths. To sum up really it is a case of retail and recommend you are being paid for R&R. Without customers you have no business, plain and simple. People buy Kleeneze products and there is some good stuff within the walls of our shop/catalogue. It is not up to me to judge who buys or who does not buy and I can totally appreciate it if people dislike our line of work, horses for courses. At the end of the day my business is about providing a service to all of my customers promoting the Kleeneze brand.

It is a case of SUMO philosophy.