Party favors and Usborne

I don't like to spend a lot of money on party favors, but I'd rather give something useful or cool than $1 worth of plastic junk. My luck with this has been hit or miss. For my son's recent Harry Potter sleepover "every flavor" jelly beans and a light up wand were easy and not too cheesy. For his beyblade party with a limited guest list, we gave a new beyblade. And for a previous race car party we gave out hot wheels cars. I haven't had such good luck with the girls though. Between the Hello Kitty and Mickey Mouse and whatever else there have been limited options for non-cheesy and inexpensive.

Naturally that got me thinking about Usborne books and helping others come up with a good, cool, useful party favor. We have some awesome $5 beginning readers that lend themselves well to popular party themes. (Oh how I wish my kids picked one of these themes every once in a while.)

               

               

And $4 dot-to-dot books that might work as well:

               

Another cute idea is our activity cards. At $9.99 for about 50 cards, it's super cost-effective to tie a few cards together with ribbon, clip on a Dollar Tree dry erase pen and have a great favor to hand out. Some that might work with your theme:

                 

            

As for me and my 2 year old's Mickey Mouse themed birthday party in two days, I'm still thinking. Maybe I'll take my own advice next year. Though we may have to have a Halloween party just so I can give Spooky Doodle cards as favors. So cute!



To order any of the above, just visit my Web site at http://www.enjoygoodbooks.com. And remember sharing is caring. Pass these ideas along to your birthday-party-planning friends. :-)

Usborne Book Club Starting Sept. 1

I have mentioned before that one of my favorite childhood memories is getting my Weekly Reader book in the mail. I'm not sure why it was called "weekly" reader because the books came monthly.

Since I started selling Usborne Books almost six years ago now, I've toyed with the idea of a book of the month club. But well I can't call it that...something about copyright infringement.

So finally I'm just gonna do it and see what happens. Because as you may know I have been reading a lot of Jonathan James and the Whatif Monster and my internal dialog is moving from Whatif  no one wants to do it to Whatif this is just what that person with a really long wish list needs to get more of these fabulous books in their home.

This is how it works: 
You go to my web site (www.enjoygoodbooks.com) and browse around and click the add to wish list icon next to any book you'd like to get.

Consider your kid(s). If you have more than one, do you want them each to get a book each month?

Consider birthdays and holidays.

Consider your budget, and don't forget the shipping cost ($5) in your calculations.

When you have at least 12 books on your wish list, I will contact you to determine which books should come in which months and in whose name. Feel free to add more than 12 books. Don't let me limit you.

I will need a credit card number on file (Visa, MasterCard, or Discover) to charge each month.

Orders will be processed on the 1st and should arrive no later than the 10th.

Who wants to go on this adventure with me?

Educating myself

I have spent the last week or so listening to the online, direct sales interviews put on by The Mind Aware. Of course I know that this is an excuse to not do what I should be doing, which is to pick up the phone and connect with actual people.

But I hate the phone. I'll even text my husband instead of calling him, much to his dismay. This is such a long way from my teenage self. Back then my boyfriend and I would sit on the phone basically just breathing because neither of us where big talkers. Ah memories.

At any rate, the trainings/interviews I've listened to so far have been valuable. I just finished up
number four of the 24-part series. Today's teleseminar was with Jackie Ulmer on using social media for your business. And while I knew a lot of what she suggested, I did get some good reminders and was again reminded that my downfall in everything (from business to housework to raising my kids) is consistency.

So yeah, looks like I have a new personal goal to work on. If anyone has advice on being consistent, I'd love to hear it.

Some of the tips/reminders I connected with are

Tune in to popular culture for your next theme. For example for Pampered Chef create "Master Chef" classes or for home decor look at the popular shows on HDTV. ~ Mary Christensen

Advice from Alice Hinckley on answering the "what do you do" question: answer from the perspective of what challenge or struggle you solve. What's the benefit, not the product.

Focus, commitment, consistency are the keys to success in direct sales. ~ Belinda Ellsworth

Market your business online the same way that you would at a local chamber of commerce event. You wouldn't immediately launch into a join my business pitch there so you shouldn't online either. ~ Jackie Ulmer

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