I LOVE Words!

If you LOVE words and books, here is a great calendar so you can celebrate reading every day this month.

http://www.myubam.com/ecommerce/Calendar.asp?sid=S0524

Did you know the Daytona 500 is this month?  There’s still time to get a great book on Racing Cars in time to celebrate!

www.UsborneNow.com

Free Coloring Pages – National Fashion Dolls

Studying Japan or an Island Nation?  Like to color?  Like to play dress-up?

Free coloring pages from our new series of Fashion Dolls from around the world.

http://www.myubam.com/pdf/imn/fashion%20Dolls-scans.pdf

Want more?  go to www.UsborneNow.com and search for the word “Fashion” to see the entire series.  They are spiral bound on the top!  You can use the stickers and stencils to color and embellish the pages.  When you’re done, you can stand them up for play or display!

Brilliant!

Merry Christmas with our Book Tree!

The boys helped me find all the right books for our Tree O'Books!

Make Christmas Easier!

As we all know, the holidays can quickly become one of the busiest times of the year.  Plan ahead so you can relax and enjoy spending time with your loved ones, and skip being “stressed out,” “frustrated” or just “too busy.” Consider how Usborne Books & More can help.

Shop Early – Shop for the best selection of new Usborne and Kane Miller Christmas titles for your family, not to mention mention…they make wonderful gifts. View All Christmas & Holiday titles.  Better yet – host an Usborne Books & More show and get all your books free!  Contact me right away so you can get your preferred date!

Decorate with Books!
–The Usborne Advent Calendar to Color, Usborne Advent Nativity Book and My Christmas Tree make great interactive holiday decorations the whole family will enjoy.

Do you have rain gutter bookshelves up in your home yet?  They are a wonderful child-friendly way to entice kids to read more books by showing them the fronts of the covers, but keep them tidy and help beautify you walls all at the same time.  Plus, they are an inexpensive DIY project!  There are also other samples of this type of shelving here and I have found examples of using IKEA spice racks in this fashion as well.

You can change out the books to match the holiday decor and keep all the holiday books and cook books at the ready.  I also love the idea of wrapping them and opening them on various days of Advent!  Perhaps you can plan ahead to bake cookies on a particular day, so wrap the cook book you’ll be using in fun paper, put it on the rain gutter bookshelf as a decoration and mark it with that date.  Then open it and make the cookies that day!

Take Christmas cards off your list - Let your children add a personal touch to your Christmas cards this year with Usborne’s 20 Pop-Up Christmas Cards  to Color and 20 Christmas Cards to Color   You can color and send or send uncolored with a note to the recipient that they get to color it and send you a photo.

I’ll be sharing loads more fun ideas like this in the weeks to come!

What works: 5 Key Factors to a Successful Booth

I have a friend, Bobbi, who is a Sr. Exec. Supervisor with Usborne Books and More who lives in a rural area.  She’s an amazing Usborne friend of mine and I talked to her about how she gets bookings from booth events.  She shared with me her 5 Key Factors to a Successful Booth.

Key Factor #1 – INVITE them into your booth.  You can’t sit down in a chair in the back of your booth.  Stand at the FRONT of your booth!

Ask them, “Have you seen Usborne Books before?”  Go on to say, “Usborne Books are books designed to make learning fun,” show them a book and hand it to the mom.  As you show them the book, say, “I have two booth specials today: Buy 5 get one free OR if you book a home show from the booth today, I can give you an extra $20 in books FREE!”

Key Factor #2  Be like a butterfly at a booth.  Nobody wants to be smothered with tons of information and they want time to shop.  So, you flutter in….say something…..flitter out…..flutter in…..say something….flitter out……let them have a chance to look at the books and fall in love with them just like you did!  If they’ve looked at something, you can show another favorite, or ask if they have a subject they’re looking for, etc.  This is all in about three to four minutes.

Key Factor #3  Get their contact information and then look at it before they leave.  Ask if they would like to be entered for a drawing for $50 in FREE BOOKS – no drawing box – fill out this survey on a clipboard.  Have several clipboards available.  Then go talk to someone else.  It’s ideal if you have another person working the booth with you.  Look at their survey and grab your calendar and a hostess packet if you see they’d like to schedule a home show.  “Awesome, you’re interested in hosting a home show, let’s get it scheduled!  I’m so excited!”  Open up your calendar – show them your available dates and ask which will work for you?

Have they marked “Maybe”…..that really means “talk me into it,” according to Bobbi, so she always says:  “You marked maybe, I was just wondering…what is your ‘maybe’?”  They’ll have lots of different reasons.

“I don’t have my calendar with me.”  I just grab my calendar, let’s pick a tentative date or a guesstimate.  We’ll get you on the calendar so you can take the hostess packet home tonight.  I can set up your e-show the first of the week and I’ll call you to make sure that date is going to work for you.

“My house is too small”  That’s okay – it’s nice to be all cozy and looking at the books.  Excitement is contagious.  Everyone is going to get excited.  5 to 7 people is a great sized party and most houses can fit that.  If you have more, you’ll have an amazing party and folks can sit around on the floor.

“I don’t have enough friends”  If you personally invite all the people you know and the friends you talk to all the time, you’ll do fine and still get 5 to 7 people to the show and we also do e-shows, so you can invite the people who are too far away to attend and that will help with sales.

“I am not any good/never do these things.”  Use empathy – I know how you feel.  That has happened to me before.  But I have learned how to have a good party and if you do the things I coach you to do, you’ll have a good party and you’ll get free books.  It will be okay.

“I have to ask my husband”  Use tentative date or “Fake” date, sometimes she says “fake” to get them to book without the pressure of a date on the calendar – Let’s pick a fake date and if that doesn’t work for you or his schedule, we’ll switch it.
The biggest thing is to find a HAPPY solution.

When they aren’t so scared, they get excited!

Key Factor #4 GET it on the calendar that day.  If they are hemming and hawing, I know they are thinking and I’ll keep asking.  If they stop hemming and hawing then I can just drop it.

If you can book it today, I won’t have to go to the Post Office and get happy meals for my kids and all that and you can get your extra $20 in free books.

KEEP IT SIMPLE at a booth.  Don’t worry about all the details.  At a booth, you have to be quicker and just drop in little pieces of information.  If they give you five minutes, it’s a LOT of time.  Do things quickly and simply – not EVERY detail.  Don’t get into all the specials and things – tell them you can go over all that later.  Give them “You get $20 extra at the booth” and if they want to hear more, you tell them just the monthly special and no more!

Now it’s on the calendar.  Whoo hoo!

Next….hostess coach.  Do a little AT THE BOOTH and VERY QUICKLY!  I pull out the Usborne party checklist – or hostess guide one – here’s how you can have an awesome party.  Just these 6 things.

1. Invite 40 or more guests
2. Deliver invitations
3. Evites
4. Email me your guest list and phone numbers and I’ll do your reminder calls for you
5. Do all 5 Hostess Challenges (date scheduled, have guest list a week prior to party, wish list complete 7 days before party, Have $85 in outside orders, Have 8+ guests at your party)  $5 in free books for each of those (hostess books)
6. Invitations- Time, Date, circle my information and send them on their way

Don’t let this take more than five minutes.  Everyone else is waiting on them and they want to GO.

What do you do with Maybes?  Follow up with them within 48 hours.  The longer you wait, the less excited they’ll be and the less they’ll remember how excited they were!

NOTE: You’re going to have more cancellations from booths than from home shows.  You don’t have a lot of connection time with you.  Five minutes versus 90+ minutes.  And previous hostess is usually asking about the next shows.  Keep on top of them and keep them excited.

Booth hostess coaching – the Monday after a weekend booth – do follow up calls and  hostess coaching.  Set up their e-show – call and at least leave a message about setting up the e-show.  Confirm their date.  Express how excited you are for their show!  Remind them to send your their guest list so you can do the reminder calls.

Same Day – set up postcards for them – Bobbi has one about attendance that is critical for a good show (look for it under the message forums under Jill Cox for the text), another one says “I’m watching for your guest list.”  She also has a “help wanted” postcard and one that is a “your party is coming up” to remind them of any last minute things to get done.

A week later (depending on how far out they’re booked) – send the first postcard in the mail and do that every week until they’ve all been sent.  Bobbi says the mail gets noticed differently than an e-mail or a phone call.

Ask them if it’s best to get ahold of them by email or phone, so you’ll know.  (Side note from Beth: Now, it could be texting.)

Recruiting – if you’re getting lots of bookings at your booths, you’re going to have recruits and sales, too.  You’re going to have to book their kickoff show, anyway – so book a show with anyone who is even thinking about this as  a business.  You can call it their “decider show.”

To review: Five things that are important to keep in mind:

1. Invite them in
2. Be a butterfly
3. Ask everyone and get their information  (handing them something is “throw this away for me please”)
4. Get the booking right there or you’ll be playing phone tag forever to get the date
5. Keep Things SIMPLE

Not sure what to put in their smaller Hostess packet?

• recruiting Flier
• 2 order forms
• catalog (Beth sidenote: 1 full and 1 mini)
• invitations (if you have them send, 30; if you send, 5 for handing out in person)
• Use old catalogs for booth events since there is a higher cancellation rate – add in a mini catalog for new titles OR use an old catalog and write their show info on the cover, circle your contact info – tell them “I’m out of everything right now.  But we’ll be in touch for everything”
• don’t include the monthly fliers – just bring them to the show or mail them if the show holds

This was a great interview and I want to thank Bobbie for sharing with us about what works for her at a booth.  I’d love to hear your ideas as well.  Please send me your comments!

Literacy Tip: New Back to School Tradition – Write a Letter

Start a New Back-to-School Tradition!

Whether you send your child to public or private school or home educate them, returning to school can be exciting, stressful, or even scary for some children.  It can be a big change in their routine and even if they have the same teacher, they don’t always know what to expect.  Anything unknown can be scary.

Why not start a new back-to-school tradition by writing your child a letter on their first day of school?  Offer encouragement, share special things about your child that make you proud, remind them of how much they can do and how much confidence you have in them for what they will do this year.  Make it age appropriate and print for younger children.  It will reinforce the importance of being able to read and write, too.  Be prepared to read it aloud to the youngest children.  We want this to be a wonderful loving memory, not another lesson or frustration at not being able to read your handwriting or every word you chose.

Consider saving your letters to re-read at their high school or college graduation.  You can slip them all into a drawer, a binder, or a special box so you’ll know right where they are when the time comes to bring them back out and enjoy the memories of these letters.  It really is the little things that can make all the difference.

I’d love to hear what you think!  Have you done this before?  Will you start this year?  What other Back-to-School traditions do you celebrate?

Literacy Tip: Reward Reading in Your Family

Most of us know that to be the best example we can be, we need to make sure to read in front of our kids and read aloud together on a regular basis no matter how old our kids are.

Go a step further and create your own reading contest!  Set a goals for your children and for yourself. If they read a certain number books, give them a reward.  Some families will want to have it be a collective goal and others can create competition between siblings or between siblings and parents.  You know your kids best and know whether to have it all be team-oriented, competetive or a combination of both.

Be creative! Rewards can be anything your child would get excited about. Perhaps, it would be buying the next title in a series they are reading, going out for ice cream, or having a slumber party.  Discuss what they’d like most, make it reasonable and something that will fit your budget.  It doesn’t even have to cost money.  It could just be a special visit to a park, making everyone’s favorite cookies or getting Dad to help act out a play.  For additional fun and to help everyone stay focused, make signs or log sheets to keep track of your progress.  Devote some time every day to reading together and to updating your family reading log.  If your goal is rather large, consider having smaller rewards along the way.

Reading together and having not only a reading friendly, but a reading focused family will bring everyone a great deal of joy and give your children a better chance at future success.

Do you LOVE what you do?

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”  ~Confucius

Do you truly LOVE what you do?  Does it bring you joy?  Do you like to do it?  Do you look forward to it?  Do you love the poeple you work with every day?  Do you look forward to work travel because you get to see some of your favorite friends in the whole world?  Do you love the affect you have on people?  Do you love your product?  Do you have a PASSION for what you get to do to earn a living?  Is earning a living adding years to your life?

I can say YES to all of those questions because I get to help parents find the absolutely best books for their kids, raise money for their favorite causes, start businesses that will change their lives for the better and help children LOVE reading and learning.

Go to www.UsborneNow.com for more information on how you can do what I do and how I can help you be awesome.

Not the toys

“It’s not the toys in the house that make the difference in children’s lives; it’s the words in their heads. The least expensive thing we can give a child outside of a hug turns out to be the most valuable: words.”  From Chapter One: Why read aloud?  The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease

Smarty Pants Camps Prevent Summer Reading Loss

Introducing a new reading program designed to help prevent summer reading loss: Smarty Pants Camps!

It is estimated that students can lose up to 30% of their skills and knowledge during the summer!  Smarty Pants Camps will help keep children reading, writing and problem solving during the summer to help prevent this Summer Brain Drain.

Each Camp Kit includes a student lab notebook and a set of fiction and non-fiction books for reference, reading and exploration.  We offer packages that work
with groups of all sizes.  It is hands-on-literacy fun that is perfect for the summer or for enrichment anytime.
 It is all the FUN of camp at your house!

Choose from Apollo Camp for ages 10 to 12: http://tinyurl.com/ApolloCamp

or Discovery Camp for ages 8-9: http://tinyurl.com/DiscoverySpaceCamp

or Junior Camp for ages 5-7: http://tinyurl.com/JuniorSpaceCamp

Have various ages?  You can also get combos so you don’t repeat books and just get extra notebooks.  Just ask me!
www.UsborneNow.com