Kleeneze Works - Newspaper Features Mike, 71



© Daniel Gilfeather

 This smiling gent is Mike Harle, 71, who became a Kleeneze distributor after using his savings in retirement to eke out his pension.

You can read the full story in the Mirror. He invested £156 in 200 catalogues and made £800 sales in his first 3 weeks, netting £280 income and a fast-start bonus.

That's not unusual for Kleeneze distributors. I'm still disorganised, still juggling family, work and a Kleeneze business, yet in the past 3 weeks I've made £832 of sales. Just by putting out catalogues, collecting them in again and delivering the goods when they arrive.

I'm on target for my 13% Volume bonus - my goal is to reach 13% by the end of Period 8. After watching the videos of the Kleeneze Live training in Falkirk, I'm determined to get more organised, so I can start building my team on solid foundations. Unfortunately, I won't be attending the Kleeneze conference in September and I'm gutted. I'm on holiday with my fiancé and two of my sons and the last week in August is the only week that all 4 of us had free. We travel back from South Devon on the day of the conference.

Still, as my mum used to say, "There are some things you want to do, then there are the things that you have to do." I see little enough of my fiancé as it is due to his international contracting, whilst my 17 year old is now living with his dad and neither my youngest son nor I see enough of him any more. There will be other Kleeneze conferences, and I will be at them with my team.

Wheelie Bins and Charity Shops - Clues to A Nation's Wealth

You wouldn't think of a wheelie bin as an indicator of economic performance, would you? How about considering the existence of charity shops as a key factor in an area's economy?

Well, in Rugby at least, they are.

I walked into the town centre with my children over the weekend and discovered two new charity shops. A town of around 70,000 inhabitants now has 2 British Heart Foundation shops plus one each representing Shelter, PDSA, Oxfam, Cancer Research, Scope, YMCA, Sue Ryder, Rugby Bareboards Trust, Warwickshire Air Ambulance, Myton Hospice and Age UK.

Add to that the 3 pawn-brokers, the half-dozen shops that accept pre-owned goods in part-exchange for credit notes or new purchases and the plethora of cut-price bargains in national chain stores catering to the minimum-waged and you get the picture of a retail shopping crisis. We are losing our independent retailers and with them, variety and personalised service. Those with credit and debit cards shop online or drive to out of town malls with free parking; those with cash and no car have fewer and fewer options.

As for wheelie bins - this time last year, there was outcry at the imposition of fortnightly bin collections. Overflowing bins were put on pavements, emphasising the need to return to a weekly routine. Now, the collections are still fortnightly, but the bins are no longer full, and not due to an evangelical approach to recycling. We are, as a town, just using less, which means we are buying less.

Apparently, according to figures released today by the IPPR, the only reason we're not officially in a recession is because our exports last quarter were greater than our imports. That's more because we're not buying as much from overseas, than because the exchange rate is working in our exporters' favour.

Charity shops are flourishing for a number of reasons, including reduced business rates and a lack of funding from other sources which means they have to rely on retail footfall and donations of goods.

In the meantime, there is no deterioration in Kleeneze orders - the range of goods and the personal service provided by Kleeneze distributors are filling a void that our customers are keen to let us fill. There's never been a better time to build a Kleeneze business.

Losing Your Distributors

This week I lost a distributor. I looked at my latest Group Analysis statement and she wasn't there anymore. I don't know whether her weeks of inactivity have caused her to be moved to a corporate reporting limbo zone or whether she's actually handed her kit back.

As always, my first response was to try and contact her. She's difficult to contact at the best of times, tending not to answer her phone, calling back very late at night if she returns my calls at all. There has been no response to either phone or email. This is all the more frustrating because, even if she no longer wants to be a Kleeneze distributor, talking with her could help me help others in the future.

Realistically, there's little I can do. Motivating team members in this industry is nothing like motivating people in a corporate environment, where team leaders have a captive audience who have to turn up for work. All I can do is stay in touch, one-way though that communication may be, and move on to supporting and encouraging others.

What would you do when this happens?