90-Day Plan - Day 4: Singing in the Rain

Well, I'm half-way through my first week of 13 and I haven't started a new 90-day plan yet. That makes today unique!

Not only that, but I got over my sulks about the day-job; turns out that another day without any "official" work goes a long way towards clearing up an email backlog.

Plus, I managed to collect 90 out of 191 books before my paper listing which houses I'd blanket dropped fell apart due to getting soaked in a 2 hour long rainstorm.

That leaves the motherlode of all stragglers to collect over the next couple of days, and I only got 1 order, but who cares? I'm back on track and loving my Kleeneze business.

90-Day Plan - Day 3: Practice, What Practice?

A lot of Kleeneze distributors got hit by bad weather today, especially those in Scotland, where a roof blew off a block of Glasgow flats to land on houses in another street, lorries got blown over and trains got cancelled. They still carried on regardless.

I got hit by the back-to-work blues.

After the euphoria of yesterday's efforts, I went to work smiling. I was singing in the car (got to practice somewhere and the offspring complain when I sing in the bathroom). That lasted all of 5 minutes after I got into the office.

By the end of the day, I was drained, miserable and depressed. Over the Christmas break, I had focused on what I needed to do to build my Kleeneze business's momentum, to the point where I was so fired up, I didn't want to break off for 6 hours sleep. I knew I was capable of achieving great things. I knew where I was heading, what I had planned, what work I needed to do, what routine I needed to follow. I was happy, as I always am when I'm fully occupied.

My day job doesn't have any of that. I have no project to work on, no activity assigned to me, despite my persistent requests. Normally, I'd find myself something to do that makes use of my skills, but I've been told categorically by my line manager and indirectly by his boss that these skills are of little to no use to the team as it currently exists. There are no suitable vacancies in other teams and I don't want to job-hop when I'm trying to build my own business after day-job hours.

So, I'm stuck with nothing to do, but I'm expected to look as though I'm working flat out on technical issues. I can't leave my desk for more than a few minutes at a time, as my line manager sits opposite me and is well aware I don't have any business users to talk to because he hasn't provided me with any work. Taking and making personal calls is discouraged and commented on.

Eleven weeks ago, I had a stress management meeting, which my line manager assured me would be written up and copies provided to both myself and HR. I'm still waiting. Mind you, he only completed my performance review paperwork after 8 weeks delay and a number of comments from his boss...

In that stress management meeting, I emphasised that not being fully occupied and not being allowed to utilise my many skills properly was causing me untold stress, to the point where I could have been used as a textbook set of symptoms by trainee stress counsellors. My line manager's response was to tell me, "don't take on the business, the business always wins." I got told to bite my tongue and accept whatever is said about me or my work, to be friendly regardless and to just do the work and make sure it's "good enough". I also got told that my skill set is unusual and unlikely to be used in forthcoming projects and that I should accept that and get on with it.

Since then, he's made no effort to give me any work at all. I can only assume that's what happens when you "rock the boat" in this company.

I know I'm whinging, but I was so upset after being back at work for one day that I couldn't face anybody. I slunk upstairs and shut myself in the office for most of the evening and played solitaire over and over again before crawling into bed for a fitful night's sleep.

What am I proud of today?

Nothing. I let the day-job get to me, yet again, to the point where I'm severely stressed and avoiding people.

What can I do to improve, tomorrow?

I can get over this stress and lack of self-confidence by working on my business. As I get better with my Kleeneze business, my confidence will grow and my focus will move towards my real goals rather than my day-job.

90-Day Plan - Day 2: The Benefit of Starting Off Badly

After yesterday's issues, today had to get better fast.

It's amazing how much more focused I felt after creating that to-do list and then reviewing it first thing.

By mid-afternoon, around everything else I had to do to prepare for the family's return to work and school, I had 200 catalogues out in a new area.

Plus, I've got a clear view of how I'm operating my business over the next few weeks. I actually feel energised for the first time in months.

I'm looking forward to my best year yet.

What am I proud of today?

Getting 200 catalogues out in a new area in under 2 hours.

What can I improve on tomorrow?

Get more organised with my non-business activities, speed up and increase focus on my business activities.

90-Day Plan - Day 1: The Activity Hokey-Cokey

That's me*, completely out of step with what I'm supposed to be doing, but loving it anyway.

Of course, it's not really me, it's a stock clipart. This is me (right hand side at the start, in the middle):

Yes, I'm a morris dancer :-)

I'm not dancing much at the moment; I've chosen to concentrate on the 90-day plan instead.

Which, of course, is not going quite according to plan at the moment. Today was my day for putting new books out, which hasn't happened because I'm dancing attendance on those in the family who aren't feeling very well. To be fair, there's more flu symptoms than hangover symptoms, but, yet again, my plans take a back seat to everybody and everything else.

So my to-do list is a big one and I've lost the opportunity to blanket drop 200 catalogues.

Having said that, I've cleared a backlog of emails and I'm sorting out my study/music room/general dumping ground to free up some space for bagging catalogues and orders, so today hasn't been a complete wash-out.

What am I proud of today?

I worked on something to do with my Kleeneze business, despite the temptation to put off the start of my 90-day plan for another day.

What can I improve on, tomorrow?

I can stop messing around and concentrate on working my plan. Plus, I can set boundaries with my family, so they realise I am actually serious about making this plan work.

Does anybody else get side-tracked this early and easily or is it just me?

Happy New Year, everybody!

Lies, Bias and the Regional Press

It's not often that I'm pushed to anger by a regional newspaper, especially one that I rarely read. But I'll make an exception in the case of the Northampton Chronicle. In fact, based on their moderation of one particular article, I am actively advising that people think very carefully before wasting their money on this particular blot on the journalist's escutcheon.

I keep track of Kleeneze's news appearances; it's an old habit made easier by the advent of Google Alerts. So, when I discovered a nice little story about Peter and Jillian Griffiths and their fund-raising efforts, I was delighted.

That is, until I read the vitriolic and incoherent comment posted by an individual calling themselves "CitizenNorthampton". Amongst other bile, he accused them of profiteering, greed, dishonesty and scamming their customers. He also claimed that Kleeneze is seen as a scam by others.

Intrigued, I went through the weird signup process and posted a response. I'd love to cut and paste that response here, but I can't. The reason I can't is that it was removed by a moderator. A moderator who is happy to have the Northampton Chronicle's website peppered with potentially libellous comments from a disgruntled obsessive.

My deleted comment pointed out that Kleeneze distributors are self-employed and that Kleeneze is a legitimate business. I pointed out that, after overheads, petrol, carrier bags, replacement catalogues and postage are taken away from the retail profit figures that he quoted, an extra 10% cash donation to charity is a very nice gesture and not something deserving of vilification. I questioned the original post's figures. I also congratulated Peter and Gillian for their efforts. No reason to delete that, you would think. I wasn't promoting Kleeneze per se, I didn't link to a business website; I merely tried to redress the balance. Unfortunately, that wasn't good enough for the moderator, or the anonymous CitizenNorthampton.

Because CitizenNorthampton responded to me, not once, but twice. I had suggested he might be bitter about Kleeneze (a reasonable point given the nastiness of his original post) and that he might be an ex-distributor. He claims to be an ex-customer of "one of the unnamed people in the picture" and denies having been a distributor. He claims to have a new distributor who "explain[ed] ... in great detail how this business works".

Let's stop there for a minute. How many of us distributors have explained "in great detail" how the Kleeneze bonus structure works to a customer? How many customers have asked us to explain? Am I the only one who doesn't believe this guy's explanation and justification for his vitriolic comments?

Because they are vitriolic; yet again he claims Kleeneze is a scam, that Peter and Jillian are profiteering and he threatens them with reporting them to the charities commission. His final comment, posted at 15:39 on Saturday (at a time when my original comment was still there) still claims that Kleeneze is a scam.

And the moderator, and presumably the Northampton Chronicle management, are happy to let their bias show and let those lies stand. I think Peter and Jillian have enough grounds for a letter before action, asking for those comments to be removed.

I certainly won't be advertising in that paper and I wouldn't advise my team to do so either.

90-Day Plan: D-1 - Plan Review Time

So, it's D-day minus 1 and I'm trying to do my initial review.

Looking at yesterday's figures, I've got some serious work to do with this plan, to set me up for the end of 2012.

On Monday, I put 180 catalogues out to an area that had been blanket dropped by three other distributors within the previous 2 days. Needless to say, I only found that out yesterday when a couple of very nice people let me know their opinion of the three other distributors. (I'm still receiving calls complaining about catalogue spam today; Betterware and Avon also hit this area over the weekend).

180 catalogues gave me £55 of sales and that's only because I was smart enough to put the New Year's Sale brochure in with everything else. Normally I'd get at least £100 - £150 in for the same number of blanket-dropped catalogues.

Now, I fully support and appreciate the freedom that Kleeneze's business model gives me; I'm not tied to a specific area like Avon representatives are. The inevitable downside is the seasonal catalogue spam caused by distributors converging on a likely area to blanket drop. Catalogue spam is always worse around Christmas. It puts potential customers off and those of us who stick with trying to build a solid retail base spend the following few months calming our regulars down, who often don't realise the realities of building a Kleeneze distributor customer base.

Anyway, back to the review:

1. Do I know EXACTLY what I'm doing for each of the next 90 days?

I did. Until I got the third lousy retail result in a row. Yes, I'm annoyed. I'm also focused on getting £1600 of sales every period from now on. I have a list of roads to start dropping and presenting to; I may need to amend that on a weekly basis during this plan to build a solid retail base.

If I don't get the retail sales, I can't invest in recruitment. It's that simple. So I need to come up with FREE ways of getting leads. I'll need to amend my recruitment plan on a weekly basis as well.

2. Does my family know and understand what I'm doing?

Yes, and they don't believe I can do it. Welcome to the real world.

3. How am I tracking my activity?

RETAIL:

Catalogues out, in, order quantity, order value, average value per order, average value per catalogue, number presented, number blanket dropped, which roads, when, who looks, who doesn't look but hands back, who 'loses', who refuses, who orders, which other distributor.

RECRUITMENT:

Type of lead generation, quantity of leads in, quantity of information packs out, results of calls and follow-up calls, who's not interested, who are tyre-kickers, who want a PAYE job, who want supplementary income, who want to be active, number of signups, which type of signup.

4. What are my back-up plans when/if Life! gets in the way?

Life! has already got in the way. I'm used to it. This is more down to being self-disciplined, something I need to continue working to improve. So, a list of incentives to stick to the plan, and a big fat chart of the money I owe are on my study wall right now. I have built in a little slack to my plan so that, should I need to deal with Life! for a few days in any period, I can do so and still achieve my targets.

5. How exactly will I get back on track if I drift away from my planned activity?

I cannot afford to drift away from my planned activity. If I do that even once, I won't achieve my targets. Self-discipline is key, yet again.

6. How will I reward myself for goals I have achieved, and when?
I have a few incentives planned, but I also have a big incentive, which I can only pay for if I achieve every goal I've set for myself: http://www.maddyprior.co.uk/sbcoursedesc.htm#10 - being taught to sing in a masterclass by one of my heroes. For me, that's a major goal.

90-day plan, here I come!

Congratulations, Stanley!

Well done to Stanley Stewart for being a finalist in the Direct Selling Entrepreneur Awards this year. And congratulations on getting his story in his local paper as well.

Stanley went full-time with his Kleeneze business in 1997 after starting part-time in 1995. He obviously puts a lot of work into inspiring and supporting his team and has been rightly rewarded for doing so.