Merchandise To Stay Alive

Writen by Ian Crossley

Whatever anyone thinks, this motivational, self help, spiritual business, in its early stages is not very lucrative. You have to do your apprenticeship and get some credibility, and during this time there is not a lot of money flowing in.

When you have done your apprenticeship and you feel ready to move on, there are many opportunities to creating money at any talks that you give. The most obvious thing of course, if you have not got a published book, is to self publish something of your own. You must make sure that you do a professional job, 20 pages of photocopied text, stapled together, will not say very much about you, and will do more harm than good. Find yourself a friendly printer and put some real effort into your presentation. There are some very good budget ways to present your publication and make it look attractive to your clientele. Most books that are not recommended by someone, are actually sold on the presentation of the cover.

If you have given a good talk most people would like a momento of the evening. I always OK it with the promoters that it will be in order to sell my merchandise at the talk. If they agree you can be a bit flexible on your fee. You need to cover all budgets, and I actually sell, small items, such as fridge magnets and mousemats, right up to fleecy hooded sweatshirts, and T Shirts with my logo on them. An evening with 200 in the audience can actually end up with merchandise sales in excess of $1500.00 AUD. As most items are loaded at least 50% it becomes a nice little bonus to add to your fee. It is possible to take a much larger profit per item, but I feel it is better to sell as much as possible, after all they are actually buying your advert.

Another way to add to your income is to run your own seminars. This is not as difficult as it sounds. It is best to start with small numbers, say 100 people. Give your self plenty of time to organise it, because if you have not got access to credit card payment facilities, you will have to organise cheques.

In these early days, unless you are willing to take a gamble, I would not rely solely on people paying at the door. Obviously once you have sold some tickets you are comitted and then you can tell people that they can pay on the door, once you have covered your expenses. Depending on the venue, it is always a good idea to try and get your audience to hang around after the talk, this gives you a chance to get some individual clients and also lets people know that you are available. I personally provide coffee and biscuits free of charge, after each seminar. The coffee and tea are obviously in close proximity to the merchandise.

I hope this has given you some ideas and will assist you in promoting your business.

Croz is a motivational speaker and personal mentor. His specialist subject is De-Stress programmes His website is http://www.croz.com.au and the company that produce all his merchandise is http://www.oztz.com.au Croz can help you with ideas if you contact him via his website on the Contact Us page