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Hosting a Grand Opening or Open House

As a new Designer the first party you should schedule is your own grand opening.  If your house is under construction and you just can't have one at your home find someone who will host one for you.  As you become a veteran Designer you can hold an open house to introduce each new catalog and/or hold an open house during the holidays.  Hosting one of these events can dramatically affect your business, especially if you are a new Designer! Not only can you generate extra sales, but you can expand your bookings throughout the year.  If you are new to the business host your Grand Opening within the first 3 weeks of joining. For a holiday open house plan on latter November or early December for a last chance, first glance opportunity with the new catalog. If you join CH in the fall first hold a Grand opening when you join and then plan a follow up Holiday Open House.  Many guests who were not able to attend the first time may do so the next. Guests who have been introduced to CH in the fall will love their products and be anxious to see your new Spring/Summer catalog.

Following are
some helpful tips to follow in executing these types of events to get the best return on your investment:

Plan, plan, plan.
This is especially true when planning a holiday open house. If you are planning an all-day, six or eight hour event, you should spend at least 18-24 hours preparing for it.

For a Grand Opening you should select a Saturday or Sunday afternoon as soon as possible You can extend your event to both 2-3 hrs in an afternoon and then again in the evening.   
Attendance is usually much higher on the weekends. It is usually best to use your home, but if that’s not possible, a small restaurant, church fellowship hall or other facility will work well.

Invite everyone! Friends, relatives, neighbors, coworkers, hostesses and customers. Include everyone on your talk to list and tell all of them to bring several friends with them.  If you wish to include walk-ins or passers-by, you may opt to use a meeting room in a restaurant or at a hall.

Create an attractive, eye-catching invitation to your event. Use festive seasonal paper with matching envelopes, and design a flier or folded invitation on your home computer. The more enticing, the better. You want to grab their attention! If you plan to have a “sale,” be sure to say so. Note that refreshments will be provided, and numerous drawings will be held throughout the event. Remind your invited guests to bring a friend or two with them, and offer an appropriate incentive such as tickets for prizes and the hostess benefits.  Include a ticket in the envelop for the guest to bring with them for a drawing for prizes, free and ½ price merchandise. Tell them that they will earn another ticket for each friend they bring with them! (You can simply use the hostess benefits earned with the orders you receive at your event.)

I can’t stress the following point enough: even though you are sending invitations,
a follow-up phone call is absolutely necessary to ensure good attendance at your open house. Time after time, people have relayed stories of going to a good amount of time and expense for an open house that is not well attended. Why? Because they did not pick up the phone and personally invite the guests, then follow-up with reminder calls before the event. In order to make this event a huge success, you must pick up the phone!

"Hi Mary, this is Sue.
Did you get the invitation to my open house on Saturday? I’m planning my refreshments and door prizes, and I just want to make sure I have plenty. I wondered what time you would be stopping by and how many friends you would like to bring? Great! I’ll be looking forward to seeing you then!” (This message works great on the answering machine, too, asking for a call back.)

Your enthusiastic phone call will make the biggest difference in the attendance of your event. If someone is unable to attend, you can offer to bring by your catalog and some of your newest items for a personal showing on another day, or if it is feasible, you might even invite them to visit your display the “morning after."

Deck the Halls: Decorate to the max! A huge advantage to having the event in your own home is that you can easily bring out your decorations and enhance each room intended for use. If you join in February have a New Year's Party, in February a Valentines Day Party, in March a Saint Patty's Day party, offer a special when mothers and daughters attend together around Mother's Day, in the summer a baseball party or picnic, in fall a back to school or Halloween party. And of course, plan a Christmas party if you join late in the year.  And the best part, you can just leave it in place for the upcoming holidays!  Twinkle lights and our scented candles are a must to add ambiance, and don’t forget the holiday music! Use your imagination and have fun!

Create several seasonal or holiday themes with a variety of displays,
complete with appropriate props, rather than one major display of your products. It’s important to limit your props so they enhance, rather than dominate, your displays. The number and types of displays depends largely on what you currently have for product and available space, but be creative and have a great time!

Be well prepared.
Do everything that can be done the night before (put together your displays, prepare refreshments, etc.) and get a good night’s sleep. You will want to be as energetic and enthusiastic as possible. Especially for a Christmas Open House, put on a festive Christmas sweater or shirt to get your guests in the “holiday shopping mood,” with holiday carols playing and cinnamon sticks or cloves simmering on the stove.

Greet each guest personally as they arrive. Offer catalogs, wish lists or holiday shopping lists (family, friends, teachers, boss, etc), order forms and pens, as well as any coupons or tickets for free giveaways. (Packets could be assembled ahead of time). Have a guest book for everyone to sign as they arrive. Explain door prize options and lead your guests to the display area.  Show them an area with specially priced merchandise you want to cash and carry or a table with free gifts that can be chosen when they book a show.

Encourage your guests to browse through the displays, pointing out any specials or sales you are offering.
Mingle with all the guests, giving your time to all. If you anticipate a very large crowd, engage the help of another Designer or friend. Your helper(s) can assist your guests in making their selections, but you should complete the order, close the sale and initiate the booking.

Incentives and door prizes: Make sure you have plenty of items to use as door prizes, incentives and giveaways.
If you plan to make this an annual event, the first one must be memorable. One exciting way to award door prizes is to have drawings every hour, on the hour. Set a timer to go off at the top of each hour, and draw a lucky winner. The drawing box could be emptied after each drawing so the winners would most likely be the ones who are present.

Go for the bookings. Offer a special collection of products or enticing incentives as a separate display with an attractively-decorated door prize box nearby. Anyone who dates a show for sometime within the next 30 days (or the week after Christmas, or the first week in January, for example) could receive their choice of gifts (or be entered into a drawing for the collection, etc.)

To encourage bookings prior to the event, place a coupon in each guest’s invitation: “Date a show to be held by ___________ and you may enter this coupon in a drawing for a special gift” or “Hold a New Year’s show during the first two weeks of January, and receive a truly special gift.” “Recommend someone you think would enjoy hosting one of my shows, and you will receive a special gift. (Print name and phone # on back of coupon.)

You can easily
make up a flyer and include it in each invitation. They can be designed and printed on your home computer and it’s fun to add your own creative flair. Some suggestions to include on your flyer: “Bring a guest to my Grand Opening and you may enter this ticket in a drawing for an exciting gift!” Include a ticket with each invitation you send. “Bring your friends, receive an extra ticket for each guest!” “You may enter your tickets in my Open House drawing for a lovely prizes and free hostess benefits… just because you came!” “Watch our 7 minute Opportunity DVD and share your opinion for a chance to win two additional tickets!”

Ticket ideas for sales: “By placing a product order at my Open House, you will receive a ticket for a drawing for absolutely spectacular prizes!” “Share your shopping spree with your friends. By bringing three outside orders to my Open House, you will receive a ticket for each.” (You can share the team website at www.HomePartyOpportunities.com with your guests and invite them to encourage their friends to shop from the online catalog.)  At your Grand Opening you can announce “Agree to take one of my catalogs and obtain at least three orders in a specified period of time, and you may enter another ticket in the drawing!”

Other ticket
ideas for recruiting: “Interested in a new income opportunity? Arrange a time to view our Opportunity DVD and you may enter a ticket in the drawing!” Or “Recommend someone you think would enjoy doing what I do, and you will receive a ticket.

After the Open House, evaluate your results. Whether it was a smashing success or relatively small, be encouraged. Generally, each time you host an open house, it will be better than the last. People come to expect and enjoy this special annual event, and once they know what is in store, they won’t want to miss it!

Send out appropriate thank-you notes or make a phone call immediately after the event to those who placed orders, brought friends, booked shows, or helped behind the scenes.
Remember, the fortune is always in the follow up, so follow up on all booking and recruiting leads right away!

You are all wished a
successful and profitable Grand Opening/Open House!

Grand Opening Letter - Customize this letter for your special Grand Opening!

Mystery Hostess Open House Flyer

Grand Opening Flyer

Door Prize Tickets