New way of advertising

Facebook advertising is turning out to be a great resource for me. On one dollar per day, I can pick up four new customers per month. If I only run the ad Thur-Fri-Sat-Sun (so, $4/week x 4 weeks = $16/month), it's more than paid for by the Quick Start bonuses. On two dollars per day (so, $32/month), I've picked up six customers so far with one final weekend to go.

A handful of new customers per month might not seem like much but most of my warm market is already on this pet food so I wanted an easy way to attract new business. The way I look at it is: Pets stay on this food for life, so these are most likely customers for life. They're into healthy foods, they have multiple pets, they have friends who have pets. So there is potential for add-ons and referrals. And most of my good reps in my downline come from happy customers who have done other home sales before and know how it works.

If I pick up four new customers per month and I teach just four of my downline reps to do this, and they teach it to their downline, how will the numbers grow?

Assuming adding no reps at all, this is just me and four of my downline adding four new customers per month. That is 240 new customers added to my downline in a year.

The company says the average order is $60. My average order is more like $100 because my customers are multi-pet people that I pick up on the Internet. So this is, PER MONTH, from $16,000 - $24,000 in sales. That's regular, repeat, loyal monthly sales that reps from Tupperware to Avon to Mary Kaye to Pampered Chef would love to see... and they're all ordering off the toll-free line or Internet with very little more than a "thank you" card and an annual Christmas card from me. Not bad.

I don't even want to think about the numbers if we are all adding one new rep per month and showing them how to do this.

Busy running AND doing HealthyPetNet!

What in the world happened this week? Wow! I've had so much going on with my Team in Training marathon group and with HealthyPetNet I can't see straight! It's FUN!

You know, runners are pet people. LOTS have dogs. So after last week's run, a few of us came in early and were sitting around talking and the topic of dogs came up.

Anyway, I had trial size bags in my car. I gave out 10 of them! Got responses back from people saying, Wow, my dog is picking out the new Life's Abundance (HPN) food from his old food. Then other people would get on the thread and say, Hey, my dog does that, too! (Course, I knew that would happen, it's what always happens :-)

I ordered another 16 for this week because everybody wanted to try it. Before I even get to my group tomorrow, I've already shared about six bags with other people. So I just got online to order another few sets of trial-sizes with a whole bunch of the small pouch size samples.

A friend I knew from another sales group called me. She has been on HPN for a few years. She shared it with a friend who also wanted to learn about doing it as a business.

Wow. Is it positive energy or what?! I love it!

Liveblogging HealthyPetNet Conference Call

Tuesday, March 17, 2009 6:30 p.m. MDT

Dennis Berardi, company founder and former CEO is conducting this conference call.

Economy is scary

9/10 people said they are open to learning more about how to increase their level of security

We have a product people use every day. People don't lose their jobs and quit feeding their pets. The dogs and cats are part of the family.

We love this opportunity.

But first, Lindsay Andrew...

This lady lost her job a month and a
half ago. She has gone full-time at HealthyPetNet, her sales have increased
unbelievably. She had been in HealthyPetNet much earlier but hadn't really
worked it as a business. Her mother had been in it for years.

She makes cold calls every day. She's having great success. Her
sponsor, John Albrecht, has been helping her a lot. She gets on three-way
calls and conference calls. She has acquired many new reps. She
calls them to help them every day. She's treating this like a full-time
job. Makes a huge difference to make that relationship with your new
reps.

Her volume was $3400 per month when she started. The next month, her
volume was $13,000. She has new reps who are in pet professions, breeders,
etc.

Dennis observed that it makes a difference when you treat this as a
business.

The three-way calls are so important.

Now, we're talking about the reason for the call. Something new and exciting.

We have 3500 reps.

The key to this business is to build an organization. You need the J Paul Getty thing, I'd rather have the efforts of 100 people than of my own efforts.

March Madness Recruiting Promotion

It started yesterday!

If you sign up two executive reps by the end of the month, you will receive an extra $100 bonus. Then you get the Quick Start bonuses which is $86. If you are an Exec Rep right now, you would get two shares of the recruiting pool which is about $60.

Tell them about this promotion. That's a lot of money!

This should cause a lot of excitement within our group. Get on the phone and let your reps know. Do three-ways.

Set a goal for yourself that you are going to sign up two new reps by the end of the month.

What if you could imagine that you would lose your home if you didn't sign up two executive reps?! You would do it!

If this works great, he suspects that they will do this again.

Then he introduced our new CEO, Lester Thornhill.

Lester... Look at what Lindsay will do, she'll increase her sales as she
teaches her reps and gets more reps.

Promotion. You can do it multiple times. If you sign up four
reps, you'll get that extra money for them! No limit!

Lindsay's story should tell us that we can do anything. Take it
seriously! Work this business with a full-time attitude.

You don't have to do this alone. Use your upline. Do three-ways. If your sponsor can't do this with you, call the company, we'll get you someone who can work it with you.

The top reps were not always as confident as they are today.

Draw the line in the sand and work this thing with a full-time attitude.

Dennis: If you believe you can do it, you can do it.

They're going to post the winners on an email.

Visualize yourself being on that list.

Our goal is to double our distributorship. If we all signed up one rep we'd double our distributorship.

[So as I'm typing this, I'm thinking of the ten large sample bags I just gave out at my marathon training group. I've ordered another 12 bags for this week. Hmmmm.].

He told about a rep who has been on calls with him, she has signed up five new reps, added $2400 to her sales. And she is blind and in a wheelchair. If she can do it, you can do it.

If you go to that convention (in May) it will change your life.

Let's do this together!

http://www.healthypetfood.biz/

What to feed a dog with bladder crystals?

I was working out with my trainer this morning. He has two adorable little Springer spaniels, young rescue dogs. One had crystals in his urine and was put on a special pet food. Justin was feeding them Canidae, I had given him a bag of Life's Abundance and I keep him in dog treats, but the little dog had a bladder problem (not related to the food) so the vet put him on Science Diet C/D.

Knowing that I'm a holistic pet person and animal rescuer, asked me what he should put his little guy on. He definitely wanted a better food because the little dog is not gaining weight as well as his brother.

I was cautious about putting him on Life's Abundance because in my experience with cats, UTI's can be deadly so you have to give them prescription diets. But I gave him a 3.3 lb sample bag that I had in my car just to get him off the Beneful and told him I'd do some homework.

I'm so happy to say that, as long as the dog doesn't have a chronic UTI problem or kidney stones, he can be on our food! Crystals don't lead to kidney stones in dogs the way they do in cats. And they're apparently quite common. It's all about making sure you DO treat any infection that is present.

I am not a veterinarian so you should always run these ideas by your vet.

Here is my homework:

From JustAnswer.pet -- answered by a real vet
http://www.justanswer.com/questions/xqw-causes-dog-urine-crystals

The main thing I see on the UA is the pH is high.

So now that I have some history...I will give you "my opinion" on this
problem.

Struvite crystals in a dogs urine...in the absence
of a UTI, don't mean anything...and don't lead to anything. Acutally the crystals
can form in urine as it cools. In any case, you can take the urine from 100 dogs with out UTIs and maybe 40% have crystals...doesn't mean anything. I do not agree that C/D is the correct food at this time.

Unfortunately, lots of vets treat these like they do cats, but the formula for cats, like acidifying urine and special foods...are not the treatment of choice.

Now, if this dog becomes chronic with UTIs, and struvite crystals progress calculi...then problems...but it will not be because she has crystals now...the issue
relies on the infections.

A premium food that is balanced is fine. Some of my clients will occasionally use cranberry pills...but the urine acidity is not as important in dogs as cats, but it can help alittle.

Here are some great natural tips to help your dog avoid crystals:

Once a diagnosis has been obtained from your veterinarian and treatment has been
implemented, it is important to adhere to these tips:

Keep fresh water available for the dog at all times, and encourage consumption of water. Keeping the kidneys and bladders flushed is of paramount importance to help prevent crystals and stone formation. Water consumption is very, very important!

Try and feed moist diets, such as fresh food diets, broths, canned diets and extra
water added to foods served.

Do not keep the dog confined, but allow access for urination at all times or as frequently as possible. Holding the urine causes concentrations that encourage crystal and stone formation.

Distilled water may be helpful in averting some cases of stone and crystal formation and check your own water supply for minerals if possible, especially if you have
hard water in your area.

Giving a B vitamin supplement may be helpful and has been indicated in use for humans with these problems. http://www.doctoryourself.com/kidney.html (good site for human stone problems)

There is also some question that high calcium, rather than causing stones,
may help dissolve them. This is also true of vitamin C. (See above link)

Source: http://www.b-naturals.com/newsletter/bladder-stones-crystals/

Yep, doubled sister's check and added $100 to my own!

My efforts in December paid off. My sister's small check (normally $50) doubled to $100, which was my whole goal! But because I have a downline, somehow, my efforts added $100 to my own check! Nice!




I could tell that new blog articles made a huge difference. In fact, take a look at the stats from my pet food blog:

But we also did it with Christmas cards and thank you letters on new orders.

So far this month, I've added two new customers for one friend and six new customers for my sister. If I will be sure to write new articles for my blog at least three times per week -- on the hot topics (such as pet food recalls, ingredients, and health issues that can be resolved through nutrition) -- I'm confident we can keep attracting loyal new customers.

But this business only brings in modest money with customers. You really need to build a network of distributors under you. So I will figure out how to do that online, next.

Dog food for a friend with lymphoma

I'm not someone who gives a traditional "welcome wagon" gift. Years ago, I was famous for taking a bowl of the cereal, Lucky Charms, to new move-ins in my college area.

So when I found out this morning that a dear friend was just diagnosed with a nasty blood cancer, lymphoma, what did I do? Well, first I cried. Several times throughout the day, in fact, as I told my co-workers about it.

But then I thought, well, she has dogs and cats. I'm not ANY good at taking meals. But I can take her some dog food?! Right?! I mean, I *am* a rep, I get the stuff at cost. Maybe I could boost my sales just a bit so as to dedicate a little bit to keeping her in dog and cat food.

And I can run. By the way, in case you didn't know, I run marathons for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. It's their Team in Training program, which was started 20 years ago by a dad who lost his beautiful daughter to leukemia. I blog about it over at http://SheCanRun.wordpress.com.

Anyway, we do what we can do. God bless her.

24,570 customers with the new selling system?

HealthyPetNet just released a new sample pet food bag for dog food and cat food that comes with some amazing trial run statistics. Out of 500 sample bags given out, over half of the recipients became customers and one in twelve became a rep.

The conclusion you can draw is this:

If you give out twelve sample bags every month, you're going to pick up six new customers and one new rep. And you do this every month.

If you teach your new rep how to give out twelve sample bags per month, it's likely that THEY'LL pick up six new customers and one new rep. And they do this every month. And you teach them how to support THEIR new reps.

And so on.

So I wondered what kind of money you could make if you worked the business like this? Because honestly, while I can rake in new customers and have quite a few good reps, I haven't made building a rep base my focus. I sure will now!

I had to figure it out in MS Excel. Correct me if you see something wrong, but I calculated based on me getting 6 new customers and one new rep every month, and showing every new rep how to do the same thing.

For contrast, if all I do is build it for customers and I get 6 new customers a month, times twelve months, that's 48 new customers.

This model allows for each of the new reps getting 6 new customers a month.

Total Customers Total Reps
1....... 6................. 1
2...... 18................ 3
3...... 42................ 7
4...... 90............... 15
5...... 186............. 31
6...... 378............. 63
7...... 762............. 127
8...... 1530.......... 255
9...... 3066......... 511
10.... 6138......... 1023
11.... 12282....... 2047
12.... 24570...... 4095

They say that customers average $80 per order but my experience is that it's more like $100 per order because there are so many multi-pet people. (And no, I haven't noticed sales dropping off with this economy. People who treat their pets this well are usually quite committed to high quality pet foods. They cut back in other areas).

So, say, $100 per month average order per customer * 24,750 customers = $2,475,000 retail sales per month throughout your downline.

Holey toledo! THIS is network marketing! Building an organization and earning a little bit based on your network's efforts.

I don't have any problem getting customers -- and by the way, if you follow my methods you can do it on the Internet without necessarily having to invest in the sample bags, although I do give them out often -- I just need to shift my focus to building a good rep structure. One rep per month EACH for myself and my sister. THAT's my new goal!

Are you with me? http://healthypetfood.biz