Have you been pushing off your growing to-do list to deal with in the new year? Well, read this article to avoid having an intense batch of the Sunday Scaries come to New Year's Day!

‍

The first thing you want to do is check through your upcoming party calendar. If you have parties already lined up for the new year, then make sure you check in with those hosts as soon as possible. Get them excited to start prepping for their parties. You want to enforce the idea of their hosting duties after a long holiday break so that when you do start things rolling, you and your hosts can get straight into partying! A great way to start a conversation is to ask about their holidays and send them the host perks for this upcoming month. A quick 'Hey! I hope you had a lovely holiday. I just wanted to make sure you knew about all the awesome perks you can earn for your party in January! Are you getting excited?"

Checking in a little earlier than you usually would with your January hosts also helps prevent cancellations!

‍

If you still need parties for January, then right now is a great time to send out booking messages. So many of your customers and social media friends are in the same limbo space that you are. We are nearing the end of the year but need help figuring out where to focus our energy. So it's a great moment to take advantage of that lack of direction.

‍

One way to increase booking parties in January is to do a "Cleaning out the Closet" Giveaway! Take a look at the inventory cluttering your house, put it in a box, and give it away as the prize for a drawing. You revive a dead VIP Group or create engagement on your social media feed. Take a picture of your box of goodies, and create a quick graphic with the photo that says, "It's time to clean out my inventory! Who wants to win some free [insert your company's name here]."

‍

In the graphic's caption, explain that everyone who comments below will get entered to win. Then, for every person that says they want to win your goodie box, send them a booking message! Tell them that if they book a party with you, they will get two entries to win, and they'll also be able to earn free and discounted products! You'll be swimming in bookings in no time.

‍

Another strategy to take as you're prepping for 2023 is to reach out to all your past hosts from 2022 and 2021! Go through and find their direct contact information. Send them a text to check in on them and see if they want to book with you for 2023. Make it a customer service-based check-in where you ask them specifically if they like the products they purchased from their host rewards. That gives it an extra personal touch and helps you start a genuine conversation with them.

‍

Organize Your Working Space

Organizing your physical and digital working space will help you take full advantage of the new year’s momentum. If you do not have a designated work space, it’s time to find one. As a direct sales entrepreneur, you likely wear many hats at once - parent, full-time/part-time employee, and household coordinator. Because of this, you squeeze in time for your business wherever you can - even if that means doing it while being distracted. Designating a space that is just yours and not a multi-task center will allow you to whisk through tasks that usually take you all day.

‍

Tips for organizing your space:

• Go through your drawers! Get rid of anything that doesn’t work, like old pens and highlighters. Keep the writing utensils you know you will use near your working station, and put the rest in a common area to be used by everyone else. Keeping items around because they still function will ultimately clutter your brain. Simplify and reduce!
• Organize all the documents you might have stuffed in folders, drawers, or left to pile on your desk. Find a designated storage space for all the different categories of documents. Take this time to create a system for organizing documents that get dumped in your workspace. If you’re the one who coordinates family schedules, you likely have documents in your office that have nothing to do with work. Place a box in the space where those documents naturally end up. That way, at least you have a designated area for them, and they don’t get thrown onto your desk haphazardly.
• Get a monthly wall calendar and place it where you can see it on the wall. Even if you already have a planner or another one on your fridge - having a calendar within eyesight while you’re working ensures you don’t overbook yourself.

Decluttering your digital space is essential to starting the new year right!

The first thing you want to do is go through the files stored on your computer.

• Does your computer screen look chaotic? Screenshots, downloaded pdfs, and saved documents all over the place? It's time to clean that up. You'll want to review all those files and decide what to keep and delete. Anything you only used once or saved because you 'thought you might need it later' can be deleted. Everything else needs a proper folder. Think about how you searched for items on your computer over the past year. What would have made your life easier to have instant access to if you had just had a proper place for it? Preemptively organizing your files in how you use them will save you time and help prevent decision fatigue.
• Do you have documents on your computer that don't have a title? Or graphics and photos you use all the time that don't have easily searchable names? This likely leads you to redownload files instead of searching for them on your computer and creating unnecessary digital clutter. Go through all your download files, rename the ones you're keeping to something you can easily search for, and delete the rest.
• Delete any programs from your computer that you downloaded over the year but did not use.

‍

Organizing your online digital workspace:

• If you don't have bookmarked websites you use all the time, do that now. It'll be one less thing to think about when you get into your workflow. If you have too many bookmarks - it's time to clean those out. Anything you haven't visited in the last six months, unless it's tax or household-related, must be taken off.
• Get a password manager. You might think the easiest way to deal with all the passwords you need to keep track of is to use the same one for everything. However, this is dangerous and weakens your protection online. To properly manage passwords, so you're not constantly having to go through the time suck that is forgetting them - get a password manager to keep track of all of them for you!
• Clear out your cookies and cache. It's convenient to leave it alone, but it does slow down your computer. Plus, it's always a good practice to clear out all the sites tracking your traffic and data.
• Declutter online document storage places like Google Drive and Dropbox. You might have rough drafts you don't need anymore, untitled documents for notes that are just taking up space, or even documents you need to retitle but haven't gotten around to it. Organize the documents here as you would on your computer, into folders of how you are most likely to search for them.
• Organize your inbox. Unsubscribe to spam and marketing emails. Give yourself permission to unsubscribe to anything you leave unread in your inbox for months, including newsletters related to your industry, news sites, and notifications. Get your 'unread' inbox down to zero. It'll be one less thing vying for your attention.

‍

Organize your phone & tablets: 

When you open your phone or tablet, is it as chaotic as your computer screen, but instead of saved photos and documents, it’s a bunch of disorganized apps? Re-organizing these critical tools will help you avoid becoming overstimulated and help you use them to be more productive rather than as a distraction.

‍

• The easiest way to start decluttering your mobile devices is to delete apps you are not using. This includes games you started but lost interest in, well-intentioned productivity systems, and apps you used to use all the time and are just keeping around for sentimental reasons. If you’re feeling bold - now is also a great time to delete any apps you waste time using or side-track your goals.
• Re-organize your apps into folders. For instance - say you have a social media folder where you keep your Facebook and Messenger apps. However, you don’t use those apps for social media. You mainly use them for your work. Placing them in a folder designated for all the mobile tools you need for your business makes it easier to find and makes you less tempted to click into non-work related apps.
• Delete old phone numbers! Unless they are family or networking contacts - anyone you haven’t been in touch with within the last two years should be deleted.
• Transfer photos off your phone and tablet! Back them up on Google Drive or Dropbox. Delete duplicates and screenshots of things you don’t need to remember anymore. Once those photos are backed up - take them off your mobile device entirely. This will clear up a ton of space for you!

Declutter your social media:

• Do you use Facebook groups for training and keeping in touch with your team? It's a good idea to go through those groups and purge them of anyone who is no longer an active consultant. It's more important for the group members to be engaged than for the group to have a lot of members. Getting rid of anyone who isn't a part of the business anymore is an easy way to boost what gets seen by the members who are.
• Clear out your VIP Customer Facebook Group. You can go into the member section of your group, and underneath each name, it'll tell you when that person was last active. If you have members that have been inactive for over a year - it's time to take them out of the group. If you're worried about potentially losing that customer - reach out with a quick message that says - "Hey! I'm cleaning out my VIP Group and noticed you hadn't stopped by in a while. Do you still find my content valuable, or would you like to be removed from the group?" The concept of rejection might be scary, but it's better to get an upfront answer about how invested they are in your business rather than waste energy on them later. Whittling down your VIP Group members will pinpoint your genuine customer base.
• Start the new year with a new profile picture and cover photo! Changing these up will get more eyes on you and help spark new engagement.
• Go through all your platforms and unfollow anything that isn't serving you and your goals. Start following new influencers aligned with what you want to see and be motivated every day.

‍

Prep your Virtual Party Template for 2023!

Go through your PostmyParty Template and take out all the holiday sales and content. Then, add content that reflects the season.

Use the features PostmyParty has available to save time, like our scheduled comments. You can use the scheduled comment feature when you’re using your Business Page to schedule parties. Scheduling comments allows you to always be active in your parties without constantly checking into them. You’ll be able to lead by example with minimal effort! It’s the easiest way to increase engagement at your parties. If you’re interacting with your host and their guests will too.

‍

How to schedule comments in PostmyParty

Step 1: Click “Edit” next to the Template you want to schedule comments.

Step 2: In each post, there is a section that says “Comments.” Click on the [0].

Step 3: Click on [Add New Comment +]

Step 4: Add text or picture and schedule it like a post. I like to schedule it a half an hour to an hour afterward. You can also use Replacement Tokens to add the shopping link or reference the host as a conversation starter.

‍

Go through all your posts and see where you can add comments. Even if the comment is only an example of how your product works or a recipe that uses it, it’s a great way to keep posts relevant in the party. Another great way to use comments is to schedule reminders on posts you want to pop up again, like giveaways or last calls.

‍

PostmyParty is all about finding ways to help run your business easier. Our Comments feature is just one of many. We’ll be announcing new features soon in 2023, so stay tuned!

‍