Weekly Highlights

I hope you have all had a great week! Spring is approaching...it's a GREAT time for home parties & book fairs! Don't let time slip away from you...make sure you are taking the time NOW to fill your calendar for the Spring. It will be here before we know it! Here are some highlights from this week...

• Jessica Wood (Leighton, AL) had her first home party where she booked 5 more home parties!
• Tara Maple (Opelika, AL) is an exhibitor at an ESL teacher conference this weekend!
• We had a new consultant join our team...welcome Dana Vick (Denton, TX)!

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Consignment Sales

It's hard to believe, but the time is quickly approaching for spring consignment sales! This past week I was asked by a couple of consultants if consignment sales are good places for booths, so I thought I would share my answer with everyone. First off, let me say that I have never personally had a booth at a consignment sale. So, everything I share will be what I have heard from others.

If your goal at a consignment sale is tons of sales, then they may not be the best place for you to have a booth. Remember that moms at consignment sales are there because they want a deal, they aren't looking to pay full retail for ANYTHING! However, if you go into the event with the goal of booking spring home parties and finding recruits, then the event can be a home run! So, here are some ways you can accomplish your goal of using a consignment sale booth to fill your spring calendar AND find recruits:

• Share how they can earn books for FREE by hosting their own home party...moms at consultant sales LOVE to hear the word "free." Hahaha! You may even have a sign in a cheap acrylic frame that says, "Ask me how you can earn these books for FREE!"
• Have a drawing for $20 in free books. I got the drawing slips I use at booths from another consultant. I think they are great because they ask you to mark your interest in hosting a home party or starting your own business. There are also 4 to a page, so it doesn't use up too much paper to print them. Go here to download the drawing slips I use. WATCH them fill out their drawing slip...if you see them mark "yes" to hosting a home party or becoming a consultant, don't let them get away without booking the party or answering their questions about starting their own Usborne business.
• Have hostess packets & recruiting packets available for those who book parties or are very interested in joining your team. Nancy Ann also has GREAT recruiting postcards available on her website at www.usborneachievers.com each month...they include the current starter kit information & have a place for you to enter your information before printing. I print them on white cardstock. Email me for the username & password to enter Nancy Ann's site.
• Have the days you want to book home parties already circled in your calendar. If you already know what days you want to fill, hostesses can choose their date right then & you can immediately give them their hostess packet.

All that being said, you will probably have at least some sales. I would highly recommend having inventory at the booth and letting it be "cash & carry"...in other words, the customer purchases and leaves with the book that day. Another thing to consider when having a booth at a consignment sale is the TIME that is involved. These are all day events that last multiple days. It would probably be a good idea to do the event with others on your team. Tag team it and split times working the booth. :)

If you have had a booth at a consignment sale, please share any other tips you can think of in the comments below!

Literacy for a Lifetime

With more and more consultants on our team becoming interested in school & library sales, I am getting a lot of questions about our Literacy for a Lifetime program. This program is absolutely WONDERFUL for schools, libraries, and other organizations during these hard economic times! Honestly, explaining this program to librarians over the phone is what has allowed me to get my foot in the door with so many more schools the past 2 years.

What is Literacy for a Lifetime (LFL)?
It is a funds-matching program. If a school/library/organization has any grant, donated, or fundraised money and they spend a minimum of $200 with us, we will match it with 50% MORE IN FREE BOOKS. The whole order is also FREE SHIPPING. Fundraised money can be from a PTO fundraiser or even money raised from another company's book fair!

Is there a cap on how much can be matched?
NO...we can match $200 with another $100 in free books & we can match $10,000 with another $5,000 in free books, etc.

Is there a limit to the number of times an organization can participate in the LFL program?
NO...they can place LFL orders as often as they like.

How do I place the order?
On the Order Type screen in OrderPro, choose LFL. On the Select Books screen, put all the books they are purchasing in as Retail Books and their free books in as Free Books. You can submit the order through OrderPro. However, you will also need to fax in the LFL Grant Information Form which explains where the money came from (name of grant, name of fundraiser, etc.). This form can be found on your consultant site under Links, Downloads, FTP Site, Literacy for a Lifetime.

How is payment made for the order?
There are 2 different LFL choices on the Order Type screen in OrderPro: LFL (Billed to Organization) & LFL (Prepaid by Consultant). If the organization already has the money, they may choose to just pay you for the order (i.e. Prepaid by Consultant) and you will be charged for the order in OrderPro. In most cases, the organization chooses to be billed for the order (i.e. Billed to Organization). In this case you can enter the organization's PO number on the Order Type screen.

How will this program help me get appointments with school librarians?
For the past 2 years, school systems have been in hard economic situations. Many teachers & librarians have not received any budget money. So, any money they have received has come from grants, fundraisers, or donations. Our LFL program can help them stretch that "special" money as far as they can! Be sure to share this program with EVERY LIBRARIAN YOU TALK TO! It is amazing how they will "remember" that PTO donation or that book fair money as soon as they hear it will be matched with 50% more in free books! :)

Weekly Highlights

I hope everyone has had a great week! We finally get back into a routine and our gals in Memphis are hit with more snow! Do we still live the in South!?! :) Here are some highlights from this week...

• Our newest consultant, Jessica Wood (Leighton, AL), had her first 2 library appointments this week AND has her kick-off party tomorrow! What an exciting week!
• Julianne, Tara, & I received our Big Prizes from the home office!

What an amazing company we work for...to have the opportunity to earn iPads, flat-screen TV's, cash, and a trip to Aruba! How awesome! Don't let these amazing incentives the home office offers us pass you by!

Weekly Highlights

I hope everyone has thawed out after such a cold week! Remember all the AMAZING things you have to offer this month...GREAT hostess specials, 2 starter kits that are both BOGO, and getting started on earning a trip to Aruba! This would be a great month to start a business with Usborne...make sure you are offering the opportunity to EVERYONE!!!! Also, remember that January sales are DOUBLE ARUBA POINTS for all consultants...a very good reason to have a great sales month! :) Here are some highlights from this week...

• Paige Byrd (Germantown, TN) booked the first of what will be monthly book fairs at her local gym!
• Tara Maple (Opelika, AL) and I had a great weekend of sales and getting leads at the Montgomery Home & Garden Show!

If you have a highlight, please share it in the comments below!

A few new titles...

I LOVE when new titles come out! We get new titles about 4 times a year: January, March, July, and October. It is always so exciting to see what amazing new books we can offer our customers! Here are a few of our new January titles...

50 Things to Spot at the Airport
Find out about the things you see at the airport - with 50 things to spot, your trip to the airport can become a voyage of discovery.

What a great idea for families traveling over spring break! These activity spotter's cards give kids 50 things to spot as they travel through the airport...perfect for layovers! I really wish we had these when Rowen & I traveled to Hawaii in April...our flight out of Memphis was delayed 2 hours and these would have definitely come in handy!


Big Book of Big Animals
From the mighty elephant to the amazing colossal squid, open the huge fold-out pages to reveal some of the tallest, longest and heaviest animals in the world-and discover the biggest animal that's every lived.

The other 2 books in the Big Books series (Big Book of Big Dinosaurs and Big Book of Big Machines) have been extremely successful! They were both very popular at my preschool book fairs this past fall, so I am very excited about another book in this series. This book has fold-out spreads so young children can grasp how BIG these animals are.


Lift-the-Flap Word Book With lots of flaps to lift, this charming book lets young children have fun matching words and pictures. It's the ideal way to give beginner readers practice in word recognition and also provides plenty for pre-readers to find, name and talk about.

As a mom of a child with a cochlear implant, we are constantly working on learning new vocabulary. I am so excited about this book! I think it will be great for toddlers who are learning words all the way up to beginning readers. It will also be a great book for special needs children and speech therapists!


Chloe & Levesque Book 3: Scared to Death
One day Tessa was standing on Chloe’s porch, looking scared. Two days later she was dead. Chloe can’t shake the thought that she didn’t ask Tessa what was wrong, even though she’d seemed frightened. Now she has to find out who might have wanted Tessa out of the way. And she can’t help wondering what it was, the night Tessa came for help, that had her scared to death...

I have become a big fan of this Kane Miller series for middle school & high school students. As a Nancy Drew girl growing up, I would have LOVED this series! The main character, Chloe, reminds me of a spunkier Nancy Drew. The Vancouver Sun described the series as "John Grisham for teens." I have so enjoyed reading the first 2 books in the series. There are now 4 books available in the series: Over the Edge, Double Cross, Scared to Death, and Break and Enter. This series gives us even more options to offer middle school & high school librarians! Go here to read an excerpt from Scared to Death.

My Sister's a Pop Star Series

This new Usborne series by Kimberly Greene is GREAT for 10+ aged girls! I can't wait to watch them fly off the table at my spring elementary school book fairs! Basically the series, which consists of 3 books, is written from the perspective of Sam Devine. Sam's sister is a pop star and, as a result, Sam's life is crazy. This series, unlike so many other books and TV shows, is NOT about the glories of being a pop star. Instead, it focuses on how Sam's life is affected by her sister's stardom and her desire for a "normal" life. Readers can even follow Sam's blog online at www.mysistersapopstar.com. Go here to read an excerpt from Chapter 1 of My Sister's a Pop Star, the first book in the series. The other two books in the series are The Fame Game and Me and My Life On TV.