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In a Nutshell
Information and Tips for your Image Consulting Business
3/04/03 Issue
#11
Linda Gerloff, Editor, linda@blueflute.com
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By subscription only! Welcome
to your next issue of
"In a NutShell".
You are receiving this newsletter because you have
subscribed to either the monthly
Automated Inventory
Updates or this newsletter.
Unsubscribe instructions are at the end of this newsletter.
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IN THIS ISSUE
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=> Inventory Updates for March
=> Blue Flute News
=> ‘In a NutShell’ archives
=> Feature Article
The Flight of the Bumblebee,
er, Cleanser
=> Fun Trivia
=> In my business, how do I
...
Handle Credit Card Fees?
=> Guest Column
Eight Habits of a Highly
Effective New Year
with comments by Iris
Simmons
=> NutShell Tip –
Leadership Pack, New Shipping
rates
=> Game
Recruiting
Story – TV Style!
=> Recognition Corner
=> Subscribe/Unsubscribe information
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Inventory Updates for March
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Your inventory updates for March are ready. If you have
subscribed to this service, you can get
your updates here:
http://www.blueflute.com/btyupdt1.htm
Hint: The inventory updates are usually
posted online
about 24 hours before the newsletter is
published. Bookmark
the above link and then, if you are
anxious for your
updates, you can check and see if the
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The title of the page will tell which
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If you lose this link, you can always download your updates
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Blue Flute News
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Leadership
Visits – Thank you to those who were able to
make it by for a visit on Friday! It
was wonderful to see
you! I especially appreciated hearing
your comments about
how you use NutShell as well as the
challenges you are
facing while managing your business. I will
be adding a
free month of updates to all who
stopped by!
Leadership
Special – NutShell is available for $30 off
through Saturday 3/8/03. Consultants
who purchase or
download NutShell through Saturday will
be entered in a
drawing to win $50 of free product. The
consultant who
refers the winner of the drawing will
win the same prize!
As always, there is a 30 day guarantee,
so there is no
risk!
We
need to branch out into other units! Many of you have
done a good job of getting the active consultants
in your
unit on board with NutShell. There are
many units in
BC-land that don’t know about NutShell.
If you know a
director or consultant in another unit
who doesn’t use
NutShell, encourage her to give it a
try this week!
Details are available here:
http://www.blueflute.com/btynut.htm
Don’t forget that when you refer
NutShell to a friend,
you win, too. Not only will your
consultant will have more
time for selling and recruiting, but
you will receive free
inventory updates, as well!
A
note about referrals and your email address – Being an
avid hater of email spam as much as you
are, I have
never (and will never) give, sell or
rent your email
address to anybody who could possibly
spam you! However,
I will give your email address to
consultants who list
your name as their referral. I will
give her address to
you, as well. This is so that you and
she can be ‘NutShell
partners’! If you would rather not have
your email address
given to your referrals, please let me
know:
mailto:privacy@blueflute.com
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‘In a NutShell’ archives
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Did you miss a prior ‘In a NutShell’ newsletter, or would
you like to review one of the articles?
You can view it
here: http://www.blueflute.com/Newsletters.htm
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Feature Article –
The Flight of the Bumblebee, er, Cleanser!
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Some of the feedback I heard at
Leadership is that many
consultants are overwhelmed at the
thought of organizing
their business. All the facts and
figures relating to your
business may seem like one big,
dizzying hunk of
information. It might feel like it is
impossible to get a
handle on it!
With a task as intimidating as this, it
is very tempting to
not even try to get started with it.
Selling is certainly
easier than this. Getting ‘No’ from
prospects may even be
more pleasant than trying to organize
your books! But, not
keeping your books can lead to a sense
of defeat and
discouragement and we don’t need that!
So, let’s break it down. Let’s imagine
for a minute that
you have no clients and no inventory.
And, there is only
one product available to sell – a
cleanser. Let’s follow
one bottle of this cleanser through
your business. Here is
what will happen:
1. You order a bottle of cleanser from
BC.
2. You get a new client and sell a
bottle of cleanser to
her.
3. Your shipment arrives from BC (the
one bottle of
cleanser that you ordered in step
1).
4. You fill your client’s order.
5. You are back to having no stock and
need to make a
decision about what to do about
this.. and go back to
step 1.
------
1. You
order a bottle of cleanser from BC
- The first
thing you will do when you start this
tiny business is buy
product – the one bottle of cleanser.
So, you go online to
place your order.
So far, so good. That’s not too hard.
After all, you buy
stuff all the time, right? But, as a
result of buying this
cleanser, what has happened in your
business? You have
generated an expense and somebody owes
you product. Enter
this purchase into your system. In
NutShell, it is called a
Purchase Order and you get to Purchase
Orders from the
‘BUY’ button on the Orders tab.
Entering this order will
tell the system how many dollars you
have spent and how
much product is on its way to your
doorstep.
2. You
get a new client & sell a bottle of cleanser to her-
While you are waiting for your product
to get here, you are
a busy little bee, contacting prospects
and talking to
people about the great cleanser that
you can provide for
them. Your excitement about your
product is contagious and
your bank teller, Mary Ann decides to
buy a cleanser from
you! This is great! This is one of the
main reasons you are
in business. Helping a client and
creating income!
OK, come back down to earth now, and
let’s think about the
impact of this sale on your business.
Several things have
happened:
a. You have a new client and want to
do a really good job
of meeting her cleansing needs
b. You have brought some cash into
your business! You care,
your hubby cares and the IRS cares!
c. You have sold the one cleanser that
you had on order,
so you are going to need to at
least consider buying
some more.
We are interested in keeping things
simple, but does it
seem like we are spiraling towards
complication to you? The
good news is that we can still make
this simple. In order
to record all the above info, all you
have to do is enter
an invoice. Since this is your first
sale to Mary Ann, you
will have to enter her as a client
first. The next time you
sell to her, you can skip that step.
So, enter Mary Ann as
a new client. In NutShell, this is the
Client/Colleague
button on the Maintenance tab. Enter as
little or as much
info about her as you want. Then enter
her sale. This is
called an invoice and you can get to
the invoice screen by
clicking the ‘Sell’ button next to Mary
Ann’s last name.
When you put the cleanser on Mary Ann’s
invoice in
NutShell, you will know that the
product is out of stock
because, even thought the Order Qty is
‘1’, the Ship Qty
will be zero. (This means there was no
product in stock to
fill the order.)
. . . . . .
We are following the path of one bottle of
cleanser through
your business. So far, what has
happened is that you bought
a bottle of cleanser and are waiting
for it to be delivered
to your doorstep. Also, a new client,
Mary Ann, has told
you that she wants to buy that bottle
of cleanser and she
has paid for it. You have recorded the
fact that you
ordered the cleanser (a NutShell
Purchase Order) and you
have recorded the fact that you have a
new client that
bought the cleanser (a NutShell
invoice). At this point, we
are waiting for the cleanser to arrive
from BeautiControl.
. . . . . .
3. Your
shipment arrives from BC - Now it is the next day,
and your order – the single bottle of
cleanser – is
delivered. You are so excited! You just
need to let your
business software or paper system know
that the product is
here. In NutShell, do this by
‘receiving’ your PO. Click
the RCV button and key ‘1’ in the Qty
Rcv column. Now
NutShell knows you have a bottle of
cleanser to sell.
However, NutShell also knows that you
sold a cleanser to
Mary Ann. (It knows this from the
invoice that you
entered.) You can choose to either
carry the product in
your inventory or assign it to Mary
Ann. Since Mary Ann is
excited about receiving her cleanser,
you will tell
NutShell that, rather than carry the
cleanser in your
inventory, it goes to Mary Ann. Once
you have received the
PO, you can close it by clicking the
‘Close’ button. This
will move the PO to your History and
make entries in the
Income and
Expense Log to record the expense.
4.
You fill your client’s order - Now that you have told
NutShell that you have received this
cleanser and that it
goes to Mary Ann, you can print her
invoice and package up
her product. Find Mary Ann on the
Client/Colleague screen
and click the Sell button. Her invoice
will show that
product is available to be delivered.
The Ship Qty column
that showed zero before, will now show
a ‘1’. Click the
Print button to print the invoice.
After you have printed
the invoice and received payment, you
will want to close
the invoice. Open invoices imply that
there is work to be
done. When all the work is complete,
close the invoice by
clicking the ‘Close’ button on the
invoice screen. This
will put the invoice in your History
where you will be able
to refer to it later. Also, closing the
invoice will cause
an entry to made in the Income and Expense Log, recording
the sale as income. (This
makes hubby’s, accountants and
IRS people very happy!)
5. You are back to having no stock – You sold your last
cleanser and again have no stock. So,
decide what you what
you will sell next and place another
order, starting over
again with step 1. Maybe this time you
could get fancy and
order two products!
OK, we know that it would be hard to
get anywhere in
business, just selling one cleanser.
But, hopefully,
following the path of one cleanser
throughout your system
will help you understand how all the
parts of the system
work together. Several small pieces of
information are much
easier to comprehend than one big one!
~~~~~~
You can get more information about
using the NutShell
software here: http://www.blueflute.com/btynut.htm
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Fun Trivia
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When people are relaxed, they inhale
about 12 times every
minute, approximately one pint of air
with every breath.
http://www.absolutetrivia.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In my business, how do I…
Handle Credit Card Fees?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The introduction of the ProPay service
for processing
credit cards makes this a good time to
talk about credit
card fees.
Being able to accept credit cards is
very good for business.
Clients are likely to spend more if
they can use a credit
card. They are more likely to make
impulse buys if they
can use a credit card. And credit card
payment is just flat
convenient for many clients.
Credit card processing fees can get
confusing, but if you
know how to think about them, they are
really very easy.
It is tempting to think that an invoice
is not actually
paid in full when a client pays by
credit card, because of
the service fees. If a client buys $50 of product and pays
with credit card, then (at the 5%
rate), you will get
$47.50 and will have to give up $2.50
to the credit card
processing fee.
So, you have a $50 invoice and have
received $47.50. What
to do with the other $2.50? The trick
is to think about
the invoice and the credit card fee as
two completely
different facts.
Fact 1: The client bought $50 of
product and paid $50 for
it. So, her invoice is paid in
full. It’s a done
deal!
Fact 2: You had to relinquish $2.50.
This is an expense.
So, record the $2.50 in your Income and Expense Log
and classify it in
an appropriate class, such as
‘Credit Card Fee’.
With the ProPay credit card processing,
there will be some
type of reports available. You will be
able to use these
reports to log your Credit Card Fees.
When your client
pays in full with a credit card, mark
her invoice as paid
in full and enter the fees later, when
you are inputting
your expenses. It’s easy!
*-----------Quote of the Month-------------*
‘When you have a great
and difficult task,
something perhaps almost
impossible, if you
only work a little at a time,
every day
a little, suddenly the work
will finish
itself.’
-Isak Dinesen, Danish
Writer
*------------------------------------------*
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Guest column – Eight Habits of a Highly
Effective New Year
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contributed and commented by:
Iris Simmons, Unit VIP, Tyler,
Texas
EIGHT
HABITS OF A HIGHLY EFFECTIVE NEW YEAR
Okay, the new year is well on the way
and we have those
"pesky" resolutions behind
us...now let's concentrate on
our BeautiControl business!!!
1. Design your year with the end in mind.
(Director, free vacation, increased
revenue, all of
the above)
2. Set aside 30 minutes each day to dream.
(Vision yourself as a Director in
Hawaii)
3. Read 10 pages of a great book every day.
(Ginger's "Positively You"
or your Consultant Guide
are great starters)
4. Plan your work and work your plan.
(Each architect designs a different
floor plan)
5. Spend less than you Earn - and invest the difference.
(Need I say more)
6. Invest your drive time wisely.
(BeautiControl has several excellent
audio tapes or,
make your own with information
you wish to commit to
memory)
7. Always move towards your dream.
(Don't let a "No" answer
stop your momentum)
8. Believe in your future.
(BeautiControl and your Unit
"family" does!)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
To share
your ideas and comments, contact me here:
mailto:Guest@BlueFlute.com
*---------------A Good Laugh--------------*
Two peanuts walked into a bar. One was a salted.
A jumper cable
walked into a bar. The barman said,
'I'll serve you, but don't start
anything.'
A sandwich walked
into a bar. The barman said,
'Sorry we don't serve food in here.'
A dyslexic man
walked into a bra.
Two hydrogen atoms
walked into a bar.
One said, 'I've lost my
electron.'
The other said, 'Are
you sure?'
The first replied,
'Yes, I'm positive...'
*-----------------------------------------*
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NutShell Tip – Leadership Package; New Shipping
Fees
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Leadership
Package – If you bought one or more of the new
product packages at Leadership, then
you are about to hear
everything you wanted to know about
entering these
packages!
The March inventory updates will make
this very easy! After
you apply your updates for March, you
will see a new
product at the top of the list, under
‘Specials’. It is
item number 115 and is called
‘Leadership Package’. This
item will provide you with everything
you need to enter
your Leadership pack!
- Start a new PO and
date it with the date that you
purchased the Leadership pack.
- Click on the first item line and
type ‘leadership’.
You will see the Leadership Pack
and the Leadership
Sales Aid pack. Add one or both of
these items to the
PO, as necessary.
- Change the QtyOrd if you purchased
more than one.
- Set your Retail A discount in the
upper right corner of
the screen to 55%.
- The sales tax is calculated on
$428.88 and this should
happen automatically.
- Enter the correct shipping. It
will be $5 if you took
the pack home with you. If you had
it delivered, the
shipping will be $13 if your order
was less than $500.
The shipping will be $14 if your
order was $500 or more.
The PO total should turn out to be
correct with very little
effort on your part! Once the total is
correct, click the
Receive button and receive the PO.
Then, close the PO. You
will be asked if you want to convert
the set(s) to the
individual pieces. Say Yes. All of the
individual products
in that pack will automatically be
updated into your
inventory and you will have hardly done
a thing! By entering
a one-line PO, 9 different products
will be updated!
How cool is that!?
If you have not subscribed to Automated
Inventory Updates
and would like to enjoy this added
convenience, you can do
so here:
www.blueflute.com/orderpage.htm
New
Shipping rates – New shipping rates were introduced at
Leadership. NutShell does not know about
these rates and it
will take a software upgrade to educate
NutShell about them.
For now, you will need to enter the
correct shipping rates
for each PO you enter. Just change the
$14 on the Shipping
field of the PO screen to the correct
amount for the PO.
Backup
– If you do your NutShell backup with floppy disks,
please be aware that the backup should
take at least 2
floppies. If you get a message during
the backup that says
‘Please insert a blank disk’, it means
to remove the disk
already in the drive and insert another
disk. If you don’t
remove the first disk, you will NOT get
a good backup. This
is very important! Don’t risk losing
your data due to this
‘little’ detail!
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Game – Recruiting
Story – TV Style!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The new recruiting promotion makes this
a ‘Prime Time’ to
play this game!
Tell the following story
and have your guests count up how
many times you mention the name of a TV
show. There are 38
shows mentioned. The guest who gets the
closest can win a
small product prize or BeautiBucks. (If
you want to give a
prize, you can get product at a great
discount from the
‘While Supplies Last’ portion of the order
form.)
WHO WANTS TO BE A
MILLIONAIRE??? We all do. I was
THIRTY SOMETHING, living through the
WONDER YEARS with ALL
IN THE FAMILY, and my husband and I
ware taking it ONE DAY
AT A TIME. We were doing ok, but THE FACTS OF LIFE were
that we were not born with SILVER
SPOONS in our mouths.
Our savings were in JEOPARDY and we
didn't want to be in
debt for the rest of THE DAYS OF OUR
LIFE. I finally told
my husband,
“Its time to get out of THIS OLD
HOUSE or at least start
making some kind of HOME
IMPROVEMENT. I don't want to
start a FAMILY FUED and end up in
the ER , but it is
time to GET SMART!”
Without being THE CRITIC, I was in
search of AMERICA'S MOST
WANTED job. FAMILY MATTERS to me and I didn't want to miss
out on PRIMETIME with my kids by hiring
THE NANNY to raise
them. BeautiControl offers a great
opportunity. THE PRICE
IS RIGHT and - WHO's THE BOSS??? ....
I am!
I remember thinking “Could
I get up in front of a FULL HOUSE
of PERFECT STRANGERS for 60 MINUTES and
show people these
wonderful products?” Of course, I have experienced GROWING
PAINS, but soon I was able to spread my
WINGS and watch my
business BLOSSOM. BeautiControl has made me feel like I am
a part of the A-TEAM. I have GOOD TIMES at home with ALL
MY CHILDREN. My family has the extra
income needed and my
husband CHEERS when I come home from a
party. He says
“Show me the money!”
Soon I'LL FLY AWAY to paradise - a
dream vacation for
which BeautiControl will pay. My
husband and I will be
like HONEYMOONERS again, sharing HAPPY
DAYS in ANOTHER
WORLD!
BeautiControl may not be
for everyone, as they say
DIFFERENT STROKES for different folks.
But if you are
MARRIED WITH CHILDREN and have FAMILY
TIES, then I am
excited about sharing BeautiControl
with you!
-------------------
Do you use BeautiBucks in your
business? If so, please tell
us how you do it. I know there are
consultants who would
like to learn how to play this game!
mailto:BeautiBucks@BlueFlute.com
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Recognition Corner
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Congratulations to the following NutShell users who have
worked hard and achieved success in advancing their careers!
~ $10,000 Director ~
Amy Bouschart
~ Senior Executive Director ~
Margaret Ward
~ Mustang Director ~
Cheryl Ashworth
Michael Ann Dillinger
Dana Foster
Laura Pantzlaff
Donna Pollack
~ Director ~
Gena Flanary
Mary Hamala
Nancy Johnson
Karen Mosteller
Barbara Sloan
~ New DIQ ~
Diana Baker
Linda Bennett
Sherronna Bishop
Cyndi Blau
Catherine Blomeke
Thelma Blount
Kathy Bosworth
Rita Byrd
Patricia Crowley
Sandra Elliott
Barbara Gordon
Terri Grahlman
Bonnye Hicks
Carolyn Johnson
Tania Kinzinger
Donna Kistler
Tressa Malone
Jennifer Myers
Debbie Neill
Donna Oehlert
Lisa Poppenhouse
Renae Reeves
Heather Richter-Egger
Claudette Sealy
Wendi Lawson-See
Tina Stock
Teresa Sykora
Anne Teran
Karen Witt
Renee Zimmerman
~ DIQ ~
Valerie Altman
Davonnia Cox
Carissa Evans
Pamela Fowler
Ann Harris
Norma Holland
Tawana Hornaday
Cindy Irvin
Donna Kirkbride
Kay Korbe
Mary Laughlin
Denise Mazurek
Debra McComb
Sandra Mozey
Saundra Pendergrass
Bridget Psaromatis
Ann Marie Root
Heather Smith
Susan Stauffer
Debbie Tyndall
Annette Walden
Linda Williams
Wendy Zukowski
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Copyright Information
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please pass this e-zine along to your friends. Just click
the Forward button on your email screen to send this
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it! However, please keep it intact and forward it in its
entirety.
Copyright 2003 Blue Flute Software Creations, Inc.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Maintenance
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Subscriptions to this e-zine are FREE.
Newsletter 'In a NutShell' is published monthly.
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Send an email to unsubscribe@blueflute.com
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Linda Gerloff
Blue Flute Software Creations
linda@blueflute.com
P.O. Box 77882
Fort Worth, TX 76177
817-439-1081