Top Secrets for Putting on a Great Party

By Gini Graham Scott

Discover how to put on a great party. You’ll learn how to plan the party and set the stage for sales; decide on the host and location; put the party together and invite the guests; and plan the program and the refreshments. You’ll also learn about using themes and games to make your party more fun and discover techniques for getting ideas for themes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gini Graham Scott
• Release date: Nov 10, 2009
• ISBN: 9781452365459

Gini Graham Scott

Gini Graham Scott, Ph.D., CEO of Changemakers Publishing and Writing, is an internationally known writer, speaker, and workshop leader. She has published over 50 books with major publishers on various topics and has written over 3 dozen children's books. Her published children's books include Katy's Bow, Scratches, The Crazy Critters First Visit, and Where's the Avocado? published by Black Rose Writing. She has published 8 children's books through her company Changemakers Kids and is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. She does workshops on self-publishing and creativity. She also helps clients write books as a ghostwriter and self-publish or find publishers and agents. Her websites are www.changemakerspublishgandwriting.com and www.ginigrahamscott.com.

Book preview

Top Secrets for

Putting on a Great Party

by Gini Graham Scott, Ph.D.

Author of a Dozen Books on Work and Professional Development, including Want It, See It, Get It! and Enjoy! 101 Little Ways to Add Fun to Your Work Everyday

www.ginigrahamscott.com

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2009 Gini Graham Scott, Ph.D.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Credit: Cover Photo by... Yuri Arcurs, Fotolia

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Highlights of Putting On a Great Party

Chapter 1: Planning Your Party

Chapter Highlights

What Customers Expect at a Party

The Keys for a Great Party

Explaining the Basics to Others

Making Sure You Have the Right Party Setting

Making Sure the Hostess or Host Is Prepared

Letting the Guests Know What to Expect

The Importance of a Good Presentation

The Power of Making It Fun

Appealing to the Senses and Emotions

Playing Up Benefits, Advantages, and Features

Setting the Stage for Sales

Designing Your Close for Sales Success

Preparing the Way to Follow-Up Later

Summing Up the Great Party Basics

Time for a Try Out

The Importance of Party Planning

Charts and Worksheets to Help You Plan

Summing Up

Chapter 2: Deciding on the Who, When, and Where

Chapter Highlights

Who’s the Host?

Finding the Perfect Host

So Is the Host’s Place Perfect, Too?

Putting Another Host in the Place

Telling the Hostess What to Expect

Making the Best Choice

When’s It Going to Be?

Where’s It Going to Be?

Having It at a Private Home

Using Your Own Home

Using the Host’s Home

Using the Home of a Friend, Relative, or Neighbor

Using the Home of a Sales, Work, or Business Associate

Using a Room at a Community Location

Creating a Workplace Party

Making It a Community Event

Summing Up

Chapter 3: Putting the Party Together

Chapter Highlights

Creating Timelines and Checklists

Setting the Date for the Party

Putting Together Your Timeline

Creating a Checklist

Preparing Your Invitations: How, Who, and When

What to Tell Your Host or Hostess About Invitations

The How of It

Who Sends It

When and How to Send

Following-Up After the Invitations Go Out

Anticipating the Needs of Your Guests

Calculating Your Costs and Income

Getting RSVPs to Help You Plan

Adjusting for Last-Minute Add-ons and Drop-Outs

Summing Up

Chapter 4: Using Themes and Games to Make It More Fun

In This Chapter

Deciding What Themes to Use

Using and Building on Company Ideas

Experimenting with New Ideas

Ways to Get Ideas for Themes

A Compendium of Great Theme Ideas

Have Happy Holiday Parties

Put a Seasonal Spin in Your Selling

Great Cooking, Food, and Beverage Parties

Great Group Get-Togethers

Still More Popular Themes for Parties

Using Introductions and Icebreakers to Get Started

Let’s Break the Ice

How Games Can Contribute to Your Sales Success

Relating the Activity to Your Presentation

Making Sure Everyone Wants to Play -- Or Don’t Play

Explaining the Game and Setting the Time for Play

Summing Up

Chapter 5: Food for Thought

Chapter Highlights

The Value of Having Food and Beverages

Deciding What to Serve and How Much

From Potlucks to You Do It

Keeping It Simple

Getting the Guests to Contribute

Great Cooking, Food, and Beverage Parties

Keeping Your Food Costs in Line

Preparing for Diets, Allergies, and Personal Tastes

Clean-Up Time

Summing Up

Appendix: Glossary

About the Author

Introduction

If you want to have a business that is fun and one you can easily adapt to your lifestyle -- whether you want to do it on the side or full time -- you’ve come to the right place. Party plan selling is all that and more.

Party plan selling provides an opportunity to meet lots of people and make money by making sales in a friendly, personal way -- through a party. Plus you can choose from a wide range of products and services and party plan companies to work with.

You have plenty of choices in how to sell, too, because you can set up your own marketing company or become a distributor or rep for a particular company. You additionally have the option of choosing a single-level company where you only sell direct for that company; or you can find a company with a multi-level sales program, where you build a sales team and get overrides from recruits.

As you’ll discover, party plan selling is a major growth industry, in part because it is so flexible and easily adaptable into anyone’s lifestyle. Plus it’s a good antidote to recent workplace trends, such as downsizing and outsourcing, because you create your own job. It also has great appeal to working moms and homemakers, because it’s a business you can run out of your home. And now you can use the Internet to help you sell.

Previous books in this series have dealt with how to get started in the party plan business, how to target your market and develop your sales pitch, and how to promote your party to get a high turnout. This book will focus on how to put on a great party.

So now, come join the party. Put your party hat and thinking cap – maybe put one on top of the other -- and dig in and have fun. Here’s to a lot of profitable party plan selling. Have fun. Make money. And enjoy!

Highlights of Putting On a Great Party

Okay, now it’s party time -- time to put on a great party. The first step is to understand the basic keys that make a great party. Then you need to practice your presentation and do some planning to make sure you have everything together. An important part of the process is deciding on the host, when and where it’s going to be, what type of place you want to use, coming up with themes and games to make it more fun, and deciding what kind of food to feature. And finally, it’s show-time when you strut yourself, show off your product, and make your sales. So ready to party? This part is all about putting on the party.

Chapter 1: Planning Your Party

Chapter Highlights

- Knowing what customers expect at a party

- Learning the keys for a great party

- Doing some testing to try out your party skills

- Planning your party to make it a success

- Using charts and worksheets to help your planning

Now it’s party time, and for a great party you have to plan. It’s like staging an event and you're the director. This chapter helps you figure out what to do so you design a great performance with a great supporting cast that includes your hostess and guests. Your customers are like your audience, and if you give them what they want and expect, you’ll do great. As you learn in this chapter, there are certain keys for a terrific party, plus you have to practice. And you get tips on creating charts and worksheets to help you work out the details. For it’s all in the details. So plunge in carefully and discover what details you need to deal