How to Become a 'Tastefully Simple' Consultant

Understand that a Tastefully Simple consultant sells food products by placing orders for her customers. Once the orders arrive individually bagged for the customer, the Tastefully Simple consultant delivers the merchandise. The consultant can create and maintain a customer base through reorders.
Look at the official Tastefully Simple website for information about the company and how to grow your own Tastefully Simple sales business.
Talk with a Tastefully Simple consultant in your area about her personal experience being a consultant and how she started in the business. Ask for tips to help get your business up and running.
Choose a Tastefully Simple sponsor from your area. Go to the Tastefully Simple website and click the tab 'Become a Consultant.' You must choose a sponsor from your area; there are three methods to search for a sponsor. The sponsor guides you as you start out as a Tastefully Simple consultant.
Fill out the online form after you select a sponsor. Once you've been contacted by Tastefully Simple (usually the same day you fill out the form), purchase a kit to start your business. The kit contains all of the items you'll need for your first four home tasting parties.
Host your first party. Invite friends and family who you are comfortable speaking in front of to practice. Use this time to familiarize yourself with the products and create a sales pitch.
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How to Host a Great Direct Sales Party (4 Steps)

Hold a raffle. Advertising prizes will get more people in the door, some of who may walk out more interested in your products than they may have expected. Remember, just because people think they won't be interested, doesn't mean that they really won't become so. Getting them in the door for your party can sometimes be your biggest obstacle.
Keep plenty of samples, so that you can make sure that everyone gets one. Many people don't think they will like a product, but change their mind after using it. Therefore, it is important that you don't run out.
Find a friend who is in a related direct sales business and host a party together. This will give you both a chance at additional customers or prospects, since those who came for your friend's products may be interested in yours and vice versa.
Offer to have a babysitter on hand for those who have small children. Sometimes a mom of a young child feels that she cannot attend a direct sales party like this because her child may disrupt the party. If you have a baby sitter on hand for these parents, they are more likely to come. An ideal candidate would be a teen, who won't charge too much and will like to make a little extra cash.
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How to Start a Clothing Store With Only Four Thousand Dollars

Purchase a website domain, hosting service and shopping cart system that allows you to upload products. This will cost you about $100 plus about $15 per month for web hosting. Hire a web designer to create an attractive e-commerce website design for your new online clothing store. This will likely be one of your most expensive expenditures---expect to pay at least $500-$1,000 for a good web designer. (See 'Resources' below for a site where you can find more on hosting services.)
Apply for a merchant account that can be linked to your website to accept credit card payments from your customers. You can also open a P.O. box and list it on your website to accept check and money order sales from your customers. The initial fee to open a merchant account will be around $100. You will also pay a monthly service fee of about $20 to $30. A post office box will cost about $50 per year. (See 'Resources' for more on merchant accounts.)
Determine the type of clothes that you want to sell in your new clothing store. You can focus on a small niche (such as goth wear) or choose to offer a department-store type of selection for your customers, including men, women, juniors and children.
Next, find a clothing distributor who will drop ship individual orders to your customers (see 'Resources' below for a site where you can find these companies). This way you won't have to pay anything upfront--you only pay the distributor when you receive an order from the customer. You act as a middleman.So let's say you receive an order from your customer. You take the customer's money, then forward payment to the distributor, who will arrange to ship the clothing from the distributor warehouse directly to the customer's home. You might be charged a small initial fee to start this type of arrangement with the distributor. You can also use clothing that you have manufactured yourself, but the investment in clothing, sewing equipment or a manufacturer to make your clothes will likely cause you to exceed your initial budget of $4,000.
Once your website is designed, upload your chosen clothing pieces to your website. Categorize your products by type (for example, purses, shirts, jeans, dresses, elegant wear, men's and women's). The only investment here will be time, unless you choose to hire someone to take care of this task.
Publish your clothing store online. Your final investment will be in generating web traffic to your online clothing store. Hire an SEO marketing firm to take care of the content for your site to draw in hits from search engines. You can find good SEO help for about $500 to $1,000 per month. Place ads with Google Adwords, which will cost you $5 to set up. You will then set your budget for how much you want to spend each month for ads.
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How to Plan a Bazaar (10 Steps)

Decide when you want to host your bazaar. The holidays are a good time. You'll get lots of traffic, but may be competing with the bigger ones. You can do it during the off-season, in the spring or summer. You'll be the only one, but may have to spend more to advertise for it.
Decide what type of bazaar this will be. Do you want it to be a crafts or food bazaar or showcasing anything handmade?
Decide where you want to have the bazaar. A school or a church is a great place but, if you want your bazaar to be held during the holidays, make sure you are not competing against the church or school which may well be hosting a similar event. If you are able to utilize a school or church you will be able to use their chairs and tables.
Decide how much you want to charge, if anything. Vendors should be charged. You can charge them up front, for tables (if they don't bring their own); or you can simply take a percentage of their sales after the fact. Also, decide whether or not you will charge the potential customers. If the customers bring in two canned goods, for example, you could let them in free. Either way, make sure you plan to make a little something for your time and effort.
Pick a cause to support. Maybe you have a charity already, or you want the money to go back to your church or school. People like supporting causes.
Go to your local school, city hall, or church with your proposal. Inform them of the number of people expected and the safety precautions that you plan to implement.
Secure the necessary permits from the city, police, or fire departments. Many of these will depend on where you hold the event.
Write an ad and put it in the paper, on-line, on craigslist.com, and on flyers to be distributed by hand, at grocery stores, or to be included in the newspaper as an insert. Make sure these ads inform people about the bazaar and provide contact information so potential vendors to sign up.
Open a separate bank account for the bazaar if you plan on doing it again in the future.
Communicate with your vendors to make sure they know the days and times to set up, procedures, rules (no leaving the booth or taking down early) and the food rules.
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