Miglio Jewellery Party Plan
Posted by sharon - 17/02/10 at 10:02 pmHelen Gourley enjoyed her job as a banking adviser for HBOS, but now runs her own business as a Group Manger for Miglio Designer Jewellery. Helen, lives with her husband Gez, a self employed IT consultant and 2 children, Jake 6 and Zoe 2 in Dunblane, Central Scotland.
The 35 year old party planner says “After Zoe was born I suffered post-natal depression and took extra leave to recover. I started selling jewellery at parties in the evenings and it helped me to battle my depression and boost my confidence”.
Helen found Miglio after looking on the internet for a home based business that would fit in with family life, and allow her to continue her passion for jewellery. As a member of the National Association for Goldsmiths, she had worked with a Designer Jeweller before the birth of her son. One of the criteria that was crucial to her when starting her business was that the jewellery should be good quality. After looking at the collection she was in no doubt that Miglio was the business for her. She is also pleased with the repeat business potential available through the innovative designs in the collection – “I wanted to make sure that I kept my customers for the long term and with the enhancers and necklaces that work so well together season after season, Miglio ticks all the boxes.”
With her experience in sales, training and marketing Helen soon realised that there were so many outlets and opportunities to sell. She is a brilliant networker and makes sure that she buys a large number of catalogues each launch that she leaves in doctors’ surgeries, in salons, in the chiropractor and at local gyms. Her sticker is on the back and front and on the inside she always leaves an order form and business cards, which makes it so easy for people to both fall in love with the jewellery and order from her immediately. She has even taken the collection on holiday with her, and last year whilst enjoying a family break in Spain sold over £1000 of jewellery around the pool or over a glass of Sangria.
After a year with Miglio Helen was considering returning part-time to the banking industry, however with speculation about redundancies she began to look more closely at her Party Plan business. “I realised that if it worked for me, there was no reason why it wouldn’t work for other people, so I changed my focus from purely selling to growing a team”. In January 2009 she finally quit her job in banking, and concentrated on growing her direct sales business.
Online Marketing has been a key tool utilized by helen to build her business, mainly with a dedicated website that she pays for monthly. She updates this regularly and following a course on online promotion has also started a blog, which features her comments on social networking sites including twitter and facebook. She even made a home video which is posted on YouTube that shows her demonstrating some of the favourite pieces from the Winter 2009 collection.
Her most notable moment was when Dannii Minogue tweeted Helen directly following the release of December’s Cosmopolitan magazine, which featured Dannii wearing a Miglio Designer Jewellery necklace. “I just happened to be be on twitter, when I saw that Dannii had posted a picture of the front cover of the magazine”, says Helen, “so I sent her a message saying that I sell the range. I almost fell off my chair when she tweeted back commenting “awesome sparkles!”
This has paid its rewards and at the annual conference in January 2010 Helen was awarded with the title of Business Builder of the Year. She will also be heading off on an all expenses paid trip to Istanbul in March with several other Miglio consultants as a result of her exceptional sales in 2009.
Helen is clear that the business runs seamlessly alongside her family. She is a busy mum with 2 fairly young children and in this respect being able to work her own hours and keep track of her earnings potential it seems the perfect fit. She also credits her husband, Gez, with his unfailing support (looking after the children and great ideas like using the television as a digital photo frame during parties). She also keeps a permanent display of jewellery in her office, away from the far reaching hands of her children, just in case customers drop by unannounced.
When considering Party Plan businesses she says “stick with a product you love and that way you can be naturally passionate about what you are selling. My biggest asset is that I can wear my jewellery, so am my own shop window, allowing me to be selling all the time, even when picking up the kids from school or nursery.”
On her future within the business Helen is confident that 2010 will be an even bigger and better year. Miglio Designer Jewellery has just implemented a new career plan which means that the path to success is even easier. Together with this for the month of February they have slashed their joining fee in half, so you can start your own business for only £62.50 + £5.00 p&p. This includes a voucher for £250.00 of jewellery of your choice, plus everything you need to get you started. There is also a fantastic fast start scheme where you have the opportunity to receive up to £900 of free jewellery in your first 3 months.
“One of my greatest pleasures with Miglio is that everyone loves the jewellery so I never need to use the hard sell approach. Softly, softly works so much better, taking the time to understand my customers and what suits them. The same goes with anyone I recruit- I would rather that they were happy in their work; they adopted a similar ethos to me and built up their business gradually than burning themselves out in the first few weeks. I’m always happy to support anyone in my team and make sure that customer and consultants are in this for the long-haul. That way everyone is happy and enthusiastic and in turn enjoys the Miglio experience.” So if you are interested in growing your party plan business through Miglio you can join up through Helen’s website www.miglio-jewellery.co.uk or e-mail her Helen@miglio-jewellery.co.uk
Party Plan Together is running a competition with Helen this Feb (2010) – click here to enter.
