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Small Business Interview

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Submitted By Sharon6747
Words 929
Pages 4
Judith Litton
MAN 104
April 4, 2015
Independence University

Small Business Interview
This small business interview was conducted between Judith Litton (student) and Kelly Maynard (Thirty-one consultant). The interview took place on April 1, 2015 over the telephone. I told Kelly I needed to know what makes women want to become Thirty-one consultants. Kelly said that she has sold many different products over the last few years such as, Avon, Mary Kay Cosmetics, and even some jewelry, and she stated that out of all of her ventures she has been the happiest with her Thirty-one career.
I asked Kelly when she first decided to become a Thirty-one consultant what if any particular challenges she faced while attempting to build her business and she said there were a couple of different things that she had to deal with. Kelly stated that the biggest challenge she faced was she had to wait so long to be able to sign up as a consultant. Over four years ago when she decided to join that was when over ninety three hundred other women decided to join Thirty-one as consultants also. Thirty-one was forced to put a joining freeze on which lasted a little over six months. Kelly stated that once the freeze was lifted Thirty-one broke the women into three groups based on their last names which meant that Kelly was put into the second group of new consultants. With this additional obstacle that just meant that Kelly ended up waiting an additional ninety days before she was able to get her enrollment kit which kept her from being able to start her home ordering business right away.
Kelly was very frustrated with having to wait so long to get started but, once she was able to get her kit she was on her way to starting her very own successful home party business.
I asked Kelly what some competencies were used to overcome those challenges. Kelly stated that she had to put a lot of determination and use a lot of resources to be able to overcome the challenges that she had already faced. Kelly told me that she went ahead and started getting her party base set up so that once she was ready to start selling she had all of her parties all set and ready to go. She even went ahead and set up what is called a special event party that would help to kick start her business. She set up a Facebook page so that she could take pictures of her items and post them on her page so that all of her friends would be able to see the items and then they could place orders with her.
Based on what Kelly told me she had a good solid backing once she was ready to start her business venture four years ago. With all of the information that Kelly gave me she fits with the resource and determination competencies. She has put a lot of hard work into making sure she was ready to proceed with her business.
I asked Kelly what are the obstacles that they face? Her response to that was the fact that she does not have a large family and she didn’t have a very large circle of friends when she first started out. This made it very difficult at first for her to be able to get her business going strongly. Kelly told me what she did to overcome this issue was she went to all of the malls and small community fairs to promote her new business.
Based on what I learned from her in hearing about the obstacles she faced I do believe that she handled the situation in a proactive manner and it really paid off for her because she was able to recruit several women into her circle of friends.
The final question that I asked Kelly was did they do any planning before entering into business? And how was the planning helpful?
Kelly told me that she met with the head ladies of Thirty-one for many different training sessions to learn all about the different pieces of merchandise that the company produces so that if anyone had any questions she would be able to answer them. She learned how to enter her orders through these training sessions. Kelly attended her first conference meeting which allowed her to earn several pieces of merchandise to add to her kit once it arrived. The kit itself has over $400 worth of merchandise in it when it comes but with the additional pieces that Kelly had earned at conference her kit was worth well over $1000.00. Kelly also went with one of the senior consultants to a couple of her parties and that gave Kelly a chance to see how an actual in home Thirty-one party went.
For Kelly all of this additional training was extremely helpful and meant that she was totally prepared for whatever question or issue come about.
In conclusion, Kelly has been able to make her business very profitable over the last four years. She stated that every single item that someone orders from her it is worth 25% profit for her. The profits that Kelly has made over the last four years has allowed her to be able to buy herself a new car and take her family on a very nice vacation. Kelly told me that her husband even helps her with the business sometimes.

Reference
Maynard, K. (2015, April 1). Personal Communication.

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