We made it through the second week of Sweet Hope sales and my panic has mostly subsided. ?That doesn’t mean that I am not obsessively checking my email every 5 minutes for new orders. ?Yesterday was a good day to do that because I had quite a few show up.
Sometime around mid-week I looked at what the sales were doing, compared them to last year and weighed it all against our goal for the year. ?Last year the goal was $2000 is gross sales. ?We made roughly $2300. ?This year I wanted to increase that by 20%. ?That would have made our goal $2760. ?By mid-week we were at (roughly) $1400. ?The $2700 goal didn’t seem that far off. ?However, it meant that in the last week we would have to sell what we sold in the first two. ?Then sales late in the week picked up and we upped the goal to $3000 (gross sales). ?A little ambitious, yes.
I entered the remaining order from this morning and at the current moment we are $1100 away from $3000! ?This does include 2 donations we received, but does not include 3 orders that I’m waiting for payment on. ?So $3000 is very very close. ?In fact, we have about $1500 in profit at the moment. ?That is almost what we sent to the orphanage last year (that total was $1700). ?I have all of the packaging purchased, but I do not have the chocolate and ingredients purchased. ?Last year I spent about $300 on ingredients. ?I expect to spend at least $400 because of the added flavors and extra sales.
When all of this started I never thought I would ever be talking about such large numbers. ?I didn’t expect to send as much as I did last year. ?There are days when I am in shock and then there are days when I start thinking we could actually send $3000. ?All of this is thanks to you and a group of amazing volunteers. ?I couldn’t do any of this without you.
And speaking of volunteers, if you would like to know who the sales people are around the country I’ll clue you in. ?I had 10 people volunteer to be sales people. ?I sent them a box with sample truffles and caramels. ?They also received business cards with the Sweet Hope website. ?I also gave them a little incentive. ?The person that gets the most people to buy gets a gift from me and Derek. ?I would open that challenge up to the rest of you, but that wouldn’t be fair to the volunteers that have worked so hard over the past few weeks. ?So I’ll add a second challenge. ?The person who refers the most customers (and is not a Sweet Hope sales person) will win a $10 iTunes gift card. ?This is why on the checkout page we are asking how you heard of us. ?Tell everyone you know about Sweet Hope, direct them to our website and persuade them to order. ?And don’t forget to tell them you sent them.
So who are the sales people? ?Rhonda & Brian (of the original 6), Tracy M. (who work’s at the trusty husband’s home office), Tricia (also of the original 6), Lee, Kami, Sig, Jenni, Lisa, Joel and Melissa.
There is still time to volunteer in the kitchen. ?I can always use help there. ?If you are interested in helping email me.