Pet Parties!

Pet Parties!
By James J. Jones
According to the recent statistics from the Humane Society of the United States, almost 40% of all households own at least one dog and 36% own at the least one cat. That is an approximation of close to 170 million pets that Americans have in their homes. This is a market that you could tap into by offering your favorite choices of pet products at fun in-home parties.

Since our pets are an important part of our families, we obviously spend money on many things for them just as we do for other family members. There is such a broad range of items that we can offer at these parties, from food to toys! In addition, we have only included the statistics for dogs and cats, there are many other kinds of pets that families own and are buying things for too.

You could have specific parties for dogs, cats, reptiles, fish, birds and the list goes on. Don't leave out those farm animals also; horses, pigs, cows, etc. There is a good reason that there are so many large pet stores everywhere these days.

If you are not sure how to get started, you could design an attractive flyer, visit all of the veterinarian offices in your area, and ask if you could leave them in their offices. You don't want them to take up much room, but make them attractive so they catch peoples interest, and people will pick them up while visiting.

Another way to get started is by asking your friends if they would be willing to host a party for you and invite all of their friends. You should be able to book more parties from these and grow from there. Of course, you should always offer an incentive to anyone offering to host a party. Most companies offer a certain percentage of the sales towards an item or items of their choice.

You don't need to carry a lot of stock with you, just enough so that people can touch and check-out items that they would like to offer. You could print up several different catalogue items that you offer but don't have with you, or offer a web-site for them to look at other items you carry. Tell them that they can also order from your website and credit the host for introducing you to them when ordering.

Be sure to offer all of the party members a chance to sign up for regular announcements of sales of your items and include them on a mailing list. This is a great way to establish a reliable customer list to draw from when business is slow.

It is a good idea to try to bring a few things to your parties that people can go home with after the party too. This just means to be sure and find some items that you can sell at a reasonable price and are easy to transport with you in your vehicle. Make these items only available to the guests that attend your parties.

You will also want to have some cute, easy, and fun games to play at your parties. Have prizes for those that win your games and gifts as door prizes.