I've seen a lot of posts about results from your open houses.  I thought I should share my experience.  I had my 1st open house in 1995.  It was for 2 days - Saturday and Sunday.  3 people came, only 2 bought, and that amounted to $32.50 in sales.  I sat and cried my eyes out!  I had other Open Houses in 1996 and 1997, and the amount of people increased a little, and the amount spent increased a little, but it was still nothing to be proud of. 

Then in 1998 I started a Mary Kay bucks program.  My customers receive $1 buck for every $10 spent (rounded DOWN to the nearest $10) per order.  This includes our first appointment also (facial or class).  They can only redeem their bucks at my open houses in the Spring or at Christmas. Every time I get a reorder, I paper clip their bucks to the outside of the bag.  That way I know I didn't forget them. The bucks are printed up and on the back they say:  cannot be redeemed for cash, cannot be replaced if lost, can only be redeemed with me. 

I send out invitations about 10 days ahead of the open house, and the week of the open house I call EVERY single person who got an invitation.  If I don't catch them at home I leave a quick reminder message on their answering machine.  I also took pre-orders this year.  If they said they were coming I asked if they knew of items they would be needing that I could already have bagged up for them?  If they said they couldn't come to the open house I set up private appointments with them the following week. (They can still use their bucks if they set a private appointment, at MY home the following
week).

My open house was November 10 & 11 (Friday & Saturday).  I found that these 2 days are better than trying to have it on Sunday.  The results are as follows:  I sent out 200 invitations, I had 19 pre-orders bagged up, 36 people attended, thats 18%.  My sales totaled $2069!

The following week I call anyone who said they were coming and didn't show, and I held private appointments.  I sold $552 that week!

I guess my advice would be to start a bucks program, and to hang in there! 

Pam Cooper
Indianapolis