Question: What goes with chocolate?   Answer: Almost everything!  Consider using the proven appeal of chocolate to increase your attendance and party averages!  Big time!   Using this 99tools exclusive method, the increased profits when you double or triple your attendance at shows.  For a $5 – $7 business expense per show, this tool will help you create solid bookings (that don’t cancel).  Read on for complete sources and business building ideas for Chocolate Fountain Parties.  Bronze,Silver,Gold,Platinum Members, read on… {+}

Chocolate Fountain Parties

Business Supplies shopping list:

• Chocolate Fountain (go to sephra.com)
• Chocolate (a great source is sirchocolate.com)
• Wooden picks (from local restaurant or restaurant supply)
• Spatula
• Cool Whip size container for left over chocolate
• Rubbermaid tote big enough to carry all of the above (about 12 x 20 x 10″)
• Recycle plastic shopping bags (aka Walmart like bags)
• Business cards
• opt: Full Size Hershey Bars (inexpensive at Costco or Sam’s Club)

These are a smash hit!

This one is from Sally, one of the admins here.  She started using this tool about 3 years ago when she was working on driving her romance party sales from a $1,000 average on Friday and Saturday nights towards her goal of making them $2,000 each!

Here’s the rundown:

The chocolate fountain is provided free of charge to hostesses that have a large guest list.   This could also be used for any of you that are doing the “Private Business Reception” approach to recruiting.  This one is best used to drive attendance up at the event.

We all know how it goes… a hostess invites 20 people and 7.5 of them show up.  hee hhee… you know what we mean.

So, take into account what you need (numbers-wise) for you to have a “smash hit” party or get together.  Let’s say you can pretty much count on a $1,000 party if you have 15 people there.  For most companies, that means that you must invite 40 or more.

Most hostesses you book probably won’t be willing to invite that many people themselves – so the way around that is to encourage them to have a friend or two invite to the event as well (which is another whole post here – look for the “Double & Triple Your Party Profits”).

At the time of the initial hostess coaching (at the time of booking) you throw the idea out there that you would bring a professional chocolate fountain and provide the chocolate for an invitation list of 40 or more (or whatever number you want to put on it).   She buys the “dippy stuff” (more on that in a bit).

So now are you wondering what kind of pain in the butt this is to bring to a party?

It’s really not bad.  Really.

You need to waltz in to your party an extra 5 minutes early to set up the fountain.  Can you handle that? Seriously, when you get to the hostess’ house.. you simply nuke the chocolate in her microwave for a few minutes (or you could do this before you leave home ).  You only need to warm it enough for it to be “squishy” so you can easily squeeze it out of the bag.  The fountain will complete warming it and it will be flowing smoothly in just a few minutes while you’re setting up rest of your gear for your demo.

One of the benefits of belonging to this group is that you get to cut through the learning curve.  So here are a couple of time and money saving tips to help you along on this one.   First, let’s discuss that supply list in detail:

• Chocolate Fountain (go to sephra.com) – Now, you could buy a cheapie unit from a drugstore or Walmart, but trust me, you won’t be happy with it.  This particular company makes fine caterer/restaurant quality fountains.  Look at their home unit.  It’s fabulous.  Easy to clean.  And one of the main features that is uber-important is that there is an AUGER that carries the chocolate to the top of the fountain.  These are quiet and dependable.  Sally’s fountain has probably been used over 100 times and it still keeps on tickin’ and looks great.
• Chocolate (a great source is sirchocolate.com) – OK, there are all sorts of places to get chocolate, including Sephra.  Sally tried 3 of them and settled in on Sir Chocolate.  For some reason, the Sir Chocolate brand cleans up easier.  It doesn’t stain clothing like some brands would.  The big benefit of SC brand is that the 7.5 pound bags have a resealable nozzle on them.  So when you warm this in your microwave (don’t overheat!!!), it’s easy to squish out just what you need and cap off the rest.  No waste.  No mess.
• Wooden picks (from local restaurant or restaurant supply) – here’s another money saver:  Don’t buy the plastic picks.  Food slides off of those and winds up in your chocolate.  Plus those are expensive. Instead, go to your local restaurant supply (if you have one close) or your local restaurant and ask the manager to sell you a box of the long toothpicks that are used in sandwiches.  You know the kind… those ones that come in a club sandwich that have the cute swirly colorful cello on one end.  They’re cheap (less than $5 a box, I think) and they last forever.
• Spatula – another mistake in the beginning was to assume that every hostess has a rubber scraper spatula thing.  They don’t.   Bring your own.  Buy a bright colored one so you don’t lose it in the mess in the hostess’ kitchen.
• Cool Whip size container for left over chocolate.  If you’re doing a couple of parties back-to-back in less than a week, there’s nothing wrong with saving the chocolate and reusing it at the next gig.  If you don’t have another one booked, offer the leftovers to the hostess or her friends for their kids.  They’ll love you for it.
• Rubbermaid tote big enough to carry all of the above (about 12 x 20 x 10″)
• Recycle plastic shopping bags (aka Walmart like bags) – Ah.. this is a biggie.  When you’re done at the hostess’ house, the last thing you want to do is spend a long time cleaning your gear there!  Just clean out the base of the heating unit (if you’re careful, and if you use Sir Chocolate brand, you can just use the sprayer on her sink and rinse that part off).  Barely rinse the other parts (auger, tubes, tiers) and then just toss them into a plastic shopping bag and take them home to clean.  These are all dishwasher safe, so just run them with your next load at home.  Easy Peasy.
• Business cards – Consider getting the “clean edge” (or whatever they’re called) at Office Depot or Office Max.  These are cards that “snap” apart – no ugly perforations.  You can easily make a custom design to promote your chocolate fountain parties through your computer.  Love these.
• opt: Full Size Hershey Bars (inexpensive at Costco or Sam’s Club)   When you’re in full swing, try carrying a few full size Hershey Bars with the custom business cards attached to them.   These are especially good at networking events!  They get a real “wow” factor thing going on .. and it’s easy to start the conversation about how fun your Chocolate Fountain Parties are when you are handing them a full size bar.  This also works well at vendor events – be a little descriminate – but give to the women that seem to be good prospects as they fill out your questionnaire slips.

On that note, be sure and check out the  “The Difference a Dime Can Make” story… it will give you an idea of what you can expect in return when you give a little (like a Hershey Bar) first.

Please post your questions and comments… and we’ll be adding more to this idea, I’m sure!