Sweet Success: How To Sell Like A Girl Scout

GREAT ARTICAL from March 2010 ~ The Worcester Business Journal,

From reading “The Art of War” to participating in lofty corporate retreats, successful business people tend to find advice or valuable, usable information in many different places and from many different sources.

One source that may be overlooked, though, is the Girl Scouts of America.

Nationwide, the annual Girl Scout cookie sale, which takes place between Jan. 15 and March 31, will generate more than $700 million. In the scouts’ Central and Western Massachusetts region, 14,000 Girl Scouts are expected to move nearly 1.2 million boxes of cookies.

To call the sale anything but a highly successful business venture is failing to do it justice. To dismiss the lessons the scouts learn while taking part in the sale is to do one’s business a real disservice.

The scouts’ advice is in some cases practically the same as the advice sold by any number of corporate strategy hawkers, marketing gurus, grand poobahs, evangelists or ninjas. In many cases, it’s better.

“It shows you that the power of networking is incredible,” said Richard Kennedy, president and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce and purchaser of countless boxes of thin mints.

“They engage every civic organization, every neighbor and friend, and it’s almost embarrassing not to buy them,” Kennedy said. “If one comes by, you buy from her. If 10 come by, you buy from 10.”

So, what are the lessons business leaders can learn from the Girl Scouts as they embark on their annual cookie sale? We’ll let the scouts themselves, namely Elizabeth Anderson and Hannah Schur of Westborough give the answers:

Perseverance
“The cookie sale is right in the middle of winter, and it’s cold; I spend hours on it. It takes up all of my weekends for two months,” Anderson, a 16-year-old high school sophomore, said. But it’s worth it. In the last three years, Anderson has sold about 4,000 boxes of cookies.

Promotion
“Don’t be afraid to promote your products,” Anderson said. “I would go door to door and I would be so afraid that people would just kick me out, but if people want a product,” they’ll buy it.

Be Nice
“You should always be nice to any customers,” said Schur, an eighth grader. “Even if they don’t buy anything, be polite, because they might become future customers.”
Anderson said, “Be friendly and talk to people. Some girls in the troop are really enthusiastic, and some are not.” But when it comes time to tally up the sales, “you can tell who’s been sitting there with their arms crossed, because they sell half as much.”

Be Empathetic
“Put yourself in the customer’s shoes,” said Schur. “Do everything you can to be convenient to customers,” Schur said.
By being convenient, Schur is hoping to hit the biggest sales goal she’s had in her eight years selling cookies. In the past, she’s averaged about 360 boxes per year. Now, she’s shooting for about 700.

Be Opportunistic
“Even thought I wanted to be home, I went out on Super Bowl Sunday to get more sales. Who doesn’t want Girl Scout Cookies while watching the football game?” Schur said.

The Incentives
Schur, in setting her ambitious goal of 700 boxes of cookies, knows what’s at stake. At 1,500 boxes, scouts get a Wii game system.
“The incentives are not really that big until you get to 1,000,” Schur said. At 700, though, more money out of each sale goes toward Schur’s goal. She’s saving to attend the “100 Years of Girl Scouting” event in Washington, D.C., in 2012.
Anderson has been very successful. With her sales numbers and a successful application essay picked from among the essays of scouts from across the country, she was able to take one of the scouts’ “Destinations” trips to Costa Rica last summer.

BROWNIES.... BOOOO-tiful Creations!

Brownie Leaders, Lisa, Novia, and Kristi planned out another fun time for our Brownie Girls. This troop meeting was all about crafting for a Halloween Fun Patch. The girls did several projects:

• A Frankenstein Paper Bag to hold treats...

• A Halloween stick book mark / puppet...

and the funnest project the girls enjoyed~

• Home made "Gooey Gunk"! (recipe below)

GOOEY GUNK~ (half the recipe if you do not want too much)

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:
Solution A:
1 cup water
1 cup white glue
2 Tbs. liquid tempera paint or 7-10 drops food coloring

Solution B:
1 1/3 cups warm water
4 tsp. borax laundry booster

HOW TO CONCOCT IT:
1. Mix ingredients in solution A together in a medium bowl.
2. In a second medium bowl. Mix the ingredients in solution B together until the borax is completely dissolved.
3. Slowly pour solution A into solution B. (Do not mix!)
4. Roll solution A around in solution b 4-5 times.
5. Lift solution A out of solution B and knead for 2-3 minutes.
6. Store gunk in a an airtight container or a plastic zip bag.

CONCOCTION TIPS AND IDEAS:Use read liquid tempera paint/food coloring to create Lava Gunk, green to create Slimy Gunk, or black to create Tar Gunk.

Recipe from "The Ultimate Book of Kid Concoctions"

Thank you, Pilar, for all your help with the Leaders! You are awesome!

Girl Scout, Kara missed school the day of our GS troop meeting, so she did her own Halloween Craft project on her own to earn her fun patch. Kara is quite an artist and brought her Halloween Art to the next meeting to show the troop. Great job, Kara!

Sit Upons ~ A Girl Scout Tradition

What is a sit-upon? They are homemade, usually waterproof pads used to protect the user's backside from the cold and damp while "sitting upon" the ground! They are also great for sitting any where the sitting surface is hard... a Girl Scout tradition for camping.

We made our sit upons out of heavy duty table cloths bought at Wal mart (60x102 inches Oblong @ $5.00 each), yarn, old newspapers & plastic shopping bags. We decorated the sit upons with permanent markers and stickers. Each table cloth made 16 sit upons. ("How To" directions below). Here, the girls are decorating their sit upon covers.

"Sit upons" ready to be sat upon!

It had sprinkled rain earlier in the day and the ground was a little damp.

Thank goodness we had our "sit upons" for enjoying the camp fire fun!

HOW WE MADE OUR "SIT UPONS":

• Pre-cut the tablecloth into rectangle sections with pinking shears. We cut our pieces into 12" x 15" sections since we had large sized table cloths for our large group of 24 Girl Scouts. Discard the side edge pieces since the corners are not square and it's extra fabric anyway.
• Place two pieces together, insides facing each other.

• Hole punch around all sides of pre-cut pieces. If your hole punch has a hard time going through, you may hole punch each piece individually. OR, forget the hole punch and yarn idea, and simply use Duct Tape to secure the edges.

  
• Decorate the pre-cut pieces with permanent marker. We used a variety of colors as well as stickers. Have each Girl Scout put their name on their sit upon.
• Cut long pieces of thick colored yarn to be used to stitch the edges closed.
• Wrap scotch tape around each end to create a tight, hard end for the yarn to more easily go through the hole punches.
• Stitch the outside edges on 3 of the 4 sides. The girls can stitch with a straight stitch or a whip stitch- whichever they choose. We also used colored pony beads to embellish the yarn as the stitches were done.
• When 3 of the 4 sides are completed, stuff crunched newspaper and/or plastic shopping bags in the open end. DO NOT OVER STUFF.
• Finish stitching the 4th side and tie securely.

Your "Sit Upon" is now finished and ready to be sat upon!

Learning about Camp Fire Safety... and Singing Songs

... and having a fun time, too! Camp fires, singing song, and telling stories when camping... a girl scout tradition!

Before we ventured outside to build our campfire, our Girl Scouts learned "Camp Fire Safety" by building their own Edible Campfire (idea found HERE). We went step by step building our edible campfire, discussing what we'll need to do and NOT do when we are at our real camp fire outside. A Camp Fire "Fun Patch" was earned for our camp fire time.

Our "Edible Camp Fire"

Do's:
Keep long hair pulled back in a pony tail
Stay behind the fire ring of rocks
Enjoy our time singing songs and having fun
Put out the fire with water, followed by burying it with dirt
Be safe and follow rules

Don't:
Go past the fire ring without an adult
Throw anything in the fire
Go on the side where smoke is blowing
Be unsafe

Girl Scout, Lacy, holding our "talking stick", (made from a feather duster, decorated with ribbon and beads) sharing a funny story...

Songs led by Daisy Girl Scout Leader, and "Master of Ceremony", Kristi. Leader, Teri, gives thumbs up for a great time!

CAMPING FUN... Zipper Bag Omelets!

Rise and shine... and time for Breakfast! For a fun treat, we had the girls make their own breakfast~ OMELETS! (see added note below)

MMM-MMM GOOD!

*It was brought to our attention by a fellow blogger, Susan, that cooking eggs in ziplock bags is NOT recommended. Susan provided a link with direct comments from Ziploc. See her complete comment in the comment section of this post. Thank you for the information, Susan!

http://camping.about.com/od/campingrecipes/a/ziplocbaggies.htm.

HOW TO MAKE ZIPPER BAG OMELETS:

• Have guests write their name on a quart-size Ziploc freezer bag with permanent marker.


• Crack 2 eggs (large or extra-large) into the bag (not more than 2) shake to combine them.


• Put out a variety of ingredients such as: cheeses, ham, onion, green pepper, tomato, hash browns, salsa, etc.


• Each guest adds prepared ingredients of choice to their bag.


• Make sure to get the air out of the bag, zip it up, then gently shake and squeeze until mixed.


• Place the bags into rolling, boiling water for 10-15 minutes.


• You can usually cook 6-8 omelets in a large pot. For more, make another pot of boiling water.


• When done, carefully remove bags from boiling water and let sit for a few minutes to cool.


• Open the bags and the omelet will roll out easily.


• Be prepared for everyone to be amazed. Nice to serve with fresh fruit and coffee cake; everyone gets involved in the process and a great conversation piece.

The Making of Stepping Stones

As part of our Garden Project to honor our former Superintendent, Mr. McMath, as well as give the staff and students of London ISD a special area, the girls suggested making stepping stones for our garden area.

Troop Leaders Teri and Lisa pre-mixed the cement prior to the girls' arrival to the troop meeting and all the supplies were ready to go for the girls to grease their stepping stone form form, help fill it with concrete, pat it down with a hand float, tap the sides with a wooden spoon to get air bubbles out, and the fun part, DECORATE! The girls had fun picking out a variety of glass half marbles, glass shapes, colored stone, and ceramic tile pieces to create their own personal masterpiece that will be a part of London for years.

This would be a fun family project to do at home! Have your Girl Scout be in charge of teaching the rest of the family how they made their stepping stone. Full instructions on how we made our stepping stones below.

"How to MAKE A STEPPING STONE" instructions~ (what we did)

Supplies:

a mold (found at The Dollar Tree... a round plastic 8" tortilla holder!)

petroleum jelly

hardware mesh (we used the small 1/2 " mesh, pre-cut into approximately 4" x 4" square)

"Quickrete" concrete (80 lb bag made SIX, 8" x approx. 2" deep stepping stones)

old container (for scooping concrete)

Wooden spoon (we bought a 4 pack at The Dollar Tree since we go through them)

(optional) something to protect your work surface if not on the ground

wheel barrow (or something to mix concrete in)

hoe or appropriate sized shovel to mix concrete

items to decorate or embellish your stepping stone (we used glass items bought at The Dollar Tree, Hobby Lobby, and on-line)

For person mixing concrete (or any persons close by):

dust mask

protective eye wear

gloves when working with concrete (if any gets on bare skin, wash immediately with warm, soapy water.)

Water Hose and Water close by!

1. The first thing you should do is to protect your work surface and yourself. Lay down some newspaper, plastic sheeting, or an old tablecloth or shower curtain. Weather permitting, you can make these outside! Always wear eye protection and rubber gloves...
2. Mix you concrete in a wheel barrow according to instructions. Be careful not to put too much water in your mix. When mixed, your concrete should have the consistency of brownie batter.
3. Set your mold on your work surface. Apply a liberal layer of petroleum jelly to sides and bottom (cooking spray can work too).
4. Start scooping concrete into the mold. Fill the mold about half full and smooth it down. Lay your cut piece of screening or hardware cloth into the mold and then finish scooping the cement into the mold until full. The hardware cloth (mesh) will help the stone keep from cracking over time.
5. Tap sides of mold with wooden spoon to release any possible air bubbles.
6. Smooth top of concrete with hand float (we actually had a concrete hand float, but you can use the back side of your wooden spoon.). By tapping the top of the concrete with the float and moving it in circular motion, you will work the gravel down and bring access water up. (this is good)
7. Now you can start decorating your stone. Be creative! If you make a mistake, you can simply remove the items, flatten out the top with the side of a craft stick or spoon, tap the sides to smooth, and start over again! If you want to do a hand print or write a message in your stone, leave your stepping stone alone to set up for 30 to 60 minutes before you make your hand prints or other prints in the cement.
8. Your stepping stone must now sit for 2 - 3 days without being disturbed - do not move it. If the weather outside is hot, lightly spray your stone down with a water hose several times over the 2-3 days to help it cure better. Once it is dry, you can gently pop it out of the mold. Voila!
9. Now, you can finish decorating it if you are planning on doing any painting. You can seal the top of your stepping stone with a clear acrylic sealer if you paint it.
10. IF YOU PAINT (which we did not do as a troop), you'll need to put you stone under cover and let your stepping stone sit for another week before putting it outside.

IMPORTANT: Wash all concrete materials and supplies OUTSIDE. NEVER WASH SUPPLIES WHERE IT WILL GO DOWN PLUMBING. The concrete will harden in the pipes... not a good thing!

When you place the stepping stones outside in their desired location, they should not be raised above ground more than about 1/2-inch so people don't trip on them and also so the stone doesn't break.

Photos of each Girl Scout with her stepping stone she crated for the school Garden Project will be posted in the near future.

Cost of this project: approximately $3.00 per stepping stone (depending on materials used for embellishment)