Holly Peck

Mercari App: Turn Clutter into Cash

November 4, 2018 By Holly Peck Leave a Comment

Over the past few months, I have been decluttering. Now that I am no longer a LuLaRoe retailer, I no longer need a lot of the clothing that I wore in the past. I don’t necessarily have need for all the accessories that I had. Nor do I need some of the more brightly colored shoes that I purchased to go with outfits for photo shoots. Since May, I have made more than a thousand dollars, just putting items up and waiting for someone else to buy them. The Mercari app is a great way to turn clutter into cash.

Best of all – use this link to create a Mercari account, and you can get a $10 coupon for your first purchase (even if you don’t use it, I get a $2 credit, so take advantage of it!)

How the Mercari App Works

Using the Mercari app is fairly simple:

Download the Mercari App
Use this link to create an account
List items for sale
- Take pictures via the app (up to 8 photos per listing)
- Use a keyword rich title (ie, “Apple Magic Mouse” will get more intentional hits than “bluetooth mouse”
- List the actual brand (shoppers don’t like “comparable” brands)
- List the condition of the item – make sure that this is accurate!
- Describe the item – make sure that if there are any flaws, you account for them. For example, I got nail polish remover on my Apple Magic Mouse (is anyone surprised?). If I was to list it, I MUST disclose that information!
- Use up to three tags
- Give your shipping information – you can either ship on your own, using a service like Paypal shipping, or anything, OR Mercari will send you a pre-paid label. I prefer to ship on my own, as I personally own a scale and a label printer, BUT you may want to opt for the convenience of the pre-paid label.
- Hit “list” and wait for your item to sell!
You can search for items you may be interested in buying (I mean, after all, you do get a $10 coupon for signing up!)

How to Get Cash with the Mercari App

Here’s how to get cash with the Mercari App. Once you’ve created an account, you can list your items for sale. There is NO COST to post items (you pay 10% of the final SALE value – ie, if I sell a dress for $40, I will receive $36 from Mercari), and there are no limits on how many items you can have posted (that I have found!). Once someone purchases an item, you have 3 days to ship it.

Protip: responding quickly and shipping quickly gets you “badges” on your profile, and some buyers make purchasing decisions based off these badges: quick shipper (ships within 24 hours, NOT counting weekends or holidays), fast responder (responds to messages within an average of 12 hours), and reliable (doesn’t cancel orders, high ratings from buyers).

Here’s where it gets fun: the BUYER gets to rate the seller within 3 days of receipt (per tracking confirmation of delivery). The buyer’s rating (using a system of stars, 1 star = poor; 5 stars = excellent) releases the funds, and voila! You get paid. If a buyer does not rate the seller within those 72 hours, then Mercari will close the transaction and issue you the funds.

Balances above $10 transfer to your bank account for FREE and typically are deposited within 3-5 business days. You can also use the funds as credit for purchases YOU make on the app.

Strategies for Selling with the Mercari App

First, I like to do a little research before listing items. I like to answer these questions:

Are others selling the same items?
If so, what kind of prices do they have?
Are similar items actually selling, or are they just sitting?
Are there a lot of “new” items like what you are looking to list? If there are a lot of new ones, it could be harder to sell a used item.

Here are a few strategies that I use when selling:

Free shipping is super attractive for shoppers, so I price my items accordingly to “include” the shipping cost. It’s ALL about the psychology of someone thinking that they are getting something for free.
I ALWAYS price higher than the final total I hope to get – if I want $20 for an item, I will list it for $30, expecting to lower the price to $25 to cover the shipping costs and get the $20 I want.
Use ALL your photo options – with 8 photos, you can show all kinds of angles and information. Make sure to be incredibly accurate with your descriptions so that no buyer can claim the listing was innaccurate.

What is your experience with decluttering? Have you ever tried the Mercari App to sell items?

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Frequently Asked Questions About Joining Color Street

November 4, 2018 By Holly Peck Leave a Comment

Have you thought about joining Color Street? Seen all these stylists talking about how amazing their teams are, and how they are moving an $11-14 product like hot cakes? I totally get why you’d be asking about Color Street – it’s an amazing direct sales company, and an incredible opportunity! The company is growing FAST and people LOVE the product. So let’s dig into some frequently asked questions about joining Color Street.

Do I Need to Carry Inventory?

Friend, NO! You do not need to carry Color Street inventory. Customers can order off your own website that you get when you become a stylist. If you CHOOSE to carry inventory for in-person sales, that is 100% your prerogative. You can run a great business without carrying any inventory at all.

How Much Does it Cost to Join Color Street?

You can sign up for the stylist kit on my website HERE. It costs $129 plus tax and shipping (it ends up around $150, depending on where you live). The enrollment kit comes with $250 worth of products and business tools to get you started on your Color Street business.

Are There Color Street Sales Requirements?

Color Street stylists need to sell $300 once every six months. Once you “bonus qualify” (sell $300 in a month), that six months resets.

How Does Color Street Train Stylists?

Every Tuesday morning, there is a call-in training that all stylists are invited to attend. If you cannot make it to that training, the replay will be available. The training consists of a company update, often including company statistics and product information, and then a featured training from a stylist, typically an Executive Director or above.

Additionally, there are weekly emails with updates from the Color Street home office, which are typically sent on Mondays.

Your specific team will most likely have a Facebook group where you can receive training and connect with other stylists on your team.

How Much Does Color Street Pay Stylists?

The lowest payment you will ever get is 25% back on purchases through your website. The commission period is weekly, ending on Tuesdays. The amount is direct deposited to your bank account after the weekly period closes.

If your sales exceed $600 in a month, you are entitled to additional income. The additional commission will be deposited to your account on a MONTHLY basis, along with any additional earnings (like, money from team sales). You can earn up to 35% commission on your sales.

You can earn additional free nail polish strips by creating a party with yourself as the hostess, and earn free Color Street. I am currently about to close a party, and will get more than $400 in free product, and at least 10 half-price strips. Why is this great? You can opt to use these strips to help grow your business – use them to give away to your team, give them away to customers, or sell them in person for the cost. I love this benefit because once, when running a vendor event, someone passed me a fake $20. The inventory that I had earned from hosting my own parties easily helped offset the loss.

Do I Need to Have a Team?

No! But let me tell you, if you allow your excitement to bubble up, people will be attracted to you and your business, and you will be able to grow a good-sized team quickly. It definitely takes work to lead a team, but the payoff is so worth it. If you don’t want a team, and just want to sell nail polish, great! You can still make income that way.

What Additional Costs Are Part of Being a Color Street Stylist?

The only REQUIRED cost is the Color Street stylist website fee, which is $9.95 a month. This allows customers to place orders and have the orders shipped directly TO THEM – you don’t have to do any of the shipping!

Let’s talk about additional costs. You can purchase supplies, and quite frankly, I do recommend having some of the supplies. Having samples is a HUGE asset – many people prefer to “try before they buy” so they can compare Color Street to their regular nail polish. You can purchase the two-finger testers from the stylist web site. Depending on how many you hand out each month, and how many parties you have, you may want to order between 50-100 testers. Be ready to purchase more if needed – people LOVE trying out Color Street samples!

Additionally, I recommend having business cards with all of your contact information. You can use a template provided by Color Street (for FREE), and you can purchase the cards from Vista Print. This is a relatively small expense to have available to hand out with your samples, so that people have your information and can come back and purchase more.

How Often Are New Styles Released?

Historically, Color Street catalogs are released in the Spring and the Fall, with 20-30 new sets. During those times, a number of sets are retired as well – see the Fall 2018 retiring sets here to get an idea of how many retire.

Additionally, sets are released seasonally, including Valentines, Christmas, Halloween, St. Patrick’s Day, 4th of July, Summer, and more.

The Color Street foundation also releases sets connected with a charity. So far, they have had Autism Awareness nails, Childhood Cancer Awareness nails, and currently, Alzheimer’s Awareness nails.

Do I Need to Have Parties?

You can opt out of parties and choose to run your business however you want – but parties are a huge way to grow your business and expand your customer base. You can do catalog parties, Facebook events, in-person parties – the options are endless!

Are There Penalties to Deactivate?

No! If you find that Color Street is not right for you, simply submit a ticket to the Color Street website, and you can deactivate. At this point, you will lose access to your Virtual Office, and any downline that you currently have will roll up to your sponsor.

Do you have other burning questions? Leave them in the comments, OR message me on my Facebook page – I’d LOVE to help answer your questions about joining Color Street and what it means to be a Color Street stylist!

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How to Apply Color Street Nail Polish Strips

October 15, 2018 By Holly Peck Leave a Comment

Hooray! You have Color Street! Now it’s time to go through that process: how to apply Color Street nail polish strips. Read on for step-by-step instructions on how to get the best manicure with Color Street.

Color Street is 100% nail polish that is 95% dry already – it’s 5% wet, so it can finish drying – or “cure” to your nail. It comes in the form of a “strip” so that you can easily apply it. The process of applying Color Street isn’t necessarily difficult. It’s just different from what you may be used to. Never fear, follow these steps and you’ll be a Color Street application pro in no time.

Step 1: Choose your strip.

This might be one of the hardest steps! There are so many amazing choices. No matter your style, there is Color Street for that – glitters, solids, patterns – even French tips.

For this post, I chose Made in Milan, a deep, dark solid with brown and burgundy shimmer undertones.

Step 2: Prepare Your Nails

This is relatively simple: if you need to clip or shape your nails, now is the time.

Protip: use your nail clippers to reduce nail length, rather than using an emery board. Need a good set of clippers? Grab these on Amazon – a good set of nail clippers will change your manicure routine. Emery boards should be used for final shaping, not for shortening nail length.

Step 3: Match Strips to Your Nails

Each package of Color Street nail strips comes with 2 sheets of 8 double-sided strips. That means that you have 16 different sizes to choose from. Simply match the strips to your cuticles to find ones that are the perfect fit.

Note: Each package is intended for 1-time use.

Step 4: Wipe Your Nails Clean

When you open your Colore Street package, you’ll find three things:

Packet of nail strips
2 alcohol prep pads
1 miniature nail file

Use one of the alcohol prep pads to wipe away any natural oils away from your nail bed. This allows the strip to better adhere to your nail, which will create a longer-lasting manicure.

Step 5: Remove Clear Top & Peel the Nail Polish Strip from the Paper Backing

Now you’re ready to start applying! Tear apart the nail strips. It is best to start from the pinkie finger and go outward to your thumbs. Lay out the strips as needed for all your fingers so you can apply quickly.

Each nail strip comes with a clear plastic top (to keep it from drying out) and the nail polish strips are on a paper backing, like a sticker.

Step 6: Place Strip on Your Nail

Carefully line up the strip with your cuticle, and set it on the nail. If you mess up, it’s ok! You can reposition the strip if needed (as long as you haven’t pressed it down yet).

Step 7: Press Strip Down

Starting at the base of the nail, closest to your cuticle, gently press down on the nail strip. Slide your thumb down the center of the nail until you reach the tip. Then, smooth the strip down from the center to the side. There will be excess at the bottom – hang tight; we’re getting to that.

Step 8: Tuck the Bottom Edges

Use your thumbnail to tuck the bottom of the strip under the edge of your nail (this is why you should do your thumbs last).

Tip: if you are applying a glitter set with chunky glitter, you can use sharp nail clippers to trim the glitter.

Step 9: Wipe Nail with Included Alcohol Wipe

As a final step, use the included nail wipe on the finished application. This helps the polish cure slightly faster.

There you have it – now you know how to apply Color Street nail polish strips. What did you think – easy? Will this be your new nail polish go-to? Now, it’s time to learn how to take it off. Click HERE to see my blog post about Color Street nail polish strip removal.

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3 Things to Do Immediately After Joining Color Street

October 12, 2018 By Holly Peck Leave a Comment

HOORAY! You’ve joined Color Street as a brand new stylist! That is SO exciting. You’re going to love being part of the Color Street family. It’s a great company to join, and I am so happy that I am part of it, and I am delighted to welcome you. You’re probably itching to get started, so let’s not hesitate: here are 3 things you need to do immediately after joining Color Street.

Set Up Your Stylist Website

As soon as you get your YAY YOU’RE A STYLIST email, friend, go set up your website! Get your customized URL (like how mine is colorstreet.com/thehollypeck – you want yours to be your info!).

Tips for a great username:

Don’t use “Color Street” or any form of “Color” or “Street” in the title at all – it’s against Policies & Procedures (ask your sponsor about how to find P&P)
Think EASY! What if you had to verbally tell someone? Mine makes sense – @thehollypeck is my social handle for everything, so it makes sense that I’d be colorstreet.com/thehollypeck
Be creative and have fun!

Make sure to upload a picture of yourself! Folks want to see your smiling face on your website. A head shot is best, if you have one; make sure you look professional, friendly, and smiling. Make sure you “introduce yourself” on your site – that helps people get to know you.

Create a Party

One of the great parts of being a Color Street stylist is that you can be the hostess of your own party and get all the rewards. That means that you’re going to one to go ahead and create a party right away, so that any and all orders can be linked to a party (I always name it something like “NO HOSTESS?? – SHOP HERE”)

Why is this important? Let’s think about what you can do with the strips that you earn as hostess rewards:

give them away to customers as thank you gifts
sell them in-person to earn extra $$
use them as team incentives to help grow your team
use them as giveaways in your customer group to build your business

Note: stylists are not eligible to earn the $25 booking credit on self-hosted parties

Honestly, the possibilities are limitless! Being able to be your own hostess is HUGE because this gives you resources to build your business strategically – thank you, Color Street!

Don’t Wait for Your Kit!

Don’t make the mistake that I made – don’t wait for your kit to arrive to start working your business!

Create a customer group on Facebook (don’t forget; don’t just add people to it, ask them if they would like to be part of it)!
Plan a launch party!
Create a google form so that you can collect customer information to be able to send out samples as soon as your kit arrives

Share the excitement that you have with people – make sure to post a nailfie so that folks on Facebook see and know that you are a Color Street stylist. This is a great way to put out a call for folks to request samples from you. Be careful not to be spammy – remember, folks log on to Facebook to connect with friends and be entertained, not just to buy things. Be fun, and be yourself.

BONUS: Join Color Street Stylist Facebook Groups

Here are some important STYLIST-ONLY Facebook groups you should join. You don’t need to join a million groups; just ones that will be valuable for YOU and helping you with your business.

First off, ask your sponsor if they have a Facebook team group, and if they will add you so that you can get resources and support. If they do not specifically have one, then their upline will have one. Why is this important? Your sponsor will not be around 24/7. They cannot run your business for you, or answer all your burning questions every minute of every day. Having a team page helps in being able to get help. Even better, you get to benefit from the learning of others – make sure to utilize the search function in a team page for lots of information!

If you join my team, I’d suggest 3 team groups for you:

Team Grit (my team page – if you are on my downline and NOT on this page, click to request to join)
Team Flourish (my sponsor’s [Vanessa O.] team page)
Team Fancy Fingers (my sponsor’s sponsor [Katie H.] team page).

Then, there are Facebook groups for any stylist to join. Here is a list of my favorites:

Official Color Street Stylist Facebook Group
Nailfies group (all nailfies shared here are free for usage; just don’t remove any watermarks or claim them as your own – unless of course, you took the pic yourself!).

Was this post helpful? Make sure you share it with new stylists! This post is NOT specifically for me or for my team; this is for anyone who joins the magical world of Color Street. SO excited for you to work your business. What else would you add to this list? Add your suggestions in the comments; if I add it to the post, I will credit you by name for the suggestion.

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MiloTree: An Easy Tool to Grow Your Social Media Following

October 7, 2018 By Holly Peck Leave a Comment

Creating great content is only one part of a successful blogger’s strategy. Promoting content on social channels brings new viewers as well as repeat viewers. That means growing your social media channels so that you have more eyes seeing the great content. I’d like to introduce you to an easy tool to help you grow your social media following: MiloTree.

What is MiloTree?

MiloTree is a plugin for your WordPress blog that creates a pop up that appears on a designated page of your website to encourage those reading your blog to find you on another social channel. It contains a link that sends them to follow you there. Additionally, you can designate how often the popup appears on your site – you can have it appear once a day, it can appear on the left or right side of your site, or it can be suppressed on mobile – there are tons of options.

Oh, and the best part – you can totally customize it to show your brand colors, so it can be unique to YOU and your branding!

What does MiloTree Do?

Have a social channel that you want to grow? MiloTree is a great tool to point people towards that channel. What is your social media focus? Are you trying to grow your Pinterest, youtube channel, or your Instagram? You can designate that the popup on your website funnel people to that social channel to follow you.

Check out my Milotree popup! In face, you may have seen it popup on this page as you started scrolling.

Since I installed MiloTree in June 2018 (I’m hitting publish on this post in October 2018), my Pinterest following has grown by 300. Part of that has been consistency in pinning, and part of it has been helping people find how to follow me more easily. On my analytics page, I can see the upward trajectory, which is so exciting and encouraging as I am growing my reach.

How Can I Get MiloTree?

You can get a free one-month trial of MiloTree HERE. You can also test a preview of what it will look like on your site. After that one month trial expires, MiloTree costs $9 a month, and can be paid yearly. It is a GREAT investment in growing your social channels. What channel do or will you use Milotree for? Tell me in the comments! While you’re at it, make sure to check out the free blogger’s toolkit, with a list of plugins and resources for you to work your blog and increase your social media following.

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Color Street Miami Beach Swatches and Review

October 7, 2018 By Holly Peck Leave a Comment

Color Street Miami Beach is one of the solid nail polish colors available from Color Street. It’s a vibrant hot pink nail polish that will make you swoon – scroll down to see swatches and read a review.

Color Street Miami Beach Description

Color Street Miami Beach is a vibrant hot pink – so hot pink that it almost seems to glow from within. It’s a shimmery finish. When putting together the Color Street dupe list, I haven’t found a perfect dupe for it yet – most hot pinks have a fuchsia undertone, whereas Miami Beach is just vibrant, glowing hot pink.

Color Street Miami Beach Application

Color Street is unique in that it comes with multiple “layers” of nail polish in one application: base coat, color coat, and top coat. For glitters and glitter patterns, the polish comes in four layers: base coat, color coat, glitter coat, and top coat. Because of this, solids are slightly more delicate than the glitters and glitter patterns.

No stress: that just means that application differs for some folks. I personally find that the solid colors last longer when I apply two coats. How do I do this?

First, I apply one layer. Then, I wipe it off with the included alcohol prep pad, and apply the second layer. Applying two coats did not make the nail polish feel significantly thicker, nor did it change the appearance of the color (unlike with Blue Lagoon, where layering the two created a more intense color).

Color Street Miami Beach Swatches

Now for the good stuff – Miami Beach is GORGEOUS. It was nearly impossible to get good photos of the color, but we’ll have to appreciate what I did get.

Color Street Miami Beach Removal

Color Street solid colors are easier to remove than the glitters. I personally recommend still using a gentle natural nail polish remover and soaking it. I made a small remover jar with sponges and allow the nails to soak for a few minutes and then rub off the remaining polish.

Miami Beach felt easier to remove because I didn’t have to scrub off the final remnants of glitter – WIN!

How to Buy Color Street Miami Beach

Need some Color Street Miami Beach in your life after reading this? Click HERE to shop. Make sure to add four sets to your cart to take advantage of the buy 3 get 1 free offer. Come join my VIP group to show off your new Color Street, and find out about any special incentives I may be offering.

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