Scent-Sations Distributor, Tara Crooks is a military wife. She is one of thousands who just said goodbye to their husband once again for a 12-18th month tour to Iraq.

“We military wives are tough. It takes a different breed of woman to keep up with the household, chores, bills, job, kids etc. etc. while our husbands are away. One of the things I appreciate most is being able to come home and sit down and relax with all of my candles lit. There is nothing like the smell of a good candle! I think I deserve a great big "pat on the back" for holding my daily life as well as those around me together. I am a volunteer in our neighborhood, for our family readiness group, and for our community. To keep your head high when stress and worry are abound isn't an easy task. Every night I am sure to tell myself how good it was that I made it through "just another day".

Tara Crooks
Richmond Hill (Ft. Stewart), GA

Scent-Sations Distributor Laurie Delk sent this email about her sister, Linda:

Linda Darby, 30, has three children: Brandan, 7; Brooke, 5; and Bradley, 4. Her husband of 10 years, 1st Lt. David Darby, was ordered to go to Iraq in June with the 278th Army National Guard based in Morristown. Three days before he found out he was leaving, he and Linda learned they were expecting their fourth child, Baylea Sierra, who is due New Year's Day.

"They needed more officers and asked him to go. He cut the cord (umbilical) on all the babies, but he won't on this one," Linda said, pausing for breath as she had a minor contraction. "It will be hard, but I'm glad I'll have my Mom there."

David Darby served in the Army for three years and was discharged before he and Linda married, but he continued serving in the U.S. Army National Guard. He was employed with Beaver Engineering in Nashville before his deployment.

After spending time training in the U.S., David was home for a week in late October and then left for more training in Kuwait before going to Iraq. He is not scheduled to return home until February 2006, when the baby girl will be more than 1-year-old.

"I know there are lots of single moms and people who are alone," Linda Darby said, "but when you love someone who is in a dangerous place, it's harder. Weekends are the hardest and birthdays and anniversaries."

She said her husband's absence is toughest for her oldest son, who always played baseball with his dad. "When I see other kids playing with their dads, it makes me think of my dad," Brandan said.

His mother said he cries when he hears songs about soldiers, like "Letters from Home." "When I heard 'Travelin' Soldier' I cried, and Mom came and rocked me and held me," Brandan said.

Linda Darby said Brooke misses her dad tickling her, and Bradley misses "piggyback" rides from his Dad.

David Darby is now stationed at Camp Bernstein near Tuz Khurmatu, a city of 90,000, in northeast Iraq. He sleeps in a tent with 60 other soldiers. They don't even have a chow hall. She said she and her children pray for their father so often that prayer is on their list of chores.

"They pray for daddy at breakfast, lunch and dinner and before bed," Linda Darby said. "More than anything, I am thankful for God's protection and cannot imagine not having that to rely on."

Laurie Delk, TN

Here is a great story from a distributor in Paula Bishop and Kim Severance’s organization! When you read this you will see just about all of the benefits of this business being earned by Cindy: Retailing, Fundraising, and Crafts!

My name is Cindy Beaulieu from Grand Isle, Maine. I am the mother of 4 beautiful daughters, Krystal, Mikayla, Abigail, and Katelyn and I have been married to Karl for 15 years.

I first started burning Mia Bella soy/veg candles when my sister in law, Kimberly Severance from Maine, became a distributor. After buying a couple of candles and seeing peoples reactions to the way they burn, I decided to become a Candle of the Month Member. I thought to myself, if I can sell just a couple of candles, that would be great. But I never realized how easy they were going to be to sell until I started. For example, after I got the Sample Bag, I dropped the bag off at my dentist office in Edmundston, New Brunswick, Canada and told them I would return to pick up the order in a couple days, thinking that I would sell maybe 5 candles. But to my surprise, I sold 36 candles and I have had a couple of re-orders since then, from that office.

Around the same time, my daughters 8th Grade Class had a Fundraiser with e Mia Bella soy/veg candles and they sold over 80 candles. The class made over $480 and they were thrilled because it was so easy.

Also, during the holidays I made some votive roses and sold over 50 of them. I have already had a couple of requests for votive roses, for Valentine’s Day, and for Mother’s Day and I can’t wait to make them.

I also want to mention that my oldest daughter, Krystal, had to do a speech at school and she did it on Mia Bella soy/veg candles, she loves the candles so much that she brought one to school to burn while she was doing her speech, maybe someday she will be a distributor for Scent-Sations!

With all that being said, I truly believe in this company. The smell and sell technique really does work. I am really anxious to go to the “Spring Fling” in March and maybe get the extra boost to make Scent-Sations my full time job and not just my pastime.

Smell and Sell, it really works!
Cindy Beaulieu, ME

When we first started our Scent-Sations business, we didn't place any limits on ourselves. We dared to dream and we just started talking to everyone about the Mia Bella candles. We planned to work the business just like everyone else but we also knew that we could go far beyond that. We looked for lots of other ways to get the word out.

Of course, being the first in Canada does have it's advantages! Canada may not be very large in population compared to the US but we have the drive it takes to build this into a multi-million (even Billion) dollar enterprise! We have the advantage of being FIRST! But the fact is, everyone who comes into this business in the next few months and years will be FIRST! Who hasn't wished they could have been first in something? Here's your chance. We say, don't waste time, just do it!

Fluctuating Exchange Rates

Even with the exchange rate, the taxes and the extra shipping, it's very worthwhile building this business. While taxes and shipping rates are constant, exchange rates fluctuate all the time so what you'll see on your credit card bill each month will vary as the exchange rates go up and down. Just keep in mind that you get paid in US funds too! That's the best part, even when the exchange is low. But when it's high, we consider it an added bonus.

What we did (and do) to build our business was very simple. First, we researched where our largest market was and how we could tap into it. Then we set out a plan and implemented it. Next, we took (and continue to take) whatever massive action we needed to take to accomplish our goals, including first and foremost, advertising. Of course, we have a certain budget to work with and we stick to that. Any good business person will budget out their finances as well as their time.

Research your target market

The results of our research showed us where we had to target our energy. We quickly realized that the largest concentration of "bodies" was online (the internet). Yes, we do plenty of cold calling and person to person, "smell and sell" demonstrations. That's what keeps it fun for us and it's all part of our massive action plan. To see the positive reactions from people loving the smells and wanting what we have to sell just reinforces the fact that we have unique and outstanding products. We love selling the candles, but our main goal however, is to build residual income!

Develop a plan and implement it

To build a business fast, we found that we needed to contact alot more people than we could just person to person. So we developed an online strategy that works wonders for us. Keeping within our budget, we advertise our splashpages on a regular basis. We get loads of responses on a daily basis from people in every State and Province. We let our autoresponder do the follow-ups and we manage our prospect list. We've become "Diamonds" 20 times over.... it's that simple. But it does take consistency and perseverance. One thing we learned a long time ago is that no one gets rich over night. It takes work, stick-to-it-iveness and lots of follow-up!

Massive Action

You may not have as much time as we do to build your business, but any amount of time, even 2 hours a day, or even a few hours a week will help your business grow. Just do it consistently. We're not slaves to our computers.... sometimes we're elsewhere in the house (or out) caring for other responsibilities, but we always get back to our computers to look after our business as soon as we can. This truly is a home business for us. Our kids are grown and moved away from home but we spend most of our time in the company of our loyal pet, Buddy. Because we're home alot, he gets lots of attention from us and is hardly ever left alone.

Our days are filled with following up with prospects, sending out email notices for the conference calls, sending out new advertising, setting up new splashpage accounts, managing our message board and supporting our teams. Building our business is that important to us! We love it. A day doesn't go by that we don't send out some type of advertising, be it free ads or paid ads. They're available by the thousands online, you just need to research them to find them. It only takes a bit of time to send out one ad. If you do that consistently, you will get many prospects excited to join your team.

Support your team

Part of our massive action plan has been to set up gatherings where we have a concentration of several distributors in one area. This helps them get the training they need, and it helps them build their business too. It doesn't take long to build a team when everyone gets support. We offer many useful tools and they are posted on our message board that is open to all Scent-Sations distributors. http://www.miabella.ca/messageboard

We have held several "Lite Bites" where 15 or more distributors have met in a restaurant along with their guests. We always call ahead and reserve a private area in the restaurant, even a private room when available. It's very casual and all the reps appreciate getting together once a month to exchange ideas and do "candle swaps". These meetings have always resulted in new distributors signing up. We have also done some effective "home meetings" in the same way.

When we do sales shows, we always take advantage of the exposure to gather as many contact names as possible. We set up a candle drawing and can usually gather several hundred names in one weekend show. We follow up by email immediately, and of course our splashpage campaign works beautifully for that. In the last show we did, which was a "Health and Wellness" show at a local mall in Ontario, we actually signed up 2 distributors right there at the show! All the Canadians we talked to had never heard of soy/veg candles and they really loved the Mia Bella's!

It has been an absolute pleasure for us to work this business and we appreciate all our team members who work so hard to support their downlines. We're looking forward to meeting a lot of the team members we have not yet met, at the Spring Fling! Maybe next year we'll meet on a beach somewhere!

Lise & John MacFadden, ON, Canada