A few weeks ago I got an e-mail from the husband of one of the direct sellers who follows me on Facebook and reads this blog. This is what his e-mail said:

"I wanted to contact you about a smartphone application I developed for my wife. She is a consultant for Thirty-One Gifts and as a hobby, I develop apps for Android phones. After her parties she kept mentioning to me how much time and attention the checkout process took. She didn't want to make any calculation errors or mess up the customer's order, so this caused her attention to NOT be on the most important thing… The customer!  That is when I started working on MyConsultant. It's an app that I initially made just for her that helped add products, figure out shipping, tax and discounts. She had a few other consultant that thought it would help so I put in on the Android Market. It turns out that the app has been extremely useful to many consultants from many different companies. Just recently, I teamed up with another company that is helping me to develop the app for iPhone and iPad."

My ears perked up at that last sentence. Many of you know that I'm an Apple girl. I got a Mac about two years ago and my iPhone and iPad quickly followed. I was pretty excited about the potential of this app, checked it out, LOVED it, and agreed to share it with you all. I really do think this app has the potential to totally change your direct sales business.

Let me tell you about it. MyConsultant is a free app that has been available on the Android Market for a few months and as of TODAY is available for the iPhone. You know I teach that the number one, most important focus in your business is your customer. This app can help you to stop stressing over math and calculations and spend more time chatting with your customer and giving them a personal check-out experience.

Here are a few of the features I love about MyConsultant:

• With MyConsultant, you can set a tax rate, shipping rate (% or flat rate), and commission rate one time and it will save it until you change it. No need to bring an extra calculator to your parties anymore.
• There is a calculator built into the app, so you can add up your product subtotal, and then the app will do the tax and shipping calculations for you.
• It also breaks it all down so you can enter each value into your order form if you would like to.
• You can even select to tax or not tax the shipping fees.
• After you set the commission earned rate, you'll instantly see how much you're actually making on each order. Cool!
• Another very handy feature is the ability to accept credit cards and cash on your phone with the free Square Card Reader app. (I use Square on my iPhone now and it's amazing!).
  
• You can also quickly and easily be directed to a website that will help you to look up the sales tax rate by zip code right from the menu button.
  

There are also a few very cool paid upgrades you can opt for (we're talking less than two bucks total here, and that's a one time fee!). Most direct sales companies offer specials each month. Sometimes it can be tricky for the consultant to figure out the total while applying these discounts. For just $.99 you can add a useful discount calculator to MyConsultant. For another $.99 you can take advantage of a great tool called Vehicle Expenses. This allows you to log all of your expenses related to travel for your business. You can enter miles driven either by your starting and ending odometer readings or by the number of miles driven. You can also enter the date and description of what you were driving for, and you can add any “other” travel expenses such as tolls/parking that go along with your travels. I'm guessing you'll be loving this feature come tax time.

This is still a fairly new app with a lot of GREAT features yet to come. Their goal is to pack everything you'll need into this app so that you only have to go to one place for most (if not all) of your direct sales business needs!

Check out what they're working on adding in the near future:

• A task calendar that is specifically designed for direct sales consultants where you can set up default reminders to help with hostess coaching, following up with potential recruits, etc.
• A “Build a Party” feature that allows you to input an entire party order at once
• Integration with your companies’ hostess rewards program
• A general business expense tool that lets you track all expense related to you direct sales business.

Interested? You can download the app for free and read lots of great reviews at:

• iPhone users find the app in the App Store by searching for MyConsultant or by the following link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/my-consultant-calculator/id474541319?ls=1&mt=8
  
• Android users find the app on the Market by searching for MyConsultant or by the following link: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.kemsoft.myconsultant
  

You can also check out their Facebook Fan page and leave them your input. They want to know what other features you would like to see in this app in the future. You'll find them at: http://www.facebook.com/MyConsultantApp or follow them on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/#!/MyConsultantApp

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Julie Anne Jones is direct sales corporate consultant, coach, and trainer, and the CEO of Julie Anne Jones, Inc. She is known for her authentic and easy-to-use scripting and specializes in specific language and tools for success in direct sales. To learn more about Julie Anne and her products and services, and to read her weekly blog posts, visit her at www.julieannejones.com.