Providing Essential Business Tools for the Modern Entrepreneur
Starting a business can be as exciting as it is daunting. Having motivation and commitment is a great start, but basic tools and resources are essential to developing any small business or maintaining a part-time gig.
At Herbalife Nutrition, we are proud to offer a business opportunity to those interested in earning income while helping others, whether they’re interested in working full or part-time. Our entrepreneurs run and manage their businesses in a variety of ways including through social media, locally owned Nutrition Clubs, and organized workout events. However, we are aware that people have different experiences and starting points.
That is why we provide entrepreneurs who start their own Herbalife Nutrition business with tools, learning platforms, and content designed to help them start and build a sustainable business so they can focus on what’s important: providing personalized coaching and guidance to their customers.
Personal Connections & E-commerce
Many people today buy from people they trust: they consider recommendations from friends and family, customer reviews, and even endorsements by influencers. According to Nielsen, consumers’ trust in traditional advertising has dropped, while trust between buyer-to-buyer and peer-to-peer is higher than any other time. This is the important gap direct selling fills in the emerging online economy.
In addition to trust, consumers also value convenience. Regardless of which of the many methods our entrepreneurs choose to go to market, having e-commerce tools is essential. For example, through a specially designed e-commerce site that can be personalized, our independent small business owners can reach new customers, connect with existing ones, and sell products online 24/7.
Their e-commerce sites allow for personalized customer care. Business owners can design reward programs, create custom product combinations based on their customers’ preferences, generate tailored meal and workout plans provided by our team of experts, and track customers’ progress.
To ensure our entrepreneurs focus on providing their customers with the best service, our corporate team can handle as much of the back-end part of the business as each entrepreneur feels is appropriate for their business. We can automatically process online payments for customer orders, ship purchases directly to clients, and create and upload receipts. We also provide them with resources to manage payments from customers, such as PayPal and ProPay.
Digital Sales Tools
The flexibility of direct selling enables entrepreneurs to work from anywhere, which means many manage their business from a mobile device, which is why we designed apps to help them keep accurate track of their finances, manage their sales, and keep in touch with customers. For example:
- Being able to sell from anywhere at any time helps to ensure no opportunity is missed. Our sales app allows entrepreneurs to order and sell products, collect payments, track receipts from their customers, and manage product consumption at Nutrition Clubs — all from their tablet or smartphone.
- Managing and documenting sales is essential for any business. With our business management tool, entrepreneurs can monitor sales within their organization and oversee business growth. They can track sales volume, organize contact information for their customers, and access a detailed business calendar.
- The Herbalife Nutrition business is a people business: it’s all about creating trusting relationships to foster healthier habits and inspire positive results. A crucial part of this is keeping in touch and following up. We offer technology that allows independent small business owners to connect with their customers and other entrepreneurs in their organization using automated follow-ups, targeted email campaigns, and personalized content. And since digital marketing plays a crucial role in promoting a business, we also provide materials that help expand their reach through channels like social media and email campaigns.
Online Learning Tools
Once you decide to own a small business, the journey of learning never stops. That is why our team — including technology, sales, nutrition, fitness, and sports nutrition experts — develops educational materials and new content to help ensure our entrepreneurs can manage their business while sharing useful content developed by our experts on nutrition, fitness, and coaching with their customers.
Our online library of interactive courses covers topics such as:
- How to craft a business plan
- Nutrition and fitness education through content crafted by our in-house experts
- How to leverage social media to attract and engage customers
- How to open and run a Nutrition Club
In addition, we developed a mobile-first training application to make nutrition education easily accessible to our independent entrepreneurs. This interactive app features our experts who tackle common questions such as the role of protein and how dietary supplements can complement one’s nutrition and exercise plans.
A private research firm recently recognized our learning app as the “Best Advance in Creating an Extended Enterprise Learning Program.”
Through all these tools and resources, we aim to provide convenient access to entrepreneurs looking to acquire or strengthen their knowledge and skillset. We dedicate resources to providing these essential tools so that entrepreneurs can focus on coaching their customers and building their own small businesses.
For more on entrepreneurship and other related topics, visit Herbalife Nutrition.
Written by: John DeSimone
President of Herbalife Nutrition
As president of Herbalife Nutrition, John DeSimone manages the Company’s regional leadership, who are responsible for growing the Company’s premier nutrition business and driving performance in 94 countries around the globe. In addition, DeSimone has overall responsibility for distributor-facing functions throughout the world, including marketing, promotions, sponsorships, business methods support, events and independent distributor communications.
