The trick is being casual about it, and simply placing your product in the right spot at the right time. Gourmet food items practically sell themselves! Here are some great party plan tips that will be sure to boost both your direct sales and your overall customer base.

1.Sign up as a helper for all parties at your church and other local community events. Take a sampling of prepared food products and you are sure to get a lot of attention. You can usually take a few orders on the spot!

2.Volunteer for all festivities at your kids' school and use the opportunities to showcase a few great items. School staff are always having little parties for each other, and you can probably get a steady trickle of orders. Once they know you are a home party consultant, you might be able to recruit a few!

3.Offer to "cater" parties, using your products. People will always ask who catered, and you will have made one big sale plus gotten the chance to meet more potential customers. You might be able to make a nice sideline out of combining direct sales and catering!

4.Use a few items to stock a booth for a school fundraiser or church charity event, and sell sample "tasters" for a dollar each. The proceeds can go to the charity, and you will probably pick up a few new clients! Often you can take enough orders on the spot to make up the cost of the donated items, and future orders will be forthcoming.

5.If you know a party of some type is being planned, offer to bring some of the food. You can easily wow the guests with one or two gourmet selections, and when they exclaim over them you can discretely make the sale. If you stock a few of your most popular items, you can often send guests home with an impulse buy!

6.There are many different ways you can combine your direct sales pitch with another party plan. If you help throw a baby shower for an expecting friend, you can utilize your home party consultant status to help both of you! Simply bring a sampling of products to use as refreshments, and announce you will be splitting all profits from sales made with the lucky mother to be as a special gift.

Using these and other party plan techniques can grow your business on the side in addition to giving you more opportunities to host larger direct sales parties for others. You will also be able to recruit some of these people to become home party consultants. All you have to do is be on the lookout at all times to make extra sales and contacts to help you build your home business!