Party Planning - have fun and earn extra cash

Planning your party

You are planning to hold a Party Plan party to show off your products and hopefully take lots of orders. As a party plan agent or representative for one of the many successful direct sales companies that sell goods via home parties, you want to make your party fun and interesting.

Breaking the ice by playing party plan games is a well known and successful way to make your direct sales party go well. Party games help your guests to mix and get to know each other, and this encourages a friendly and relaxed atmosphere especially if you add a glass or two of wine to the equation.This is ideal preparation before your product demonstration and subsequent orders.

Here are some of the most popular party plan games that have been tried and tested.

Party Plan games

When your guests arrive it is a good idea to welcome them and give them a raffle ticket. Explain that they are now in with the chance to win a prize
at the end of the evening (one of your products is a good choice). Most people will now be more likely to stay until the raffle is drawn.

It is generally best to start off with a simple pen and pencil game, where your guests are seated. Getting your guests to interact and feel relaxed and comfortable is a good start.

Name the Tune Game

You will need paper and pencils, CD player

This needs some preparation before your party. Create a songlist, preferably using music that links to your product, i.e cookware Party Plan agents could use songs with food or drink connections, beauty agents could choose songs such as 'beautiful girl'. You don't have to stick to only connected tunes, and with some products it will be limited, but it is a good way to gently start the sales connection.

Play the first 5 -10 seconds of the songs and ask your guests to write down the name of the tune, or you can make it more difficult by asking for the artist too. Make sure you clearly call out the number of each intro as you play it. Your guests may want to hear it again, so be prepared to play it again if requested. Keep the number of songs to around 10 -15, as with more than that your guests may lose interest.

Get everyone to swop papers, and as you read out the answers and play a longer section of the song, get your guests to mark each others answers. The person with the most points wins. Award a small fun prize.

Truth or Lie Game

Make two cards with the words'Truth' and 'Lie' on them

Somebody will need to keep score. Each guest is asked to tell everyone three facts about themselves - two should be true and one a lie. If the others guess incorrectly then the person revealing the facts gets a point. They can hold up the card revealing the answer. If they fail to lie successfully then the person spotting this gains a point.The person with the most points wins a prize.

It's up to you to decide whether your guests are likely to enjoy moving on to physical games, or whether they would prefer to remain seated and just play a simple quiz or word game. Try to get this right, otherwise your guests can become bored or embarrassed if you get it wrong!

Pass the Party Gift Game

You will need a wrapped gift, a CD player and a list of different descriptions that could apply to your guests.

This is like the children's game 'pass the parcel', but when the music stops you don't unwrap any layers, instead your guests just pass it to the person who fits the description. Get your guests to pass the wrapped gift to each other as the music plays, then when you stop the music read out a line such as the following:
Pass to the tallest; the shortest; the person with green eyes; the person married the longest; the person married the shortest; the person with the smallest feet; the person with the longest hair; the person with the most buttons, largest earrings, etc.

Then continue the music and repeat the action. Don't make the descriptions too personal and try to make sure everyone gets involved. Finish with a non-personal description, such as 'pass to the fourth person on your right' and make sure you turn your back to your guests, so you cannot be accused of favouritism! The winner unwraps and keeps the gift.

Burst the Balloon Game

You will need plenty of balloons in two different colours. When inflating the balloons it makes them easier to pop if you slightly over-inflate, otherwise the game can take a long time to complete!

Divide your party into two equal groups. Place two piles of inflated balloons at the opposite end of the room to your teams. Shout 'GO' and a member from each team must run and grab a balloon and pop it - but only by sitting on it! Once this task is completed then they must return to their team, then the next person repeats the task.
The first team to burst all their balloons wins. Give all of the team a chocolate or sweet as a prize.

As an extra, when you are blowing up the balloons you can slip a piece of paper saying 'You have won!' inside two of the balloons (one in each colour). Give a small prize.

When you are handing out pens/pencils and paper for your orders, make sure that you have numbered your pens/pencils and tell your customers to mark the number on their order form. Then when you finish get the host to choose one of the pens (as in a raffle) and then award a small prize. It's a good way to ensure that you get all your pens/pencils back!

Chocolate Feast Game

You will need several bars of chocolate, an assortment of clothes to put on - a hat, scarf and gloves at least, knives and forks, dice

Wrap up a couple of bars of chocolate in several layers of paper and place plenty of knives and forks nearby. Then place some dressing up clothes - woolly hat, scarf and gloves at least, nearby. Begin by rolling the dice - the first one to get a double has to dress up in the clothes as quickly as possible and then attempt to eat the chocolate by only using the knife and fork. The rest of the players continue throwing the dice until somebody else gets a double, and then they take over the task. The winner is the person who finishes the last piece of chocolate.

This party game can be varied by using chopsticks to try to eat small round candy or sweets, instead of chocolate.

Try to award something other than a chocolate treat as the prize, as the contestants may well have consumed enough chocolate!


Don't be misled by claims that high earnings are easily achieved. Personal financial investment may be required.