How to Hold a Make & Take Class

Make-and-take classes are surging in popularity because they are easy to hold, give your attendees hands-on experience, and allow your guests to leave with something containing essential oils to use at home. Essential oils often sell themselves if they can be introduced with adequate information and something simple for your new contact to try.

Make-and-take classes (and other essential oil classes, for that matter) can seem quite daunting, but they don’t have to be! In this post, we will show you a simple outline that can be adapted to whatever make-and-take class you choose to do.

When planning for a class, you will need to do the following:

1. Select a date, time, and location. Keep in mind who you want to attend when deciding these things, but don’t get caught up in trying to make it work for everyone—you can always hold more than one of the same class.
2. Invite people, and remind them about it a week before and the day before the class.
3. Order your materials. AromaTools has a lot of ingredients and containers that are commonly used for essential oil DIY projects.
4. Gather essential oils and other needed materials. Print any instructions, handouts, and labels as needed.
   
5. Prepare a short lesson. The length of your lesson can depend on how much time it will take for your make-and-take project. If you try to keep your lesson to less than 30 minutes, you should have enough time for questions and your make-and-take project. Here are a few ideas for lesson topics:
   • the basics of essential oils;
   • how essential oils support a specific body system;
   • the most common essential oils and how to use them;
   • essential oils for [fill in the blank] (children, pregnancy, animals, emotions, cooking, cleaning, weight loss, exercising, basic first aid, women, romance, winter wellness, etc.).

   Modern Essentials: A Contemporary Guide to the Therapeutic Use of Essential Oils can be a great resource in helping you plan your lesson.
   
   

6. Hold your class. Remember to keep it simple: give your short lesson; answer questions; show how to do the make-and-take project; then let your guests do their project, mingle, eat refreshments, and leave.
7. Follow up. If you were introducing anyone to essential oils through your class, make sure to contact them later that week and answer any further questions they have or invite them to another class later.

These are a few things you will need to consider when preparing for your class:

• Decide if you want to discuss any business opportunities or keep the lesson education-based. If you do want to market a specific essential oil company, be careful not to make any health claims about the essential oils; speaking generally about health benefits is better. You can always give your class attendees an “Introduction to Modern Essentials” booklet or refer them to other information that provides more specific uses for essential oils.
• Decide if and how you want to charge for the make-and-take project. Some charge a flat fee for their classes; others give their attendees 1 free item and charge for extras; and some provide (or charge for) materials but not the essential oils.
• Depending on the make-and-take item, you may want to prepare a sample ahead of time so you can show the finished product.
• Figure out how to set up your make-and-take station(s). Make sure to have at least one station and arrange it so the attendees can either all make the project at the same time or walk down a line to put together their item. Of course, the way you set this up depends on the number of attendees, the project, the supplies you have on hand, etc.
• It’s a good idea to have printed instructions of how to make the item so your attendees can refer to it as they make their product and be able to take it home with them so they can make more if desired. You may even want to provide labels so your attendees can remember what they made and what they can do with it after the class.
• Other optional suggestions include holding a drawing to get contact information, offering refreshments, and providing additional handouts or prizes.

If you would like some specific class ideas, check out our Essential Oil Class Ideas category. Also, feel free to browse our Essential Ideas category for more make-and-take class projects and topics:

     

Do you have any tips for holding an essential oil make-and-take class? Let us know in the comments below!