Direct Sales? Do you make any money?

[lolasays]

I've been thinking of trying to make some extra money with direct sales. There are so many companies..ie Avon, Mary Kay, Thirty-One, etc..
Does anyone actually do direct sales and make decent money doing so?
Does anyone actually buy from people?

Or am I wasting my time looking into this?

[Darth Penguin]

There are some good companies and some bad companies...Any company which requires a lot of money upfront for samples should be googled as does any which says it isn't a MLM ( multi level marketing) which requires you to recruit sub-agents.

As with any type of working from home, the amount of effort you put into growing your network equals the amount of profit you recieve. Look at your friends and family and what items they require, then research any WAH companies which best fit those people you interact with and where you think you can make the best time/profit switch.


And avoid annoying your prospective clients with an overload of aggressive selling..

[Lynn49]

Couldn't agree more. I have a friend north of here who sells Avon and has worked her way up in the company to where she gets a good chunk of her sales and is on something like a President's List level or whatever, but she lives and breathes Avon, always carries brochures, always has a sample handy, and has repeat customers. She loves retirement homes; those gals love their Avon and can't just slip into a mall whenever they want to, for cosmetics, etc.
Watkins is the same, Pampered Chef, I find is expensive to purchase, so I'd never sell it....
Good advice from DarthVader.
When Avon gets back from her cruise, you'd be wise to ask her...

Reward = the work you put into your business.

[beckie.c]

I really think it depends on the person. I sold Tupperware for a couple years and didn't make any cash, because what I wanted was my own awesome stash. I would sell and use my profit to order what I wanted for myself when it went on sale. I did mostly trade shows because it was easy to have inventory and sell it.

If you wanted to actually make money at it though you needed to recruit others and become a manager and then a director. I'd seen quite a few people do it and do really really well but they were the ones who weren't uncomfortable always asking people to have parties and talking to absolutely everyone about it and asking people to sign up. Me on the other hand, I always felt like I was bugging people and it made me feel uncomfortable, so I just did it my way and got what I wanted

[itsmewhoelse]

I think sales all depend on the person, if you have a sales personality znd work hard you can make money. My friend started selling natural weight loss products about a year and a half ago (It works wraps if you want to check it out). She has tried quite a few other direct sales before without much sucess. This one she is making enough money to now give up her cleaning business!
I havent had a chance to try these wraps yet as ive been quite ill, but want too. She even has a pain strip for me to try out.

[hudsam]

I just started selling...I have been approached by Mary Kay, Passion Parties, Pampered Chef...pretty much all of them if I keep going. I never had any interest in Multi Level Marketing but I fell in love with this stuff. www.southhilldesigns.com/princegeorge

I have only been doing it a month and I've made about $200. I haven't pushed hard but I'm going to try a bit more over the next few months, try some tradeshows and see if I can get it making some more money for me. Never know if you end up with a few people working under you all of a sudden you have passive income

I think you need to find something you love and can be passionate about. Once you find that - dig up the dirty details like minimum order or charges for having an account - some like Mary Kay you have to order a certain amount a month to stay active. Let us all know what you decide!

[Lynn49]

Continued good luck!

[SassyAshley]

One thing I would caution people on when it comes to some of these companies it check and see the requirements to stay active with the company are. I know many people who have picked up selling something like this as a side business or well on mat leave from work but the issue is meeting the requirement to stay active. I have seen many people lose money at these because every 3 months you need a minimum of sales so they would have to personally place an order to keep themselves active. Especially if it is not their full time job and when life got busy they back off a little bit (ie summer, kids home from school, trips to cottage, harder to book shows) they would not meet minimums and to stay active end up placing a $300 order out of their own pocket, can only do that so many times before you are actually losing money.

Also I say as a warning really push before you start to find out what the minimum requirement is. Most companies will blow it off with something oh don't worry they are so easy to reach or they are so easy you will never have to think about but if I remember correctly some of them do not even give 3 months so one slow patch and you could be in risk of becoming inactive, I would also find out what it would take to become reactive. Some just require one new order where some require a start up package and everything to be purchased again, which way more than minimum order which is the trap they get people in. Place a $300 order to stay active or have to put another $500 for a start up kit.

But most are like anything it depends how hard you are willing to work at and how far you are willing to go. In home shows are great but do you know enough people to keep them going will you be able to network enough to keep them going. People may love the product you are selling but when you are constantly doing shows for the same group of people sales will fall as they do not need anymore product they are stocked up. Realistically how much time do you have to devote to this if it is something with in home shows are you free most nights and weekends to book shows? IF you are only available a couple of nights a week and not willing to give up weekends it will decrease your numbers as not everyone can work into those couple of days.

I have seen people do well with these things and others find they spend more money out of pocket it really just depends.