Salute to Spouses Blog

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Military Housing: Home-Based Sales Central

I cheated on my Advocare lady.

There, I said it.

I needed a product. This other Advocare guy works with my husband and could have it to me that afternoon. No shipping. No waiting. Immediate gratification.

And not to mention, there are Advocare ladies everywhere. And Scentsy. And Pampered Chef. And everything else you attend a party to purchase.

Anyone else feeling just a little overwhelmed by the amount of catalog party invitations they receive in their Facebook inbox?

They come in waves: Pampered Chef, 31 and Scentsy seem to be settling down. The consultants who are following through, working hard and actually making money have risen above those who thought it was an easy dollar and fell apart after the first few orders. You place some orders, make your friends feel good, find a consultant you can trust and file that away for later.

 Then, boom! Origami Owl arrives. Once. And then again from another friend. And then from another.

Seriously, do they not look around to see just how many other consultants are living on a single block in a military neighborhood before ordering the $150 starter kit and filling up everyone’s inbox with party invitations?

Personally, I’m not even sure how they make any money. I’m not a sales person at heart. And I don’t frankly care if you are using the latest and greatest of the newest line of bakeware to serve me dinner or monogrammed towels for me to wipe my dirty mug on. Just feed me.

I tried to sell Avon once, years ago when my husband and I were first married. That ended badly. Turns out he was most likely an Arab trader in a former life because he’s a lot better at negotiating a sales deal than me. And women seemed to like buying their nail polishes from a 6-foot-tall, 200-pound soldier in full uniform. Yeah, that got a little weird after a while and we wrapped that business venture up.

 But now, these at-home, sell to your friend businesses are everywhere. And military spouses who are considering signing up as a consultant, for the easy money, need to think again, and think hard. This is a business. You have to work. You have to build contacts and networks and be willing to stand at the community craft fair and open houses to book those parties. Parties with people you don’t know.

Eventually, your friends are not going to need any more rubber spatulas or monogrammed, insulated lunch bags for their kiddos. And you will be on your own.

Before you turn sign up to be yet another consultant on the block, do your homework. Google the phrase, “direct sales” and “home party sales.” You will find a plethora of information regarding the best companies to work for, the most popular, projections for those companies and even a list of companies by interest (food, home décor, jewelry, etc) and the start-up cost for each so you can compare.

A good resource to check is http://homepartyrankings.com/, an independent group that tracks what companies are trending, moving up in popularity and falling in popularity – a good thing to know if you want to corner the market in your neighborhood.

There is money to be made hocking goods around town, especially on payday on a military base. Just make sure you are doing your due diligence to build a business, not a one-time order among your friends.

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