The Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA): “Many wooed by direct selling during slow economy”

Reprinted from antipaper   I don’t think there’s a ton of money in a Pampered Chef business, and how many people want to do home sales parties anyway, but the point is that people are willing to do a lot of different things to generate income now. Don’t miss the quote at the end, “The median income for a direct seller is $2,400 annually.”  That sounds high enough to catch a lot of people’s attention, with the mindset that since most people are very part-time in their networking/home-based businesses, what would a full-time, focused achiever be able to do.  We already know the answer. Bolding and red highlights are mine. New career starts at home On Dec. 13, 2009, the Palm Springs, CA, online newspaper, The Desert Sun, ran an article about a man who “needed to find supplemental income and a reason to get out of the house”: Wooed by a device that could quarter an onion without breaking the peel, Barton bought a “piece of junk” off a television infomercial a few months back. It was truth in advertising all right: The blades were so dull, they couldn’t cut through much of anything. After hearing about the bad chopper, a friend suggested Barton try a similar tool sold through The Pampered Chef, a direct seller of kitchen gadgets since 1980. “The difference between that and what I bought was night and day,” Barton said. The 62-year-old Rancho Mirage man became a Pampered Chef consultant a little more than a month ago, with 10 parties under his belt already. The article commented on the trend of people in a recession turning to home based businesses: With conventional means of finding a job drying up, many American workers like Barton are turning toward direct selling to make some money in this recession. “It’s turned into a good opportunity for me,” he said. “It’s paying my mortgage.” Important stats from the Direct Selling Association were given, showing the continued growth of the MLM/network marketing profession: The Direct Selling Association, celebrating its 100th anniversary next year, tracks employment and growth of the direct sales industry. While average employment growth rates slowed 0.5 percent during previous recession years, direct sales employment rates grew an average of 8.4 percent. “We definitely look at direct selling as an alternative to people when they’ve been laid off,” said Amy Robinson, vice president of communications and media relations. The number of direct sellers nationally started increasing toward the end of 2008, Robinson said. While 2009 figures won’t be available for a few months, she said the group is optimistic about the number of new consultants joining the industry — and the selling they will do as they get started. Towards the end of the article, the author noted there’s significant income to be earned: Most people who get involved with direct sales have a specific goal in mind — a way to pay for a family vacation or a new car, said Robinson of the Direct Selling Association. The median income for a direct seller is $2,400 annually. But with flexible hours and little risk to get started, there’s potential to turn the opportunity into a full-time career, she said.

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