I have just been checking any interesting new posts on netmums in the Working for Yourself forums, always looking for inspiration. One question posed was regarding the profitability of working 20-30 hours a week as a direct sales manager and if it was easy to recruit team members and the viability of selling products as direct sales that are also available in the shops.
A couple of years ago I tried my hand as a Barefoot Books Stallholder. I loved the books and other products and thought this would be a good job option as it fits around family life. The mistake I made was that I didn't drive! I had lots of ideas of where to sell the books, other than at coffee mornings in peoples homes but I couldn't get anywhere with my heavy box of books. So this was short lived. I passed my driving test last year and in the past few days have revisited the idea of selling Barefoot Books, after an email announcing their new website. I still adore the books but they seem to have changed the package for stallholders, which made it a little more complicated to understand. I would also like to break into the schools market and I am not sure if Barefoot are set up for this. So as one idea leads to another I popped onto Usbourne books site and felt the potential for sales was a lot bigger and they are set up for you to sell in schools, which would provide you with a larger sales and customer base. However their commission seems less than Barefoot and also I feel there maybe alot of sales people in my area but I have no way of checking this. Whereas Barefoot did offer a facility to find a Stallholder in your area on their old website, a facility I am yet to find on the new website.
So is the market saturated with mummy's selling books or can we make a decent living from such a job? One bonus is all the lovely free books you get that can be used as stock or added to your own home library. I feel with some effort, good marketing skills and time you could make some money from either of these direct sales companies.
For more information take a look at the websites, Usbourne have a special offer of a £5 joining fee this month. I am independant and do not sell for either of these companies so am not looking to recruit you!
www.usbournebooksathome.co.uk
www.barefootbooks.co.uk
I have moved!
17 years ago