Many turn to moonlighting to make ends meet

Avon, Mary Kay, Tupperware, The Pampered Chef.

You’ve probably heard of those companies and their products.

More and more people are turning to direct sales companies as second jobs and a way to make extra money.

According to the Direct Selling Association, a trade group that represents about 200 direct sales companies, 15 million people across the county participated in direct sales and generated $30.8 billion, those numbers are from 2007 and continue to increase.

Sarah Kjosa is a single mother with two children and a full-time job.  But she also has a second job as an independent consultant for The Pampered Chef.  “I wouldn’t even classify it as work, I just have so much fun, I spend a little bit of time each night after the kids go to bed, if I need to make some calls or do some paperwork and then I have a show, try to do a show once a week on a Saturday and that takes me a couple hours.”  Kjosa said the couple of hours she spent at a cooking show in Galivants Ferry will mean extra money for her family.

“It allows me to have a little bit of breathing room, I don’t quite feel the tightness on the purse strings that you can just working an average nine to five, it gives me the ability to enjoy time and do some extra fun stuff.“

The Pampered Chef independent director Penny Smith said the extra fun stuff often leads to a big financial benefit.  “Somebody just starting out in the business, can go work about three hours and make a hundred dollars for working about three hours, so it’s good money per hour, are you going to get rich, it all depends on what rich you consider, but i certainly make more doing this than i did in my previous jobs.” 

Smith said after losing one of those previous jobs, she started doing cooking shows just for the fun of it, but it turned into something else.  “And then I realized I was getting paid to have fun and then I lost my job nine years ago and instead of having to find another job, Pampered Chef turned in to my career.“ 

Smith said getting started is as easy as having a consultant come to your house to do a cooking show and you reap the rewards of hosting the show.  “I would say go for it, you cannot go wrong by giving it a try, you can actually start this business now with a mini-kit which is $65 or you can buy the regular kit which is $155, so you have your choice of how to get started in the business.“

Kjosa’s only been an independent consultant for a couple of months, but said she’s made a very small time investment for fun and financial benefit, that’s done what she needed it to do, give her family more money and maybe get her children the trip she promised them, to Disney World.

Kathy Graham, president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau in Conway said the BBB cannot recommend a direct sales company for people to join, but said nothing is going to happen easy or quick, you will have to work. 

“Is the product something you really believe in and you really think it’s going to help people or that it really does work, you know then it might be a good idea, if it’s going to help supplement your income, if it loosens the pressure, then what works for you is what’s right for you.” 

Graham said companies that may also be right are the tried and true ones that have been on the market for a while, like Mary Kay, Avon, and The Pampered Chef.  “Check the products out, check the company out, look, on the internet you can find anything these days, so be careful what you read, because all that information is also subjective.”  Graham also says you have to be careful about any product that guarantees you’ll get rich quick or you’ll have fast results. 

“Like losing weight really, really fast, you know you don’t gain it fast, you can’t lose it fast, if it sounds to good to be true as far as the product is concerned, then it probably is, so i would definitely research the product and i would also be cautious to see how much money do you have to spend on the front end before getting involved and you want to know is this multi-level marketing.“ 

Graham said multi-level marketing is when you try to recruit people to sell the products instead of you trying to sell the products.  And if you’re going to sell products, Graham said be prepared to purchase products on the front end. 

“A good way to know if selling those products will work for you is to consider what people will use, no matter what happening with the economy.  In a down economy, consumers are spending less and we know that, on the flip side of that, people aren’t going to go without food and women aren’t going to go without their cosmetics.” 

Graham adds you should be wary of any product you have an emotional response to, because it may only interest you and you may be the only one who ends up paying. 

You can find out more about direct sales companies and what the BBB recommends you look for by logging on to http://myrtlebeach.bbb.org.