Direct Sales

Don't expect to find a lot of information here on direct sales. I have a basic stance:

There are a lot of great direct sales companies. I happen to be a consultant for Usborne because I know of no more amazing books for children. They are extremely educational while entertaining and unpatronizing and very high quality. But now I'm getting off topic... Okay. There are great companies out there! And direct sales is a good way to make some money from home without having to start up your own business from scratch. As for me recommending some good companies, chances are, if they are that great, you already know all about them because they've been around for a while.

There are, however, lots of crooked, awful or just plain careless people out there jumping on the direct sales bandwagon to quickly get a hoard of people working for them to spread the word about their products that are either dumb or in such huge competition that they know they won't be able to really get any notice by traditional marketing methods without spending a lot of money. So, they attract hopeful and sometimes desperate people (often preying on Stay-At-Home-Moms) to actually PAY them to advertise their product for them (buying start-up kits and marketing materials, etc).

Because there are so many awful companies out there, I strongly caution you: do not join any direct sales company that you have not thoroughly checked out first. Do a Google search. Check all message boards and ask if anyone has heard about it. Check with the Better Business Bureau. Check Complaints.com. Check with the Federal Trade Commission.

Any company worth joining:

has been around at least 5 years,
has very few complaints made to the Better Business Bureau and those made were successfully resolved to the complainant's satisfaction,
is a member of the Direct Selling Association.

If you do join a company that is less than 5 years old, it would be especially important that the last two points are a match. Ask to see the company's financials, too! Ask for a name of a consultant or more who has been with the company since conception. Call that consultant(s) and see what they have to say about their experience. Do they seem sincere?

Why do I insist that the company be a member of the DSA? The DSA has a very extensive and strict Code of Ethics. Any company who is a member of the DSA, in order to receive their seal of approval, must operate with the highest standards and you have to ask yourself why any company would not want to uphold high standards.

It is costly to be a member of the DSA. But any company that has faith and confidence in its own success would have no hesitation to invest some money to skyrocket its image and reputation, especially considering that the cost would be a tax write-off anyway. If you KNEW you were going to be a success, would you care that it was expensive right now to vastly improve on your image? Of course not. It's a part of business.

So, if a company is not sure of their future success and not confident in that, why should you be?

If a company is not willing to invest in its own future, why should YOU invest YOUR money??

You can search the DSA directory to see which companies are members.

I have nothing to add on the subject other than my strong heed to caution. The Law of Averages suggests that there would be companies just starting out that are not members of the DSA but are still ethical. But because there is no way that is not very time-consuming for me to verify their status in the worlds of Ethics and Potential for Success, my official position needs to be "stay cautious", as I am not going to be responsible in any way for steering good women astray.

David Bach, the author of The Automatic Millionaire, among other books, recommends the same thing in his book Start Late, Finish Rich.

So, if you are considering going into direct sales, pick a big company that has been around for a long time and ask around until you find someone who has been in that company. Ask them about their experience.

Good luck!