Another Venture

I can’t believe I’m doing this again.  Long ago, before I was married, when I first moved back home to be with my then fiance, I had three jobs. One was full time at JC Penney, one was part time at a hotel in the evenings, and the other was part time in direct sales for Jewels by Park Lane.  My sister-in-law had just started selling it and roped me in.  I only stuck with it a few months, but I liked the jewelry.

Then, a few years later, I tried AVON.  I gave that up even more quickly.  I never tried very hard.  I worked in an office with about twenty women, so I figured just leaving the book in the break room was enough effort to make some kind of money.  The problem I had was that you had to have a certain dollar amount ordered to get the 50% discount for your own stuff, so when I didn’t, I would buy some things at regular price to get up to that level and then I would order more with my discount.  I ended up spending too much. I still love AVON though.

Next was PartyLite.  I had a show for Pam when she first got into the business.  I year later I had another and decided I’d try it myself.  It was really fun.  I made a lot of friends and enjoyed going to the meetings and conferences.  It could have been really good money if I was better at it though.  I got sick of asking people to book shows.  I’d have a few periods where I had shows one after another but  mostly it was slow going for me.  I found out that my brother was dead the same day as I had the worst show of my four years.  The hostess invited tons of people and they all showed up! She lived on the second floor of her building and I took tons of stuff, lugged it up the stairs, set it all up, did my demonstration, gave the hostess a really nice thank you gift, and got zero orders.  Everyone loved the candles! Nobody bought a single thing.  I had to pack everything up with a smile, lug it all back down the stairs to my car, go home, and find out my brother was dead.  I tried to stay with it for another six months or so, but never got back in the groove.

That was nine years ago… WOW! It doesn’t seem that long.  Pam’s been trying all this time to get me to come back.  For a while she would ask, then she stopped for a while, knowing I was not interested.  I think she knew that if I was, I would let her know.  Every once in a blue moon, when I’d complain about my job, she’d mention PartyLite. I always had a show in January… every year for the past six (I think) years.  I even went to a couple of the unit meetings and regionals, but I never got that itch back.

A few weeks ago Pam called to let me know that she was looking into Jewels by Park Lane.  A few of the higher ups in PartyLite were jumping ship to go with Park Lane.  I guess PartyLite changed over the past few years.  They’ve had a couple new presidents and although there have been improvements in some areas, probably some things either went downhill or just got old.  At any rate, Pam’s interest was sparked when she heard people close to her in PartyLite were selling Park Lane.  Some are selling both, some tried to sell both and were fired from PartyLite, and some just decided Park Lane was the one to do.   When Pam called me, she asked me to join her on a trip to Long Island to go to a Park Lane meeting.  I told her I would be happy to go, but I don’t want to sell anything.  We ended up not going to the meeting due to a schedule confliction, but Pam decided to try it out anyway.  I told her I would do a show for her, of course.  She had her starter show, which I went to and helped her set up a little and stuff.  When I saw the little tote bag that had her entire kit in it, I got thinking.  I could make 30% of anything I sell, I don’t have to invest anything because I’m having a show anyway and if that is $500, it pays for my kit.  If I fail, I’m not out anything.  So, I asked her a couple questions and went home and talked to my husband.  The next day I asked her, “How do I get my kit?”

I’m really excited, but at the same time afraid that I won’t like it.  I had my starter show and everyone likes the jewelry, especially me.  But, it wasn’t $500, so I did end up putting money into it.  I told myself that I will at least stick with it until I make that investment back.  That shouldn’t take long and in the meantime, I may just love it!  I did love PartyLite for about three of the four years I sold it.  I remember saying that if we won Lotto, I would quit my full time job and just sell PartyLite for fun.  After that feeling went away and for the years since then, I would cringe when I thought about selling PartyLite again.  Why am I getting back into this type of business again?  It was that little black bag.