Can you really make a living wage from 'direct selling?'

[INeedSomeSun]

So I signed up to a direct selling business in September last year.
I have made my money back & don't regret it -it gave me something to do at a low point of my life. I was a bored sahm and needed something 'else'to do.
But I haven't made much out of it.
I like the product & so does everyone who sees it, but it is a bit pricey (£35) and people just haven't got the money to spend.
Not sure whether to give it up now or really try & push a bit harder. If I give up now I think I will have wasted everything that I've done so far
I need people to host parties for me really and I am not bolshy enough to push people to hold them
AIBU in thinking you need to be pushy to succeed in direct selling and 'nice' people just can't do it? By nice I mean a bit shy and non-pushy, no offence intended x

What is it? Do I need one?

YANBU - it's the 'pestering' of other people (esp friends) that puts me off the idea. I would never go to one of these things to buy anything precisely because the stuff is always so much more expensive than anything you can buy in the shops or online yourself so why would you do it to yourself? And so there I would be unable to ask people to do it - I'm sure that pretty soon people would start darting off in the other direction when they saw you coming. Dreadful.

What's the product? Some of us might be able to think up some other ways you can sell it without holding the dreaded parties

I think it's all in being creative.

I much prefer things like AVON, too: the door-to-door sellers may never do fantastically, but if they think outside the box (competitions, make-up parties, etc) you can make a fortune.

Products that rely on people hosting parties and forcing their friends to buy one thing each drive everyone mad, so they don't succeed unless the seller has better ideas.

So yeah, in my opinion you can make a living wage and much more, but you have to think outside the box.

It is a weight loss product, OP?

I ask because if it is I know someone who made a fortune via FB selling it on a FB group and getting people to add friends to the group.

Could your product be sold via Facebook groups at all? You could give away a free product as a prize to get people to add their friends to the group

The thing is there are so many rules....

1. I can't tell you what the company is because it could be construed as advertising, which mumsnet doesn't allow.

2.I have got a facebook group, but it hasn't proved very successful

1. We're not allowed to advertise giveaways or prizes, so MrsMangle and Caja I can't do those things :-(

Its so that all consultants have a level playing field and we don't start undercutting each other, makes sense, but also very frustrating!

1. I've joined all sorts of forums & groups but you can't advertise products on them so doesn't really help

I need to do parties I think and just don't think I'm cut out for that

Stalls at fetes/summer fayres/school fayres?

Stalls at nearly new and tabletop sales?

Door to door leaflet-ing/catalogue delivering?

Going into company canteens during lunch hours to sell to staff?

Any of these any good?

I have done fairs etc. Thought I would sell loads esp at xmas, but people don't actually seem to buy that much from fairs - or they just want cheap £5 items.

I have just tried some catalogue drops last week - got no response. Most put it outside again without even looking at the catalogue! Thats what got me thinking that perhaps this is the end for me...

How can you sell one product at £35 and still have a catalogue?

Nooooo there are lots of products. I meant the average price is £35

Ahhhhhh! gotcha!

I don't knoe why, but I'm fespra

Arse, I'm not fespra at all. What I ment to say was that I'm desperate to know what it is.

It's a secret product! I must have one :-)

FLP is springing to mind from the OP. I know someone who earns a fortune selling that. They tried to get me signed up but from what I've seen you need plenty of rich friends to make it work, which I don't have.