Or are lots of people starting facebook businesses that are as annoying as MLMs?

[HollyGoLoudly1]

Ok I know it's a tough time for everyone right now and some people might need to make a bit of money on the side. But in the last month or so there has been an explosion of friends now doing side businesses and I feel under pressure to use/buy and promote constantly on facebook for them.

Examples: permanent eyelashes (not a beautician but has done an online course for one weekend), make up artist (no qualifications, she just quite likes make up), homemade baking (I thought you needed some kind of license to sell food), sweetie bags (around a 5 times mark up on shop prices), homemade scented candles (that are more expensive than Yankee Candles) and homemade personalised photo frames (from Ikea, written on with fancy pens).

AIBU to not spend my next year's salary supporting all these businesses? I feel bad that they are maybe struggling but I can't regularly fork out for all these things from professionals, let alone from a friend who started doing it 3 days ago!

I might be a mean cow, but I feel under no pressure to purchase something for the sake of it.

I might look at local people and friends when I am looking for something specific, but that's as far as I will go in term of support. So they really do not bother me, good for them to try to make extra cash.

Pretty sure my bathroom would be crammed with beauty products if I started to feel sorry or obligated to buy "stuff"

I just had someone who has started doing hair extensions. It’s likely she won’t be insured, and doesn’t have a base qualification in hairdressing either.

Anything in this sort of industry worries me , they don’t care enough about their clients to be fully qualified and insured. Why is anyone going near them?

Why is anyone going near them?

Probably because they're cheaper. I'm sure there's all sorts of warnings about these things, but not everyone receives the message.

Yankee candles are cheap rubbish made of fake smells and paraffin wax so I’m not surprised a handcrafted candle would be more expensive than mass produced shit if it’s got real essential oils and soy wax

So in that instance YABU

The spamming and massive mark up on food products YANBU

There's someone local to me who got in trouble very recently for doing a raffle on Facebook. The prize was a decent item worth about £150 but they were pocketing the ticket money. The tickets were about £30!!

I had this exact conversation the other day. I just feel like everyone is trying to sell me something all the time. I genuinely don’t begrudge anyone trying to get something off the ground, especially at the moment with so may job losses etc. But it does feel relentless. I basically check if I know someone that does / sells what I need and if so, try and use them. Otherwise I ignore. I’ll share the pages of close friends every so often and I know I’ve managed to get them quite a bit of business.
To be honest some of it is my own fault as I have to many loose acquaintances online. It seems worse then, as our interaction is literally just buy my stuff.

*too. Sorry had to correct!

I would love to be able to filter these things out. They've pretty much taken over my feed and the local community pages.

I think it's fair enough if they are well made, original and the price reflects the work put in/materials etc. It's not ok when someone has clearly ripped off ideas from Pinterest or the quality is shoddy.

I have a few friends on FB who do this. One has a genuine business, and a separate page that she sometimes promotes through her personal page. She makes personalised items and is always developing her ranges. I have another who has bought herself a resin mould and is making really hideous drinks coasters. As far as I can see it's only her friends who are buying them. I can't see how she makes money out of them. Another friend only comes out at Christmas with her Santa Christmas Eve plates, which are basically just cartoon pictures coloured in with felt tips with a name written on. I've never seen anyone ask to buy one yet!