Has/does anyone work for Usborne books?

[FoxyRevenger]

I am looking for some part time work to do, that will fit in with being a stay at home mum. Someone I know sold Usborne books and said it made them a decent enough amount of money...

Does anyone do this? Can you tell me anything about it, and how much I could realistically expect to earn? (although obviously it would be dependent on the effort I put in)

I looked at Usborne Books myself as wanted to do something that I could be totally in control of myself and basically get out of it as much as I could put in. In the end I signed up with another company and have had all the info etc through in the last week and I'm so excited and can't wait to get started. It's something I can feel really passionate about, is fantastic quality but at a really good price point and something everyone buys all the time, week in, week out.
Hopefully it will all work out really well, I'm going on hol next week so need to wait till I get back to actually get stuck in but I'm itching to begin.

Do either of you fancy PMing me to let me in on the secret?

Done!

what i really can't understand with usbourne (or avon or pheonix) is that you can get it all on amazon or somewhere else at good prices. how do you make any money for the time put in? is it one huge con or are people happy to make a little money in the belief that they are actually achieving something? Whilst in the meantime these big companies are raking it in, asking for the workers to spread their name !!. The workers are evan BUYING their products to sell on! And the way i read it, it seems to be evolving almost of pyramid selling with one person taking on initiates to 'manage' .... it just seems to me someone is exploiting a strangely vulnerable (yet hugely strong (??)) sector of society - those who want to earn (however much that may be) whilst still wanting to be there at all times for their children.

Flork. I don't really understand that with Usborne but Phoebix for example isn't allowed to be sold through websites, although you do see some discontinued stuff popping up on eBay.

As for pyramid selling, you may want to watch this -

Can someone pm me the other company please? I have to go part time at work due to cuts and need some way to top up my income. I had thought about usbourne too so watching this with interest.

Thanks ladies

PS: you don't work the same company ;)

Okay - how much can one realistically earn with usbourne if one can commit, say, a day a week to it? I've asked this before and can never get a straight answer.

I'm not sure of Usborne's commission. I think the main thing to consider is what you can do in a day and consider it from there. For example, you could be having a stall at a fete which would take the whole day, or fit in a couple of party plans, or spend the day dropping samples/collecting orders from multiple places.

That probably isn't much help really but it is difficult to answer I suspect, maybe somebody will be along in a minute with something more definite.

The other thing to consider is that you can run most of these things alongside another job if you want until you consider you've reached a good enough level to purely concentrate on that.

I question the income too - it is going to pay the bills? Surely the absolute min you want to earn is £60pw.

If its so good then your will be paying NI wouldnt you? vehicle fuel, vehicle useage, taking and chasing payment, postage, any childcare when yr out and about.

I'm not a fan of these clubs. I'm not one for going to avon/underware/chocolate/book evenings - you always come away spending too much and realising after with a bit of thought you could of picked stuff up for half the price. There is a book club at our nursery which sells books cheap. I love 2nd hand or discontinued books. Doesnt WH Smith sell Usborne buy 3 for 2?

IMO the only way to earn an income is through having a proper job either self employed or employed. Like so many full time mums there is no easy way to earn money.

Bacon I think you are probably right. It seems a lot of hassle for what will be a fairly small amount of money. At least with part time work I could have set shifts so childcare would be fairly easily sorted.

Ah well. Back to the job websites....sigh.

Thanks everyone

Bacon, I find your "proper job" remark quite insulting.

I do have a "proper job" and am self employed, this involves me doing the exact job you are dismissing.

If you're self employed you can actually offset a lot of stuff such as vehicle fuel, wear and tear, postage, even clothes. So some would see this as a benefit not a down side.

Additionally, when your self employed, this means you can often choose the hours that suit. Not everyone needs Childcare if their children are at school, they can work between 9and 3 and still take and collect their children from school. Or maybe someone has younger children and a husband/partner home in the evenings to have children so they can go out and do some parties?
Not everyone has to "pay the bills" with their money, it's extra cash for nice things. Some people choose it for reasons that don't just revolve around paying the bills. Of course not everyone has that luxury.

You see, these jobs aren't like "proper jobs". You choose. It's not easy so it doesn't suit everyone, yes you have to work for your money. But I'd take doing it for myself, not answering to a boss, being able to have time off if my children are sick, have the school holidays off if I want, working my arse off and me seeing the benefit in my purse, not the company, over working for someone else any day!

GoingLoopyLou - I am self employed working in construction (you didnt read my post correctly). I understand all flexable working and I work well into the night too. So I completely understand full times mums predicuments. I reason why I cant go out full time. My OH works most of the time 7am - 9pm and has be known to do 14hr days continually for weeks so I have a complete understanding for mums needing to earn money within the non-flexiable day. As far as I'm concerned I have a proper job too.

No one still hasnt answered the question of the hastle v the income!!!! The question by the OP was for a part-time income which I understand it isnt - its a bit of extra cash - as you have stated - but will not pay the bills.

Commision work selling isnt for everyone - thats my point. I read on MN all the time mums looking for ways of making money while at home and IMO there isnt one. I have yet to meet anyone who has stuck these kind of things out. I read all the sales patter but no facts.

i've asked it before and i'll ask it yet again - after factoring in buying in all the avon/ubourne/phoenix/herbalife etc etc products to sell - (ie doing them a favour by selling their products at a tiny profit but spreading their brand name for them) - minus time, petrol etc etc - how much do you make per hour. the sum can't be that hard. I fully understand why people would do it for the social side of things or for psychologically thinking they are actually making money but I would like to know the bottom line. (and then i would like to set up an osbourne lookalike and make a fortune ...)

I used to do PartyLite candles. I would do a party every two weeks or so, and maybe 3 or 4 a week in the run up to Christmas. At these parties I would make £40 - £70. It was also fun getting out of the house, meeting new people, chatting to hosts and their guests, and then I got lots of free candles too.
TBH I could have done more parties, but I'm not a natural saleperson and don't like to be pushy.
I stopped last year. It was a lot of hassle with tax & NI etc, and the number of parties were drying up. In this financial climate do not bother try to sell non-essentials to "normal" people. I think the only people making good sales right now are those selling luxury goods to the minted.

I did Usborne books for about a year. I stopped in the end as I found it hard to fit it in with other commitments, but I'm seriously considering starting up again. The key lies with developing a team and selling to schools, although having said that I have made a decent amount of profit (£50+) selling at things like gift fayres for a couple of hours.

In the longterm though, as I said, I feel the best way to make money is to recruit a team and sell to schools, starting small and build up to big orders. This is requires minimum effort for maximum return.

i dont really know what you mean by 'This is requires minimum effort for maximum return'. i worked in a shool for ten years and we didn't have a huge respect for all these ladies pulliing their trolleys around with them. i think people in schools are prety switched on and know what they want to buy. and i have to say, as an educationalist, your attitude seems rather callous. education is so important now, as i'm sure we all increasing know, from primary to hons degrees !!!

I meant that you can spend the same amount of time at a school appointment as you might at say, a gift fayre, and you would probably sell a lot more books (and therefore earn more commission) to the school in that time. Yes, I agree, schools are switched on, and I have to be honest and say that the schools I went to all liked Usborne books and I had no problem selling sometimes large amounts of them. Someone else I know made £1.5k commission in a single afternoon by getting a large book order from a school. I cannot see how thinking that that makes good business sense is me being callous.

I think it's quite rude of you to say that you didn't have a "huge amount of respect for all these ladies pulling their trolleys around with them". They're only trying to earn a living.

From a school point of view, there isn't a lot of respect for any of the reps who come in to ply their wares. Be it Usborne, Scholastic, Nexus, whatever - we all know that they are there to profit themselves ultimately. Yes, they're only trying to earn a living, but a lot of reps try and push for sales when a lot of their stuff can be bought online for less. Sorry if that's rude.
But yes, I totally understand why a couple of hours in a school is probably time better spent than at a private party etc.

TeamLemon, yes the books can be bought online for less but Usborne give free books to schools in addition to what they order so if they order a big quantity (as many schools do) they then get a percentage of what they've spent to spend on free books. So overall it would work out better value than buying the books elsewhere.

Regarding the respect, I found I was always treated with respect at the schools I visited. I was very often contacted by literacy co-ordinators asking me to do book fairs or who were interested in placing orders. Of course any reps are in it to profit for themselves, and that applies whatever they're selling. It surely isn't only book reps that approach schools, there must be all manner of reps wanting to sell things to them.

Oh, I totally agree that the free books is a good thing, but I work in a teeny tiny school and it doesn't profit us to buy from a rep. Book Fairs are always met with a disgruntled "humph" from the PTA parents because they feel pressured to buy and support the school.

And I think we're talking about two levels of respect here. Of course you will be treated with respect and treated civilly, given a warm welcome etc in schools, but in some places that respect is at face value and underneath the staff resent the hard sell. And I don't mean just book sellers. All Reps. Our Nexus Rep is particularly reptilian!