Thinking of Usborne bookselling as a side hustle - I know what it is, but many of the usual warnings don't apply. Any thoughts?

[AnonyLonnymouse]

I have had quite a busy work-week and perhaps my brain is a bit addled, but I am suddenly wondering if selling Usborne books might be a useful side hustle for me? I know that it is an MLM - and know all the arguments against MLM - but it seems that it might actually suit me quite well. I have existing freelance work and I am looking for a new job but would like a side activity that I can scale up or down as needed.

The reasons why it seems like a good idea - at 11pm on a Friday! - are:

I want to get out of the house!
I like selling at NCT sales etc and am quite good selling face-to-face, but not pushy
I like interacting with parents and pre-schoolers/primary age children
I would not be selling to friends, as they are mostly beyond that stage
I have an existing FB page with 2k+ followers in the right type of audience
I have the cashflow to buy stock and not worry about recouping it ASAP
I have the storage space, although tidying up a bit would help!
I would not push anyone to join a team, as I know that isn't ethical
I can drive
I can use social media for business purposes
I live in an area where people definitely have money to spend and would happily spend a bit more on a book at an event rather than wait to buy it cheaper elsewhere. Lots of grandparents around here too!
I live in an area where there aren't really large supermarkets or discount shops nearby.

Bearing all the above in mind - not the typical situation - what do you think?
Thanks.

@fairymary87
Thanks.
Interesting that you looked into it but decided not to.

I take your point about cost of living but there is quite a bit of money in my local area.

I'd go to a book shop if I wanted a book

@ClutchingOurBananas
Thanks for the post, perhaps the way for me to test the waters is to see if local fairs actually accept an Usborne stall.

We’ve had Usborne stands at our local soft play, a role play toddler centre and a baby sensory class I did. In the whole time I was there at all three places I never saw anyone buying any books from them. I personally would also always do a quick google to see how much I could get it for elsewhere and I’m assuming it would be cheaper.

the article that someone posted is illuminating. You probably make more money buying your own ‘starter pack’ and buying the books from Amazon/the works etc to fulfil any orders you get.

Also don’t underestimate how much time (and money) will be required to organise having stalls at events, cart all the kit around and set up/tidy up each time. How many books would you have to sell each time to even break even, give the commission is pennies per book sold?

It’s temping to look at your sales revenue and forget that the ‘profit’ is negligible (or non-existent once you’ve factored in the costs of petrol, the stall, and display materials, etc).

Then there’s the weird parties thing. I have no idea why anyone would want to go to an usbourne books party.

There's a lot of money in my area I mean a lot. It's also looked down on. MLMs as a whole aren't ethical so people really don't want to associate with them.

Even if they do, there may be someone else in the area doing the usbourne thing who already does all the fairs.

I think the issue is also that, unless you have the book in stock that somebody wants (and obviously it's expensive to hold too much stock), you have to order it for the customer- and Usbourne charges you for the p&p. Factor in your time delivering to the customer, and you'd be struggling to break even.

If you want to sell books, comb your local charity shops for books, advertise that you'll come and pick up people's old books they don't want anymore, contact your local pta and ask them to get people to bring in books people have grown out of (and you donate £1/book or whatever to the pta). There's no shortage of cheap (probably unread!) books.

This will give you plenty of books to fill your storage space.
Sort through them and donate any you can't sell to a charity of your choice (I like national trust bookshops as they take books by the box and have parking)

You'll make more profit, the charity/school will benefit and there'll be a lot less waste.
And you won't be contributing to your upline.

I would unfollow anyone who started pushing their latest pyramid scheme.

Also worth remembering that the area being quite affluent doesn’t mean people will want to pay over the odds for books.

Everyone has a smartphone. They can check the price of things online. If Amazon will deliver them the same book the next day for less money, why would they order from your stall and wait much longer?

I can see why these kind of business models may have worked pre internet, but not any more.

They exist to make money for the people at the top. As all businesses do, but with mlm the seller on the bottom IS the customer

Going against the grain here, I always bought usbourne books for mine, also full price from independent bookshops. We enjoy the browsing even now as adults

Yes but you probably didn’t have the chance to buy them cheaper on the internet if your children are now adults?

I wouldn't judge you and I have bought Osborne books from people when my DC were small. I would prefer to go to a bookshop to buy books now as I would hate for it to close down.

Thanks all, appreciate your responses - I’m aware that MLM provoke strong reactions but my circumstances really are quite different from the norm.

There have been some useful thoughts.
I will look further into the financial model and also enquire as to whether local fairs will actually accept a seller.

I wouldn't buy individual books like that, not when I could get them from Amazon in 24hours.

What I might pay for is a themed gift set so for example a couple of Usbourne Space books, a Orchard Tree Space game and some space food to try or similar age appropriate bundle, gift wrapped nicely perhaps with packaging matching the theme. Potentially you would do quite well on Etsy or similar with something like that. Delivering directly to the recipient would be great for family who don't live near to young family members (perhaps with a birthday card matching the theme written by you for them like Moon Pig)

OP please 🙏🏼 do read this. It makes it very clear indeed that it is not possible to make money, whatever your situation.
https://www.talentedladiesclub.com/articles/how-much-money-can-you-earn-with-mlm-usborne-books-at-home/

OP it doesn’t matter what area you live in or what your personal circumstances are, the whole system has been set up so that it’s not possible for you to earn anything.

I'd hazard a guess that if there is "quite a bit of money in [your] local area" then you're ironically even less likely to have people buy off you.

More business minded/professional people are the ones who will be aware that Usborne is an MLM and avoid you out of principle.

I'd also unfollow anyone I followed on Socials who started trying to make MLM sales.

Our local primary school fair has a "no mlms" rule for stalls.

You won’t make any money. Aside from being an MLM my neighbour did it 14 years ago in a middle class area, when there wasn’t a cop crisis. Was at every baby group going and didn’t make a penny. Making money in the current climate simply won’t happen.

If you live in an affluent area, everyone will know it’s an MLM and either judge you for getting involved, or pity you for not understanding you’re being exploited. It doesn’t matter that they’re not your intended customers, it’s still not a good look. I would unfollow you on principle. And I don’t see how you can read that link that’s been posted and think that you’ll make any money at all from doing this. So what’s the point? All you’ll be doing is risking your reputation for no income. Baffling.

I hope this isn’t a derail but just want to say that the COL crisis comes up a lot on MN as a reason why people aren’t spending as much. It’s weird that a lot of people imagine that everyone is tightening their belts. They really are not. Go to rich areas and you will find people spending just as much as ever. In fact some people are richer than they were. I don’t think people have fully grasped how unequal our country is.

OP is almost certainly right about the area she lives in. There are plenty of places where the COL crisis is simply a story in a newspaper. OP might well be living somewhere where people don’t care that they can buy books cheaper from Amazon. This still won’t help her earn money though as the whole system is set up in favour of the company.

Ok, steady on @Tygertiger before you run me out of town with a pitchfork.

If you look back, you’ll see that I thanked the poster for the link and said that I would read it. I haven’t read it yet as I have been properly awake for less than an hour.

When DC were little, one of the school mums did Usborne books (&Avon) at school fairs and other events.

I never bought books from her, but used it to see what DC liked... and bought it cheaper elsewhere!

I think if you want to have a side hassle and earn real money, do something original.
I have a side hassle which is also a hobby, so not a lot of pressure, but plenty of fun!