You'll be at the mercy of others - you host a show, hope people buy products, and hope that people attend that will ask you to host a party for them with a completely different group of people, and so on. Being so young, do you know at least 20 people that might buy something to invite to your first party? I know when I was 18 I wasn't interested in buying a $30 cookie sheet. I've been to several pampered chef parties and it looks fun to do and you can definitely make some money if you're a very professional and charismatic person. However it'll take you years of building up a customer base to make enough to support yourself. If you're just looking for a way to make extra cash and have fun, this is probably a good idea. Do a practice show with some friends and family to see how you feel about it =)

It is one of those things that can be great or be a complete pain. Its not just you hosting parties, its getting your friends to host parties and invite their friends and hope they host parties and so on. The people who make the decent money from it are the people like the woman recruiting you to be under her or even the person above her. Depending on what level you have to be at to have recruits put under you. There are usually many different "levels" of associates. I do love pampered chef parties and most of them I have been to have seemed mostly successful as far as sales. And there was always something set up online so the people who could not attend could order and that party would receive the credit for the host and the consultant. I think the recruiting for more parties is the hard part if you can't keep them rolling and meeting new people at each to host another party for you, you will fall flat in no time. You also have to realize at 20% you would have to sell quite a bit to be a worthwhile income. The required 1250 in the first 90 days will only earn you 250. I would assume by that time unless you are really lucky with a hugely successful party you are also nearly out of supplies and have to buy more. This is just like avon or anything else sales related, its all in how hard you are willing to work it. How much time you are willing to put in before you start to see results and how many people you know so you can get started. It also is this ladies job to make it seem like the best thing in the world to you so she can earn her 5-10% off of your sales, depending on her level.

Not only all of what has already been said, our economy is so tough right now people aren't buying anything that they can live without (including divorces...seriously) and when they do buy the things they need they are going to discount stores. (Per the news) I have sold items like this and this way (even when I was in college and about your age) and no one has any money at 18-21 to spend on anything other than makeup, books, pizza, gas, clothes, (needs). Even the young adults who are married with children are struggling in general. The age group with money is generally the late 30's - late 40's -- after that people have what they need and think of retirement. The only reason I made any money was because I was a server at a restaurant with a lot of regular male customers who loved the idea of me bringing gifts to them already wrapped that they could just hand to their wives. None of my friends or college contacts ever bought anything but they were happy to host parties which was just a TON of work for me before during and after the party and no sales. These are generalizations but I'd say keep that money in your bank account(s). Selling anything is hard, people are suspicious by nature now. I try to tell people about some products I use that really are the best things ever for about 100 reasons that are proven with research just because I love them, not because I sell them and they still aren't interested. These products are things everyone NEEDS and uses on daily basis but they still aren't interested! The really successful sellers are trained in the 100's of barriers to sales (what the barriers are and how to overcome people's objections to buying things) and still get 24 no's for every 25-ish attempts. I don't know if that ratio is correct but it's close. ~ Mimi ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ~ temps_bons graphics ~ http://www.neopets.com/~Mimi_Miaulement

I [b]never ever[/b] trust these kinds of stuff. There is no such thing as "easy money" and people get scammed over this all the time. --------------------------------------------- Celebrate [color=red]Xmas[/color] at [color=green]Xmart[/color]. Buy a tent for your pet today! http://www.neopets.com/browseshop.phtml?owner=dmitri_stanislaus

I'd say risky for a first job, it may be better to have some sort of other work experience to lean on, in case you do it & it doesn't work out. I'm not one for the avon/ partylite/chef parties, not when I can go to walmart and buy stuff for half or a third of the cost. What are the target ages of pampered chef? I don't see the 18-25 year olds spending that kind of money on cookware, and the 25-35 year old may prefer someone with experience/age. I'm not saying to be mean, but it happens all the time

[center] Yeah, honestly, I'd say pampered chef at a college age is a bad idea... Mary Kay is good at that age group, I think. I know a few people who do Mary Kay, and college girls always seem to buy SOMETHING at the party... But most college people I know are just starting to learn how to cook. Having high quality cooking tools hasn't even crossed their minds yet. Coming from a home where I did most of the cooking, college was kind of a shock to my system that way. Most young adults really and truly don't know how to cook. A lot of them don't even really know how to make a lot of the semi-instant things you can buy. :O ------------------------------------------------------------------- [url=http://www.neopets.com/browseshop.phtml?owner=raine_storme&misc]~~ Come visit my map shop ~~[/url] [/center]

I sold Avon when I was your age and it was very little out of pocket. I only had to pay for brochures, sacks and samples (optional) up front. I did it more because I got a discount on everything I purchased for myself. I didn't have to buy any of the merchandise until it was ordered. I have had friends sell Mary Kay and it required them to spend quite a bit upfront buying stock. When they quit they still had a lot of unsold products they had to sell at cost or below cost to get rid of. I would consider having to deal with this unsold stock if Pampered Chef requires you to purchase the merchandise before hand as well (besides all the demo items you have to show at the parties) as this could tie up a lot of your money.

[quote]Yeah, honestly, I'd say pampered chef at a college age is a bad idea... Mary Kay is good at that age group, I think. I know a few people who do Mary Kay, and college girls always seem to buy SOMETHING at the party... But most college people I know are just starting to learn how to cook. Having high quality cooking tools hasn't even crossed their minds yet[/quote] So true. Completely out of their target market. Maybe if it was ipods, then you'll have a chance but cooking ware is yeah... walmart stuff for the most part is enough --------------------------------------------- Celebrate [color=red]Xmas[/color] at [color=green]Xmart[/color]. Buy a tent for your pet today! http://www.neopets.com/browseshop.phtml?owner=dmitri_stanislaus

[quote=temps_bons]Not only all of what has already been said, our economy is so tough right now people aren't buying anything that they can live without (including divorces...seriously) and when they do buy the things they need they are going to discount stores. (Per the news) I have sold items like this and this way (even when I was in college and about your age) and no one has any money at 18-21 to spend on anything other than makeup, books, pizza, gas, clothes, (needs). Even the young adults who are married with children are struggling in general. The age group with money is generally the late 30's - late 40's -- after that people have what they need and think of retirement. The only reason I made any money was because I was a server at a restaurant with a lot of regular male customers who loved the idea of me bringing gifts to them already wrapped that they could just hand to their wives. None of my friends or college contacts ever bought anything but they were happy to host parties which was just a TON of work for me before during and after the party and no sales. These are generalizations but I'd say keep that money in your bank account(s). Selling anything is hard, people are suspicious by nature now. I try to tell people about some products I use that really are the best things ever for about 100 reasons that are proven with research just because I love them, not because I sell them and they still aren't interested. These products are things everyone NEEDS and uses on daily basis but they still aren't interested! The really successful sellers are trained in the 100's of barriers to sales (what the barriers are and how to overcome people's objections to buying things) and still get 24 no's for every 25-ish attempts. I don't know if that ratio is correct but it's close. ~ Mimi ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ~ temps_bons graphics ~ http://www.neopets.com/~Mimi_Miaulement[/quote] In a way you're right... and in a way you're way off. Just a couple days ago there was this thing in our news that was talking about a poor divorced woman trying to make her children's Christmas special. The entire story was just like "poor her, how alone she is, how touching." Then it said how the children were asking for a Xbox 360 and something else, I think it was a huge flat screen TV. I don't remember specifically, but people place their 'needs' in really odd places... I can see how it could be enjoyable to get some sort of game system that isn't a PS1, but I know I don't need it and neither does this poor lady's spoiled children... if she is poor she shouldn't be able to afford the electricity to run that stuff, much less buy it. Though back to the OP, yeah I don't think you need that stuff, I've heard that Pampered Chef stuff is kinda junky, for example the blades on some of the knives are covered by warranty for time and eternity, but the handles aren't, so the butt of the knife brakes and they can call it abuse. I say don't do it, if it doesn't sell you loose, if it does sell you don't make much. --- Step outside, take a breath of fresh air, then look down to see if you have a new text message.