Home-party sales remain attractive to companies, salespeople

If Lori Kutsch didn't love her day job at ClearChoice Merchant Services so much, she figures she might join the ranks of those who make $100,000 or more a year selling Creative Memories products through home parties.

After all, her part-time business has grown three-fold in the past year.

But for the time being, she finds satisfaction and a tidy side income selling Creative Memories scrapbooking supplies at weekend retreats and occasional home parties with friends.

Home-party sales don't look much like the stereotyped Tupperware parties of the early 1960s. If nothing else, they're far more likely to be scheduled in evening hours to meet the needs of working women.

But they remain an effective selling channel and a good source of part-time income or more to sales professionals.

Too Cute Totes shows what's possible.

The Fallon company's founder decided six years to market largely through home-party sales. Now Too Cute Totes is growing so quickly that the company is bumping against the limits of its manufacturing capacity.

Some 90 percent of the company's sales of customized totes come through home-party sales, and President Karen Scott says that's no accident.

"That was part of the plan from the beginning," Scott says.

Uncertain how long she would be living in Fallon after relocating from Florida, Scott wanted to create a sales model that she could take with her as she launched Too Cute Totes.

She built a team of home-party sales professionals by tapping into her network of friends across the country.

Reconnecting with a friend at the 20th reunion of her high school class, for instance, Scott recruited the woman who is now the top salesperson for Too Cute Totes.

The company today works with about a dozen saleswomen in five states. They, in turn, work with folks who host a party of their friends to learn about the company's custom-made totes.

Typically, Scott says, a home party generates about a dozen sales of the totes. Adult models range in price from about $50 to about $150.

The company also sells from a storefront location in Fallon, mostly because Scott thinks it's important to maintain some sort of physical presence for the company.

Management of a far-flung home-selling network isn't easy, and motivation of the sales team to keep scheduling events is a challenge, Scott says.

"You can't really control what they are doing," she says. "And it is a sales job. You still have to work it."

Scott in recent months has taken a big step, recruiting home-sales professionals from outside her network of personal friends.

That's a critical step in the company's growth, she says, but Too Cute Totes needs to move cautiously because its staff of four tote-makers in Fallon already is stretched thin.

"We have difficulty keeping up with the demand now," Scott says.

Kutsch, who began selling Creative Memories products at home parties in Washington State about 12 years ago, brought the business with her as her family moved to Oregon and then, six years ago, to Washoe Valley.

Along the way, she has learned to speak confidently in front of a group "I was very shy," she recalls and become confident in her knowledge of the company's scrapbooking products as well.

Her business held up well during the recession, Kutsch says, because a home-sale party provides an inexpensive night out for participants.

But while she still works about a dozen home parties a year, Kutsch's primary focus these days is retreats, often extending over a weekend, at which scrapbooking fans get together, work on their projects and get exposure to Creative Memories products.

The largest of the retreats drew 58 scrapbookers for a weekend of crafting, conversation and low-key sales at St. Mary's Art & Retreat Center in Virginia City.

"It's a lot of fun for them," Kutsch says. "And a lot of work for me."

Still, she says her personal love of scrapbooking and the friendships she has developed not to mention the additional income more than make up for any hassles.

It's a message that's reaching a new generation as well.

Mary Kay Inc. says it's having good luck recruiting beauty consultants among Gen Y college graduates in states such as Nevada where unemployment rates run high among recent college graduates.

Of the 94,000 people who started Mary Kay businesses nationwide during the second, the company says Gen Y accounted for a third.

And nearly 20,000 people aged 18-30 have started Mary Kay businesses during 2012 in the 10 states including Nevada where traditional employment opportunities have been limited for recent graduates.

Say Kutsch, "A lot of people don't realize this option is out there. It's an option to close a gap in income, to make a little extra."