Clare Nolan's flat smells delicious, despite the fact that she has just moved in. 'Today is our first proper day here, and we thought it would be fun to have a party.' It's 11am and she is remarkably unruffled. An 'Aromastone' is sending wafts of essential oil into the air, a table near the window has an array of Neal's Yard products and we are perched on the sofa as Kim Tween, one of the company's top consultants, talks us through the range. Tween, who has a background in direct selling, has been with Neal's Yard Remedies for two years and makes enough money to have funded the new car parked outside Nolan's flat. It is her full-time job. She sets up six to eight parties a month, and earns between £2,800 and £3,000 a month.
'The starter kit costs £95,' Tween says, 'but you don't have to host a party yourself, if you don't want to. I love meeting people, and I feel passionate about the range, and with a party you can spend a lot of time explaining the benefits of everything; on a shop floor you might have only a couple of minutes.'
NYR consultants buy the products for 75 per cent of the price they sell them for. The difference in price is kept by the consultants as profit. All training is free. 'And hosts get a free gift,' Tween says, handing Nolan a jar of Jasmine Body Cream, as she launches into an introduction to the NYR ethos: no parabens, all organic, approved by the Soil Association and not tested on animals, 'only on willing humans'.
Tween dabs essential oil on to cotton buds and they are passed around for a quick sniff. Guests are warned about the dangers of alcohol in the things we smooth on our faces, and encouraged to moisturise properly. 'When you're young your cells are like grapes, as you get older they shrivel up like raisins,' Tween says as she demonstrates a five-minute skincare routine on a yoga teacher, Gemma McCoy. 'You're all worth at least five minutes.'
Sitting around the coffee table a little later, snacking on cheese and bread and hummus, Nolan's guests are chatting, with Tween on hand to provide helpful advice. Louisa Williams, an accountant, has taken the day off work to come along. 'It's a treat to come here in the morning. I wish I'd known about NYR when I was 20, instead of discovering it in my forties.' And Nolan is already in the mood for hosting another party. 'I have a school reunion coming up, so this could be good for getting old friends together.'
To become an NYR consultant or to find out how to host a party, register at uk.nyrorganic.com
Jamie at Home
Sarah Foister does an impressive whistle to summon us from the kitchen to her sitting-room to hear the introduction by the Jamie at Home consultant Lettice Hagan, and to watch a DVD that features the chef Gennaro Contaldo rustling up an exclusive Jamie Oliver recipe using utensils that are cleverly displayed in Foister's kitchen. 'Usually it's Jamie, but he was in LA filming the Food Revolution,' Hagan says. 'But the Christmas one is Jamie again.' The recipe is seasonal, as is the catalogue, which Hagan hands out. Back in the kitchen Foister is dishing up hot pizza to accompany the bruschetta and charcuterie that are already enticingly stacked on the table.
Hagan talks us through the display as we sip drinks. There are pizza wheels (£11), a six-sided grater (£18), a rolling pin with centimetre marks so you can measure your pastry (£17) and old-fashioned mixing bowls (from £18) that raise a murmur of appreciation. There is also a pass-the-parcel-style game, where a guest ends up winning a set of tapas bowls, and a raffle is held at the end.
Everyone is very taken with the Little Cooks range, which includes the Mamma Mia Pizza Kit, the Pat-a-Cake Kids' Baking Tin and Little Chef's Utensils, but people seem happy to drink and chat without purchasing anything, even though they've jotted notes in their catalogues. Hagan explains how you become a consultant. 'It costs £120 to join as a consultant and you receive £400 worth of kit. You need to have four parties in the diary to sign up, so that means four people who are willing to get friends over and host a party for you. In order to be active and keep your kit you need to make 1,000 sales, but that's easily achievable.'
Hostesses are paid in products, earning an average of £50 worth per party. Consultants earn 20 per cent commission on all sales at a party. After that, it's all incentive based – the ultimate one being to meet Jamie Oliver himself.
jamieathome.com
Stella & Dot
Emer Dewar, a freelance fashion editor, has just completed her sixth ‘trunk show’ since joining Stella & Dot, an American social selling company that launched in Britain in October. Founded by the entrepreneur Jessica Herrin five years ago, the company sells mid-priced, design-led jewellery and has an annual turnover of more than $200 million.
Herrin’s vision was to create a flexible, fun and family-friendly way for women to run their own business. To join as a stylist you must buy a £198 starter pack, containing samples of the company’s 10 bestselling pieces, plus enough catalogues and business supplies to see you through your first few shows. For three weeks after joining you have the option to buy more jewellery at a 50 per cent discount, while the ‘Jumpstart Scheme’ allows you £400 worth of free jewellery every time you hit retail sales of £3,000 for your first 100 days. For an additional £80 per year the company will set up and maintain an e-commerce website for you; in the States, 85 per cent of stylists have done so.
Stylists earn a minimum 25 per cent on every sale made, rising to 30 per cent when a £2,200 monthly target is met. The jewellery costs between £20 and £200. Average takings per party are £800, so the monthly target is a realistic one. Those wishing to treat this as a career can build a team of stylists, a percentage of whose sales they also earn. Dewar made her initial investment back with three parties.
Hostesses open up their houses, invite friends along and provide food and wine. They earn jewellery credits as a percentage of what is sold during their party. If anyone books a party off the back of theirs, they earn £20 in jewellery credits. ‘My first sale was at home,’ Dewar says. ‘I have consciously avoided calling on friends. For me this is about building a business, which means networking and expanding. I have two young children, with a third due any day, and I feel I can work this business into my life. It gives me the opportunity to create something while making time for my family.’ By Daisy Bridgewater
stelladot.co.uk
UpStyler
Ginny Hepburn, the host of tonight’s party, is steaming last-minute creases from a black floor-length frock. Her kitchen-cum-dining-room at her home in east London has been transformed into a little boutique. Antique lace collars are draped on chair backs beside old silk scarves, there’s a mirror propped against a wall, and there are clothing rails jammed full of vintage dresses and blouses. Hepburn, who used to work in marketing before having two children, now eight and five, was introduced to the UpStyler website by a friend. Upstyler.co.uk launched last year and sells a mix of vintage clothes, thrift finds from charity stores and new stock, with lots of suggestions as to how to style your own outfit to fit your look. Hepburn had the idea to bring rails of clothes to her home and sell from there to her friends and friends of friends. The idea has caught on and since starting up last November she has hosted about 20 parties at her own home and at other people’s homes around London. So far, she is a one-woman band operating alongside the website; the parties are publicised by word of mouth. If she holds the sale at someone else’s house, the hostess is allowed to keep an accessory or piece of clothing from the rail. ‘My husband works away in the week, the children are in bed and this is a good way of spending an evening, and making a little extra money.’
The stock, priced from £15 for a scarf to £150 for a collectable top, is sourced from upstyler.co.uk as well as friends and her own shopping trips. ‘I came back on the train from Hastings, which has great secondhand shops, with bin bags crammed full of stuff, and I can take, on average, £500 a party, minus the cost of the stock and food and drink and the 15 per cent commission to UpStyler.
There’s cava in the fridge, bowls of crisps and slices of bread and smoked salmon on the kitchen counter as Hepburn’s guests arrive. ‘I think people like the idea of recycling old clothes: it’s environmentally good, it makes economic sense, and it’s a move away from fast, throwaway high-street fashion,’ she says as she neatens up a 1950s apron.
All of which is true, but judging by the polite scrum of 18 friends – many of whom are working mothers who might not usually have time during the day to shop or to spend time browsing in charity or vintage shops – taking things off hangers, and sashaying towards the mirror, catwalk style, it’s the dressing-up aspect that makes this evening so much fun. There are giggles from the front room as women try on dresses and skirts, encouraged to go for outfits they wouldn’t normally choose. ‘I hate shopping,’ Dawn Morpeth says, ‘and I hate the changing rooms, but this is lovely and relaxed and glamorous; it’s more like a night out.’
The stock is varied to suit a wide range of tastes: a pussy-bow blouse, a severe grey dress with a high neck and a decorous pleated skirt, and a biscuit-coloured leather tunic that would suit Catherine Deneuve in Belle de Jour. It’s a fluted, elegant Ossie Clark jacket, priced at £150, that gets the most attention; it is passed from hand to hand and tried on by everyone. But it looks as if it was made for Kira Phillips, a filmmaker, who buys it after everyone else tells her she has to, even though she was reluctant at first. ‘I know I’ll be wearing it for the next 40 years.’
By the time I leave, Mel, a graphic designer, has bought a bold printed skirt, Gabriella has a leaf-print dress, and Joanna is holding a delicate pink hand-sewn blouse. The average spend per head was about £40, and Hepburn’s takings were £750.
Book your own UpStyler party: 07734-035515; fredandginny@googlemail.com
To become an NYR consultant or to find out how to host a party, register at uk.nyrorganic.com
Jamie at Home
Sarah Foister does an impressive whistle to summon us from the kitchen to her sitting-room to hear the introduction by the Jamie at Home consultant Lettice Hagan, and to watch a DVD that features the chef Gennaro Contaldo rustling up an exclusive Jamie Oliver recipe using utensils that are cleverly displayed in Foister's kitchen. 'Usually it's Jamie, but he was in LA filming the Food Revolution,' Hagan says. 'But the Christmas one is Jamie again.' The recipe is seasonal, as is the catalogue, which Hagan hands out. Back in the kitchen Foister is dishing up hot pizza to accompany the bruschetta and charcuterie that are already enticingly stacked on the table.
Hagan talks us through the display as we sip drinks. There are pizza wheels (£11), a six-sided grater (£18), a rolling pin with centimetre marks so you can measure your pastry (£17) and old-fashioned mixing bowls (from £18) that raise a murmur of appreciation. There is also a pass-the-parcel-style game, where a guest ends up winning a set of tapas bowls, and a raffle is held at the end.
Everyone is very taken with the Little Cooks range, which includes the Mamma Mia Pizza Kit, the Pat-a-Cake Kids' Baking Tin and Little Chef's Utensils, but people seem happy to drink and chat without purchasing anything, even though they've jotted notes in their catalogues. Hagan explains how you become a consultant. 'It costs £120 to join as a consultant and you receive £400 worth of kit. You need to have four parties in the diary to sign up, so that means four people who are willing to get friends over and host a party for you. In order to be active and keep your kit you need to make 1,000 sales, but that's easily achievable.'
Hostesses are paid in products, earning an average of £50 worth per party. Consultants earn 20 per cent commission on all sales at a party. After that, it's all incentive based – the ultimate one being to meet Jamie Oliver himself.
jamieathome.com
Stella & Dot
Emer Dewar, a freelance fashion editor, has just completed her sixth ‘trunk show’ since joining Stella & Dot, an American social selling company that launched in Britain in October. Founded by the entrepreneur Jessica Herrin five years ago, the company sells mid-priced, design-led jewellery and has an annual turnover of more than $200 million.
Herrin’s vision was to create a flexible, fun and family-friendly way for women to run their own business. To join as a stylist you must buy a £198 starter pack, containing samples of the company’s 10 bestselling pieces, plus enough catalogues and business supplies to see you through your first few shows. For three weeks after joining you have the option to buy more jewellery at a 50 per cent discount, while the ‘Jumpstart Scheme’ allows you £400 worth of free jewellery every time you hit retail sales of £3,000 for your first 100 days. For an additional £80 per year the company will set up and maintain an e-commerce website for you; in the States, 85 per cent of stylists have done so.
Stylists earn a minimum 25 per cent on every sale made, rising to 30 per cent when a £2,200 monthly target is met. The jewellery costs between £20 and £200. Average takings per party are £800, so the monthly target is a realistic one. Those wishing to treat this as a career can build a team of stylists, a percentage of whose sales they also earn. Dewar made her initial investment back with three parties.
Hostesses open up their houses, invite friends along and provide food and wine. They earn jewellery credits as a percentage of what is sold during their party. If anyone books a party off the back of theirs, they earn £20 in jewellery credits. ‘My first sale was at home,’ Dewar says. ‘I have consciously avoided calling on friends. For me this is about building a business, which means networking and expanding. I have two young children, with a third due any day, and I feel I can work this business into my life. It gives me the opportunity to create something while making time for my family.’ By Daisy Bridgewater
stelladot.co.uk
UpStyler
Ginny Hepburn, the host of tonight’s party, is steaming last-minute creases from a black floor-length frock. Her kitchen-cum-dining-room at her home in east London has been transformed into a little boutique. Antique lace collars are draped on chair backs beside old silk scarves, there’s a mirror propped against a wall, and there are clothing rails jammed full of vintage dresses and blouses. Hepburn, who used to work in marketing before having two children, now eight and five, was introduced to the UpStyler website by a friend. Upstyler.co.uk launched last year and sells a mix of vintage clothes, thrift finds from charity stores and new stock, with lots of suggestions as to how to style your own outfit to fit your look. Hepburn had the idea to bring rails of clothes to her home and sell from there to her friends and friends of friends. The idea has caught on and since starting up last November she has hosted about 20 parties at her own home and at other people’s homes around London. So far, she is a one-woman band operating alongside the website; the parties are publicised by word of mouth. If she holds the sale at someone else’s house, the hostess is allowed to keep an accessory or piece of clothing from the rail. ‘My husband works away in the week, the children are in bed and this is a good way of spending an evening, and making a little extra money.’
The stock, priced from £15 for a scarf to £150 for a collectable top, is sourced from upstyler.co.uk as well as friends and her own shopping trips. ‘I came back on the train from Hastings, which has great secondhand shops, with bin bags crammed full of stuff, and I can take, on average, £500 a party, minus the cost of the stock and food and drink and the 15 per cent commission to UpStyler.
There’s cava in the fridge, bowls of crisps and slices of bread and smoked salmon on the kitchen counter as Hepburn’s guests arrive. ‘I think people like the idea of recycling old clothes: it’s environmentally good, it makes economic sense, and it’s a move away from fast, throwaway high-street fashion,’ she says as she neatens up a 1950s apron.
All of which is true, but judging by the polite scrum of 18 friends – many of whom are working mothers who might not usually have time during the day to shop or to spend time browsing in charity or vintage shops – taking things off hangers, and sashaying towards the mirror, catwalk style, it’s the dressing-up aspect that makes this evening so much fun. There are giggles from the front room as women try on dresses and skirts, encouraged to go for outfits they wouldn’t normally choose. ‘I hate shopping,’ Dawn Morpeth says, ‘and I hate the changing rooms, but this is lovely and relaxed and glamorous; it’s more like a night out.’
The stock is varied to suit a wide range of tastes: a pussy-bow blouse, a severe grey dress with a high neck and a decorous pleated skirt, and a biscuit-coloured leather tunic that would suit Catherine Deneuve in Belle de Jour. It’s a fluted, elegant Ossie Clark jacket, priced at £150, that gets the most attention; it is passed from hand to hand and tried on by everyone. But it looks as if it was made for Kira Phillips, a filmmaker, who buys it after everyone else tells her she has to, even though she was reluctant at first. ‘I know I’ll be wearing it for the next 40 years.’
By the time I leave, Mel, a graphic designer, has bought a bold printed skirt, Gabriella has a leaf-print dress, and Joanna is holding a delicate pink hand-sewn blouse. The average spend per head was about £40, and Hepburn’s takings were £750.
Book your own UpStyler party: 07734-035515; fredandginny@googlemail.com
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