Hobby into money?

I've made a decision to join the Stampin Up demonstrator team.

I've always hated Avon, Mary Kay, Candlelight, and all those other "party" type businesses. Especially the vitamin and wellness ones. Because I'm a health care professional they always try to recruit me. On my networking webpages I even put "Please do not contact me regarding vitamins or other wellness items, thanks!"

Even with the more girly organizations, however, I have a bad taste in my mouth. When I was younger I had some friends who would have parties and invite me. Being a good friend, I went. They were always boring and the one time I ordered anything not only did I not get part of my order, and the rep never returned any of my calls, but the products I did get were not nearly the quality promised.

So it surprised me when I discovered how excited I am by the possibility of joining Stampin Up. It's been something we've talked about for a long long time.

I was going to join before hubby got laid off from job number one. Then I was going to join and he got laid off from the next job. Then I couldn't because I delivered my baby and then he didn't get hired again for ten weeks. Then my business ended up dropping off due to summer and economic issues and it didn't happen a third time. Now, however, hubby is doing very well in a non-construction-based company that is very stable, my business is steady, and we have the money put aside.

So why am I doing this?

- I am very impressed with their products. I've been using them for almost a year and find that they are far superior to other companies. It doesn't matter if we're comparing paper to paper or punches to punches or stamps to stamps. Every item is a better quality.

- The starter kit is a great value, especially when signing up during a promotion. I already get over 350 worth of items for under 200, right now I'm going to get an additional 47 worth. Lots of people sign up for the kit, which you fully customize each time, let themselves drop of the active list, and sign up again to get the awesome value.

- I've been asked by people for awhile to teach technique classes. This is something I could do and make more money by having product for them to order.

- Home parties intimidate me but I can make money if I do them. Yes, it will take effort and all that. I am not naive. I've researched a lot of companies and I know what the reality is versus the promises.

- I'll get a discount on everything I order plus hostess benefits which make it even better. Face it, I'm going to spend my monthly allowance on craft stuff. I can get better quality items that coordinate with each other by doing it this way and not feel guilty for not opting for cheaper items just because I could have gotten them with a coupon.

- I can sell card fronts on ebay for additional money. This is a popular thing right now and they go for fifty cents to a dollar each most of the time.

I'm excited and I'm sure I'll be posting more about this later on. Wish me luck!