After Heidi Van Veldhuizen quit a sales job four years ago to help her mother dying of cancer, she gradually assumed the roles of wife and full-time mother of four.
“But there had to be more to my day than a loaf of banana bread,” she says, and six months ago she began to investigate multi-level, home-based direct sales.
Van Veldhuizen went well beyond inquiring about a single product or company she might want to get involved in herself. Through the Internet and by phone, she sought to understand “what is this world all about?”
Could people really start businesses for less than $200 and make money as independent contractors selling goods and services to friends and acquaintances, and persuade those customers to become distributors in their own right?
She found “you did not have to stock your garage with inventory. You did not have to host house parties every week,” and the industry is loaded with people who were enthusiastic about the products they sold.
Van Veldhuizen also figured businesses that relied on networking to succeed would flock to a networking event. She organized the first Direct Selling Expo on April 9 at the Sioux Falls Convention Center.
About 35 vendors, most from Sioux Falls but from as far as North Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota, set up booths advertising their products and business opportunities.
“In this industry, you can find something you can get behind,” Van Veldhuizen said. A ballroom was filled with vendors advertising books, nutritional products, kitchenware, pre-paid legal services, travel, jewelry and other goods.
Logo from the Direct Selling Expo
No comments yet.