Minneapolis/St. Paul Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
New independent consultant - thirtyone gifts....any tips?
I just became an independent consultant for thirtyonegifts. Anyone else an independent consultant for this company or another company? Wanted to know if you have any tips to help my business get started. Or is anyone interested in having a party? Thirtyonegifts is a christian based company that sells organizing products such as totes for a reasonable price!
Thanks ahead of time for any tips to help me make some extra money for my family 
Re: New independent consultant - thirtyone gifts....any tips?
FYI: The boards don't take kindly to people trying to sell products. Even masking it in a "have any tips?" tone probably isn't going to be met with open arms. The Nest has very strict rules about this.
Sorry. I really am looking for tips. Just trying to find out how others have found success with this type of "second job" as you see I didnt put any of my contact info in here. I am not looking to sell anything on this board. Im sorry - I dont usually post things and am not aware of the rules.
I am truly sorry for any confusion.
Maybe say, "Hey guys, I have an independent consultant type business, any tips?" Putting any specific product/business names out there and offering parties/sales is a no-no. There are ways to get help without crossing the vendor line. I would suggest deleting this whole post and trying again if you don't want to be reported.
For what it's worth, I have a 31 makeup bag from my MIL and I like it.
I sell 31 as well...but am getting out of it, I've been in it over a year and it was great when it was small but now they're all over the place and the home office is a disaster. They can't keep up with anything. I threw in the towel after my January show had only 25% of the product ordered actually ship. My hostess and guests were not very happy. The company over promises and under delivers. Just my .02 cents.
I'd take down your ad because it isn't allowed here.
I was in a reallllly good mood last night. Today...not so much. Reported, sorry.
That is kind of funny because I got my makeup bag delivered REALLY quickly and then about a week later I got a huge envelope from them holding one piece of paper that said, "Don't worry - your product will be shipping shortly!" Uh.....cart before the horse much?
yep that stuff is happening all the time. My last party they didn't even warn me that so much stuff wouldn't ship they just sent my hostess a whole bunch of gift cards and expected her and the guests to be happy about that...while making me look really bad because they are poor at communicating.
Did they just grow too big too fast? That is a good way to run your business into the ground. :-( My MIL hosted a party and e-mailed me at Christmas time to pick something off their website as part of my gift. I also got monogrammed note cards but seeing as I never write notes they might sit on my desk forever. :-)
I think Tastefully simple is the only consultant-based company that I would sell...but I'd probably eat everything that came my way so that could be a problem.
Yeah they just grew WAY too fast...they're on a "recruiting freeze" that starts today. The growth is great and happens when you have a nice product that hasn't reached many markets yet...but if you can't keep up with the demand then you've got major problems and that's what happened. They just started getting behind, and mixing orders up, and shipping BIG empty boxes with notes that said the item was backordered...
I can't handle the stress of three things right now either because the RE is picking up for the year and I am too busy to be working full time and doing RE and 31, especially when the last couple parties have gone south really fast with 31.
How come the living social post from a few days ago didn't have Sarah getting flamed. She was clearly trying to get people to buy something using her code so she could then get a massage for free. Nobody said anything then and that's against the nest's policy also.
What about the J.Crew dress post from this past weekend?
I don't have the personality for it, but TS, Mary Kay or other consumables would be the only companies I would sell. If you have something that is consumed and used then those customers have to keep coming back to reorder. I forget the name but that company that does wall words/sayings would be hard I think because you would constantly have to find new clients!
There is a huge difference between someone who is a representative of a company coming on here and trying to drum up business and someone who wants to sell one dress, or post one coupon code.
Surely you can appreciate the nuance between those?
Judging
I think the OP was a little over the "no vendors" line. It would have been better if the specific company wasn't mentioned, and there was no ask for people to host parties. The "do you have any tips" part didn't bother me too much.
I'm sure this is flame worthy but I'm going to say it anyway ...
Honestly ... to the OP ... if you want tips on how to make extra money for your family, here's my tip: get a job doing something other than being an in-home party sales consultant.
The people I know who do this (Mary Kay, Lia Sophia, Tastefully Simple, etc.) don't make all that much money doing it. They would probably be better off getting a side job in retail or food service or child care or something, the income would be more steady, that's for sure.
Plus, as a friend/family member of a few sales consultants, I find it annoying that their effort to make some extra money for their family obligates me to buy overpriced stuff from them and host parties for them when I don't even like the products they sell. If you need extra money, fine, get a job that doesn't depend on your family/friends buying stuff from you and/or hosting parties for you. It will cause strained relationships. Trust me.
Mr. Sammy Dog
I don't know...I think those wall decals are like tattoos. Once you get one you can't stop. I've seen a house with a dozen of them before. Every room had one! I personally think they are tacky as can be but to each their own.
And ditto Melinda.
Plus, we do give people crap who post multiple coupon codes, etc.
Why is this post even still here? At least three of us have reported it. What the heck Nest?
Judging
So what about aimkins? She has it in her sig, and a link to her TS blog (which links to her TS page, etc.) Why hasn't she been reported/banned? I'm genuinely curious. I had always 'heard' that The Nest didn't really care about vendors.
Eat.Drink.BeMarried. Blog.
Again, I think it's about nuances. I've never noticed the link in her signature, which goes to show she is not pushing it down anyone's throat. The Nest can ban or remove whatever posts they want, but I think as a board we typically only report those posts that are over the top. This one borders on that. She is specifically soliciting business. That is quite different from someone recommending her or having a link in her signature.
So, it's a little bit like the honor system. If we chose to ignore the vendor-ish posts, eventually that's all this board would be. But if someone who we clearly know is not here ONLY for that purpose, it's not a big deal to know that they have an outside business.
Judging
I don't think that I've ever crossed any lines. I'm not here begging for parties or new customers. I did have someone contact me about ordering, but I've always spoken to her via private messages. I don't have a link to my website either. I recently updated it after the first of Feb only because the special I talked about previously is no longer.
I assume if I am violating rules, the board moderator or TN will contact me. Nobody has ever had a problem with it in my sig before. I really didn't think I was offensive about it. I'm sorry that it's bothered you.
I don't have a TS blog. I think at one point I linked to my TS webpage but I think that was only for a short time.
Because it's one line in her signature...most people don't even notice it. If she were creating posts "selling" her product or services people would take issue. She has it in her signature and IF someone happens to even notice that, then they can contact her directly for it. I don't really take issue to that, I do take issue with the blatant posting of solicitation of services.
I didn't say you had crossed lines, nor did I mention it bothered me. I was just using you as an example, because I had noticed your advertising in your sig a few times. I said I was genuinely curious what's considered 'across the line' and what isn't.
You're right, you don't have a TS blog. You have a cooking blog, which does link to your TS. I guess I was just looking at it from more of a TK standpoint, because they're so strict about vendors on The Knot. Linking to something that links to your business will get you banned.
Like I said, just wondering.
Eat.Drink.BeMarried. Blog.
Okay, I can admit when I am wrong and I will say that I swear I read her post a couple times and must have skimmed or completely missed that line each time. No clue how I did that!
I agree with you here Melinda, that is a solicitation.
It seems like we also agree that we don't like when people post codes or links which them earns them things when others use them to buy items (Groupon, Living Social, etc...).
A Little Bird and a Monkey Butt
The worst was a PureRomance party I went to once. I had no idea what I was getting into when I went. (It was maaaany moons ago when I was much more naive and innocent, hah. My roommate at the time invited me.) Each party attendee had an order form already filled out with names and addresses so they would know if you ordered nothing. Ugh. I didn't want anything she pulled out of her trunk but ended up with disgusting smelling massage oil because I felt bad and it was relatively cheap. It was the cheapest and most prudish thing she sold. :-)
It was funny though because one of the party attendees had been tailgating basically since the night before so she ended up with 3 very expensive toys and was probably confused when she got her next Visa bill. :-)
This is a vendor post.Someone who has 153 posts, even if they're on a bump board knows that, and shouldn't have posted this.
Living social posts annoy the crap out of me. Get friends, and ask them to use your code. Most of us here know what living social/groupon/etc is, so we don't need internet strangers to tell us what it is. Stop posting stuff asking us to make you money. We've had this discussion before, and I still think it's rude.
I believe the signatures are allowed per the Nest TOS, if not, she should take it out. Vendor posts are not allowed therefore, this post should have been removed already.
I think I'm crabby today and am channeling my knot-self from days of yore.
Let 'er rip - it livens things up!! :-)
I hate the groupon on things too. We've reached neutral ground on TK though. Post them as PSA's, but don't post your little referral link and I don't care.
Eat.Drink.BeMarried. Blog.
It's a really fine line and not very well defined, unfortunately. TK is much more hard core in laying down the law on some of the vendor-ish posts because it's geared to the wedding industry and they only want to see products and services offered in the form of paid advertisement on their site.
I'm more bothered by the people who have just a couple of posts to their login name and then come and blatantly post about their product, service, or business. That's just spam and it's annoying. The rest of it; links in sigs, talking about home businesses and careers, Groupons (of personal links or not), people who have blogs with advertisers, people who have something personal they want to sell ---- meh. It's frowned upon, but I'm not sure I agree with that. I guess if you don't want to see a post about something of that nature, don't open it. I would practice this myself, but I still have to open them to make sure they're following the rules or I mark them for deletion by the Nest Gods. This particular post could go either way and is one of many that I see everyday on the Mod Board, where we go ask for an opinion by the superiors on whether it should be deleted.
Just my $0.02.
Wow. I'm really sorry. I really didn't mean to offend or annoy anyone. I truly thought that was a great deal and wanted to share. I'd seen others post similar things and didn't notice anyone have a problem with it. In fact, it looked like some people actually DID appreciate and buy with the referral code posted. I wasn't pushing the deal so I could get it free... I was "pushing" (if you want to call it that) because I thought it was a good deal, I bought one and was excited and wanted to share.
I won't do it again. I really am sorry.