Pyramid Schmyramid!

In response to 'Why You Can F*ck Off With Your Pyramid Scheme' by Caroline Duncan posted on 16th June 2016 on stayathomemum.com.au : https://www.stayathomemum.com.au/work-at-home-idea...

So I’ve taken a few hours off from counting my cash, preying on unsuspecting stay at home mums and force-feeding my cult like business down the throats of my nearest and dearest to pen a response to Caroline Duncan.

You see I am the devil incarnate in Caroline’s eyes. In 2008 I started a party plan business called April Nites. When I started this business, far from being the greedy scam artist that Caroline would have you believe me to be, I was in fact a young newly married woman with a dream of a better life.

Now I am a thirty something mother of two who gives hundreds of women across Australia the opportunity to earn extra money every single weekend. Not from selling a pyramid but from selling juicy, delicious, lovely sex toys! Toys that empower women not just from their use but from the money they make selling them. I give these ladies a ready-made business opportunity and all I ask is that they purchase (at cost price) the items that they demo at parties.

What really seems to have offended the lovely Caroline is that sometimes we party planners (or demon offspring) sell to our family and friends. She doesn't like this. She believes strongly that instead of buying these products from someone you know and love you should buy them from the local Target. She believes the only people getting rich in party plan are those at the top whereas every dollar you spend in Target goes directly into the hands of the people. The average Joe making $25 an hour ringing up your lovely anonymous purchases!

Another pesky part of our industry that has really got Caroline's goat is the fact that we offer our consultants a percentage of their new recruits sales. She seems to picture an army of Dr Evils cackling manically as their demonic minions do their biding and rake in all that lovely money. The truth is a lot more mundane. We pay our consultants a percentage of sales as they are our form of advertising. It's how we spread the word about our business because unlike the multi-national corporations that Caroline loves so much we don't have million dollar advertising budgets. In our business those who recruit only make a percentage of sales when they take on the task of managing the team. They work hard for that percentage and as such when their team performs we reward them. Bizarre concept I know but that's party plan for you.

Don't get me wrong party plan is not easy money. I am not trying to convert you to my subversive religion! But it is a very valid way to make money, particularly in a world that is changing. Caroline tells you that women cannot afford to go back to work because of the cost of childcare yet she will turn her nose up at a mum earning a couple of hundred dollars a night for a few hours work in the evening. Outside of taking your clothes off for a living (not that I would judge anyone if they did) I don't know anywhere else that offers the same money and flexibility. No doubt Caroline would prefer you sign up for stocking shelves at night for a minimum wage.

I understand Caroline wanting to write a balanced article warning SAHM's of the danger of some pyramid schemes but sadly that's not what she did. She would have you believe that your biggest fear should be being sucked into a pyramid scheme but far more dangerous in my view is people whose opinions far outweigh any real knowledge being given free rein spread their viewpoints as truth to millions of people online.

I wrote this to stand up for the many mums and ladies across the country who are wise enough to see that making money does not always have to come from traditional business models, nor do they need to believe they deserve nothing better than being a small cog in a big machine. I wrote this to stand up for the millions of stay at home mums that are using party plan to stay at home longer with their children. The very mums Caroline purports to support.

Caroline accuses us of shoving our products down her throat but from the tone of her article whilst that may gave me great pleasure it's not where she needs them most. ;-)