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To become a Stampin' Up Demonstrator, you will need to purchase the starter kit for $199 - it has stamp sets and other accessories that are worth something like $380 or more. It is a really good deal.
Then every quarter, you will need to purchase/sell $300. That is it. It is not hard. I have been a demo since April 2003. Now I joined to make a little money for my "habit" and it has worked out really well for me.
If you don't want to maintain your quarterly minimum, you will be dropped and it is not a big deal, either.
Your first order as a demo, is 30% off. That is a great deal too. I have one recruit that basically signed up for the 30% off first order and she is not sure she will continue or not!!
I have seen alot of posts regarding this matter. There are alot of people who sign up just for the discount and specials only demos can get. The only important thing to remeber is that you MUST meet your $300 minimum every quarter (every 3 months) in order to stay as an active demo. You can achieve this amount when you place a customer, hostess and demonstrator order. All of these orders count toward your minimum. The only order that does not count is a supply order. If you have anymore questions, you can pm me.
Oh it is SO WORTH IT! I basically did this also and that was going on 6 years ago. I just did not want to "sell" anything and had never had a "Party"of any kind and did not want to. Well, at first I did it for myself and then I did a few things for my upline that she couldn't do and then it all started happening. But I don't "make" it happen. I just love to stamp. What do you have to loose? At the most you will be a demo for a while and then go into pending status, which means you have not made your minimum, and then you will no longer be a demo! No biggie! But you may be like me and never want to quit. Now there are times when I just am busy and don't want to do anything...and I don't! But I have never had a quarter when I had to place the minimum order so I wasn't in pending.
I so totally did not want to sell to anyone...and I have people under me who do not sell to anyone. People ask me if they can be a demonstrator...that is how I have gotten a downline! Maybe you have a friend who is into it too and she places an order every so often and there you have it!
Good luck! I have never known anyone who regretted it...I wonder if there is anyone who ever did!
Of course alot of people join up to just get the discount. All you have to do is spend $100 a month. You can spread the $300 per quarter around however you want. $50 here, $20 here. It doesn't matter as long as you order $300 during that quarter. (Jan-Mar, April-Jun, July-Sept, Oct-Dec) The great thing is that you can really extend it out. You can sign up in Jan, (someone correct me if I'm wrong) and place your order and get a nice 30% discount. I'm not sure if you have to have $300 your first quarter or not, that is something you should confirm with your demo. But, say you do, then you can order $300 in Jan and not have to order anymore until June. In June place your $300 order and you are good again until Sept. It's great. I hardly do anything right now. I am going to start running it like a business after the new year. But for the last year, I've had a stampers club going that keeps my minimum met and gets me my stuff free. I have had 5 stampers in my group. We meet once a month and they are required to make a $25 minimum purchase. It works out great, I collect at least $145.75 and I owe SU 144.90. I get 25 in free stuff. January, I will have 6.
Take the plunge. You get so many extras from SU. It's a great company to work with. If you feel like you are done.... just don't order. You will simply go inactive and no one will come beating down your door.
__________________ Angie
Mother of three wonderful children (Brayton-17 months, Brianna- 5 & Kyle-eight) and one grown man (my DH).
I'd say go for it!!
The worst possible thing that happens is you don't meet your quota (I usually go WAY over the quota and I'm not doing workshops right now, just clubs) or just don't like it. You'll get a lot of great perks just for signing up.
I signed up in march for just that reason. I want the discount. Its easy to meet the quota. I had my first open house and sold about $200. at it. It was fun a few friends came over and played. I would give it a try. I love SU. If you have any question I will help if I can.
Teresa
Sandybeach,
The only thing I've not seen listed in the reply posts is: that if you decide you don't want to make the minimums and quit selling, then after you have gone through pending status and not reactivated, you have to wait three months and purchase another starter kit if you decide you want to be an active demonstrator again. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.)
[quote="laurelwright"]Oh it is SO WORTH IT! I basically did this also and that was going on 6 years ago. I just did not want to "sell" anything and had never had a "Party"of any kind and did not want to.
This is the experience I'm having too and just had the quarter of my life with orders dropping in my lap! So I would agree with all the other gals to go for it and have fun.
My two cents.
__________________ Katey
Wish I were stamping by the Northern Lights!
I am signing up just for the discount for at least the first 6 months but if a party or two comes up I will do it If worse comes to worse I will do like my demo did to meet her quarterly quota she offered the stamps with her 20% off them just to get her minimum. Most people will bite and buy stamps if that is offered anyway, we all have or are going to bite!! ;)
I was a demo from 99 - 01. One comment I will make that no one has mentioned is that the income is taxable. You will also need to keep up with all your receipts, mileage, all those business expense items. I have a great CPA who handled this for me but we joked that between the added cost for preparing taxes (due to extra forms) and the because the income caused me to jump a tax bracket I received signficantly less of a tax refund 2 of the 3 years. I will say that I only did about about $400 a quarter so maybe if I had really persued the sales it would have been more profitable.
I read about all the great benefits now and am so tempted to sign back up but I want to wait until I can put in the time it takes to make a profit this go around. Good luck to all the people signing up in January!
I agree with Kar. The discount is worth it. I have been thinking about taking the plunge and Saturday at my work's Christmas party I got a bonus that covers the starter kit. DH first words out of his mouth when I opened it were, "Now you can get the kit".
I told my demo that I am going to join Jan 1. I plan on buying myself and offering the discount to my family to get my minimum in each quarter. But if I don't meet it I haven't lost anything while I was getting the discount.
lashwell said something about taxes. Does anyone know if you have to do this if you are just a hobby demo? Last year I spent more than I made. I asked my tax preparer about it and she said that if I did it as a hobby and didn't MAKE money, then I didn't have to file. If any accountants or tax smart people are out there, this would be a great point to find out if you are just signing up as a hobby demo. Although I would try to keep good records anyways, just in case 3 months later you love it and want to make it a business.
__________________ Angie
Mother of three wonderful children (Brayton-17 months, Brianna- 5 & Kyle-eight) and one grown man (my DH).
lashwell said something about taxes. Does anyone know if you have to do this if you are just a hobby demo?
I'm not an accountant, but Stampin Up reports your "income", whatever it is based on instant income and volume rebate, to the IRS. You have to remember SU doen't distinguish between hobby demos and those in it as a legit business so they report everyone's income to the IRS. You then need to account for that income, as well as FICA and Medicare taxes, on your tax return. The IRS spot checks and cross references the info reported by Stampin Up and that claimed on tax returns. When it finds a discrepancy can you say AUDIT??? :shock: :? You have 3 years to show a profit, though I'm not sure what happens if you don't. I can't remember from my parents craft business. I think it involves paying a penalty on top of the taxes making you hobby even more expensive!
It's the tax implications that made me NOT sign up as a hobby demo. I don't itemize so the expense of an accountant and having to have help preparing my taxes aren't worth the discount. Plus my demo would loose her best customer and I wouldn't want to be responsible for a decrease in someone elses income
Thanks for responding to that. I think that without even counting my mileage, my space (I have a room set up just for stamping) and all the things that I've bought from other sources (like legal pads for a stamp camp, hersheys kisses to fill a bag, you know, stuff like that) I think that without even counting that, I will still show a loss. But at this point, the loss will probably be enough to make up for the extra cost. We itemize anywaysI'd probably get money back from it.
__________________ Angie
Mother of three wonderful children (Brayton-17 months, Brianna- 5 & Kyle-eight) and one grown man (my DH).
Ok, maybe you 'get' this, or perhaps I'm reiterating what someone else said, but you have the entire quarter to place your $300. What this means is that you could place order for $300 in Jan (1st quarter), and not be required to turn in your next $300 until the end of June (2nd quarter).
If you are doing this only for your personal orders, perhaps spending the $300 will be a breeze for you. If not, just wanted to let you know you actually have an entire quarter to spend your amount. Don't mean to be too simplified.
Also, if for some reason you don't make your quarterly minimum, then the next month you go on pending status. You can still make up your $300 that month, but also must place an additional $100. (I guess to show you are making the effort to continue on.)
From SU site: (Stampin’ Up! does not issue 1099s for the instant income or volume rebate portion of demonstrator income. You will need to keep your own records to determine the applicable local, state, and federal income taxes on instant income and volume rebates. 1099 forms will be issued for a demonstrator’s override commissions, prizes, awards, etc., in the amount of $600 or more a year)
So, I take that to read that a hobby demo who only places the minimum to stay active probably does not have to report anything. Their costs of buying stamps and supplies for themselves would more than out weigh any income from volume rebates which would be minimal.
SU would not be issuing 1099's to the IRS which would certainly not make it a reportable "buisness".
Someone correct me if I am misreading or not understanding this right.
Sammie
You could always have stamp clubs with your friends and family and then take advantage of the discount for yourself to meet your monthly / quarterly goals !!!
ummm questionS abt becoming demo (not)
