Side hustle: Single mum makes £2,600 a month from the comfort of her own home | Personal Finance | Finance
Kelly Quick is a full-time independent direct seller and makes around £2,600 a month.
The 43-year-old started direct selling in November 2020 as a side-hustle to top up her main income from her call centre job.
After a couple of years, the income from direct selling was so successful that it allowed her to reduce the hours she was doing.
By January 2022 she stopped this completely and direct selling became her sole income.
“I was earning enough to support my family,” she said.
Kelly sells JuicePlus+ products – a range of plant-based nutritional supplements.
She started using the JuicePlus+ products to support her own health and wellbeing.
After seeing the positive changes in her life, her friends and family wanted to share the benefits, so she first started to sell the products to them and that’s how she built her confidence for the side hustle.
Kelly said: “As a single parent, the additional income is really helpful. It all came at a time when the impact of the rising cost of living was taking hold, so it helped me afford those monthly increases.
“On average, I earn between £1,700 and £2,600 a month. After I had my daughter, I changed my line of work and chose a job working in a call centre that was less pressured and less money but allowed me to work around family life better.
“But the downside was that I went from having an amazing disposable income to not having this, which I found hard. Now, with direct selling, I can earn good money and work it all around my daughter.
“Since becoming a single parent my goal has been to become financially independent. My work in direct selling is enabling me to do that and now my goal is to plan for my daughter and I’s future. I want to get a mortgage for us and start pension planning.”
Direct selling is so flexible, so people can do bits of work in the pockets of time.
For example, when Kelly’s daughter is in her drama class, she can be making a sale. She tries to do her work first thing before her daughter wakes up and then during work school hours and past bedtime.
She concluded: “Being a single parent comes with financial pressure, but I know that with direct selling, you earn what you put in and I love what I do.
“I am earning money talking about products I love! I am in control of the hours I put into this, and it fits seamlessly into my life so I would definitely recommend this work to others.”
New data from retail trade body the Direct Selling Association has shown a significant increase in the average earnings being made by the UK’s ‘army’ of side hustlers working for brands such as Avon, Ann Summers and The Body Shop.
In 2021, those working in direct selling earned an average of £481 per month, whereas new data shows that in 2023, the figure has increased to £833, It is thought to be the largest jump in earnings in the sector in over a decade.
Susannah Schofield OBE, Director General of the Direct Selling Association said: “Increasingly people are opting for this style of earning as a way to generate a more significant income but on a highly flexible basis, with significant numbers of people joining since the start of the COL crisis.
“A new generation of driven career-women are professionalising direct selling, building successful micro-businesses on terms that work for them, whether that be around children, or other commitments and interests.
“As the cost of living continues to rise, direct selling is proving to be a key option for individuals taking control of their financial future in a flexible way that works for them.”