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Mary Kay consultations, Tupperware parties--God bless 'em.Some multilevel marketing companies will always have a high kitschrating. (C'mon--mini Tupperware bowls on a key chain?) Butthanks to Dottie Gruhler's Web-based party venue, The PartyProject, direct selling can move out of the '50s and into thefuture.
The 33-year-old Webmaster of an online women's community andan affiliate program partner is no stranger to how average Joes andJanes use the Internet. As a member of Mom's Network Exchange(thepartyproject.com's host server), Gruhler noticed anincreasing number of women offering catalogs or touting waresonline. "They were attempting to expand their businesses butdidn't exactly have the avenue to do it," she says."That's how [The Party Project] came to be: to give them aplace to show their products, have an online order form and notjust give people a catalog to look at but the [chance] to shop andtalk to the seller."
Luckily, Gruhler's knack for coding and her Frederick,Maryland, home computer let her provide a solution for less than$500 in start-up costs. Fifty dollars each month go to chattechnology provider ChatSpace (look, Ma--free plug), which hadGruhler's service up and running less than 24 hours after shefirst e-mailed for information last November. With ChatSpace'shelp, Gruhler can offer sales party hosts a framed environment,with a chat on one side and pictures of products on the other, for$25.99. Options are extensive: There's music, party games with"door prizes," ordering capabilities--you name it.
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