#DirectSellingIs

The New Normal

The 9 to 5, office cubicles, dress codes, and 40-hour work weeks are so yesterday – obsolete legacies of the Industrial Revolution. But just as the industrial age has run its course, so too has the traditional definition of work.

Welcome to the New Normal.

In the Information Era, technology isn’t just disrupting companies, services, and even entire sectors – it’s re-shaping the way we work.

Rigid schedules are being replaced by flexible work arrangements. Gone are the daily grind and climbing the corporate ladder. Instead, today’s workers co-work, have side hustles, and seek purpose over profit. Start talking about careers and you’ll likely be met by blank stares. Propose a gig, and now you’re talking the language of the New Normal. This is the Gig Economy after all.

Gig Economy: noun [ C usually singular ] uk /ˈɡɪɡ ɪˌkɒn.ə.mi/ us /ˈɡɪɡ ɪˌkɑː.nə.mi/ informal. a way of working that is based on people having temporary jobs or doing separate pieces of work, each paid separately, rather than working for an employer: Workers eke out a living in the gig economy, doing odd jobs whenever they can.

^{Source: Cambridge Dictionary}

Old Way

New Way

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Career, jobs with paycheck

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Portfolio careers, various earning opportunities

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Corner Office

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Laptop on the knees and co-working spaces

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Live to work

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Work to live

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9 to 5

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Anytime

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Entrepreneurs

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Solopreneurs

The Original Gig

Want in on a little secret? Regardless of what the headlines say, the Gig Economy isn’t new. Sure, we may not have called these jobs ‘gigs’, but the idea of being your own boss, working from home and making some money on the side has been around for decades. It’s called Direct Selling.

In a sense, Direct Selling is the original gig.

It’s a gig that attracts entrepreneurial-minded individuals who value independence but want a business model with low start-up costs and little overhead. Affiliating with a company, direct sellers work on their own – building their business on their time and their terms.

Direct Selling is also social selling. To succeed, direct sellers rely on strong personal relationships with their customers - a strategy built through face-to-face interactions, product demonstrations, word-of-mouth and social media.

As the Original Gig, Direct Selling offers people of all backgrounds an opportunity to achieve personal fulfillment, financial independence, and empowerment through entrepreneurship and social retail. But unlike some of the newest gigs, Direct Selling offers the stability and access that only an established, reliable industry can offer.

By leveraging its history while embracing such new opportunities as social media and digital technology, Direct Selling is the standard bearer of the New Normal of work.

Benefits to Europe

Technology, demographics and globalisation are amongst the most significant forces transforming the nature and role of work. Whereas in Europe the vast majority of workers are employed in full-time, traditional jobs, this is changing.

For example, in 2016, 39% of the employed population in the EU were self-employed or engaged in some for of non-standard employment. Furthermore, approximately 17% of EU workers engage in mobile work on a regular basis, and up to 5% of EU adults have at some point participated in the so-called sharing economy.

Add these numbers together and what becomes clear is that the future of Europe is in the Gig Economy.

As the original gig, Direct Selling is well-positioned to help Europe serve the needs of its New Normal.
That’s because Direct Selling’s values are Europe’s values.

^{Sources:
Eurostat}
^{EC, Future of Work, Future of Society}

For some, Direct Selling is extra income. For others, it’s the ability to achieve the right work-life balance. Direct Selling is the opportunity to work from home, from a cafe or a coworking center. For all direct sellers, Direct Selling is the chance to design their own lifestyle.

Direct Selling has shattered the glass ceiling. Thanks to our fair, flexible and low-cost approach to starting a business, Direct Selling has replaced barriers and failure with opportunities and success.

Nevertheless, as in any business, Direct Selling rewards those who are committed to their work.

Whether for a new mom, a recent retiree or a student looking to bring in some extra money, Direct Selling Is... Independence.

Thanks to the in-depth training and ongoing mentorship that Direct Selling provides, our sellers benefit from learning valuable business skills that can be transferred to other opportunities.

In fact, 1 in 5 people join Direct Selling for the specific purpose of developing entrepreneurial skills. Put together, Direct Selling is responsible for helping upskill millions of European workers!

Direct Selling brings people together in a community - a rare trait in today’s increasingly impersonal business world. While our sector has embraced the digital realm, we continue to find that our biggest successes come from personal relationships and face-to-face interactions.

Our social side isn’t just good for sales - it’s good for our people too. 1 in 3 direct sellers cite the chance to meet new people as their primary motivation for becoming involved in Direct Selling. Furthermore, Direct Selling serves as a social glue in both rural and urban areas, offering a flexible and personal alternative to busy shopping centres and intangible internet stores.