When Shannon Bambara was laid off earlier this year, she polished her silver and her sales pitch. She became a direct seller with a jewelry company called Silpada Designs, selling their products at house parties, then taking a cut of the proceeds.
"An average Silpada party retails about $950, which means I take home 30 percent of that, which would be around $285. And typically, that's only in a two-hour period," Bambara said. History has shown that in bad economic times, more and more turn to home parties as a way to fill in the income void.
