My wife has done Pampered Chef and Stampin Up - and was actually pretty successful but she never did it to make $ per se, she loved the products and wanted the discount on them. She would host parties but she hated to try to get others into the business, it was just for her to get products for her kitchen and she really got into scrapbooking at one point. I would guess there are many, especially in the oils who probably sign up as distributors to get the bigger discount.