By Ukrainian Forces last month. Now on bbc news The Dark Side of direct sales. The world of door to door sales and selling on the street has been rebooted for the social media age. Young people are being promised big money, glam work trips abroad and the chance to work with some of the biggest brands in the uk. But the reality can be very different. Im lora jones and, for the past year, ive been investigating The Dark Side of the direct sales industry. Are young people chasing a dream they can never achieve . Just, like, chews you up and spits you out. I probably blew about £2,000 in, like, road trips and stuff. Wow and i dont think i made that in the whole three months i was there. Cant afford shampoo. You were trying so hard to project a kind of wolf of wall street image. I dont want to sound dramatic but it was like selling your soul. And could direct Sales Companies be breaking the law . Im speechless. If they were here right now,. I would ask them what on earth they think theyre up to. So, at this point in the day, im going to explain what you can expect to be doing in the business, essentially. Youre learning the very basic skills. And a girl like me. Sales, you get marketing. Making money like me. Time management, teamwork. High roll like me, making money like me, taking over like me. Taking over like me on average, youre looking at £350 to £400 a week as your starting pay. Once youve done a certain amount of sales, youre doing things like recruitment, training, running road trips, basically building your own little empire, essentially. Finally, when youre ready, ownership. Now, generally, this whole process takes about 12 months, on average. At this stage, you are the master of your own destiny. Money wise, the owner has told me how much he made in the last 12 months, but im sure youll appreciate, im not at liberty to discuss what he makes. I can tell you its a decent wedge of money. I mean, be honest with me. What do you think of the business as a whole . And that is how you recruit 100 people in a year. There you go. Has he got you hooked yet . Thats the spiel matt would give potential recruits for the direct Sales Company he worked for. If you accepted the job, this is what your daily Morning Meeting might look like. Atmosphere is where you go, every morning, before you go to the field, the field being the venue. So essentially getting you pumped up to sell. Cheering. They put the music on really loud, so you have to shout, you have to project your voice. Youre in a circle and they go, like, high rollers, youll be making, like, 5100 £100 duh duh duh then you go round and you high five. Whistling and cheering. It was like a party. People would be dancing. My Managing Director would come in. She would start dancing. It was weird. Indistinct chanting. You basically want to test people and see if they can survive that atmosphere. If theyre like a deer in the headlights, you knew they werent going to last. One look at socials and it seems like the industry has had a face lift. Direct sales has been around for decades. Its a way of selling to customers away from physical shops, so door to door sales or chugging. And its ramped up in the last few years. More peoplejoined during covid, when Thejob Market was looking a bit uncertain. Its now worth £2. 6 billion a year in the uk. All these Different Companies are popping up on my phone. It looks like some direct Sales Offices arejumping on the popularity of Hustle Culture and this rise and grind mentality. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and youd be an idiot to let it pass you by. Ive networked in toilets at 7 00 in the morning, while meetings are going on. Ive networked at midnight. Ive networked in clubs, in bars, in pubs. Its just one of those things that you do consistently a nd co nsta ntly. Initially, the culture and the promise of running his own business was something that really grabbed matt as a young grad in newcastle, back in 2018. It was described as sales and marketing, so kind of as a junior executive type thing, in very quick progression, lots of opportunities to advance. So they said within two weeks then i could expect to make £400 to £500 a week consistently. And then they said within three months as assistant manager, i could expect £1,000 a week. And then within three to nine months after that, six figures a year as the owner and manager of my own company. You know, thats more money than any graduate scheme at the time. I was hooked, i was all in. Lauren started work at a different direct Sales Company in london in late 2020, for a month, when she wasjust 18. I was bartending in shoreditch, and i quit. I didnt quit, they let me go because of covid. I think it was going into the second lockdown. So i was applying to other jobs, and the person who interviewed me, she was the manager of the company, she said, what are your goals that youd want to achieve . And i said, well, id love to retire my mum. Id love to be able to drive a nice car and just to travel, you know, she wasjust like, well, we can do that. Thats so easy, just give, i remember she said that, give100 at all times and you will get to your goals. How would you describe that moment when the penny dropped, that you were going to be standing on the street selling . It was an, oh it was, it was just an oh, my god moment. And ive always said i wouldnt be one of those people, i couldnt do that for a job. And also it wasnt it wasnt what it was described to me as. But lauren and matt chose to stick it out, driven by the idea of becoming entrepreneurs. She was selling it, selling it like it was like a dream job. And she just said, if you put in the work, you wont even be on the doors for long. Its a lifestyle thats sold to you, and its that kind of instagram lifestyle of entrepreneur, grafter, hard work, etc, etc. That wolf of wall street mentality, you know, weve all seen that movie. Everyone who came into that industry loved that movie, so you had to create the illusion of success. If you were a guy, then you had to wear suit, tie, dress shoes all the time. We were told, dont smoke roll ups proper cigarettes only. Make sure your car was clean, hair, beard. I had a man bun when i first started and i got taken to one side and was like, thats not ownership material. Money i mean, we all want to get rich, right . J yeah. Thats why were all here, i were all wearing nice suits at 8 00 in the morning. They would really talk down on people that had normal jobs and normal lives, you know, if you had a nine to five, you were seen as less than if because theyjust made you feel as if those kind of people do not want to be successful. Some direct Sales Companies ive investigated take part in whats known as super challenge friday. Dont make as many sales as your colleague . There could be consequences. Once, stupidly, id been there about three months and theres this guy and he goes, right, im going to do more sales than you and im going to have your topknot. And obviously everyone laughed and i was like, yeah, yeah, thats fine, whatever. Thinking i couldnt possibly, it was so arrogant of me, so egotistical to think i couldnt lose to this person. And then i did, and the top knot came off. That same day, someone got slapped in the face with a fish. Loads of people ate loads of Chilli Powder and cinnamon of an evening, like in the atmosphere. You realise its weird, but because youre in that bubble, it normalises itself. On the surface, it might look like harmless fun, but is that really the case . Is all of this Positivity Masking something a lot more toxic . I went to scotland to meet someone who thought exactly that. Robbie, hey. You all right . Good, its nice to meet you. Pleased to meet you, too. Robbie joined a direct sales firm in glasgow, injune, 2019. In the seven months he was there, he was really successful, bringing in about £700 a week, selling mostly betting products. But it came at a price. By the end it was like, it was pretty grim. Like, exhausted is the best word for it. Youre so, like, down and youre like, i can do this, but youre like, its all going wrong. I havent been to scouts, you dont see your friends because you work six days a week. I dont go to the football on The Saturdays any more. And when youre told you can work five days, whatever days you want, but youre forced to work six, 1a hours and stuff like that. Its crazy, itjust, like, chews you up and spits you out. Working long hours is something molly can relate to. Shes now a make up artist, but was at a direct sales firm in sheffield for three months, in 2018. She says she worked around 80 hour weeks and often had to fund road trips to sell in other cities. What would you say you earned on average, then, week to week . £100. Erm, and i was working six days a week and that barely covered my train fares. And for the majority of my time at the company, because i know in comparison to a lot of people, i wasnt there that long, i still probably blew about £2,000 in, like, road trips and stuff. Wow . And i dont think i made that in the whole three months i was there. Molly told me that she ended up Borrowing Thousands from herfamily. I think i was really selling them the dream that i was sold, and saying, its only going to be like, a week, or ill make this back in a month, you know, youll have your money back and ill be paying for your life. Ill be buying you all the nice stuff, finally. And its four years later and still havent paid them back. So my leader, one time he pulled me aside and he said, mate, what the eff, you know, your hair looks like. You look like garbage, basically. And ijust burst out crying and he was like, why are you crying . I went, i cant afford shampoo and i cant afford hair gel. So id had to use, like, hand soap to try and make it look decent because i couldnt afford it, i didnt have the money for it. I was maxed out on credit card, loan was gone, overdraft was gone, i was absolutely skint. In the year he was there, matt says he only made £7,900, which isnt enough to live off. The drive to make money pushed some people to extreme lengths. So, my first day i was put with my leader and she just started running and i remember feeling super confused. Running . Like, just running. Actually running . Like physically running from each door to door. And i remember saying, why are you running . Shejust said, we have to run because the plan is, when you do it, 100 doors equals four sales, and you cant be on a door for longer than three seconds. So youre running for eight hours, no lunch breaks. And i remember midway through, i said to her, when do we eat . When do we go to the toilet . She said, i dont tend to take breaks because, like, im missing sell time. I came into the office limping because my feet were swollen, like, my actual feet were swollen from all the consistent running that i was doing for, like, three days straight. And i wasjust in so much pain, and i had started my period. Cramps were times a thousand, legs were swollen, back was killing me, but i still went in, and the plan was for me to change on the train. But the company lauren worked for didnt tell them where they were going in advance. She was sent on the tube and couldnt find a toilet. Ive had an accident and i can feel it. And im like begging, like, please find somewhere for me to change. I couldnt find anywhere that we could go. I wasnt allowed to go on my phone. My team leader, he said to me, fine, ill take you somewhere. So he finally took me somewhere to change. He was just being so rude to me, he said, youre not giving 100 . Do you even want this . Do you want to retire your mum . Do you want to live this life . Your period cant stop you from doing that. And i said, its notjust my period. My feet are swollen. Like, i have blisters. He said, excuses, excuses. To be denied something so basic, like lauren was, going to the toilet, its really shocking. And the more i hear about this industry, the more im questioning, why would somebody want to stay . Theres a word that keeps cropping up in a lot of the conversations im having. It was very cult like. Like, they would worship my Managing Director. I remember one day, i literally was on our way, i said, oh, my god, its cold today. And theyre like, why would you Say Something like that . I was like, what do you mean . Im just stating the weather. And they were like, we dont complain about things we cant control here. I was so, so scared of failing and letting everybody down. It was so hard to be able to think that this is toxic. This isnt how it should be. I was brainwashed, essentially. Its very. Culty, you know. What is it exactly that makes you feel like it was cult like . Because its so prescriptive, and they use such personal things against you if you disagree. You know, youve got people who are exhausted, not eating properly, probably dont have that much money, and youre saying we have all the answers if you do these very specific things. By the way, if you dont do these specific things, you will not hit your goals and achieve your dreams. A lot of these stories sound pretty similar, from the dreams theyre being sold to the reality of the job. Ive been collecting evidence for the last year and ive spoken to more than a0 people across the country about their time in the direct sales industry. Lots of these people work for different sales firms but the set up is really similar. If you want to get promoted, you not only have to do the sales but you have to recruit people underneath you who can hit those sales targets, too. Once you reach a certain level, you start getting a cut of what they have sold as well. So, while its not exactly a multi Level Marketing scheme, there are some similarities. Something ive discovered that links a lot of these companies . A business called credico. Its one of the biggest players in the direct sales industry. Its a company that essentially acts like a middleman. It contracts smaller Sales Companies who get their recruits to go out and sell on the streets on behalf of its clients, like talktalk or shell energy. It was originally set up in North America and it says its linked Sales Companies have a network of 15,000 agents. With more than 100 Sales Companies in the uk network, the owners have usually started out as salespeople themselves and worked their way up through the system. But it looks like there can be strings attached. Im looking at documents about a recent Court Case Involving credico, and this says they choose the accountants that you have to use if youre an office owner, they pay the commissions to the salespeople and they even choose the wording of the agreements that you have to sign when you join up to one of their linked Sales Offices. The weird thing is, though, the people ive spoken to dont actually seem to know that much about credico. I mean, i understood credico was involved but i didnt really understand what credico was. Im not sure i still do understand, like my understanding is, like, companies go to them to promote their product or Something Like that . The way its described to us is credico is like uber. So, we were the taxi drivers and the passengers are the clients. So, credico would connect us and the clients together, they would give us the Training Materials and they would act as a go between. We saw them every two months, Something Like that, they go and make sure that we havent burnt the place down. Like, thats it was very rare, if ever. We saw the clients a lot more. And then i saw this line in one of the contracts. Its an agreement between a sales agent and the direct Sales Company they signed up to. Im really confused by that, though, because the people ive spoken to said they were working full time, they were told where to go and what to sell and that they didnt really have any control. If youre really Self Employed, can that be the case . Most of the people ive spoken to at credico linked Companies Said they felt like the Recruitment Process was misleading. About halfway through day one, they brought out the forms, which included a Self Employment form, a declaration of Self Employment, etc, etc. And it was at that point where someone kind of piped up and went, so, whats the basic hourly . And then they were like, oh, you get paid this much per sale. And glossing over the fact there was no main. Yeah, yeah, and then silence. So, you get this much per sale and these bonuses. And then obviously, i think, the penny kind of dropped for most people. It was like, ah, right. I see. Lauren says she was made aware it was Self Employed in an interview, but says the details were glossed over. The person who interviewed me, she was the manager of the company, and she basically explained that the job was commission only. And i didnt really have an understanding of what commission only was at the time because the way she explained it was you get paid for your hard work. She said, you know, people nowadays, especially during covid, they get paid for doing nothing. Its kind of lazy. Here, you get paid for the work you put in. The more i hear, the more im asking myself, what does the law say and what options do people really have . Lets find out. Luke menzies, an employment lawyer, has gone through evidence ive sent him and agreed to meet. So, ive put together some clips from young people ive spoken to up and down the country and i want to hear what you think about what theyve told me. In terms of, like, who youve got looking out for you, then no one. But you still have a uniform set working hours and set expectations, so its all the bad points of Self Employment with all the bad points of employment. Theyd make it sound like its not that big of a deal, that youre just working consta