Ambassador Reference Guide
Have any general questions? Find answers in our FAQ.
General Ambassador Questions
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Barefoot Books Ambassadors are a diverse community of parents, grandparents, teachers, librarians, storytellers, artists, musicians and entrepreneurs with a shared commitment to the importance of imagination and creativity in children’s lives; who earn money by marketing and selling Barefoot Books products in their community. Some work from home, some have part-time or full-time careers, some are retired.
The Ambassador program is an exciting business opportunity where you can write your own success story building your business in a way that fits with your lifestyle, your family values and your personal interests. It’s flexible, fun, creative… and incredibly rewarding. Currently, Barefoot Books Ambassador Program is only available in parts of North America and parts of Europe. Below is the list of countries we support globally. Barefoot Books is not responsible for people joining the Ambassador Program from countries that are not listed below.
- United States
- Canada
- United Kingdom
- Austria
- Belguim
- Denmark
- France
- Germany
- Guernsey
- Ireland
- Isle of Mann
- Italy
- Jersey
- Luxembourg
- Netherlands
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
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For just $139.99, which includes shipping costs*, you will receive a Starter Kit** containing our gorgeous products. The Starter Kit will be housed in a beautifully branded Barefoot Books box. Contents will include:
- Mix of bestselling Barefoot Books products including books, puzzles and puppets
- Key marketing materials/sales aids
*Geographic restrictions apply.
**If you wish to leave the program, you may return your Starter Kit within twelve months of purchase date. You will be required to cover the cost of return shipping for the Starter Kit. The Starter Kit must be in a marketable condition to receive a full refund--this means it must be fully intact and all contents still in saleable condition.
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Barefoot Books will send you a Starter Kit that includes everything you need to run your Ambassador business. From our bestselling products to key marketing materials, all of these have been carefully selected to help familiarize you with Barefoot Books. Here is a list of everything you will receive in your Starter Kit:
- Welcome letter from Barefoot Books CEO, Nancy Traversy
- Barefoot Books-branded Box
- Ambassador Opportunity Brochures (1 pack of 20)
- Barefoot Books Story Cards (1 pack of 10)
- Host Kit Envelopes (1 pack of 20)
- Portfolio (1)
- 2012 -2013 Complete Catalogs (5)
- Best of Barefoot Flyers (1 pack of 30)
- 20 bags (10 small, 10 medium)
- Best of Barefoot Bookmarks (1 pack of 20)
- Customer Order Forms (1 pad of 50)
- Event Reminder Postcards (1 pack of 30)
Fun First Steps (One of each)
- Clare Beaton ‘s Nursery Rhymes board book
- White Bunny Rabbit Puppet
- I Took the Moon for a Walk large board book
- The Animal Boogie paperback with enhanced CD
- Port Side Pirates! paperback with enhanced CD
- Bear on a Bike board book
- Bear on the Go First Puzzle
Natural Child (One of each)
- Yoga Pretzels deck
- Who’s in the Garden? large format board book
- Kids’ Kitchen deck
- Herb, the Vegetarian Dragon paperback
Travel the World (One of each)
- We All Went on Safari paperback
- My Granny Went to Market paperback
- Barefoot Books World Atlas
Tell Me a Story (One of each)
- The Story Tree hardcover with story CD
- The Adventures of Odysseus paperback chapter book
- The Barefoot Book of Fairy Tales hardcover
- The Gigantic Turnip paperback with story CD
Disclaimer - Please note this is a representative list of the products you will receive in your Starter Kit. Barefoot Books reserves the right to make appropriate substitutions for out-of-stock items if and when required
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We will ship the Starter Kit* to you as soon as you join our Ambassador Program. It is always shipped via UPS Ground which is a trackable service, and usually takes around 10-12 business days for delivery.
*If you wish to leave the program, you may return your Starter Kit within twelve months of purchase date. You will be required to cover the cost of return shipping for the Starter Kit. The Starter Kit must be in a marketable condition to receive a full refund--this means it must be fully intact and all contents still in saleable condition.
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A new Ambassador is eligible for three exciting Kickstart Bonuses which will get your Barefoot Books business off to a great start! You can receive free products and Ambassador Sales Aids when you reach specific sales levels in your first 45 days. Here are the details:
Kickstart Bonus #1:
- SELL: $250 QV in 1st 25 days.
- EARN: Bonus kit of books and gifts worth $125
Kickstart Bonus #2:
- SELL: Total of $500 QV in 1st 45 days.
- EARN: A second bonus kit of books and gifts worth $125
- That’s a total bonus of $250 in free products if you hit Kickstart #1 and #2.
Kickstart Bonus #3:
- ACHIEVE: Kickstart Bonus #2.
- SPONSOR: One new Ambassador in first 45 days.
- EARN: Business kit with Barefoot Books-branded promotional flyers, category and subject display signage and an exclusive Barefoot Books apron.
Remember, if you have earned any of our Kickstart Bonus free products, we’ll be shipping out your free products/kit(s) at the end of your 45-day Kickstart Bonus period, and we will send a shipment confirmation to let you know when they are on their way to you.
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Yes, an Ambassador must achieve a total of $500 Personal Qualifying Volume over any rolling 6 calendar months. This is called the Active Threshold. Along with maintaining this threshold, there is a mandatory monthly fee of $7.50 to help support our commitment to providing the Ambassador community with comprehensive business tools, detailed reporting, marketing resources and other program enhancements. All new Ambassadors will receive 3 full months' free access to these business tools from the day they join the program
Earnings Plan
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As an Ambassador, you will receive an automatic 30% upfront discount on all qualifying purchases at checkout, a 15-20% Free Gift Allowance, a 30% commission on Referral Sales, as well as monthly Personal, Team and Leadership bonuses.
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Qualifying products are mainly items that are intended for resale, such as books, CDs, puppets, etc. Non-qualifying products are Sales Aids, including but not limited to catalogs, promotional flyers, bags, and order forms, products purchased with your Free Gift Allowance, or Starter Kits and Kickstart Bonuses. We do not offer discounts on non-qualifying products, so that we are able to offer you the best possible price for these important business tools.
Additional non-qualifying products include Vistaprint materials purchased through the Barefoot Books Ambassador Vistaprint store, Books for Africa. -
Personal Sales are orders you place directly on the Barefoot Books website. You earn 30% profit on all qualifying purchases along with 15 to 20% Free Gift Allowance on all your personal orders. You will also have an additional opportunity to earn a 10-15% Personal Sales Bonus each month. Personal orders that include your free gift allowance can be shipped directly to you or your customer.
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The Free Gift Allowance is 15–20% in free products of your choice (qualifying products only) which you will be awarded for each Personal Sales order that you place.
- Orders less than $300 (PQV) qualify for a Free Gift Allowance totaling 15% of the Qualifying Volume of your shopping cart.
- Orders greater than, or equal to, $300 (PQV) qualify for a Free Gift Allowance totaling 20% of the Qualifying Volume of your shopping cart.
- The Free Gift Allowance must be spent in the order in which it is earned. Any unused Free Gift Allowance will not be carried over, and will expire once the order is placed.
- Sales Aids and other non-qualifying products cannot be purchased with your Free Gift Allowance.
- Ambassadors may use their Free Gift Allowance in a way that suits them and their business. Here are a few recommendations:
- If you have worked with a host who organizes and runs a home party or other community sales event on your behalf, you can offer to give her all or part of your 20% Free Gift Allowance. The amount is entirely up to you, but it can be a good idea to reward great event sales with a higher gift value.
Event sales $200=Free Host Gift (10%) $20.00 in books
Event sales $300=Free Host Gift (15%) $45.00 in books
Event sales $500=Free Host Gift (20%) $100.00 in books - If you are working with a school or other organization to run a fundraiser, you can offer either free books, e.g. for the school library, or a cash amount equal to the profit you will have earned when you sell the products that you earned with your Free Gift Allowance. Again, it is a great idea to introduce an incentive--the higher the fundraiser sales, the higher the value of the books or donation you make.
- If you are simply placing an order to fulfill a group of individual customer orders, you can select your 15 to 20% in free products, and then sell them to future customers for a 100% profit.
- Of course, you can always use the Free Gift Allowance to add to your Barefoot Books library collection, for display copies, for personal use by your family, or for gifts to family and friends.
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To place a personal order, simply log into your Barefoot Books Ambassador account and click “Shop” to browse through our entire selection of books, puppets, puzzles and more. Just click on the item you would like to purchase, select the format on the product page and add to your shopping basket. After you have selected all the products you want to buy, just click on the shopping basket at the top of the screen to view all the titles you have selected along with the prices, quantity and subtotal. You will also see the Personal Qualifying Volume (PQV), Bonus Volume (BV) (your PQV minus the 30% upfront discount you receive) as well as the Free Gift Allowance you will earn. At the bottom of the page, you can enter any special offer code that you may have.
To add products to your Free Gift Allowance, simply click “Checkout” at the bottom of the page or the Free Gift Allowance link on the right-hand panel. You can see the amount of Free Gift Allowance you’ve earned as well as the amount you have remaining. These amounts will update as you add more items to your regular order or select items with your Free Gift Allowance. Your Free Gift Allowance must be spent in the order in which it was earned. Any unused Free Gift Allowance will not be carried over, and will expire once the order is placed. You are able to select items over the amount you have accrued for your Free Gift Allowance. This overage will just be added to your order totals when you checkout. Once you have utilized all your Free Gift Allowance and you are satisfied with the order, simply click “Checkout.” You will see a screen of all the products, i.e. items from your main order, and your Free Gift Allowance combined. If you are not satisfied, you can change the main order products or the Free Gift Allowance products from this screen. Otherwise you can check out by using either one credit card or multiple credit cards, and the order will arrive to you within the next 12-14 business days, depending on the shipping method.You can also watch a step-by-step tutorial on Placing an Order and Free Gift Allowance.
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Referral Orders, or Customer Sales, are orders placed by your customers through your online Marketplace. Ambassadors will receive a 30% commission, payable at the end of the month, on the net value, after any special offer discounts, of your Referral Sales, i.e. online orders carrying your Ambassador ID.
Please be aware that the Ambassador program does not allow referral orders outside of your region to be credited to you. This means if you are a European Ambassador, you cannot earn credit for a customer’s order placed on the North American site. And vice versa, if you are a North American Ambassador, you cannot earn credit for a customer’s order placed on the European site. -
No, you only earn your Free Gift allowance on your Personal Sales, i.e. orders that you place personally on the Barefoot Books website.
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Yes, the referral commission on all unattached Barefoot Books website sales will be allocated to Ambassadors at the end of the month, pro-rata based on their own referral sales in the month.
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There is a mandatory monthly fee of $7.50 for access to the Ambassador Business Centre, which offers a wealth of essential resources and tools to help you run a successful Ambassador business. Features include enhanced reporting, including deeper visibility into your own sales, your team members’ sales and your customers’ sales, as well as resources to help you plan, manage and market your events, and much more. The Ambassador Business Centre fee is waived for the first three months after joining. Following these three months, the cost of the Ambassador Business Centre will be automatically charged using the credit card that you provide.
Ambassadors who have joined the Ambassador Program before April 1 2012 have an option to pay an upfront fee of $72 (a total savings of 20%) for one year subscription. New Ambassadors do not have this option, instead they have the first 3 months free.
Please note that this upfront payment is non-refundable, even upon Ambassador resignation or termination.
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Yes. The Active Threshold is the minimum Personal Qualifying Volume (PQV) an individual Ambassador must achieve over any rolling 6 calendar months. In North America, this is a total of $500 QV over the six months.
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If an Ambassador becomes inactive, the following re-activation rules apply:
- Within 1 month – an Ambassador can rejoin at no cost.
- Between 1 and 6 months – an Ambassador must pay a reactivation fee of $29.99 to rejoin.
- Between 6 and 12 months – an Ambassador must purchase a Starter Kit, which costs $139.99, to rejoin.
- If an Ambassador rejoins within 12 months of leaving, she will retain her ID and team sponsor.
- If an Ambassador rejoins after 12 months of leaving, she will need to start over completely.
- Whenever an Ambassador becomes inactive, she will lose her downline, i.e. all members of her Central Team, including those Ambassadors she has personally sponsored. An Ambassador cannot reclaim her downline even if she reactivates.
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We understand that there will certainly be personal circumstances in your life when you will need to take time off from running your Ambassador business. All such leave of absence requests should be sent to help@barefootbooks.com for prior written approval by the Community Relations Team. Below are the three main categories of leave for which the provisions for Active Threshold may be waived:
- Maternity Leave – The plan allows for up to 3 consecutive months of maternity leave. There is no limit on the number of times an Ambassador may take maternity leave during her Ambassador career.
- Emergency Leave – The plan allows for a month-by-month leave of absence due to a family or other emergency, up to a maximum of 3 consecutive months.
- Sabbatical – The plan allows for up to 6 months of sabbatical leave, however, Ambassadors are only able to take advantage of this option once during their Ambassador career.
In all instances above, the Ambassador’s personal active threshold is waived. She will still be able to place personal orders and be eligible for her Ambassador 30% discount and her Free Gift Allowance. Assuming she meets the required monthly team thresholds and other leadership criteria, other than being personally bonus qualified, she will still earn team and leadership bonuses. As she will be receiving all these said benefits, she will still be obligated to pay the Ambassador Business fee of $7.50 per month, even when she is on one of these leaves. Moreover, as your personal active threshold is waived, any sales from this time will not count towards your active threshold.
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PQV is the combination of personal qualifying orders that you place on the Barefoot Books website and your Referral Sales, and is based on the recommended retail, or special offer, price of any qualifying products.
Your order must be placed by 7:59pm PST/10:59pm EST on the last day of the current month, or by 3:59am GMT on the first day of the following month, in order to count toward your Qualifying Volume for that month.
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Your Personal Qualifying Volume (PQV) is used to determine your eligibility for monthly Personal, Team and Leadership Bonuses and also if you meet the Active Threshold. It is also important for our regular Ambassador incentives, challenges and promotions.
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On personal sales, Bonus Volume (BV) is calculated by subtracting your 30% upfront discount from your total Personal Qualifying Volume (PQV). For example, on personal qualifying sales (PQV) of $300, the Bonus Volume (BV) would be $210, or 70% of total Qualifying Volume. Monthly bonuses are calculated based on BV, not PQV.
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Your monthly Ambassador Personal, Team and Leadership Bonuses are calculated based on your Bonus Volume (BV), not your Qualifying Volume (QV).
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Bonus Volume (BV) on Referral Sales is calculated by subtracting the 30% monthly commission you receive on your customer’s net sales. For example, on net Referral Sales of $100, the BV would be $70, or 70% of Qualifying Volume (QV).
Ambassador Personal and Team Bonuses
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Ambassadors are Bonus Qualified when they achieve at least $300 in total monthly Personal Qualifying Volume (PQV). This includes both Personal and Referral Sales. When you are Bonus Qualified, you are eligible to earn monthly Personal, Team and Leadership Bonuses.
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If you are Bonus Qualified, you will earn a monthly Personal Sales Bonus of 10% on the Bonus Volume (BV) of your Personal and Referral Sales (your PQV). This bonus amount can increase up to 15% depending on your monthly Personal Qualifying Sales, when you become an Ambassador Sales Leader.
SALES
PERSONAL SALES BONUS
$300 to $599.99
earn 10% personal sales bonus
$600 to $999.99
earn 12.5% personal sales bonus*
$1000 or more
earn 15% personal sales bonus*
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This is a 4% bonus paid on the BV of each of your personally-sponsored active team members if you are Bonus Qualified. As a Team Leader, you earn a total of 8% on your personal team’s sales (4% Personal Team Bonus plus 4% Central Team Bonus). The Personal Team Bonus is paid even if one of your personal team members qualifies to break away as Team Leader. If a sponsoring Ambassador leaves the business, the Personal Team Bonus will not be paid to anyone. However, this is waived between now and end of 2012. That means if a sponsoring Ambassador leaves the business and the team member gets compressed up to the sponsoring Ambassadors Team Leader, that new Team Leader will be earning an additional 4% Personal Team Bonus on this team member and will be considered as her personal team leader.
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When an Ambassador retires or becomes inactive, her entire downline (i.e. her personally-sponsored team members, their team members, and so on) compresses up to her immediate sponsor. This sponsor will not receive the 4% Personal Team Bonus on the retiring Ambassador’s personally-sponsored team members.
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No, team moves are not allowable in this program. If you do not have a sponsor, you may choose one at any time, but once you have a sponsor, you may not remove them or change teams. If you do choose a sponsor after joining the program, you will be recognized as being personally sponsored by them.
Ambassador Leadership Ladder
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There are two Leadership paths in this plan, which are not mutually exclusive – Ambassador Sales Leader and Ambassador Team Leader. An Ambassador can qualify as a Sales Leader, and she can also work her way up the Team Leadership ladder.
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Yes, you can become an Ambassador Sales Leader if you achieve monthly Personal and Referral Sales (PQV) of $600 or more for two consecutive months. Similar to the two month qualification period to gain the Leader status, there is also a 2 month grace period to lose your Leadership status. That means, once you achieve your Leadership Level, and weren’t able to achieve the said thresholds to maintain the leadership level the next month, you still will be considered a leader for that month. Your status will not be affected however your bonuses will be paid out only on the sales you made. If you don’t reach the thresholds in the second month then you will be demoted to Ambassador level and will have to achieve $600 or more again for two consecutive months to attain your Sales Leader status.
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If you have achieved Sales Leader status and meet the monthly qualification threshold of $600, you will automatically earn a higher monthly Personal Sales Bonus of 12.5%. If your sales are $1000 or higher for the month, your Personal Sales Bonus increases to 15%. As an Ambassador Sales Leader but not also a Team Leader, you earn your 4% Team Building Bonus on your personally-sponsored team members, but you do not earn on your Central Team.
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As a Leader, you will be eligible to participate in special Leaders-only forums and in regular Leaders’ e-chats and conference calls. You will have access to in-depth, one-on-one Leadership training, sneak previews of new products in the pipeline, and insight into upcoming Community and Program developments. You will also enjoy all sorts of additional perks and benefits as you climb the Leadership Ladder.
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You can become an Ambassador Team Leader when you achieve the following three criteria and maintain each for two consecutive months:
- You have three or more personally-sponsored active team members
- $300 or more Personal Qualifying Volume (PQV)
- $2,500 or more Team Qualifying Volume (TQV) (this includes your combined Personal and Team Sales, including the sales of anyone you have personally sponsored and anyone they have sponsored)
Demotion process: Similar to the two month qualification period to gain the Leader status, there is also a 2 month grace period to lose your Leadership status. That means, once you achieve your Leadership Level, and weren’t able to achieve the said thresholds the next month, you still will be considered a leader that month. Your status will not be affected however your bonuses will be paid out only on the sales you made. If you don’t reach the thresholds even the next month then you will be demoted to the level you qualify for.
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There are six Team Leader levels:
- Level 1 - Turquoise Team Leader – You have achieved the Team Leadership criteria in any given month, i.e. you have 3 or more active personally-sponsored team members, $300 or more in Personal Qualifying Volume (PQV), and as such are bonus qualified, and your combined Team Qualifying Volume (TQV) is $2,500 or more.
- Level 2 - Chartreuse Team Leader – as above, plus 1 breakaway Leader
- Level 3 – Amber Team Leader– as above, plus 2 breakaway Leaders
- Level 4 – Saffron Team Leader – as above, plus 4 breakaway Leaders
- Level 5 – Crimson Team Leader – as above, plus 6 breakaway Leaders
- Level 6 – Amethyst Team Leader – as above, plus 8 breakaway Leaders
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Ambassadors who are Bonus Qualified are paid 4% on their personally-sponsored team’s Bonus Volume. This is called the Personal Team Bonus. Ambassadors who qualify as Level 1 - Turquoise Team Leader or higher are also paid out an additional 4% on their Central Team’s Bonus Volume. This is paid on all levels of your downline who haven’t broken away. There are also opportunities for additional Leadership Bonuses as Ambassadors climb the leadership ladder.
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Once you have achieved Team Leadership status, you can increase your Personal Sales Bonus from 10% to 12.5% if your personal sales for the month are $600 or more. If your monthly sales are $1,000 or higher, your Personal Sales Bonus increases to 15%. Once you achieve Level 1 - Turquoise Team Leader or higher, not only do you earn a 4% Personal Team Bonus on the Bonus Volume (BV) of your personally-sponsored team members, but you also earn 4% on the BV of everyone in your Central Team. That means you earn a total of 8% on the BV of your personal team.
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Your Central Team consists of anyone you’ve sponsored and anyone they’ve sponsored (and so on) who is not a part of a breakaway team.
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No, they just need to be active, i.e. place $500 in total sales over any rolling six calendar months.
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A breakaway Leader is a member of your team who has achieved Team Leader status, which begins with Level 1 - Turquoise Team Leader, i.e. who has three or more personally-sponsored active team members, monthly Personal Qualifying Volume (PQV of your Personal and Referral Sales) of $300 or more, and combined monthly Team Qualifying Volume (TQV) of $2,500 or more. When one of your team members becomes a Team Leader themselves, they are considered a “breakaway.”
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Ambassadors who meet the Team Leadership criteria for two consecutive months earn their Team Leadership status in the second month and are paid bonuses at their new level in that second month. Their up-line sponsor is also paid based on their new level in that second month.
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There is a two-month grace period beginning in the month that the Team Leader promotion happens. In this period, the promoting out Team Leader only needs to have combined Team Qualifying Sales of $1,500 or more in order to qualify as a Team Leader.
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As an Ambassador Team Leader, in addition to your upfront discount and Free Gift Allowance, as well as your Personal Sales Bonus of up to 15%, you can also earn:
- 4% on the sales of the team members you have personally sponsored (you can earn this even before you become a Leader!)
- 4% on the sales of your Central Team. You earn a total of 8% on their sales if you have personally sponsored them.
- 7% on your “first generation” breakaway Team Leader’s team – a team member in your Central Team who becomes a Team Leader and breaks away. You earn a total of 11% on their sales (7% plus 4%) if you have personally sponsored them.
- 5% on your “second generation” breakaway Team Leader’s team – a member of your first generation breakaway’s team to become a Team Leader.
- The more breakaways you have, the higher you climb on the leadership ladder and the more you can earn!
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Yes, if you meet the required Personal Sales qualification levels as well as the Team Leadership thresholds, you can be a Sales Leader and a Team Leader at the same time!
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Personal Sales and Team Bonuses are calculated after the month end closes and the commissions are run. You should be able to see your commission statement online in your Ambassador Business Centre, on the fifth business day, and payment should reach your account within 10–14 business days from the end of the month. You should have earned atleast $30 in commissions in that particular month for payout else the commission will be rolled over to the next month and will be only paid out after the total commissions exceed the minimum threshold of $30. In the US, your earnings are transferred into your bank account. Please make sure you have provided your bank details on the My Account page of the Barefoot Books website. In Canada and Puerto Rico, commissions are paid out via checks.
Online Marketing
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Your Marketplace is your free website. You can find this unique URL in the Marketplace section of Marketing in My Barefoot. Orders placed through your Marketplace are Referral Orders (Customer Sales). Any customer accessing the Barefoot Books website through your Marketplace will be tied to you, and so you will earn commission on their purchase. Your Marketplace is a vital business tool, and you can share your Marketplace URL with contacts, customers, on your business cards, and on flyers.
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Your Ambassador Profile is one way to connect with other Ambassadors and, if you are interested in team building, this is one of the main tools that can help you grow your team. It is your opportunity to tell members of the community about yourself, what your interests are, and how you are living Barefoot. You can also encourage other Ambassadors to join your team by being active on the forums and sharing your reviews as well as pictures and videos of your events.
On every profile there is a “Join My Team!” button that makes it easy for other Ambassadors to join your team. Remember, the connections you make every day provide a great opportunity for you to introduce others to the Barefoot Books community and to find new team members.
Another great feature of your Ambassador Profile is that members of your community can find your profile by searching for your specific geographic area and then get in touch with you by clicking “Contact Me.” At times, you may be contacted by individuals near you who would like to host a party, offer you an invitation to hold a stall at their event, or buy from your stock directly.
Please note that Ambassadors cannot join your team if they live outside your region. This means if you are a European Ambassador, North American Ambassadors cannot join your team, and vice versa, if you are a North American Ambassador, a European Ambassador cannot join your team.
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Profiles can offer useful information about the interests and specialties of other Ambassadors, about companies and websites they like, and about how they are living Barefoot. If you are looking for someone in particular, you can simply search their name to find them. You are able to contact another Ambassador directly by clicking on the “Contact Me” button under their name on their profile page. Participating in the forums, reading other Ambassadors' book reviews and reading the Weekly Update are also great ways to connect with the Barefoot Books Ambassador community.
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Orders are shipped from the US warehouse located in Menasha, Wisconsin. Our warehouse ships to the following locations: the continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, American Samoa, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Marshall Islands, North Mariana Islands, Palau, U.S. Virgin Islands, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Please note there is a fee of $9.99 for shipments to Canada in addition to the standard shipping rates. At this time we are unable to process orders shipping to the Northwest Territories.
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ORDER TYPE COST Starter Kit Free Shipping* via UPS Ground Kickstart #1, 2 & 3 Free Shipping* via UPS Ground Ambassador Personal Sales (net cart value more than $100) Free Shipping* via UPS Ground Ambassador Personal Sales (net cart value less than $100) Shipping is calculated based on order weight, dimensions and distance Referral/Customer Sales Free Shipping* on net cart value above $60; orders less than $60 will be charged based on order weight, dimensions and distance *Geographic restrictions apply.
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We accept the following major credit cards: American Express, Mastercard and Visa and Discover. We can accept payment from Ambassadors using single or multiple credit cards against a single order. You need to collect the information below from your customers in order to process multiple credit cards through the Barefoot Books website:
- Credit Card Number
- Security Code
- Expiration Date
- Full name of card holder
- Customer contact information, in case a card is declined
If you are shipping directly to a customer using their credit card, you must collect the full shipping address in addition to the information above.
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Periodically, we may offer customers and Ambassadors special offer codes which provide them special discounts. As an Ambassador, you are also given codes to share with your customers. These are primarily one-time use codes that can only be used by customers, not Ambassadors. To use these codes, simply type them into the special offer box provided at check out and click “Apply.” Special offer discount codes do not apply to non-qualifying products. Please note you may only use one special offer code per order.
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Adding your Ambassador affiliate code to any Barefoot Books URL is a quick way to make sure you earn commissions on your new customers' online sales. Just follow these steps:
- Log into your Ambassador account online and visit My Barefoot. Your affiliate code appears on the last line of the 'At-a-Glance' display.
- Choose a link that you want to send to your customers. Do you want to direct them to a particular book, or a shopping category such as bestsellers? Once you have selected a link, copy the entire URL.
- Attach your affiliate code to the end of the URL!
- If the link ends in html, add /?bf_affiliate_000-0000 and replace 000-0000 with your unique affiliate code.
- If the link does not end in html, add &bf_affiliate_000-0000 and replace 000-0000 with your unique affiliate code.
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Yes you can, however only to an extent. The general Marketplace link that is allotted to you when you join the Barefoot Books Ambassador is: www.firstname-lastname.barefootbooks.com. The part of this link that is customizable is firstname-lastname only. If you want your existing Marketplace to be changed, please write into help@barefootbooks.com, providing your current Marketplace address and the new one you are requesting and we will be able to action upon that.
Note: Marketplaces subject upon availability.
Building your Business
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You may become a Barefoot Books Ambassador and decide not to belong to a team. However, we have found that the majority of Ambassadors with sponsors tend to be more successful more quickly than those who are not members of a team. Please remember, once you are part of a team, you would not be able to move out of that team to a different team.
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- Ambassadors can purchase Gift Cards but would not be able to redeem them on the website.
- We have $25, $50, and $100 gift cards available on our North American website for purchase.
- When purchasing gift cards on our website, Ambassadors will be receiving 30% upfront discount, and will earn QV and Free Gift Allowance on these, as on any other qualifying products. Gift cards applied by your customers to a referral order will reduce commissionable QV by the gift card amount. However, Ambassadors will no longer be able to redeem gift cards. These are redeemable by your customers only.
- Your customer can use the gift card balance against any purchases they make on the North American website. Any unused balance will be retained on the gift card itself. If an order exceeds the balance on a gift card, the difference must be paid with a credit card. Multiple gift cards can be used on one order. We ship our Barefoot Books gift cards for free via UPS (signature required).
- For safekeeping, we encourage to register the gift cards under My Account. Registration is optional. Barefoot Books is not responsible if a gift card is lost, stolen, destroyed or used without your permission.
- Gift cards cannot be discounted, though you can still use a discount coupon toward other eligible items in your cart.
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Commissions are always paid based on the most recent Ambassador Link or code attached to a customer. In a case that a customer’s email is attached to one Ambassador, and that customer subsequently buys through another Ambassador’s marketing efforts, the new Ambassador will receive credit for that transaction and any future sales.
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Log in to access your My Barefoot home page where you’ll find lots of tools to help you manage your Ambassador business. Login!
- Customizable, free Marketplace website to share your favorite Barefoot Books and promote your events online.
- The Ambassador Business Centre offers a wealth of essential resources and tools to help you run a successful Ambassador business. Features include detailed personal, team and customer sales reporting, contact management and communication tools, resources to help you plan, manage and market your events, team genealogy and much more.
- Banners, buttons and a complete array of marketing materials for your use.
- Comprehensive library of on-demand training videos and materials, web conferences, chats, and more.
- Up-to-date resources and e-campaigns to help you spread the word.
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Regular news updates, product special offers and extensive marketing resources and training will be available on your My Barefoot page. In addition, updated training modules are available online for all Ambassadors.
We also offer forums and online web conferences and e-chats – all tools to help you connect with others who can answer your questions, and who can provide you with creative new ideas to help grow your Barefoot Books Ambassador business.
Don’t forget, there will be regular workshops and calls for Ambassadors as well as ongoing support from the Barefoot Books Customer Service Team and the wider Ambassador Community!
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We currently charge tax to customers and Ambassadors in Massachusetts, Wisconsin, California, and Washington state. If you have a Tax ID number, you can become a tax-exempt Ambassador. Just go to Bank and Tax information under My Account in My Barefoot.
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You do not need to have a tax ID number to become an Ambassador, however, this is your own business, and you may choose to have one.
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The requirements for when and how much tax you have to charge your customers is dependent on your state. Please check in directly with your state to obtain this information.
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You will only receive a 1099 for a given year if you have been paid $600 or more in straight commissions. As you are not an employee of Barefoot Books, you will not be sent a W-2.
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At-a-glance:
Shown on the my barefoot homepage, the At-a-glance report provides you with the Paid as Title, Personal Sales for your own and your customers’ sales for the month-to-date period. Other personal metrics that are shown are Personal Qualifying Volume (PQV), Personal Bonus Volume (PBV), PQV for rolling six months and Personal Team QV. It also shows the number of personal and central team members you have along with any new who joined that month.This report is updated once every two hours.
Ambassador Business Centre Reporting summary:
By clicking on Ambassador Business Centre in my barefoot, you can see a plethora of reports, summaries and tools to help you run a successful business. Features include
detailed personal, team and customer sales reporting, contact management and communication tools, resources to help you plan, manage and market your events, Team Genealogy and much more. There is a mandatory monthly fee of $7.50 to access to the Ambassador Business Centre, which is waived for the first three months after joining.
On the homepage of Ambassador Business Centre:
Inventory Status Report:
This report provides you with information on the status of stock in the warehouse. If you are an Ambassador in North America, the report will be from our US warehouse, and if you are an Ambassador in Europe, the report will be from our UK warehouse. The comments column gives you additional information about each product.
Understanding Contacts in the Ambassador Business Centre:
Contact and communication is so key when building your Ambassador business. Sharing Barefoot Books within your community enables you to meet and forge connections with new customers, event coordinators, prospects and team members. Keeping track of all of these vital contacts can sometimes be a challenge, but luckily you will have a great tool in your arsenal.The Contacts section in your Ambassador Business Centre is the perfect place to store, sort and manage all of your contacts. You'll have these contacts and opportunities they represent at your fingertips. We've put together this video to give you a quick tour through these exciting features: Understanding Contacts
Business Metrics:
You have a wealth of information from this screen which is also downloadable to a .csv file. Here on this page you can see your personal metrics such as PQV, PBV, Personal Sales, Referral Sales and non-qualifying sales. You can also see various team metrics including Personal Team QV, Personal Team BV, Total Team QV, Central Team BV, Generation 1 BV and Generation 2 BV. Along with all this, you may also view your number of personal team members, your number of central team members, and much more for over the previous 13 months!Commission Statements:
Commission Statements are available every month within the first five business days. You will see, in detail, what you and your team earned the previous month.Your Monthly Earning Summary is provided, along with deep insight on your personal volume, Personal Team Volume, Central Team volume, 1st Generation Volume, 2nd Generation Volume any leadership cash bonus you earned, along with detailed Referral commissions and other income adjustments.
Transitioning from the old Ambassador Program
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You can request payment of your commission balance from the old plan anytime during the year 2012 as long as you are an active Ambassador. After 2012, the commissions will no longer be available to draw down.
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You will be able to use any Loyalty Points you have earned as payment in 2012, as long as you are an active Ambassador. After 2012, Loyalty Points will no longer be available to use.
Public Relations and Social Media Policies and Tool Kit
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For questions or tips on working with your local media, please contact our Communications Director, Leah Lesser, at publicity@barefootbooks.com and include in the note some information about the PR opportunity. She will respond to you within 48 business hours and provide support.
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Ambassadors may work with their local media to promote their Barefoot Books business. You need to inform our Communications Director at publicity@barefootbooks.com prior to working with any media whose audience reach is over 1,000. This includes local TV, radio and newspapers.
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Ambassadors may work with independent bloggers to promote their Barefoot Books business, including offering them free review copies of Barefoot Books and hosting a book give-a-way on their blog. However you need to inform our Communications Director at publicity@barefootbooks.com prior to working with a blogger who has more than 1,000 followers on Facebook, Twitter or their blog.
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When speaking with the media and sharing with them information about your Barefoot Books business, please use the Barefoot Books Fact Sheet to ensure brand accuracy and consistency.
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Before approaching any reporters or bloggers about your Barefoot Books business, please see here for instructions on how to use the Fact Sheet and make sure the media opportunity adheres to our PR and social media policies. You may share the Fact Sheet with reporters who meet the criteria outlined in the Public Relations policies by sending it to them in an email as a PDF attachment, or using the content when you speak with reporters in person or over the phone. The Fact Sheet can also be used as reference for talking to customers about Barefoot Books.
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We would like you to share your media mentions with us to ensure both brand consistency and also for us to share with our broader Ambassador community, when we can. Therefore, whenever your article or media mention appears, please forward on to us at publicity@barefootbooks.com. Thank you.
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For any social media outreach efforts you undertake, including Facebook and Twitter, you need to use a profile name that contains more than ‘Barefoot Books’, such as Jen’s Barefoot Books. Please refer to this training video of the Dos and Don’ts of Social Media for all of our social media policies.
Barefoot Books Policies
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Ambassadors are welcome to use Barefoot Books cover images, product images and product descriptions from our website to populate their own marketing materials as long as these images are not stretched, cropped, changed in color or manipulated in any way. No other artwork, photos or graphic elements may be used in any manner (i.e. page headers, illustrations, homepage graphics etc.)
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Only approved versions of the Barefoot Books logo may be used. A number of approved web-ready versions of the logo can be found in Printable Materials. These logos may not be altered in any way (no stretching, cropping, changes). They are meant to be used at their current size or smaller, online only. They are not sufficient resolution for use in print materials. Any time you use the logo you must identify yourself as a Barefoot Books Ambassador, not just as Barefoot Books.
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There are a number of pre-designed and customizable materials for Ambassadors to use. Check out Printable Materials for free materials to download and print at home, or shop our Sales Aids to buy pre-printed materials (e.g. our Best of Barefoot flyer). You can also visit our custom Vistapint shop for print-on-demand pieces (business cards, posters, etc) which you can customize with your contact information.
If you need help with custom print materials please email help@barefootbooks.com with detailed information about your request. Please include the following information: size (width and height) of image, high or low resolution, four color vs. black and white, due date. Please remember, our turnaround time on such requests is 10 business days.
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The creation and sale of any products by Ambassadors that incorporate Barefoot Books name, logo, artwork, illustrations or any other copy-written materials is expressly prohibited. We do have printed and online marketing materials on our site which you can utilize. However, anything beyond those items cannot be used for commercial purposes.
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Always identify your relationship with Barefoot Books as "Barefoot Books Ambassador" (not "owner," "sales representative." etc). This applies when creating your business name, any marketing materials and social media outlets that you are active in. Under no circumstances should you use “Barefoot Books” without “Ambassador” in branding, URLs, etc. When you identify yourself either as an individual or under a business name on or offline, you cannot simply do so as Barefoot Books.
Barefoot Books needs to be modified in some way to identify your relationship to Barefoot Books in order to avoid confusion between your individual Ambassador business and ourselves as the corporate company.
- Examples of acceptable names: barefootbookslibrarian@me.com or Janetsbarefootbooks@me.com (no apostrophes in web addresses)
- Example of an unacceptable name: barefootbooks@me.com
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We only accept returns on qualifying products from Ambassadors upon resignation from the program. Please contact help@barefootbooks.com if this applies to you. You may sell books to other Ambassadors over the forums. Also, please note that Ambassadors cannot exchange products at any time.
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If you have received an item in damaged condition or a defective item, please call 1-866-215-1756, or 1-617-576-0660, or email with help@barefootbooks.com and include your name, order number, and information about the damaged items. We will assist you in getting replacements.
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Unfortunately, you are not able to change or cancel website orders after they have been placed. Our warehouses are completely automated and we would not be able to manually change any orders that you have placed. Also as soon as you submit your order online, certain actions are automatically triggered in our systems. Therefore, please make sure you check your order thoroughly before clicking the final Purchase button.
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If an Ambassador feels they may have an opportunity to sell to an independent boutique or shop, they must approach Barefoot Books with the full name and address of the store. Ambassadors are prohibited from selling to bookstores or chains, and must first bring the opportunity to Barefoot Books in order to ensure that the store is not currently an account or repped with us.
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A community event is a rented space at a convention, exhibition, craft or book fair, farmer’s market, educational conference or any other venue where you would set up a display of Barefoot Books products to sell and to generate leads for future events and to find new Ambassadors.
Barefoot Books Ambassador Policy for Obtaining a Booth
All Ambassadors may participate in community events. There are no territories and as the Ambassador program grows, we want to help you make good decisions about the community events you find. We also want to offer some simple guidelines to help you avoid duplicating efforts and booking an event already reserved by another Ambassador.When you encounter a new event and contact the organizer to reserve your space, be sure to ask if another Barefoot Books Ambassador held it the previous year. If there was an Ambassador there, you should contact that person and ask if they are doing the event again this time. If they aren’t, you are free to engage the space for the event.
If it is within 30 days of the event and the previous participating Ambassador has not yet registered, and you made an attempt to contact the Ambassador with no success, you may sign up for the event. If the organizers of the booth will not give out the previous Ambassador’s name, you may add your name to the list as a follow-up vendor in the event the organizers don’t hear from the previous Ambassador within 30 days of the event.
When you register for an Event
When reserving your event space, please indicate that you are representing Barefoot Books so that it is clear to the event coordinators. Even though you may be running the event to raise money for a charity or your local school, you should register under Barefoot Books, and not your charity’s name as this will alleviate any confusion or duplication if other Ambassadors have already registered under the Barefoot Books name. This will also help you protect your future participation in that event if the organizers are approached by another Ambassador.Before you sign up for an event, it is in your best interest to ask event organizers what their policy is regarding multiple vendors from the same company. Let them know that event exclusivity is important to you and that as such, you would make the assumption you are the only Barefoot Books vendor attending the event. If the organizers cannot guarantee this, you may want to carefully weigh if this event is worthwhile.
What happens when there is a conflict?
Ultimately, in the case of a conflict, the responsibility lies with you to contact the other Ambassador involved and work this out with them. If this is the first year you and another Ambassador are attending the same event and you don’t discover the duplication until the event is in progress, you should reach out to the other Ambassador and address the issue with them. Whoever lives geographically closest to the event has the right to be the sole participant the following year. If the situation cannot be resolved at this level, please reach out to your collective Ambassador Leaders to help facilitate the situation. Ultimately our philosophy is for all Ambassadors to have a mutual respect for each other in these situations and be able to communicate and work through these issues together. -
Simply complete and submit the Barefoot Books Ambassador Program Resignation Form to let us know.
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Use the forums to ask your questions and find solutions with the help of other Ambassadors. If you still can’t find what you need, contact us at help@barefootbooks.com.