Weston Smith found a way to make money by cutting money. At his job with Vector Marketing, he regularly slices pennies in half to demonstrate the sharpness of CUTCO scissors.

He and other KU students have found an alternative to working a regular part-time job. The New York-based CUTCO Cutlery offers full and part-time jobs through its sales division Vector Marketing. CUTCO produces high quality, American-made kitchen knives and outdoor accessories.

Smith, a senior from Burdett, said he enjoys working at Vector because it gives him experience, and it’s easy do with school.

“You schedule your own time,” Smith said. “If you want to schedule it around tests you can, or if you just want to take the day off you can.”

Those, like Smith, who sell for Vector Marketing are technically independent contractors. They make sales by doing in-home demonstration with products. Sales pitches can run anywhere from 45 minutes to a few hours. Smith said demo appointments are set up through current CUTCO customers so there is no telemarketing or door-to-door sales. They start off with people they know and ask them for referrals to other potential customers.

Smith started selling CUTCO in August. He said he made close to $1,000 in one week when he first started. His sales vary week to week based on how many demonstrations he does. Because he’s back in school, he’s done less than he did over the summer. Smith said he averages about five demonstrations a week, which amounts to about $250.

Smith’s income is either commission or base pay — whichever one is higher. Rusty Benson, a senior from Overland Park, said the company offers a base pay so customers don’t feel pressured to buy and employees don’t feel pushed to sell a lot. When Benson started at Vector over the summer, base pay was $15 per hour, but during the fall it is lowered to $12.

“The first appointment I did I made commission,” Benson said. “It was, like, an hour and a half long.” He said for that sale he made $49.

Hannah Russell, a junior from Gardner, said while in high school she received a letter from Vector in the mail describing the job, so she applied online. She said part of the reason for the base pay is to help compensate for travel and other expenses. Russell said she began selling to neighbors in Gardner but branched out and began selling in other cities like Overland Park.

“I had clients who lived a few blocks away to several who lived all the way in Johnson County,” Russell said.

Benson and Smith both said they never really had a negative experience with customers, but once one of Benson’s customers cut herself with a knife. Russell said that out of the 250 to 300 appointments she’s done, she has only had one negative experience.

“I was verbally attacked,” Russell said. “Not just for trying to sell something, but also because I was trying to gain experience that way.”

She said the man had approved her appointment, but when she arrived, he told her that selling knives was the wrong way to gain experience for her major.

Experience was the primary reason Russell began working for Vector in the summer of 2008. At the time she was a business major and thought a sales position would be an excellent way to gain work experience. She left Vector a year ago when she changed her major to international studies, but she said she built a lot of relationships while working at Vector that she still has today.

“I wouldn’t take back the experience I had there because of how much it helped me,” Russell said.

As posters and fliers appeared on campus advertising “Work for students” with a website using the same line, speculation about what Vector Marketing is rose.

When Benson first heard about Vector through a friend who worked there, he was skeptical about it. He said he went online and read reviews, some of them mentioning scams and other issues.

“I just decided to be open minded about it,” Benson said. He chose to apply to Vector because he trusted the friend who referred him.

Russell said that speculation about Vector Marketing probably comes from employees who misrepresented the company.

“Sometimes you get a bad egg,” Russell said. “It depends on the values and standards a company has. In any company you’ll get people who don’t represent values well.” Russell said she had seen a few managers nationally whom she believed didn’t represent the company well, but locally she never saw that problem.

Benson said rumors that Vector Marketing or CUTCO is a pyramid scheme are not true.

“You do get paid off what your recruits make, but only one level,” Benson said. Benson said that if a person he refers to the company begins selling CUTCO, he can make 2 percent of what they sell. That 2 percent does not come out of the other person’s paycheck.

Russell advised people who are curious about CUTCO or Vector Marketing to talk to someone who works there.

“People should go to an interview to see what it’s about,” Russell said.

— Edited by Sarah McCabe