Confessions of a Mary Kay® Failure
- By Alaska Guide
- Published 05/5/2008
- Money
-
Rating:
Alaska Guide
I am living the life of adventure in the last frontier... okay sometimes I am just living right NEXT to the life of adventure, but I try to mix it up a bit. Towering mountains, crazy abundant wildlife, glaciers, tundra, and the PEOPLE! Everyone has a story worth hearing around here.
View all articles by Alaska GuideI love it. I use it. Does that mean I can sell it? Not necessarily. A friend of mine was selling Mary Kay®. The money was hand-over-fist. Oh, yeah! If she needed extra money for Christmas presents, she just called up all her clients and had a pajama party at which they all lined up to buy loads of skin care products and make-up. So, sure, I signed up. I had just turned 40 and I was going to make it my year of "pretty" and "girl parties."
So now, here I am, a "Mary Kay® Beauty Consultant." Do I make money from it? Occasionally. Do other women make money from it? Oh, yes, gobs and gobs of it! But, I suspect that there are (many) thousands of women like me across the country… women who dabble. Women who think, "Great! I can work from home with the kids." But reality was not involved in the dream process when they signed up.
Reality number one: My kids are not into me working from home. They are much more into me playing at home… with them. One of the reasons I am a stay-at-home mom is that I want to be with them. Getting out to "girl parties" is GREAT in theory, but getting away to be able to do it on a regular basis is a fictional scenario in my life.
Reality number two: My husband, though loving, supportive, and kind, is not receptive to me being away in the evenings giving parties (I am already away enough with PTA meetings and other kid related events). There are also Mary Kay® meetings held by local directors as often as once a week. I've been to a few, enough to know that if I wanted to do well in the business, I would have to go more often for product knowledge, etc. Again, a no-go with hubby, children and my own time-management issues.
Reality number three: This is a job. You might be working from home, but it requires work. The big earners at Mary Kay® are not "doing it on the side." They are full time saleswomen devoted to their products. They attend and hold meetings. They study the new products. They spend a lot of time on the phone setting up parties, following leads, and signing up new sales people. They tell everyone they meet that they sell Mary Kay®. Every encounter is a possible sale.
All of that said, I do make some money from it. I have a few regular clients that I call about 4 times a year to place an order. I usually have just enough, with my own order added in, to place a minimum wholesale order. My last big sale was a fundraiser for my son's preschool and I gave them all of the proceeds. My little Mary Kay table made more for the school than any other table there. I was proud of that. All of the tables were made up of home run businesses like Tupperware®, Discovery Toys®, The Pampered Chef® and more.
I can see how I could make Mary Kay® work as a money making venture if I were to throw myself into it. The women, especially the directors, put time and effort into their businesses and they are making it work big in some cases. The tools are in place for someone who wants to make a go of it. There are training cd's, motivational e-mails, and lots of support in many ways.
Can you make big money by selling Mary Kay®? Yes you can. The big question is, "will you?" It is 100% up to you.
Spread The Word
4 Responses to "Confessions of a Mary Kay® Failure"
|
said this on 30 Jun 2008 7:15:12 PM EDT
Lynne -- you really present a fair, clear picture of the Mary Kay opportunity. I, like you, am a Mary Kay consultant who has never really worked the opportunity. I love the products and think the company is wonderful. However, I am content to service a few clients with a goal of breaking even at the end of the year (after deducting the cost of the products I and my two teenaged daughters use or give away as gifts.) You can get wealthy selling Mary Kay, but not without putting in full time (and overtime) hours. And although you can set your own schedule, you must adapt to customers' schedules, which means that much evening and weekend work is a must.
|
Author/Admin)|
said this on 07 Oct 2008 1:55:02 PM EDT
It's all up to you in the mary kay business. You have to put work into it to get to where you wanna be. Yeah, you have to get up and do skin classes, or glamour parties, but you get money out of it and you have fun. This is a GREAT BUSINESS!! Don't make it sound horrible just because you're too lazy to put work into it. Yes it is a job, like every other job but you do it on your own time you can take time off whenever, you don't even have to do the business if you don't want to. ugh!! Don't get mad because it didn't work for you. You're sending a bad message to everyone else as a consultant i'm done with this message............. gosh ppl are so lazy!
|
|
said this on 07 Oct 2008 7:41:31 PM EDT
Hey now… easy… down girl… Before you start calling me names like lazy, I wish you would actually read the article instead of just the title. I never said that Mary Kay was not a good business, just that it was not good for me. I praised the hardworking women who make it their full time job and rake in mucho cashola.
I believe I also stated that my own priorities were elsewhere… and before you start calling me lazy again, let me list them for you. I am first and foremost a mom. I find time to read to my children whenever they ask me to, which is often. I eat dinner with my family every night with the exception of board meeting nights. I knit, quilt, throw pottery, bake with the children (despite my wheat allergy), read often, write a tourism blog for a hotel website as well as blogs like these for my own enjoyment. I have my own tour business that I operate from home with another mom/professional tourism guru. I have been an officer on 3 different volunteer community boards in my area over the last two years, worked over 500 volunteer hours for my older son’s school last year, AND I am now the (paid, yet still mostly volunteer) Administrative Assistant for my younger son’s preschool. I’m sure I could keep going if I tried. THAT is what I call having my priorities elsewhere. I did not fail at Mary Kay due to laziness. I simply did not understand the time/energy in vs. cash out ratio. And the fact that the time needed would have to be during family time, which I am not willing to give up. |
|
said this on 11 Apr 2009 10:37:10 AM EDT
Actually all of you are wrong - "the opportunity" is a pyramid scheme almost never works, in the end, unless you're willing to lie and cheat to "get ahead." Sure, there are meetings and trainings - and you have to pay out of your pocket even though you are pretty much required to go. Visit www.pinktruth.com and read the real truth in the survivor stories.
|