Mary Kay Great Company and Great Opportunity but be careful!!
Im just a lowly consultant who believes in this company. Due to a physical disability I had to start over again I was in several years ago. I usually dont respond to boards like this I just read them but I felt I had to because there was something in my heart that told me to. First of all anyone reading these boards who is thinking about joining MK please give it a try but unless you are going to hold 3 classes a week every week there is no need in getting 3000 worth of inventory!!!! I dont know where the company got that statement from where there are NO QUOTAS!!! There are quotas in any sales company to maintain the car or the commission or the title or whatever. They really need to change the literature or presentation and say there are certain requirements. I know some people are going to get mad about this but they are MLM in a sense where they are different is you dont start to get comissions on your 3rd levels until you are National and 2nd levels until you are a director. They dont pay down to the 7th and 9th level like some network marketing companies. The PLUS side to MK is that they have a 50 percent commission structure which most of these Pampered Chef, Avon and others like them only pay 27 percent and in that neighborhood in the beginning. You can make GOOD money just selling it if you keep product on your shelf. MK has a good name out there and they have been around for a long time so they dont have the tainted image that Amway and all of these other companies that are based on recruiting do. Where MK stays out of trouble is they are listed with the Direct Selling Association and they DO present the opportunity as a sales opportunity and not a recruiting opportunity that is how they manage to stay out of trouble and what they are doing as far as sales and recruiting to my knowledge is perfectly legal.
Out of all of the direct sales companies out there they probably have the BEST training I have ever seen as far as being proactive. If you want to just put flyers on the door or leave them in the mailbox then you should sell AVON and not MK to sell MK and do well with it you must be proactive. They train their directors well and YES they do stress the positive thinking deal but I think thats good I never felt like I was in a cult!!! A lot of companies in corporate America do that with their salespeople so that is nothing new. As far as moving up the career path is concerned I think that whether you choose to do it fast or slow is up to you but make sure you have a good customer base and dont recruit all of your family and friends it wont last. As a director you will have a lifestyle of recruiting until you find leaders in your group who want the opportunity and then you can concentrate on them but units who have 150 or more are where the director concentrates on that type of thing. I know some people will say when you get to 100 you are safe but when you start to have offspring that is not true you have to get your numbers really HIGH to feel safe. If you have women in your unit who want to do the business then 100 is pretty safe but when you start to have people dropping off or if you are not maintaining enough to keep the red or the pink car that is when trouble sets in unless you have a group who is recruiting and selling and placing orders.
This is not to frighten anyone there are directors out there with 50 women who are pulling in 10,000 wholesale a month and some with 100 who are barely doing 5,000!!! If you want to be a MK consultant and make some money here and there and dont want a lifestyle change that is fine when you go for directorship its a lifestyle change and you have to WANT to recruit and hold classes and go through some changes (seeing people leave, seeing women do it fast and then fall, some doing at the pace of a turtle but maintaining, trying not to compare yourself to other people when you feel tempted to, trying not to see everyone as a potential recruit) this is easier said then done until you get to Directorship.
Its a rewarding position and most of the women I know and have met love it but there are the horror stories you hear of and when I hear about people being bullied or pressured into buying inventory it saddens my heart. Read your consultants guide and do this business the MK way and if you want to move up to directorship just be ready for the road you have ahead of you ..the work to keep that pink car is not easy but it can be rewarding!! You dont have to work 40 hours a week either a good pink cadillac director is working 25-35 hours a week. These horror stories go on in a LOT of sales companies dont think that MK is the only one as a matter of fact MK has less horror stories than some of the other MLM's out there and they DO have the 90 percent guarantee and a lot of companies dont have that. There are some consultants who feel that they wished they had gotten MORE inventory and some who wish they had gotten less so when it comes to the inventory talk read your guide and your sheets and YOU along with the help of your director map out your goal and make the decision as to how much you need but if you do get 3,000 worth you are going to HAVE to do classes consistently every week to get it to move it will just sit on the shelf if YOU dont run your business and you cant blame the company for that. MK is one of the few direct sales companies I have seen where you can see a profit quicker. If you dont want to carry inventory its going to be tough but you can build it up and it can be done if you want to win a car and be happy it can be done.
Most of the women I have seen at the top in the MK world are either very charismatic and the job they were in didnt capitalize on that OR they were hard workers and wanted a change in their life. Im not against Tupperware,or Avon or Pampered Chef but their commission structure is not as good as MK's althought MK is based on an inventory system so in order for you to make money and a profit you have to keep inventory the other companies ship to the hostess or to the consumer when you have paid. The good thing about MK is that it IS a consumable so you will get TONS of reorders. The product is excellent and I personally do not think its overpriced at all. If you look at the scheme of things and reading this board MK has been around 40 years and to my knowledge has not had that many lawsuits so they are doing something right and I DO believe they enrich womens lives. One thing that does concern me though is I have heard stories of them allowing more of a grace period for some directors than others and seeing that the lady Laura posted about who was a TOP director Im shocked they didnt make an allowance for her there must be more to that story I would suspect I wouldnt think that a director who was that high would have a problem like that I guess it depends on who your National is. If you follow the MK way and do it that way you should be successful and if you become a Director and still hold classes and facials and recruit and you LIKE it you will do well but if you are looking to join MK to retire forget it you have to become a National!!! If you are looking to join the company to make some money to put ASIDE to retire and win some prizes if you are a high seller then by all means GO for it. If you just want to make 6.00 an hour then you are better off going to McDonalds 
or Burger King and working. MK is easy once you learn how to do it and keep appointments on the books this company is not a catalog company unless you just want to sell lipstick and eye color. Avon rules in the catalog business. Sales is not for everyone but for those who choose to do it and want a consumable product this company I think is the way to go. ANY company you join not just MK when it comes to cars and big commission checks THEY ALL have requirements or QUOTAS or whatever you choose to call it DONT LET ANYONE tell you otherwise!!! You cant even make 100,000 a year on a 9-5 job unless you are doing the work. The nice thing about MK is that those women are not working 70 hours a week and killing themselves in the process. When you hear the pitch about God First and Family Second and Job Third that is the rule MK built the company on but remember like any other company they are there to make a profit!! I think one of the best things MK did was the adoptee program where if you live in another state your consultant can be trained by another director and she guides you. The other director does not get a commission but she knows another director is taking care of one of her consultants when it comes to training and goal setting. I dont know of any other company that has that program and the directors are highly encouraged by it ..it takes a non selfish person to do that and also it gives them more people in the meeting room so there is an advantage to it. One thing that gives me hope about this company in the future is that 90 percent of the women who are Nationals when Mary Kay was living are still around and Mary Kays son is with the company so I would imagine for at least the next ten years the company will run on her tried and true principles. The Nationals do have a lot of say in what goes on within the company and when it came to the car program they even lowered the requirements and I have NEVER seen a company do that. I think the director bonuses could be a little higher but Im not an accountant so I dont know if it would be economically feasible. If you can make it into the Grand Prix or the Cadillac you can make a good sized income and work 25 hours a week. You have to really want it, if you are not motivated you are better off at the nine to five corral. MK is a great opportunity just make sure you read the materials and make a commitment that its something you really want to do and dont go into joining or into directorship on emotion ...emotion wont keep you there a good work ethic will,
Stephanie
StephanieSettles - 08 Feb 2004
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