RebekahStellar
- 14 Feb 2004
You stated that the average consultant makes 5,000 per year. What kind of hours does the average consultant put into the business? Is that a consultant who's holding 2 classes a week? 3? 4? or is that a consultant who maybe only sells enough product to pay their loan payment? I'm asking because I think it's important to know the whole story behind the "5,000" per year fact.
TIA
RebekahStellar - 14 Feb 2004
Hi Rebekah.......that information came from tapes provided by the company, so I guess the Company would be the best one to answer that. As Mary Ward also stated on Opinion #120.....I do recall the source of their research being revealed on tapes, maybe you can call them and post what you learn. From experience, it seems correct. You'll always have the 'few' who exceed that who have a larger circle of influence, etc. Circumstances are different for everyone which is what we have very well tried to establish on this board. Mary stated it was on the recruitment tapes and there's one called "Something More" and another newer one......how the company could get the data since they do not record actual sales is beyond me, however, many units utilize the weekly accomplishment sheets to record actual sales and to give recognition thereof. Perhaps they got it from those somehow. The forms are not mailed to the company to my knowledge, so maybe the Nationals provided them w/that info. I am just guessing here.
What I would like to see on these posts is how Wendy is so successful in personal sales.....to sell that amount every week is truly inspirational and I think it would do others good to have the kind of information and guidelines to achieve such high sales. AND readers, keep in mind that this is not a sarcastic request, a humble request for information.
For more information regarding incomes, click to the link at the bottom of this Mary Kay board which Eli has set up.....it's a money stretcher site. Very informative.
Hi Laura,
MK is a number games: if you go out and work the business it will pay off. I did it myself. If I chose to only talk to a few ladies a week I certainly would have fallen into the 5,000 a year figure. But if I spoke to about 70 to 80 ladies a week, I most certainly would surpass that figure. I guess what I am saying is that it doesn't matter what MK puts out as their "average" consultant. The question remains: how much time are they putting into the business. In my unit there were Mk Consultants who got after it and many, many more who just skated along and had no interest of really putting out the effort required to make the business work. My bet is the latter defines "average consultant". If so, that's hardly an accurate representation of how much you can really make in MK.
Hi Rebekah....yip, you are dead on right, MK is a numbers game (bet they won't tell you that at the recruiting interview!)..I was a director, I am well aware of 'the numbers game'. You are also right in that it is an individual preference how much effort one puts in the business. It is a FLEXIBLE business and that is fine, HOWEVER, I think we are finally getting to the meat and purpose of these posts.......how much TIME is involved in 'working your business'......talking to 70-80 women a week would definitely take some time and sacrifice of family/personal time, don't you think? And, what is the likelihood that women would talk to that many people unless they were holding mega classes, doing shows in malls, etc.??????
See #125 where Wendy has outlined what she does to make the level of income she does.....while that's awesome......many women are not willing to sacrifice that much time for a business, let alone being away from family.....different circumstances for all as I replied to Wendy in her post.
At recruitment, and I recruited many women, we don't tell them all that is involved in 'working your business'.....we just point to these huge checks and say anything is possible, it's fun, exciting, etc. While you can have your cake and eat it too, like anything, it takes HARD WORK....Wendy even works 'smart' as they say, yet we can imagine the hours spent each week in accomplishing the tasks she needs to and she also has assistants, as most directors do, to provide clerical support.......and many have housekeepers to free the directors or DIQ's up to recruit, interview, do phone work, hold classes, train consultants, etc. I am using her only as an example of someone who is ultra successful and what it takes to be there since she has so graciously given us tips about how she accomplishes her huge sales.
If 'making the business work' requires sacrifice of weekends, evenings, many, if not most women with families do not WANT to put forth that effort, especially those who have FT jobs in addition to a MK business......that does not mean they are 'not working their business', which as I've passionately posted about on these boards. What they find, after they are exhuberantly recruited is the 'real world' of great effort, long hours, many rejections, etc., and while it's a great lesson, perseverence, women become discouraged and disillusioned because their recruiters told them 'it was easy'. It is NOT easy and my whole point in all my posts is that women need to be told, at the point of recruitment, what is entailed in terms of 'work' if they want the upper levels of income.
It takes sacrifice, I've seen it, I've seen women's families cry that their mom is leaving again at nite, husbands mad at their wives for time spent away from home after they were told initially, it only involved a 'few hours' a week, etc. etc (their recruiter said). While this is NOT the case for everyone........a 'successful' career in MK seems to involve alot of time and that's what I would like to see posted so that those who are reading these boards considering starting this career or simply figuring it's not worth the sacrifice are informed by those who are successful, just what does it take in the form of time and energy 'to work your business'.
Curious Rebekah......you say you 'did it yourself'.....so do you talk to 70-80 women a week, what's your business like????? I am not saying this sarcastically, I truly want to know what you do with your business and I think others may be equally curious since you seem to be successful......it's great to hear exactly what is involved from those who say they 'did it' so that those who 'want to' can know what's involved. So, like how many hours do you put in a week, do you hold X amount of classes, etc. and what would you say your average income would be for the energy you put in???? (On a side note from some of the other posts responding to my request for the measure of success in terms of $ and hours spent in 'working your business'....I see personal phone numbers published on these posts, yet great exception was taken about posting a general profit amount......perplexing at best.)
I AM calling on women who are posting to reveal what's involved so those who utilize these message boards can draw a 'real' conclusion. I thank you in advance for your information.
user marclauraryan7 at domain yahoo.com
Hi Laura,
Funny thing is: my director told me staight up that MK is numbers game. I also already knew that because it seems pretty darn common sense that some will book while others will not. One of the main reasons that I only chose to recruit educated, business women is that they had enough smarts to realize what direct sales requires AND they also realized that to build a good income you need to work at least 20 per week. To be honest, Laura, that just seems like a no brainer to me.
As far as what I did to make income, Wendy nailed it. The only difference is that I offered 50 dollars in free MK to a woman who held a class with 5 or more people. Depending on if I thought they might be inclined to take advantage of that offer; I would throw in that the class must have 200.00 in sales. Guess what? They really liked that.
When ever I was out and about I would stop and talk to several women. So the numbers really added up fairly quickly. And if my husband was going to have a problem with me working, well then I wouldn't have done it. However, being a business owner himself he had enough common sense to realize that money doesn't fall from the sky because you have a "home based business" you have to work it. And that may mean longer hours in the beginning until it's built up! Again, an no-brainer.
If a women is working a FT job and is passionate about doing her own business, I would certainly hope that she would realize that it will take a sacrafice on some level to make that switch. If not, I have to say that she might just be better working for someone else. Because if she can't figure that fact out on her own then I'm certain she will have a hard time running a successful business.
JMHO..
Wendy here: Yes, Yes and YES! A few years back, the first year I was in the court of sales, I too offered $50 to the hostess! I told her that she would get a guaranteed $25 if she had 4 other ladies, over 18 and not currently working with another MK consultant at her class. Then I said, "if you can find just one more guest for a total of 5, I will DOUBLE your gift certificate!" I didn't set a sales amount but I would certainly coach a newer consultant to do that. I ended up with $400,500,600+ classes! It was incredible and the referrals were incredible. Imagine at that time we got 3 referrals from each guest and now the profile has spaces for 5 referrals! I would leave with over 15 referrals. I also agree that if you are starting this to make money, most people I interview want to work 10-15 hrs. per week but that can change once they get started. Actually when I ask them what time they are willing to give it, most tell me 25 hours! You can go a long way with 25 hrs. in 1 week. Remember that alot of women are holding down second jobs or are looking for one. Many will make the sacrifice at first so they can either kick that second job or not have to take one. If someone says they are unwilling to put anything into this, then I have no problem telling them that they may be better off staying a customer. As far as me putting my phone number on here, I get calls all day long for anything and everything and this is my business line so I don't mind posting this number. My personal number is another story. Thanks, Wendy
| Topic MaryKayOpinion123 . { Edit | Ref-By | Attach | Diffs | r1.7 | > | r1.6 | > | r1.5 | > | r1.4 | >... } |
|
Revision r1.7 - 16 Feb 2004 - 08:03 by WendyTurnidge
Privacy Policy |
Copyright © 2000-2005 by the contributing authors.
All material on this collaboration tool is the property of the contributing authors. Collect email addresses here. Ideas, requests, problems regarding TWiki? Send feedback. |