I am a brand new consultant for Mary Kay. . . I was reading your posts and noticed that you keep refering to MK as a franchise. I just wanted to add what it says about Consultants in our Agreement we sign when we order our Start-up Kit ($118.00) and other inventory ($600-4000?)

The Agreement states for the Consultants and so on, that we are not joint venturers with, or franchisee, partner, agent or employee of the MK company. We are independent contractors and responsible for our own self-employment matters such as federal & state taxes and social security taxes.

We have no power or authority to incur any debt,obligation or liability on behalf of the MK Company.

Mary Kay also offers to buy back products (90%) if the Consultant is not satisified within 30 days, or 1 year if the start kit is not used. This is only with the cancellation of the contract agreement. in doing so, once you return your product and cancel the contract (according to my Director) you can never be a MK Consultant again.

I will say that the personalities of the MK world are very friendly and positive. The Mary Kay Ash company promotes God, Family, and than Career. My “I” story, is that I started Mary Kay in order to have a job in this economy. I was about to lose my home. There were student loans piling up from earning my Masters in Business degree (May 2009) and I was unable to find work. So, I am now an Independent Consultant-Independent Businesswoman and all of the world is my oyster.
It is up to me what I earn, not someone in a tie. The hours are whatever I want them to be and I get to meet tons of people while treating them to FREE facials and selling them make-up that they love.
http://www.marykay.com/RockinBeauty

Corralee

RockinBeauty@marykay.com Take Care Everyone!!

I’m also a new consultant, and I also didn’t purchase the inventory. In fact, I’m at a bit of a disadvantage, because I signed up as a consultant on June 13th, and the week before I went on vacation for a week, so I only had 7 of the 15 days where you have to place your $600 order to receive the free products. My husband just started a new job two days ago after being unemployed for 3 months, and I am a stay-at-home mom who will be starting school this fall, so we definitely didn’t have the means or the credit to front $600 or more dollars for a business start up.

I’m excited to say that I did meet my $600 goal in the amount of time, just from offering it to my immediate family that was on vacation with me, (There were 23 women of us that rented a beach house for a week). Now what I did do, is rather than take my 50% commission on their orders, I took that 50% profit and used it to buy some inventory for myself, so I haven’t seen a true “profit” from it yet, but I have my debut scheduled for July 11th and plan on making quite a bit of commission from those orders, and since I’m a stay at home mom anyway, it’s not like I’m missing out on a paycheck because I’m not used to getting one anyway.

Just thought I’d respond because I was in a similar situation. Take care!

I’m a new Mary Kay consultant, and I am truly loving it right now. You are right that the consultant turnover rate may not be ideal, but that’s because it takes a certain type of person to be able to sell. Not everyone would be comfortable working in car sales and guaranteed nothing more than a commission on sales and no hourly wage for putting in 60 hours a week. The people that are comfortable taking that risk are the people who have proven sales skills and abilities. Most consultants that don’t make it to their 6-month mark are people who are excited about signing up and being able to buy their own makeup for 50% off of retail, and they’ll get their immediate family and friends to buy some too, but after that, they have gotten what they wanted from it and they move on.

I don’t criticize those people, it may just not have been for them. It’s convenient for me right now because I’m a stay at home mom who’s attending school in the fall and I have my summer free to gain a loyal customer base, and then when I’m in school and have less time to spend on my business, I can count on the sales from my loyal customer’s reorders.

Inventory is not required for new consultants to purchase, and while I see your point that some Directors may push for them to buy the largest inventory option because it does increase their commission, most Directors are not made of greed. They don’t have to be, they make fine income getting to the point of a Director anyway. Also, they want you to LOVE the company and be passionate about working for the company, so they aren’t going to push you to charge $3,600 worth of inventory to your credit card and then have you regret that decision the next month when your bill arrives and have you doubting the business.

The reason behind offering the inventory packages as an OPTION, not a REQUIREMENT, is that Mary Kay Ash found that when she didn’t have her own inventory in stock and was simply taking orders for the products, a week later when the product arrived and she went to deliver it, customers were no longer excited about the products they tried at their free makeover or demonstration, and because Mary Kay offers a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee, they weren’t obligated to still pay for the products upon delivery. She needed to devise a plan to have the products in hand and ready to give to the customer the second they tried it on and loved it and made the decision to buy it. It also saves us consultants time, because we don’t have to spend a great deal of time creating a supply order and submitting it and then waiting for the products to be delivered to our homes and then have us separate them and spend our own money to ship and deliver them, because Mary Kay also prides itself on Free Shipping and Delivery.

Now, I will agree that Mary Kay products are not as competitively priced as a couple other companies out there are a great deal of companies out there who are more expensive than Mary Kay, and their products are not as proven to deliver results as Mary Kay, and they do not offer free shipping and delivery or 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. As for the companies that charge less than Mary Kay, they may get more initial customers because of the lower price of the products, but the sales consultants have a lower turnover rate because, at least in a lot of cases, they find that they don’t make as much money as they were led to believe. Mary Kay offers the highest commission to it’s consultants more than any other company, which inspires and motivates us to be outgoing and constantly finding new customers.

As for the strategy to get consultants to recruit new consultants, that certainly is an option for us to earn money, but we aren’t out there recruiting just anyone. To give you an example, it costs $100 to order your starter kit and become a Mary Kay consultant, and the product package you get is worth well over $400. I could go out and easily get $100 from everyone I meet and sign them up as a consultant by promising them a $400 retail value starter kit, and allowing them to purchase any additional products at 50% off, but we don’t do that, because we want to recruit the people who will excel in this business. I have a great deal of friends, many of whom live in other areas and would be ideal for me to sign up as consultants for that reason because they can reach the customers I would never meet, but I know they don’t have the desire and motivation to be a successful salesperson and grow with the company, so I don’t waste my time or their money by trying to recruit them.

I have no complaints about Mary Kay products or the way it conducts it’s business. We have great Sales Directors who would never lead us in the wrong direction and are there for tips and strategy advice every step of the way. They go above and beyond their job descriptions, making themselves available to dozens of consultants who work under them in their areas, and they stretch their time to be at every meeting and class and party they can possibly be at so they can constantly coach and teach and offer constructive tips for us to improve our businesses.

Hope that cleared up a little bit for you.

Mary Kay Cosmetics Corporation has been
s#!ting on women’s porches for years, and years…

Is this some new sales technique? How much do I have to buy to keep them off my porch?

Is there nothing some people won’t do to land a pink car?

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2009/jan/08/visitor-defecates-fort-pierce-womans-porch/

As far as a MK franchise goes, I just don’t think so. No expert here but the ftc is: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/invest/inv07.shtm

And as far as calculating the time invested in the business (when figuring up your ROI), I’d just like to say that I imagine most people waste an awful lot of time running around doing useless things like hitting Wal-Mart to quench the urge to buy and chatting it up at the local coffee shop.

I was in trucking for the last 13 years and if you ask a truck driver how much they made on the hour (talking over the road trucker- not a local guy who is paid by the hour), the number is dismally low- especially considering the cost of being gone from family and friends.

It’s even worse for a trucking owner operator.

I’ve been getting informed about MK for a while now and some of the ranting just strikes me funny coming from my trucking background. You want to talk about someone getting scammed? Investigate the lease purchase programs offered by most trucking companies.

IMO, women who fall hook, line, and sinker for the MK trap (and I’m not saying MK IS a trap- just types faster than saying “if you wind up drowning in product and no sales”) did it to themselves. Yes, they seem to promote this path, but it takes a sucker to go down it for themselves.

I do definitely like the products. A lot. And to those who wine that the mark up is ridiculous, I’d have to agree with those others who mention that the mark up on EVERYTHING YOU BUY is ridiculous. That’s called business. It’s the American way (and I say that as a die hard capitalist and fan of financial success).

My suggestion to those considering starting up in MK and those trying to determine if it’s a scam is to check out Dave Ramsey- the financial guy. Put .com behind his full name and you’ll get there. Get out of debt the old fashioned way- by cutting your expenses and paying it off. And don’t let anything put you back into it- not even the lure of inventory.