Doing Mary Kay “your way.”
Lots of times, we get visitors who have decided that they are going to reject a lot of the Mary Kay hype and hoopla and do Mary Kay “their way.”
Usually, what doing it “their way” means is not giving in to pressure to buy lots of inventory every time new products come out; not trying to recruit everyone they come in contact with; not pressuring people to hold appointments or classes.
But can you be successful if you do things your way, rather than following the prescribed Mary Kay business plan? After all, I was always told over and over that as Consultants we shouldn’t “reinvent the wheel:” Mary Kay Ash had outlined how the business should be “worked” and following that plan was your best route to success.
Of course, every individual defines success differently.
However, if your goal is moving up in the “ladder of success,” that means you need to recruit. And those recruits need to place some serious inventory orders.
So what do you think? Can you do Mary Kay your way? Is it worth the time? Does deviating from the Mary Kay plan make sense if you want to make any money doing it?
Lipstick on 
Ann on 
Brooke on 
Tam on 
IMO the only way to do MK your way is personal use only. Even with that, you’ll have to “work” it to get enough orders to keep your active status in the company, and NO you will NOT MAKE ANY MONEY.
Even if you let family/friends order at a discount and pro-rate shipping among all those ordering, you’ll still spend time trying to get everyone to place their order in your time frame and unless you get $$ first, then you’ll have to put that order on your cc, or pay for it out of your account, and then attempt to collect the money (more time) and deliver the product (more time) to the appropriate party.
With GA$ prices as they are, you’ll have more expenses too, labels, business cards, books, etc. Definitely won’t make $ at all!
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You guys are right! Ofcourse there is all of these expenses and time invested! But don’t you also spend gas to travel to any other job? Do they give you gas money? Can you claim miles on your tax return?
Yes, you have all of these expenses, but you’re running your own business. So all of your expenses will be deducted at the end of the year. So you keep track. If women didn’t REALLY make money, do you think this company would have succeeded??? I mean if it was a scam or didn’t work, atleast one of 1.8 million consultants would have raised some kind of boycott.
You have to work. You have to work hard! But then again don’t you have to work hard anywhere to be at the top and barely put in efforts to make the big money?
Lastly, just want to say you would really have to enjoy what your doing. You can make $45/hr out in the market but you have to either run a serious health risk or be in school for years. If you want the money.. you will keep working there. If you enjoy what you will be doing.. you will be motivated in school. I sell Mary Kay, and have had my ups and downs, but I enjoy it. So I go back to it!
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Hilary,
You are so right with “you have to enjoy what your doing.” I just started my Mary Kay business and yes it does take $ to run it. It is great that it will be tax deductible. My other jobs never were. At my previous job I did make $45 hour and was unhappy. I kept thinking to myself there has to be something more then just making money. More then being so drained and wore out from my day that I couldn’t give my family any attention when I got home. I gave my old job 110% to make it work and it repaid me by outsourcing my job to another country. They didn’t give me prises like Mary Kay does. They didn’t say “You are valued. You are wonderful. You are great” like Mary Kay does.
Yes, a job, not just Mary Kay, is different to everyone. My previous job was liked by some and hated by the rest. It is what you make of it. I like it. I’m sorry if other people don’t. I’m not going to put you down for not liking it. It is your choice to not like it. I would appreciate it if you could give me the same courtesy and not put me or other people like me that like Mary Kay down.
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Be careful and consult a tax professional. not all of it is tax deductible, the deductions are allowed only as a percentage of your totalMK income. MK is not specific about that and lead many to believe that ALL expenses are deductible!
This site is not about putting anybody down it is about informing people of the pitfalls!
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Lipstick is right: Be careful with thinking that everything you spend money on in MK is tax deductible. And it’s easy to get into the trap of thinking that you can spend money on retreats, special events and training because it’s tax deductible. It’s a common misconception perpetuated by directors. An expense is still an expense and it means you aren’t making money.
As for putting people down…it’s amazing to me that for the most part, any “putting down” is usually done TO members here by those who want to chastise us for saying anything about MK that might not be what they want to hear. The most critical and nasty comments come from consultants in Mary Kay who want to believe all the hype and come here to blame the messenger.
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Also, the $ 45 per hour reference – I am guessing it is BEFORE all these tax deductions? I found that actual amount I got to put in my pocket to be extremely small. JMO
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Hello everyone! I’m new to this “community” as I just happened across it while attempting to locate Barbara Sunden’s site. I haven’t read a whole lot,–but did read this thread, and am puzzled over L J’s comment, “An expense is still an expense and it means you aren’t making money.”
Hmmmm…… I grew up in a family-owned business, got married and ran 2 of my ex-husband’s businesses, and indeed, in every single business that I know of, they all share one thing in common; they have expenses. Never once, not even in college, have I ever heard it said that an expense means you aren’t making any money.
I found it puzzling, as most companies, let’s use “Walmart” as an example, spend money on inventory, advertising, etc. Perhaps I misunderstood, but I believe it was said that Sam Walton, while living, was the richest man in America.
On a humorous note, that one line, “an expense is still an expense and it means you aren’t making money”, reminded me of a story my Dad used to tell me as a child about the man who had a hot dog stand. It went something like this:
A man had a small, successful business selling hot dogs a short distance off of a well-traveled highway. He had a billboard along the highway, advertising the aforementioned. (I’m guessing he would have considered it a business expense!) One day, one of his regular customers stopped by, and while eating his hot dog, informed the hot dog stand owner that a recession, at the very least, was coming, if not an out-and-out depression. The owner, after thinking about this, decided that he couldn’t afford his billboard anymore. Sure enough! His customer had been right; he had no business at all!
In my humble opinion, if one were to really want to know and understand what the definition of a “scam” is, go back and read about Enron, or, more recently, Bernard Madoff.
Yes, I am currently an active Mary Kay consultant. When I started on my Mary Kay journey in 2003, I did so with one goal in mind; to meet and make friends with other women who appreciated Mary Kay’s business philosophy and ethics. I have never regretted my choice. I have never had the desire to become a director. However, after comprehending the fact that Mary Kay, whilst being in over 35 markets worldwide, is DEBT-FREE, I have been reconsidering.
Has anyone else ever noticed that about 1/2 of the main floor of all the major department stores such as “Saks Fifth Avenue”, “Nordstrom’s”, etc. is comprised of beauty (skin care/makeup) counters?
In closing, I can’t help but share one of my favorite quotes by Steven Covey, “We see the world, not as it is, but as we are.”
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Hi MK Lady,
Glad I could provide some humor for you. Taking my comment about expenses out of context means you missed my point.
Yes, every business has expenses. I never said nor meant to imply that a business should be expense free. That would be absolutely stupid, and that WASN’T what I was saying.
My point is that in Mary Kay, women are encouraged to spend money on things like events and training, as I said in my original comment, with the assurance from Directors that the expense is tax deductible.
But…and I’ll say it again: an expense is an expense. It ISN’T income.
So as a smart business person, if you want to make money (which is the point of having a business, by the way), then you want to maximize income and minimize expenses.
Your hot dog stand parable has little to do with expenses and everything to do with making smart decisions regarding expenses.
I suppose you put community in quotes as an attempt to insult this site but that’s your problem.
Yes, those are scams. But there are many types of scams out there.
I’m sure you mention this to somehow show that beauty is big business and somehow tie MK into it. Oh I know! Look how big the market is for cosmetics. Just look at all of it in the stores! This certainly means that those women who are at those cosmetic counters would rather buy Mary Kay and have a makeup party in their house and they buy hundreds of dollars of cosmetics a day so why shouldn’t you get a piece of it by selling Mary Kay? (tee hee…can’t help my sarcasm today. I heard this attempt to associate cosmetics sales to potential Mary Kay sales one too many times I guess.)
The MK Lady…what’s funny is that you just helped to substantiate something I said in that same previous comment that you cite: “As for putting people down…it’s amazing to me that for the most part, any “putting down” is usually done TO members here by those who want to chastise us for saying anything about MK that might not be what they want to hear.”
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Ms L J,
I understand all of your concerns and comments on this website. But yes I too run 2 businesses. I am a hairstylist and a Mary Kay Beauty Consultant.
Every business takes expenses. A business will bloom whatever you are willing to put into it. If you are willing to have a GREAT attitude people will flock to you and continue to flock to you. Whenever you start anything whatever time and money you pay into it will come back in abundance. I’m away nobody can convince you of this if you don’t want to believe it.
We are all here to encourage each other!!!
So work it girl!
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EXACTLY ! How can the IBC compete with limited abilities to advertise or sell?
I guarantee that Wal-Mart’s income exceeds their expenses!
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LMAO! with the way Wal-Mart is always “lowering” their prices all the makeup/skincare is going to be free real soon right?!
Sorry couldn’t resist…giggle giggle =)
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BabyBlues says:
October 22, 2009 at 4:43 pm
LMAO! with the way Wal-Mart is always “lowering” their prices all the makeup/skincare is going to be free real soon right?!
Sorry couldn’t resist…giggle giggle =)
And didn’t they say in MK “If it’s free it’s for me”? Girls get your “free” makeup at Walmart!
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Just becuase you guys couldnt cut it…dont hate those that can….hate the game not the player…(i enjoy sarcasm too)
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Nobody hates anyone. And lots and lots of the ladies here DID cut it, if you consider having a successful Mary Kay business (i.e. made some money) to be cutting it.
Thanks for your kind comments ( I can play the sarcasm game too…but prefer not to)
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Happy…did anyone say the word hate, with the exception of you? On this site, we don’t hate, we just inform. If you don’t want the information, that’s fine, just don’t insult us by calling us names.
And Happy, if you are in MK, aren’t you forgetting the Golden Rule when you start calling others names and judging them? I personally don’t know anyone on this site, who didn’t put a lot of hard work into trying to make money in MK. So in my informed opinion, they were not slackers or losers and to say they “couldn’t cut it” and call them “haters” is an insult. They are my friends and I find them to have the highest level of integrity, a good work ethic and big hearts!
Hope you have a great day!
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Hey I just have a small point to make. I remember the author of this article mentioning something about not giving into pressure to buy inventory every time a new product comes out. Now I am just going off my own personal experience. I did choose to invest in having a fairly substantial amount of inventory (nothing too outrageous) that I can have on hand when I am out holding appointments. I chose to do this because it saves me time and money. when a customer orders a product and I have it on hand I can give it to her right there and be done with it that way my amount of postage is minimized. If you believe time and money go hand in hand, then having inventory is also saving you money. You dont have to take time out to go to the post office and have it delivered. THe average whole sale order takes a few weaks to come into the mail, and always costs only $8.00 Most women dont want to wait two weaks to recieve their cosmetics therefor you are more likely to sell more products by simply having them with you to sell. not to mention by keeping inventory in my car I get many “on the go” sales which means if I run into someone somewhere and they decide they want something I have it in my car and just made money without having to do a lot of work. When I decided to become a consultant I didnt feel that much pressure to invest in inventory by my director, I frankly chose to do it on my own free will. I agree it is very important to keep expenses down that is whey I invested into inventory my personal postage only comes to about 24.00 a month because I do bulk wholesale orders. by going out and either personally delivering all of your products or mailing them you are losing a lot of time and money. I would say that if people follow the marketing plan and keep their business expenses to about ten percent you still profit at least fourty percent of all of your sales, Not to mention the commissions check you recieve from the company by recruiting. I am not a director but have still recruited a few team members I recieve a commissions check from the company of about $500.00 and my weakly sales by working roughly ten to fifteen hours a weak (part time) are about $1,000.00 so lets use the fourty percent that consultants make (including business expenses) to figure my monthly income by only working about ten hours a weak, thats about $1650.00 a month by only putting in fourty hours of work a MONTH not including my re-order business, prizes and recognition or the career car program. Now working full time at a restaurant I only made about $800.00 a month. For me Mary kay has made a very substantial difference in my personal living situation. I can make my own schedule, I can take sick days without feeling guilty, and have time to put into my passion which is making and selling art. I didnt mean for this to be so long I just wanted to share my personal experience as a mary kay consultant and how it has actually really changed my own life for the better.
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