Thanks for your kind comments ( I can play the sarcasm game too…but prefer not to)

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?

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.)

EXACTLY !   How can the IBC compete with limited abilities to advertise or sell?
I guarantee that Wal-Mart’s income exceeds their expenses! 

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’m new to this “community”

I suppose you put community in quotes as an attempt to insult this site but that’s your problem.

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, those are scams. But there are many types of scams out there.

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?

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.”

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.”

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.