Mary Kay Myth: You Can Start Your Own Business For Only $100.
Written by SuzyQ
Almost true. The starter kit is $100, plus tax and shipping, so technically, it’s almost $120. But that’s not a biggie. The biggie comes with the other stuff a smart business woman needs.
Your director wants to set you up for success, and she will tell you that her job is to give you her best advice, so she will talk about business cards, a website & product reorder labels. You can get the business kit, and that saves some money on ordering those items separately, but it still adds up.
She will talk with you about attending her meetings because she is so busy, she can’t really train everyone in her unit individually, and the training at the meetings is fabulous! And she will ask you to bring a couple of friends with you, so you can work smart and not hard. She will talk about you doing a power start, and earning your pearls of sharing. And then she will talk about inventory.
Generally, you will be given a sheet of paper with a little “quiz” on it to determine what you want from your business. Once you add up the numbers for your answers, there will be a suggested inventory package to help you achieve this goal. Dollars will not be mentioned. The smallest package will be a 600, on up to 3600. Depending on your goals.
The largest package will be discussed first, even though that may not be the suggested one for YOUR goals. You will be told about all of the freebies you can earn with each of the higher inventory levels, and the star prizes you will receive. As she goes down the list of inventory packages, you may notice her voice tone going down to match. There will be some sadness as you reach the bottom of the list, maybe even a head-shaking, as she explains that a 600 is essentially a personal use package, with little free stuff.
You will be told that it doesn’t matter to her what package you choose, but her experience has been that her customers do not want to wait, and Mary Kay herself said “You can’t sell from an empty wagon.” While she is saying numbers and you are hearing money, there’s a bit of a disconnect.
She will encourage you to stretch and to believe in your ability. She will discuss financing options, and may even hand you a card with a banker’s name on it for your convenience. She will have more options than you have objections, and will wear you down.
You will learn that personal debt is bad, and business debt is good. Your product is your personal ATM, you make half of what you sell, and you can have this paid off before you know it because the product just flies off the shelf and sells itself. Besides, there is a 90% buy back guarantee, so this is essentially a risk-proof decision.
When you can finally get a word in and explain that you prefer that people pay up front and then you order as needed, she may furrow her brow a bit and tell you, confidentially, that she has never seen anyone have any success doing their business this way, but, if that is what you want to do…
There will be no free product, you know, and she knows lots of people who will buy from someone else if their consultant doesn’t carry an inventory. She just wants to set you up for success. After all, would you buy a dress from a store that just had pictures of the clothes instead of the actual items? Of course not. And you are a business owner!
So, your $100 decision that may not change your financial picture, but just could change your life, is not entirely accurate, or then again, maybe it is.
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Comments (16)
PinkHooker
| #
i buy clothes online ALL the time…from a picture, after i carefully measure myself to make sure its gonna fit, so i always thought the “You wouldn’t buy a dress from a picture” was a total load of horsepooey.
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Flaming Go
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Yup! I just placed an online order for some clothing items!
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NightRose
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I feel like as we live more and more in the internet era, the “you need inventory” line is hard to sell. I buy from amazon and ebay all the time. I’m used to having to wait for product, or figure out from a picture if I like it. And so are most people these days.
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Lynn
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Exactly. I buy cosmetics online all the time- from Sephora, Macy’s, etc, as do thousands of others. So the whole “women don’t want to wait” and “women will change their minds” lines don’t work anymore.
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katierpowell
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Ugh. Alarm bells were going off during this entire talk when I had it with my director. I told her the same thing, that I would prefer to have people pay up front and then order what they needed and was told the same thing that she’d never seen anyone succeed that way. What really did it for me was telling her that I already had a lot of medical debt and so didn’t want to take on anymore. She lectured me about the difference between good debt and bad debt (its all bad) and made me feel stupid because I did have the medical debt. It was very frustrating that all I needed was $100 to start, but of course that doesn’t include the inventory, new clothes, supplies, a new hair style (mine apparently wasn’t ‘sharp’ enough), getting my nails done, gas, meeting fees, a babysitter. The list goes on and on. I am thankful every day that I got out early. Now I just laugh when I get her emails.
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CaliforniaGal
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The last 10 years I was in Mary Kay everyone knew I only ordered every few months. I gave good deals, no sales tax & good service so no one complainted.
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sweetstrawberry
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I remember being shocked when I saw that $600 was the bare minimum…$115.28 was hard enough to scrape together. After being told that $100 was ALL I needed to start my own “business”, finding out something else AFTER I signed up felt like a punch in the gut.
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NightRose
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Same here. Especially when I knew my recruiter knew how hard that $100ish was to come by. $600 was a dream in a faraway land.
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Catnaptime
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I cannot believe I was taken in by MK, but like many others, I was trying to help out someone. I did the “facial”, and bought some products, and clearly told this person that I had no interest in selling, but I would buy the starter kit to help her out. Because, of course, she had a “goal”, which I said I’d help her with. Naively I assumed MK was like Avon, which I did a few years back and I think is great. I didn’t realize, until her aggressively chasing me down constantly, that MK is a MLM that is based on inventory purchases. After the approx. $120.00 for my starter kit, she almost immediately asked if I would be placing an order by the end of month! Now she is trying to get me to place my first inventory order by the end of this month. She calls me constantly . When I gave her a few minutes to go over some things about ordering, she did exactly what this post said, her voice actually did change as she went down the list of inventory packages, and at $600 said this would really be just for personal use, not selling. She suggested I open an MK credit card, and go the bank and get a separate checking account for MK. I feel so angry and upset that I allowed myself to get duped by this, all because I was trying to be nice, and to help out someone. It’s only been one week since I signed up, but she has been so aggressive, that I realized something wasn’t right. I’m glad I found this website. Thank you!
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MLM Radar
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Cat,
You can return the Starter Kit. See this page:
http://www.pinktruth.com/returning-mary-kay-inventory/returning-your-starter-kit/
Try to avoid going to a meeting. Meetings are all very scripted to deceive, right down to who will sit where, and when the veterans will clap and cheer (they’ve been coached). “No negativity” is the catch-phrase, so you will only hear those things which paint MK in the most positive light. If you raise an objection, you will be quickly hit with a scripted response carefully worded to twist your question and make you agree with her answer.
If you do go, be warned that MK rewrites reality. You will see women applauded for “selling.” That’s what MK calls it when a woman places an inventory order. The truth is that they didn’t really sell a darn thing more than a lipstick or a mascara, or sometimes neither because the order hasn’t even arrived. Yet, for the sake of the guests (meaning you), they are told to Smile and Nod and Look Excited, they are publicly applauded for selling Right Now while they pretend they have already sold the entire order, and they are reassured with a syrupy-sweet whispered voice, “keep smiling, don’t worry, you’ll sell it.”
Good luck resisting the pressure. Don’t hesitate to be as firm in your “NO” as they are pushy in their attempts to squeeze you for an order.
Remember. If the “business” was as good as they say it is, no one would have time to hound you to place an order.
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Catnaptime
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Thanks for the advice, MLM Radar, especially about the meetings. Since reading this site, I feel more empowered to be firm with her, knowing it’s an MLM. The only problem is I have to see her every week at one of my children’s schools, but I am definitely not going through with this!
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Jen G.
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I didn’t have this blog bookmarked on my new computer, so I did a google search to find it. I haven’t been on in a while and couldn’t remember the exact name. I simply typed in Mary Kay for a start. The number of articles I found from reputable publications that denounce Mary Kay was staggering! And, of course, I found you. How I have missed you!
Glad you’re still here!
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Missy C
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Welcome (or is it welcome back?) to Pink Truth, Jen G! come join us at the Discussion Board.
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Jen G.
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Thanks!
I just might do that!
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Nichole
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And even after all these years (though I’ve been out for a couple now and in only one), the script hasn’t changed. I mean, folks who were in a decade ago have said that the script was the same back then. Appalling–both the script and the “business” itself.
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vivian evans
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after 6 years of mary kay …and finally seeing the light!!! lol…i am returning products ..i had a loss this year that was just hit me like a ton of bricks and im glad i can return all the products!!!!!!! i sat in the meeting for years..and honestly..they never teach you anything different!!!!!!!! hahaha i remember coming home from seminar and conference and my husband would be like what did you learn..haha id say nothing really but it was fun being around other women..hahah
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