I love it when Mary Kay sales directors and national sales directors admit that the scam they’re running has nothing to do with the real business world! They just prove my point for me!

What???? I’m saying that being a Mary Kay consultant isn’t a real business? No kidding! Of course that’s what I’m saying.

And in this document from a Mary Kay nsd, my point is proven for me. The document even goes so far as to call this “Mary Kay vs. Real Life.” Here are a few of my favorite excerpts, with my comments in italics…

Entrepreneurs need a team of people that they pay for various services: advertising department, graphic artists, website administrators, etc.

Mary Kay provides us with all the tools: PCP, our Personal Web Site, Research & Development, Marketing Placement, Medical Relations, etc.

In reality, Mary Kay consultants pay for PCP and the websites. They’re also encouraged to pay for office help. Mary Kay does some advertising and marketing, but the market is so saturated with desperate consultants, that you’re unlikely to receive any tangible benefits from these.

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Entrepreneurs have to go to the bank and borrow anywhere from $50,000 to $500,000 or more to get their business off the ground. And if their business doesn’t work out, they lose everything they put in.

We borrow a maximum of $5,000 to start our business,including stocking our “store.” And if it doesn’t work out, Mary Kay gives us a 90% buy-back guarantee!

Consultants and Directors routinely put more than $5,000 into Mary Kay, and I’ve seen plenty of women not get their 90% back because of time limits. Your director will lie and mislead in the hope that you won’t return your inventory, and once your time is up, that inventory is stuck on your shelf no matter what. Consultants incur plenty of costs that can never be recovered, and billing MK as a “no risk” or “low risk” venture is beyond dishonest.

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Entrepreneurs pay for every piece of training they get – to the tune of $1500 to $5000 per “must attend” event or conference.

Mary Kay consultants get weekly training for free.Company events such as Career Conference and Seminar cost less than $200 (and we get brand new product to cover part of the cost!)

Most entrepreneur conferences don’t cost near those figures, and their conferences are actually beneficial to business. No Mary Kay events are free. Ever. Consultants pay for meetings, guest events, and any sort of “training” events you can think of. MK conferences and Seminar are a waste of time and money. There is very little real training, unless you count recycling the same tired scripts and stalking suggestions. These events are not for your benefit… they are for the benefit of MK and your upline who want you to recruit. Stay home and shake your pom-poms for free!

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Entrepreneurs often work on an “Accounts Receivable” model where they get paid 30 to 90 days after delivering their products.

We have no Accounts Receivable – we get paid the moment we deliver our product (and we have an instant 50% profit)!

You have virtually no sales, so there is nothing to receive. And even when Mary Kay consultants do sell a little, they do NOT have a 50% profit. Not even close.

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Entrepreneurs work extremely long hours to get their businesses started up – and have no weekends, no days off, no vacation and no breaks. They need to understand that they will not see very much of their family during start-up.

We hold three classes a week (approximately 10 hours per week) to have a very profitable business. We work our business around our family and can still take vacations and days off.

Ha! Mary Kay hours can be just as long, and time away from the family is just as bad if you are trying to “move up” in MK. And exactly who is holding those three classes? Most everyone is too busy stalking people who don’t want to hold classes, and recruiting those few who do, so in the end there are no product sales and the only income is from recruiting women who buy inventory.The reality is that sales directors work 40 to 60 hours per week to earn $15,000 to $25,000 per year. That’s minimum wage (or less).

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Most entrepreneurs will not see a profit for 2 to 4 years (if their business survives). They may have to work a full-time job while starting their own business (which equals carrying two fulltime jobs).

With correct money management, a new consultant can see a profit her first month in business and definitely in her first year.

More than 99% of Mary Kay consultants will never profit one thin dime from Mary Kay. Ever.

Misrepresentations in recruiting literature…. how they abound in Mary Kay.

Written by Raisinberry

The Corporate Rationalization… Recently I have been hearing about a comparison of Mary Kay and normal American Corporations. The ones who put forth the analogy want you to see the realistic and understandable scenarios of corporate structure and how Mary Kay mirrors the same structure.

In many organizations, there are only a few at the top who make the majority of the money. Think CEO, CFO, President, Vice President, Heads of Departments. Like Mary Kay, thousands of workers make minimum wage while these leaders earn the big dough. The lesson here is that if you work hard, if luck would have it, if the stars align, you might work yourself up to Dept. Head, and someday be a Vice president. Likewise, Mary Kay tells you the same thing. Work Hard, and you will make that climb, but even better for you is, the Top positions are not already filled! You can be a NEW CEO of your own company! Continue Reading →

Written by SuzyQ

Sometimes at the unit meeting when the scorecard segment is announced… “Mary had a $300 week! Okay, we make 50% of everything we sell, so, that’s $150 profit. Let’s see, that’s $75 per hour! Not bad for two hours of work, eh, Mary? And I’ll bet Mary doesn’t make $75 per hour at her J.O.B! Gee, think what would happen if you worked a few more hours, Mary? Wow!”

So, I suppose technically that’s not a lie, but it certainly is deceptive. What we don’t know is how long it took Mary to book these appointments. We are not entirely sure if it was that mythical $300 class that most of us had every time we had a class, or if Mary has tons of customers who had reorders. It gets a little more complicated than the 2 hours allotted for the scoreboard. But that’s one of those little details that Cindy Williams talks about when she says, “Just get there and then figure it out!” Continue Reading →