Premier Club Director Gail's Earnings

Your "estimates" for expenses are very generous. Most working sales directors who are chasing the dream to the next level, and listening to the advice of their seniors and nsds, will have much HIGHER expenses. Just in postage charges, they will be mailing postcards, notes, customer fliers, and product that they don't deliver. Meeting expense: if you live in or near a city, or even share a training center, most directors are paying double your estimate or more. If you pay an office assistant just $100 a week, you've racked up $5000, more than double your estimate. Events: Seminar, Career Conference and Leadership PLUS nsd's cruise, Star events, January Jumpstart, Fall retreat, winner's weekends, you name it. These events could easily eat up every penny remaining of this director's income since most require travel, overnights, etc. I could go on and on. If you don't attend it ALL, you are labeled a poor leader as you are not setting the right "example" for your unit! I believe it would be tough to find a Premier Club director who has any cash left at the end of the day to actually pay a household bill. (but of course they CHARGE their orders to MK so they can pay for at least one household bill, keeping hubby happy....at least until he finds the $25,000 credit card bill!)

I agree with you TNT. I never earned the car and my expenses exceeded those. I was constantly being pressured by my senior and the other directors in our center to spend even more on lavish monthly recruiting events, booths at local functions, advertisement and travel to the different NSD trainings that abound.

The numbers given on expenses are conservative so that $20,000 is a really generous figure. I believe most make far less. The one director I met with that consistently did unit club and drove a caddy worked 60 to 70 hours a week. She was MK every day and all the time. Now she is completly burned out and just letting her unit sustain itself.

I now work part-time for a non-profit and make $10 and hour. Far more than I was making in MK. I have no expenses other than gas now. Dress is casual and I am home for lunch.

So much for that executive income! Perhaps in 1963!

The last year I worked full time as a server (2007) before moving up to Management. I made that as my income on my hourly wage - yes you read that correctly.

My income for that year was $20,805.57. (From my tax form) Plus tips which I averaged about $400 - $500 weekly. I worked 35 - 40 hours per week (sometimes a bit more) I had weekends off, I saw my children, husband and didn't have to order MK or worry about any of that nonesense.

My management salary is close to what I was making then. I work 44 hr per week, I see my children, I love what I do and my bill are ALL PAID.

Excellent post. May I add one more nasty little expense item that no one tells you about when you're in DIQ?

Chargebacks.

Women send their products back all the time in Mary Kay, and the director always takes a hit when that happens. Chargebacks are not "budgetable," so when they happen, they are a major disruption to the bottom line. (I personally had months when $500-$1000 in chargeback commission was taken out of my check.)

And guess what? Chargebacks and car copays are not reflected on the commission checks that a sales director shows her unit. So when she shows you a "love check," don't believe the number that's printed. The actual deposit could be much lower.

Ooh, ooh, someone please do this for those Avon Leadership reps who brag they 'sell' over $100,000 per year. I doubt they make more than $20k either. (In fact, I doubt they even make half that.)

What a great article!

The job of a Sales Director is to stalk and harrass women into signing up for Mary Kay and placing large inventory orders. If you don't order big, she doesn't get paid. Of course, you're not told that until after you sign on the dotted line. Then you find out that if you're not a "team player", you could cause your Director to lose everything. You wouldn't want to be responsible for that now would you? So go now and support your Director and order tons of Mary Kay stuff that people won't even buy at the consulatant's cost! It's stressful being a consultant and even more stressful as a Director. As a consultant, you have the stress because no one will buy your stuff ($189.00 for skin care isn't in most womens budgets, especially nowadays) unless you manipulate them and tell them to use the "husband unawareness plan" to purchase their products. Then there is the stress as a Director when your unit isn't ordering enough to give you a paycheck. It is so not worth the money. Imagine leaving your house each morning thinking "I have to make some money or my electricity will be shut off. I wonder where I can find a woman to do a skin care class?" and then you proceed to drive all over town going from business to business looking for women to start conversations with hoping that you can convince them to host a class, and then sign up as a consultant. That is why Directors are dishonest when a new recruit comes in.

You're job will be so easy: The product sells itself. When women find out you do Mary Kay, they will be begging you to hold a class because they need the "me time".

Okay, if the product really sells itself like they say, then they should be making good money already. Why did they need to go the recruiting route and become a Sales Director? Because people aren't buying it. Not when you can get ELF for $1.00 and free shipping once in awhile.

I love articles about the bottom line. Good one, Tracy!

Gail's earnings are sad & pathetic. I made that working part time in my old career. Wow. The real sad thing about this is: I didn't find out about how things really are until I was a director, working like crazy, trying to juggle my family around my career, and feeling the pressure and guilt all the time. It's not worth it at all.

Amen, onelessSD!

I now make more than double what I made as a Premier Club SD, I work far fewer hours, I have full benefits and most importantly, I have a LIFE.

Ex-SDs, isn't the month of June WONDERFUL now that you're out of Mary Kay?

Okay, Ive been "lurking" here for a while and I agree with everything that is being said. To me its funny because I was in MK as an IBC for 3 years and questioned a lot of things and I never could get a straight answer. I finally figured that the joke was on me and these directors were not making any money. Ive been out since 2005. I only made it to team leader, but I saw the corruption because I was close to some of the DIQ's who became directors. There units could not hold water. My director and her twin sister(nsd)were liars. The way the MK business was being taught in that area was ridiculous. Recruiting, Recruiting Recruiting. Sales-well I was told you dont have time for that because this was the New Mary Kay where skin care classes was a thing of the past. The business was presented as the "New" Mary Kay as if the company changed their way of doing business. The hook line of my recruiter/director was "I know you know about the sales side of MK, but are you aware of the leadership side?" I never attended an scc or facial. She recruited me from a MK career breakfast at a hotel. My story is interesting. Im really not a typist so I really cant explain everything here on this site. I like this site and have been visiting about a year. I do have a question. My sister is a personal use consultant and still read the applause magazines. However earlier this year some of the commissions in nsd were so low it would seem that they would be embarrased to call themselves an NSD. What type of expenses do they have coming out of their checks. Do they have chargebacks? It also seems when they first become NSD's their paychecks decrease. I would hate to have to retire off of that!
Please excuse the grammer.

Hey dreamkiller - you sound like someone from the Christine Peterson national area, am I right? I remember CP talking endlessly about "the new MK" and asking me as a new Red Jacket if I wanted to sell products for the rest of my life. If I became a sales director, I wouldn't have to fool with skin care classes - I could just rake in the money as a director. As if.

You're right about commissions decreasing for many of the NSDs. There are several top directors who don't want to go through NIQ precisely for that reason. However, MK pushes them to become NSDs anyway.

Wow you are exactly right pinkpeace. I was under the CP area and my director sister became an nsd. The recruiting fever was so bad that once she became a nsd herself,she went to her first nsd meeting in dallas and was told that her area was known as the "recruiting" area and she was of course embarrased. So the next seminar year she themed it "Back to Basics" and she explained to us why. She started having all these sales contests. One being the "joke" cruises where the IBC would pay for the trip only to sit next to an NSD or top director. I mean seriously
Thats when I knew I had been had. This site just confirmed what I already knew. However I did not know who deep it was on a director level.

Oh, how I loooove me some breakdowns!

$1,200 meeting room rental ($100 per month)

That explains why NSD Caterina Harris says on her website, "Monthly Dues are $20. This allows you to attend all meetings, weekly training events, and our monthly Mary Kay University.

Reasons for fees: The training is FREE, but the facility is not. We have a state-of-the-art, top-notch meeting room...dues partially offset the high meeting room costs.”

Can't bedazzle the prospects into falling for The Lie if the meeting facilities aren't pricey now, can we?

Scrib - Many's the time I prayed for consultants to come to my meeting and pay their room fee so I could have gas money!

Dreamkiller - who was the twin who became the NSD? I mean, ALL of CP's directors were "known for recruiting," so that doesn't narrow it down .

You are spot on Scrib. My rent started at $160 per month and ended up being over $200 per month before the lease ended.

We charged $5.00 per meeting for $15.00 for the month to help recoup some of the cost of not only the rent, but utilities and supplies like tp, papertowels, and cleaning supplies.

Yes the training is free, wink, wink!

Joanne Barnes. It was a crazy mess
The recruiting frenzy was unreal. And most everybody that I knew was recruited the same way. No product on the faces first. Now I know why. Eventhough I read the consultant guide on how to book,sale and recruit-noone was teaching it that way. So I went with the flow. I did the same thing. When I did try to sell product, I got no help. Oh, but those directors looked good. They knew how to wear those suits. The jewlerey and makeup was slammin. -And I wanted to be apart.Not knowing that most of them were broke and barely hanging on to their units. What a joke. lol

pinkpeace - june is fabulous! loving my freedom to do what I want!! yahoo!

Dreamkiller - my SSD thought CP was the living end. I did too for a very long time, until the last time I heard her speak at a Career Conf. She went on and on about all the 'stuff' she could by, the rich people she hangs out with, total vanity and materialistic. At the end of her speach she did mention (and I mean at the VERY end) 'oh, I do give some away to charity'. She's very wrapped up within herself. Nauseating!

I just love not being a director anymore!

oops! meant to say 'buy'!

June SUCKED! Remember trying to book things with the competition from weddings and graduations? Knowing that the big seminar goal wasn't going to happen, unless there was room on a credit card somewhere... to add insult to injury and more expense the 4 quarter stars (if there were any) had to be recognized at banquets. Trying to get people to sign up for seminar. Getting the unit prizes that were ordered in January and now that they finally came, the queens of the area or unit courts didn't finish the courts... oh the fun of June. And if MK only offers that pineapple bag in June to increase sales ... seriously, pineapple scented roller ball perfume/cologne? Really? The bag looks like a dollar tree reject. (and a new twist, newbies can't get it with their initial orders, they have to order AGAIN to get it...) Makes me tired just remembering June. And so very thankful that it's history for me. I still get a little misty when my check from my J.O.B. is deposited, and it stays the same unless I get a raise. I can count on my income, I can pay my bills, I have money left over to spend on fun stuff, I have a savings account, health insurance-- no copays, no chargebacks, no money out of my pocket when I travel, no waking up at 4 AM wondering how I am going to get through the month, turning the calendar page is turning the calendar page... not the beginning of yet another make or break month. What a creepy company.

Dreamkiller- I was in that area too and wow nothing has changed in over a decade! NONE of those recruiting directors ever did facials!

dreamkiller...OMG ! JoAnne Barnes??? The David Cooper "Keep ten in cars at all times" Director??

I think I could find my copy of her and some 8 or 10 ladies in Grand am's, lined up for a photo shoot.
HA!

This cracks me up...really. One way of the other, you end up finding out what is really under the sheets with these ladies....

If anybody ever gets in my face again and tells me MK is wonderful, I am going to hurl on their shoes.

The "new mary Kay" was a Ploy to appear fresh and ou currant...but what was NEW was they figured out that sales was for idiots...frontloading was the cash cow.

The amount of wreckage these women are responsible for would (SHOULD) make a
grown woman weep.

Pinkpeace & OnelessSD, I agree with you both re: CP. I heard her at Seminar and I couldn't believe how incredibly egotistic and materialistic she came across. Specifically listing all the luxuries her and her family enjoyed and all the famous and/or rich people she associated with, and the exclusive island home that required a private ferry, etc.. It was so nauseating and the opposite of Go Give as you can imagine. She then implied that our poor finances and sad business results was because of our low deserve level. Our stinkin thinkin was the problem. Thanks, Christine. Nice to know it was just that easy.

You gals are giving me heart palpatations dredging up this stuff again. It is so nice to be able to be PRESENT again in our own lives, especially in the beautiful month of June! It is such a blessing to be able to actually ENJOY our families, the end of school year activites, the graduations, planting flowers, opening the pool, taking walks/bike rides with hubby at night...etc I feel so sorry for those that are truely lost in the pink fog right now. It's a dark place to be, especially as a Director in June.

Mycomfortzone-Amen sister! So nice to enjoy this month! As if June wasn't bad enough, then you had the horrible month of July when everyone goes on vacation, no one has any money left (I mean credit) because you push, push, pushed for a big finish in June and then you had all the expense of Seminar. My July commissions were always pretty crappy unless we somehow found some new recruits.
I never really knew Christine Peterson but my director friend went on trips with her. She told me that she heard she had a warehouse full of product. Her husband was rich so she could afford to order tons of product to reach her goals. Not sure if its true but after what you gals have said here its sounding quite possible. SAD.

mycomfortzone & wiser...you shared the visual picture i want to keep in my mind. It is June, and i am out on the porch, candlelight, sipping sangria and smooth jazz on the cd player...hubby is there, saying I am so glad you are OUT of that...nobody to chase, nobody to call, nobody to facial tomorrow...just cracklin coals in the chimenea, smooth sounds, cool sips and peace...

girls, you are so right! I think for the 1st time, I'm enjoying doing a bit of gardening (you know, you don't do gardening if you're a director, that's for your hubby or the hired-help). I'm enjoying the fruits of my labors and realizing that life in June is pretty wonderful. To top it all of, I'm going on vacation the last week in June! (you all know THAT would NEVER happen because that's just 'unethical activity' in June!) I tell you, this is the life!

I did all types of research before deciding to become a consultant. Unfortunately, I missed this website until I was doing post-agreement research. By this time I had already been talked into placing a $600 wholesale order, even though I was being pressured into $1800, and my recruiter's director was so nice that she even made the order up for me...because she has been a consultant forever and knows what sells best...and now I still have a drawer full of products that I'll never sell and some I can't even give away. I do like the makeup and skin care, but selling is definitely not my forte. After telling my recruiter that I'm just going to put in my $200 order every quarter to keep my discount, she told me that she did that initially until she found that the product sells. Also, I recently got a new good job, and she was giving me advice on how to sell my product there. I'm not even about to jeopardize this position by attempting to sell anything at my job. And every no I give there are a billion responses or alternatives. So, I just humor her and then forget about it. After the last meeting, I've decided to stop going because I find that there is really not much valuable information provided. I just wanted to sell the product, and now I have realized that is not the real way to make money in Mary Kay. It's recruiting all the people you can and getting them to place the biggest order possible. At the last meeting I was told that when recruiting, never mention that it costs more than $100 to start MK. Only after the recruit has signed the agreement and paid should inventory options be mentioned and explained. OMG! I knew something was fishy before, but that was the final straw. I've been giving away my inventory as gifts and dipping into it myself for things I've wanted but dared not use because I might sale it! And at first I was proud because this was MY business, but after thinking about it, I realized that I had no say so about how to run it. I can't advertise. I can't put a number in the yellow pages. I can't open a store or sell it in a retail environment (even though I know of someone who sells it out of a pawn shop). I dare not cold call out of fear of violating telemarketing laws. I dare not solicit in public because there may be a no soliciting sign I missed somewhere, which my recruiter told me I could probably ignore anyway. The few times I've tried to market myself in public, I've delivered sample bags with no order requests, I've gotten no's (which I was told is normal and that I have to expect to get so many nos before getting a yes), I've told people to give me a call or go online to place an order, which has never happened. I've called people I didn't know to get them to schedule their FREE FACIAL which never happened. After calling a second time, one girl didn't answer, one girl sounded highly pissed that I called her (even though I drove all day to deliver her sample bag to her apt. and she wasn't even there), and one lady was moving to a new residence all of a sudden. My friends and family find it too expensive at retail, but they are willing to buy it at my price which will at least keep me from having to buy so much every 3 months on my own. And I almost talked two of my friends into joining, and after I realized what it was really all about, I told them they could just get their products at my cost whenever I put in a big order every quarter.

I am soooo happy to be able to read about the real issues of directorship. I am just beginning to realize that it is not a character flaw to not want to become a director.
For more years of my life than I care to add up, EVERY New Years Eve, every start of a new quarter, every holiday season, I would put on my life's desires, my to do list, what-ever new start there was, that I was going to be a MK Director.
It is so refreshing to know that taking that off of my "to do before I die" list, is actually a gift I am giving myself.
It is shown in the company as easy street. As the ultimate. As a comfortable lifestyle. Once there, all will be well.
All the beauty and flash is just show, is seems.
There is a fall retreat I would go to every year at a "campground/hotel" The consultants-red-jackets were in the communal camping bunkhouse, while the directors got to stay at the hotel. They are always seperate. A special club that you think holds some secret. If you get there, all will be well, all will be revealed.
I am so grateful for the sharing at this site.
That deadline stress is deadly.
I am also amazed at how much time it takes from family. It always seemed that the directors talked to everyone about what a family friendly company it is. After God is Family right.