Real Entrepreneurs vs Mary Kay
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.
A document from a Mary Kay NSD went through all the ways that MK is so much better than a real business. But with her document, my point is proven for me. She even goes so far as to call this “Mary Kay vs. Real Life.” Here are a few of my favorite excerpts from the nonsense, with my comments in italics…
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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.
Mary Kay consultants pay for PCP and the websites. MK doesn’t “provide” these things, they’re paid for by consultants. 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 (postage, travel, event fees, supplies, etc), 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 $250 (and we get brand new product to cover part of the cost!)
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.
Visit the
6:00 am. On a beach vacation. That’s what time I was working because a customer simply NEEDED her Day Solution right this very minute. And don’t even think about vacationing in June at risk of being shunned forevermore for your lack of dedication!
Save it with the 10 hours and be your own boss. In this “business,” you’re always working and every customer and recruit is your boss. And, as Tracy points out, if you’re making anything, it’s less than minimum wage.
MK peeps have to work much more than 10 hours. Maybe 10 hours a day but most are probably 12h a day for little to no reward as nobody wants free “facials” as they are wise to the MLM con and know it’s just pressure selling as you wash your face at a stranger’s sink before putting battery acid on half your face. Even Queen Chels after 12 years of work was in raptures of joy at a couple of $300 sales yesterday which required divine intervention. To put that into perspective I often averaged that per customer several times an hour working in a department store at the cosmetics counter. But people actually want Dior, Gucci, Givenchy , Clarins, Lancôme and when Urban Decay launched one particular pallette we were swamped. We got free training weekly from the various brands we sold and knew what we were selling, the ingredients, compatibility, know all about how skin works, and how to apply the stuff so our clients didn’t look like Minions dying from kidney failure a la Younique or 80s Telenovela hooker as I’ve seen some MK “artists” do.
Which reminds me, I did a cost comparison. Younique for skincare and makeup full face will cost you £1200 and I checked out their “cool toned” cream foundation. It’s somehow yellow and blue so you will look like the lovechild of a jaundiced Minion and a Smurf with Covid at the same time. Even my MUA girlfriend was scratching her head wondering what Younique are thinking. We often spend an evening poring over MLM makeup disasters on Instagram and throwing shade over a glass of vino after dinner (something Younique don’t have, shade, the eyeshadow always looks unblended on the reps as it’s physically impossible to blend that chalky ash). She’s got such a great reputation she’s swamped with brides blowing up her phone and does £300-£500 per bride with a LOT of 5* reviews. She knows the ins and outs of Tiktok and Instagram marketing and built her business on social media. No warm stalking and fake facials needed.
Funnily enough Younique used to make their makeup in the same factory (Oxygen Labs) as Jaclyn Hill, so I don’t doubt there’s asbestos, anthrax and cat hair in the £300 serums that make you look like you fell headfirst into a KFC grease trap. Especially on the back of the “green tea” 3D Tarantula Mascara that caused corneal abrasions as it was shredded nylon. Several unfortunate ladies had to have corneal transplants because of it, hence the huge lawsuit.
Highlighter isn’t supposed to make you look radioactive btw. They are really going for the Radium Girl aesthetic on that one, although Radium would be safer I’m sure. And the latest MK eyeshadow is available in basically two colours – white or a chalky black-blue. Perfect for Wednesday Addams cosplay but not even Christina Ricci could do anything with that hot mess. Lipsticks are available in every colour as long as it’s cold, not cool, red. Cutting edge? Maybe in 1970.
This comparison is silly on its face. There is nothing entrepreneurial about becoming a sales rep for an MLM company. You are doing the exact same thing as tens if not hundreds of thousands of others.
You also can’t compare MLM to franchising. Franchise companies provide territorial protection to the franchisee to protect them from internal competition. MLMs, meanwhile, are famous for having more salespeople than the number of regular outside customers.
Lastly, the cash flow. In regular businesses, cash flow comes from outside customers. In MLMs like Mary Kay, cash flow comes primarily from the inside…from the pockets of the sales force.
What bold face lies!!! WoW!
This is a lie … “Entrepreneurs pay for every piece of training they get – to the tune of $1500 to $5000 per “must attend” event or conference.” There is plenty of free advice on the Internet, from government sources and private companies, about business practices, promotion, website building, etc.
I got my Linux server management ticket for about £100 (the cost of three books) and did a year managing a financial institution’s backend. Nothing fancy, just a local credit union but the pay was decent although I was always on the clock for when something went wrong at 11pm and needed fixed by 8am but I was compensated for overtime and out of hours work. Dell make the most unreliable hardware with constant replacement of parts especially entire motherboards due to capacitor failures that Dell got sued over, I convinced them to save money and switch to HP which have proved bulletproof and don’t constantly release the magic smoke and make the server room sound like the set of The Sopranos from exploding caps.
Real entrepreneurs are free to market their business any way they please. Mary Kay consultants and directors have restrictions because it is not their business, it’s Mary Kay Corporate’s business and you follow their rules or risk being terminated (fired!). A real entrepreneur who creates a skincare and cosmetic line can patent their product. Mary Kay already owns the patents on their products so you cannot repackage them and sell them as yours.
Mary Kay consultants and directors are simply sales representatives for a very large corporation who recruit more sales representatives for their corporation. There is nothing entrepreneurial about it.
If you so much as think the dreaded e word (eBay) corporate’s lawyers descend upon you like a thousand tonne bag of concrete. The latest MK anti-ageing potions are causing reactions and directors are posting on Facebook, but they can’t do anything about reformulating the product and can only blame the customer for not using it right, “chemical warfare” from other brands (yeah that shouldn’t really happen unless there’s undisclosed ingredients in Timewise) and other passive aggressive victim blaming a la Jaclyn Hill. iT’s JuSt YoUr SkIn DeToXxInG HuN (and not our products melting your face off like the Nazi from Indiana Jones). A few brave souls reported to corporate who promptly filed it in the round filing cabinet like they do with MyShop tickets (where they deny there’s a major problem with the software).
“Company events such as Career Conference and Seminar cost less than $250 (and we get brand new product to cover part of the cost!)”
Well, sure, if you don’t count the cost of hotels, meals, transportation (airfare, gas, cabs, Uber, etc.), child care/pet boarding, additional events like Area Awards Night, etc. None of those accept payment in brand new product.
Im pretty sure they’ve severely limited the Free product you receive at seminar ~ and I don’t believe free products are given at Career conference anymore.. the hotels are usually done by blocks with each NSD reserving rooms for her area… and the rate is maybe $10 less than what someone off the street pays…but don’t worry, the hotel will add in those security deposits for each guest each night…charge that up front and have up to 7 days to refund… real economical for consultants who aren’t prepared for the surprise charges upon arrival at seminar~ Omni used to charge $50 a night per guest in the room… on top of $330 a night… although it was attached to the convention center.. that was the only plus of staying there..and if you’re in a national area, you don’t get to pick where you stay~ you have to stay in your national’s block…you have to pay for the banquet even if you don’t want to eat the crappy food… it’s quite the racket.. all so the national can have her banquet room and directors meeting room…
What bold face lies!!! WoW!
Real business: inventory is driven by customer demand.
Mary Kay (and every other MLM): inventory is driven by upline demand. “You have to order $X of items so “we” (I) can get a new car/advance in rank.”