Mary Kay

Rachel&Brad

Just wondering if there are any Mary Kay reps? I am considering becoming a consultant and just wondering about your experience with Mary Kay. It sounds like the PERFECT SAHM side job! I would appreciate any feedback; positive or negative!

AmyCC1980

My MIL is a Mary Kay rep.  She acts like it is wonderful, but she really doesn't make much money.  I think she does it mainly for the social interaction with her customers and other reps. 

vab1216

I think you would be spending a lot of weekends and evenings trying to do parties.. FWIW: everyone I know that did MK, Avon, Partylite, and that's all I can think of.. didn't really go far and it kind of fizzled out. I guess it depends what exactly your goal is. Is it to make money? Adult interaction? Something fun to do?

riv08

My friend did this a while back. She had to buy a good portion of her inventory. $200 back in 1999. She ended up quitting because she could not find enough people to have parties and ended up losing money. I think you would have to have a ton of friends, relatives and friends of friends to keep having parties. If you have tons of social networks who love makeup, it would be a good job, or you need to be incredibly outgoing. One consultant who mentored my friend got random people to have parties for her after just meeting them in banks, supermarkets, which is really scary.

ScrapMama

My best friend was a MK rep for a long time and just recently decided that the amount of hours she was putting into it vs. the amount of money she was making was NOT worth it. She worked her butt off doing classes and parties and all sorts of stuff, and barely made any money. She did it for like 2 or 3 years I think.

Another thing to consider is that MK stuff can be a bit pricey (IMO) and with this economy most women I know are spending less on stuff like this. I know that I used to only buy MK, and now I just buy my stuff at Target.

Good luck with your decision!

Maybride2

I have two friends that sell MK.

One is mildy successful - she's been doing it for 10 years, is super outgoing, and has a pretty big network of clients.  But she has worked her butt off over the years to get this far - doing lots of parties on evenings and weekends for strangers, doing mailings with her information on them, going to events to be an exhibitor, etc. 

The other one isn't successful at all, regrets doing it, and only keeps her "consultant" status to buy products at cost now.  She only sells to her immediate friends and family, and they don't use that much MK.  She's never done a party.  She doesn't actively try to meet people and make new clients. 

And like a pp said, you have to buy a lot of inventory at the very beginning.......the second friend has probably just made even, three years after becoming a consultant.

cajungirl0717

I recently thought about selling Mary Kay. My consultant made it seem like it was super easy to get started and money would be rolling in no time.

After I signed the contract and ordered my $100 starter kit, I saw the inventory costs. The cheapest inventory cost was $965 out of pocket and didnt include much makeup. The one my consultant recommended was $3600 out of pocket. She stressed about just getting a loan or putting in on several credit cards. This was my first negative sign. This package did come with a lot of makeup. I wanted to join selling to make a few extra hundred dollars a month for the baby. I only intended to order what my friends wanted and keep that in stock. When I told this to my consultant, she dissapproved thorougly. That is not how we operated she said. So I decided that at this point in time (my husband is in med school, so I am the only income) we could not afford $3100, I don't want to take out a loan, and I don't see why I should put it on SEVERAL credit cards.

It is easy if you ahve the money to put in. Mary Kay is sold at one price. The seller gets 50% of what she sells. So technically, Mary Kay doubles the price of makeup so consultants can make their money. You can sell the makeup at cost, and not get the 50%. Just make sure you ask LOTS of questions before you sign anything. Don't let them talk you into loans or how to sell. If you want to do this as a side job, keep your perspectives first.

Rachel&Brad

cajungirl0717:

I recently thought about selling Mary Kay. My consultant made it seem like it was super easy to get started and money would be rolling in no time.

After I signed the contract and ordered my $100 starter kit, I saw the inventory costs. The cheapest inventory cost was $965 out of pocket and didnt include much makeup. The one my consultant recommended was $3600 out of pocket. She stressed about just getting a loan or putting in on several credit cards. This was my first negative sign. This package did come with a lot of makeup. I wanted to join selling to make a few extra hundred dollars a month for the baby. I only intended to order what my friends wanted and keep that in stock. When I told this to my consultant, she dissapproved thorougly. That is not how we operated she said. So I decided that at this point in time (my husband is in med school, so I am the only income) we could not afford $3100, I don't want to take out a loan, and I don't see why I should put it on SEVERAL credit cards.

It is easy if you ahve the money to put in. Mary Kay is sold at one price. The seller gets 50% of what she sells. So technically, Mary Kay doubles the price of makeup so consultants can make their money. You can sell the makeup at cost, and not get the 50%. Just make sure you ask LOTS of questions before you sign anything. Don't let them talk you into loans or how to sell. If you want to do this as a side job, keep your perspectives first.

 

WOW! Thanks so much for your reply. I really appreciate it. I have sold Avon in the past and it was nothing like that.

 Thanks again!

mnparks@gmail.com

I have a friend who has been selling it full time for about 5 years. She has earned 2 or 3 cars and everything.  And I know another young stay at home mom that just started..she is making a lil bit of money but has to do parties.

I was interested at first until I saw all of the costs that go along with it. And decided to sell Melalueca instead - No home parties  - since I love their products and my mom use to sell it in the past.