Debt Free With Mary Kay? Hilarious!
I love the idea of being debt free. I even love the idea of using Mary Kay Cosmetics to become debt free. The problem is, the second idea is nothing but a pipe dream for virtually all the women who get involved with the company.
Sure, the concept is simple. Buy for $1, sell for $2, and you have an instant profit of $1. But there are many obstacles to that actually happening.
The first problem is finding someone who wants to buy. Sure, there are some women out there who want to buy Mary Kay. The problem is that there are so many consultants and so many women who have tried Mary Kay in the past, that it’s hard to develop a solid customer base. Do some women do it? Yes. Do most? No. Mary Kay has an out-of-date business model that produces poor results for almost everyone involved.
If you do find someone, try getting them to pay full price for their products. The products at full suggested retail are simply overpriced for the level of quality. And then there’s the problem of so many women so overloaded with Mary Kay inventory from their experience with frontloading , that they’re selling it deeply discounted just to get it out of their houses. I don’t blame them for discounting. It’s better to get something for it than lose the entire “investment.”
And then there are all the expenses associated with selling Mary Kay products. That “$1 profit” is completely mythical because of all the expenses that go into selling. There are samples, supplies, travel expenses, shipping costs, customer gifts and incentives, and all sorts of things that add up very quickly.
But suppose you could do all of the above, then do you have money to pay down your debt? Not if you listen to your upline. If you’re one of the very few able to generate cash via Mary Kay, your recruiter, director, and national sales director will hound you about “investing in your business” and “building your inventory.” They would have you believe that you need oodles of product at your fingertips at all times. The reality is that you don’t!
To have MK nsd Linda Toupin tell it, it’s simple to sell lots of Mary Kay products if only you want to and you try hard enough. (Yeah, tell that to all those who tried and tried and tried.) And here’s how she tells you it goes down…
YOU WERE MEANT TO BE “DEBT FREE”!
By: National Sales Director, Linda Toupin
Wondering how you can start a business when you are already in debt? Here is how you can start your business and use Mary Kay to pay off ALL your debt!
- Sell $200 per week = $800 income for the Month
- Take $100 to pay loan for your MK business (Leaves $700)
- Use $400 to replace product sold (Leaves $300)
- Give $100 to yourself (Have Fun!) (Leaves $200)
- $200 to pay off other debt
- Sell $300 per week = $1200 income for the Month
- Take $200 to pay loan for your MK business (Leaves $1100)
- Use $600 to replace product sold (Leaves $500)
- Give $200 to yourself (Have Fun!) (Leaves $300)
- $300 to pay off other debt
- Sell $400 per week = $1600 income for the Month
- Take $100 to pay loan for your MK business (Leaves $1500)
- Use $800 to replace product sold (Leaves $700)
- Give $300 to yourself (Have Fun!) (Leaves $400)
- $400 to pay off other debt
- Sell $1000 per week = $4000 income for the Month
- Take $100 to pay loan for your MK business (Leaves $3900)
- Use $2000 to replace product sold (Leaves $2000)
- Give $300 – $1000 to yourself (Have Fun!) (Leaves $1000 to $1700)
- $1000 – $1700 to pay off other debt
Rapid Debt Reduction Plan:
- Write down all debt, numbering them 1-10 from the smallest to the largest
- Start paying off the smallest one first, making payments as large as you can.
- Make minimum payments on #2 through #10
- When debt #1 is paid off, start paying big payments on #2 and continue minimum payments on #3 through #10
As in all things in LIFE….Consistency is the KEY!
Sounds simple, doesn’t it? These simplistic (and fake) examples are meant to show you how “easy” Mary Kay is, and if you can’t do it, you’re a loser. Too bad it’s not that easy, because of all the above factors. Which is why so many women lose money in Mary Kay and come out of the venture than more debt than they went in with. Oh sure. Your recruiter, sales director, and national sales director would have you believe it’s all your fault if you accumulate debt while you’re in Mary Kay. The reality is that almost no one turns a profit in Mary Kay, and that’s just a systematic flaw in MK and multi-level marketing in general.
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Consultants aren’t allowed to sell on Social Media like LuLaRoe, huh?
Consultants are only allowed to sell person to person. Heavens forbid we post on facebook! I remember when I get pushed out of DIQ because I was posting facebook parties trying to sell my stock of MK. Needless to say I was not happy…who has time to do faces and have parties??? I sure never did, and facebook parties worked…well sort of….when you factor my schedule C…well then No….but it was better then being stuck with wagon load of products.
That’s not true at all. Or at least it hasn’t been true for the past year. I only sell on Facebook, and Instagram. I have never done a “face” in person. I dont do inventory or discounts or samples. I love the products. Corporate is all pretty awesome. But my director. Fake af. Linda Toupin is also fake af. And some of the stuff on this website is legit. But alot, fake af. Why don’t you guys post current stuff? It’s all old.
Current stuff: NSDs in onesies at Fall Retreats. I am so glad I didn’t attain NSD because they’re desperate measures are embarrassing.
The fall retreat crap is just that, crap. I’m talking like why doesn’t this website post current stuff about the actual business? Not just the IG stalking. You guys recycle blog posts like it’s nobody’s biz. You guys posts are based on numbers from a decade ago. Are you guys all 50 years old or what? Serious question! Kristins fall retreat actually looked way more fun than the one my NSD put on. But I didn’t go, cause I don’t go to any of the events. Ain’t nobody got time for that. Let’s see some blog posts about CURRENT BUSINESS practices. Not what someone did at their fall retreat. It makes you look petty when you hate on them having fun. And people who are looking to quit are not gonna take you guys seriously when you recycle the hell out of posts, hate on people having fun, and post the address to a NSD house. Do you get what I’m saying? Here, here’s a challenge. Find a beauty consultant, buy something, and blog about your experience. See if she tries to recruit you. See if she pushes you to order $$$$$$$. It’s not like you’ll be out $ if you buy a semi matte, cause you can get your $ back no problem. But I’m serious. Instead of giving an excuse of why not…just do it. Hit up Kristin Sharpe right now. I won’t tell you to hit up toupin. You couldn’t pay me to talk to her.
What is this “current stuff about the actual business” that I’m supposed to post about? MK is the same scam it always was with the same tactics as always.
Do you know why the numbers are from a decade ago? Because they numbers haven’t changed! The sales directors themselves are using these silly numbers just like they were ten years ago!
Tell us about a “current business practice” being used that isn’t discussed here? The current business is the same as it always was: try to recruit people with false claims, use more false claims to get them to order an inventory package, bother them each month to order products they don’t need and can’t sell.
Oh, I see… now they’ve integrated Facebook and Instagram into their false claims. Yay. Not much to say about that other than….. They now use Facebook and Instagram to make their false claims to lure people in.
If the Kaybots would get some new material, we would too. But it’s the same thing decade after decade… flaunt your phony wealth, lie about how much you make, pretend people will make money when you know they’re almost guaranteed to lose money, throw in some Christianity, and twist their arms to get them to order.
And no, don’t hit up Kristin Sharpe. Read this article instead: http://www.pinktruth.com/2016/05/16/party-on-sharpe/
I guess since the Harvey Weinstein mess happened a decade ago we shouldn’t discuss that, either? Because it’s not “current”?
For you educational purposes, I’ll inform that you I’m college educated and well under 50 years of age. Your jab at those over 50 is exactly one of the reasons that age group lumps us all in as “spoiled brats”. Ageism at its best! That comment alone weakened any respect I have for you because I’ve found women over 50 to be some of the hardest working, professional, and tactful people you could ask to work with.
As for a “current” example of the tactics being used, I can tell you about my friend who was chased down by a MK person and bothered again and again…while not once identifying herself as a MK person. She got her name through a “Customer Appreciation Day” while she was out shopping, entered her name thinking she was entering to win a gift card, and got harassed by this lady since. She won’t stop calling and texting her.
Please don’t bother to reply to this because I’m not going to acknowledge someone who stooped so low as to use ageism as a means to an end. So sad.
Interesting! The “customer appreciation day” gimmick has been used for at least 20 years!!!! Mary Kay ladies need some new tactics so we can have new articles! LOL
$900/month Cadillac payments still exist, too. Those don’t care if you’re 25 or 75.
Never even heard of this sales tactic. My director has never taught anything like this. If she did, I would run.
I said 50 because I see recycled posts quite often. So I estimated that people wrote the posts quite a while ago (for example recently there were numbers for a Saturn. Mary kay hasn’t had a Saturn in a good while.) And I doubt the writers joined mary kay at the age of 18. As for Harvey Weinstein, that is an entirely different matter entirely and you’re reaching from Hawaii to Maine with that one. You guys are missing my point totally. STOP RECYCLING POSTS. STOP POSTING OLD AF NUMBERS. If you really want people to see facts, you must post NEW content. It doesn’t matter if things are the same or different. (Btw, some is very different now, at least in the unit I am in, and the area I am in. And my director is very “Mary kay popular” top trip director so if things are different in my unit, I’m going to guess they are different in many others.) The fact of the matter is people coming to this site see it’s alot of old content reposted. And that makes this site look outdated, not trustworthy, not current, you name it. I AM TRYING TO HELP YOU. Do I like selling mary Kay? Actually, I do. I love our products! I love making tutorials, i love sharing stuff, and I’ve made alot of new relationships in the process. What I do not like: directors suggesting to get mk credit cards, or ordering $1800 worth of inventory for a brand new consultant. Or any consultant for that matter. What are current business practices and other things you should discuss? Why not discuss the all in with 8? Why not discuss the fact that there is NO NEED for inventory due to social media sales? Why not discuss that in mlm AND business owners (self employed restaurant owner etc), failure rate is 93-99%? DISCUSS ACTUAL THINGS THAT MATTER. DON’T DISCUSS PAM SHAWS SLUTTY DRESS OR FACE LIFT OR WHATEVER SHE GOT. PLEASE. It really devalues this websites mission imo. STOP with the petty crap. Post about the business. Not tearing another woman down because of her LOOKS. I’ll go read the Kristin article now, but fyi, she isn’t my NSD, I was just throwing her out there because she is ONE OF THE FEW that still works a personal “Mary kay business by doing parties. But just like I thought, you want to give excuses and not actually do work. Smfh. This is the reason why people don’t believe this website. You guys all post old ass crap. I won’t reply again, I don’t have time to waste.
You see, the things you want us to post about have already been discussed… so that would be OLD CONTENT as well. Call the MK promotion whatever you want, it’s still the same old promotion meant to push people into DIQ before they have enough people, guaranteeing failure. It’s been discussed. It’s not new. We’ve always said you don’t need inventory, but you want us to say that it’s because of social media sales? Please.
No, real businesses do NOT have a 93-99% failure rate as you state.
Yes, yes… you love MK and you’re just trying to help! Those who don’t believe Pink Truth no matter how much of this “new” content you think we should post. The fact is that the same tactics are being used as always, the articles address them, and no matter what we post, you won’t like it. So we’ll do what works for us and the many thousands of readers each week.
Remember when they changed DIQ to start at 8? Hmmmm, now they’re repeating it? And then the repeat button gets pressed again.
Somebody has been watching Gloria for too long. https://youtu.be/csGU_s-iIZ4
https://youtu.be/csGU_s-iIZ4
You said you won’t come back. Coward. If MKult is so good and helps so many women, why can’t it stand up to a little scrutiny?
Why not discuss that in mlm AND business owners (self employed restaurant owner etc), failure rate is 93-99%?
Prove it. It’s your assertion, you prove it. You can’t because it’s false. You were taught falsehoods by your SD. She lied to you.
Here are the real facts about small business failure rates:
https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/Business-Survival.pdf
https://www.fool.com/careers/2017/05/03/what-percentage-of-businesses-fail-in-their-first.aspx
https://www.bls.gov/bdm/entrepreneurship/bdm_chart3.htm
You are wrong. How many other lies were you taught by your SD? How many other lies do you repeat unknowingly (or knowingly)? MKult has destroyed your credibility.
“You guys posts are based on numbers from a decade ago. ”
I would love to get new data … I wrote an analysis of the IBC’s income about 10 years ago, using data from the SD’s own newsletters and websites. The data contained sales data from 26,279 IBCs across the USA.
http://lazygardens.blogspot.com/2015/09/mary-kay-home-business-opportunity-or.html
Shortly afterward, Mary Kay corporate demanded that the SD’s unit websites be password protected.
***********
As for “stale” … MLMs are the masters of the copy and paste function.
I see the “how to make $200/500/1000 a month” documents I saw in 2003 presented as if they were the newest market analysis for 2017.
The same stale lists of how to get hostesses and customers are circulating, the Seminar Strut is still the same, the recruiting lines haven’t changed, the overcoming objections haven’t changes, the “husband unawareness” plan hasn’t changed …
And the “tell them you are in a contest” is straight out of Mary Kay’s mouth from the 1970s.
The sad thing is that this “sell $300 a week” stuff is old as dirt, and it’s still really, really hard to do. It’s as hard as ever, even with inflation, because women have so many more choices today… choice that don’t involve someone trying to recruit you into their scheme.
“Are you guys all 50 years old or what?”
I’m way older than that … old enough to remember not only the Beatles first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show (I was in high school), but the debut of “Rock Around the Clock”, first run of “Lady and the Tramp” and the Salk polio vaccine.
And MLMs have been using those same tired lines since then … Shaklee was all over my neighborhood in the 1950s and 60s. You could take the ideas from the Shaklee “training material”, update the type face, insert cute emojies and some trendy slang, and you would swear it was used in Facebook yesterday.
Stella, I hate to break it to you but you are in violation of your contract if you are posting on your main FB/Instagram page. I had a private group that I added my customers to and posted sales there but you are not even allowed to post a “call to action” on your main FB page. Also, if you stick around awhile you will see that there are new people coming to this site daily and a lot of “new stuff” is posted. My story is “new” so if you’d like to hear it, I’m happy to fill you in. And our beef isn’t with a few bad eggs (as you’ve mentioned your own director and National are). It’s with the whole structure of MLM which takes money from the bottom of the pyramid and transfers it to the top 1%. Just ask yourself this question: do your uplines get paid when you SELL product or when you ORDER product? They’re #1 priority is to get people to ORDER. You spend, they make $.
“Why don’t you guys post current stuff? It’s all old.”
Because it’s still relevant for newer readers. The marketing plan is the same, the training is the same, the scripts are the same, the stories of deceit and debt are the same.
Yeah, we used to post about current “promotions” that MK was doing… things like double credit, special gifts, or other incentives for consultants to order more products they don’t need. But we stopped because THEY ARE ALL THE SAME. MK uses the same nonsense tactics over and over. What more is there to say about them?
Could we write about the newer products? I suppose. But why? They’re mediocre like all of the MK products, yet hailed as the most revolutionary and “on trend.” Mk always lags behind the other cosmetic companies, so they’re not really revolutionary at all. So what is there to talk about? We’d be saying the same thing. Greatest thing since sliced bread isn’t so great after all…
LOL this is funny. So many things wrong with this..
not even all stores pay for product up front I am learning.. they pay on contingency basis and if it don’t sell they send it back to company with out severing relationship.
I don’t know if I mentioned this before.. I have a friend who sold MK and did make money BUT.. there is always a BUT..
Long story short, when she moved, a lady friend of hers was upset her MK lady quit (imagine that).. this lady’s friend also had other friends who used to buy.. turns out they quit buying because they got sick of consultants trying to recruit them.. so my friend decided to become a MK lady.
Now, she had 8 regular customers, they order anywhere between $100 and $200 a month and paid full price and of course offered them incentives like you listed above.. so she profited anywhere from $400 and $800 and didn’t do much work.. My friend is the first to admit she was a rare case.. you think her SD would leave well enough alone, right?
Nope.
Her SD would harass her to recruit and buy more inventory. My friend reported her to Corporate because this was an ongoing occurance. Corporate did nothing. So she quit.
NOPE
Oh and then.. I forgot to add this..
To get back at the SD for harassing her, and I mean this is after 100, “I am a personal use, be thankful I am spending $800 a month”
She had some back up inventory.. well she ended up sending $600 back. lol. I say, “LOL” because, this is what you get when you are greedy.
One thing-
My numbers above “ordered $100 – $200 obviously I meant retail.
I texted her and she also reminded expenses that added up. She also said while she didn’t have to put much time in to it to get her customers orders– she did however to put time in for the harassment to stop.
She warns
“If you are sharing my story- make sure you explain I WAS VERY LUCKY to have dedicated customers who would order like clock work every month. MK products are over priced. MK likes to compare themselves to Estes Lauder and are not the same. ”
She also warns via text,
MK claims they are not a pyramid-
How about if a consultant is some how able to on her own with out recruiting able to to do the same sales to get the “privilege” to lease a MK car-she can’t get it because she didn’t recruit. Who cares if she sold enough on her own- and MK says they’re not a pyramid”
“Sell $200 per week” … “Sell $1000 per week”
It’s that first assumption … if only it were easy to sell $200 to $1000 a week as it was for her to type the scenarios.
Her equations are right up there with the spherical cow of physics and the famous (in economics) can opener:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_cow
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assume_a_can_opener
Great links – hilarious!
Question:
If you go inactive in MK when you don’t order for a few months- what happens to NSD’s who don’t order and just recruit?
Sorry for being a comment hog.
You have to be active to receive commissions.
“You have to be active to receive commissions.”
In other words, you have to continually pay out money to the company for the company to pay you your commissions.
No thanks.
I notice that nowhere are taxes mentioned. Self-employment taxes are 12.4% or so.
She also leaves out meeting dues, fall retreat, career conference, seminar, January jumpstart, samples, sales aids, shipping, gift with purchase, hostess credit, booking incentives, gas, etc etc etc. Not to mention limited edition products that you must have every quarter if you’re a good consultant.
And the fact that she never mentions rent/mortgage, groceries, child care, utilities, insurance…it’s obvious in her scenario that this consultant has a husband with a J.O.B. and benefits.
They are 15.5%
I just saw my SD (I’m almost to the point of working my way OUT for good, as I’m almost to my goal of paying back my MK debt) posted all these photos from the Fall Advance for Holiday Open House ideas.
What the heck?
There’s mugs and gloves and cute boxes etc… You have to spend $$ on all that…. and then raise your prices even more to help cover it, or I suppose drop the MK retail price and add in for the crap that goes with the gift. And then you risk even more if you don’t sell it, due to high prices, and you’re stuck with mugs and bags and boxes and gloves. This stuff is not cheap and at the dollar store as she suggests. The stuff that’s at the $1 store is there for a reason: It couldn’t sell elsewhere. There’s no cute mugs and cups there or shower poofs that aren’t weird colors or mittens that aren’t unraveling and looking pretty sorry… I bought a bunch of earbuds there once to put with the @Play stuff and it certainly didn’t help sell anything and now I’m stuck with all my @Play stuff still plus $5 in earbuds.
I got stuck with so much junk from Open Houses and gift sets! Chintzy, cheap junk. Threw it all away when I sold my product back.
Mary Kay Math is always so comical. Linda Toupin says that selling $200 a week equates to $800 income. No it doesn’t! It equates to $400 income before you take expenses out. That $200 a week cost you $100 to buy the product. They always forget that you have to pay for the crap you’re trying to sell. Ugh. Idiots.
Oh but that’s what the $100 a month is for – to make the minimum payment on the credit card you used to “invest” in your inventory. Assuming, of course, that $100 will be enough.
Meanwhile, the credit card statement has this very helpful calculation showing how many years it will take to pay off your balance when you make minimum payments. Also how much interest you’ll pay over that period, not including late fees and penalty rates.
That still doesn’t change the fact that the product has a cost attached to it. The price you paid for the product will always be there. Sell $400, the cost for $400 of product will always be $200. That part isn’t profit.
I was surprised to learn that MK claims to be a Christian company. Anyone who knows anything about the church knows that vanity is a serious sin, as are greed, deception and excessive loaning ans borrowing (the norm in MLMs). Christ had some pretty strong words for money changers in the temple. Their exploitation of religion is shameless.
I recently found out that a coworker working for low wages as a caregiver is a consultant for Mary Kay, as well as for a company that sells essential oils. I found this out by accident, since she saw a product I was making for my *real* business. She thinks her pyramid side hustles are businesses and it’s pretty scary to think how much money out of her paltry paycheck she is “investing.” Maybe I can get her to read this site before its too late.