I found this piece on an old site that hasn’t been updated in almost a decade. But it’s a great read from someone who wants you to know that your failure in Mary Kay is all your fault.  It was entitled “10 Things That Will Cause You to Be Dead Broke in Your Mary Kay Business.” How valuable is this information?

I know what you are thinking?  This kind of sound negative! In Mary Kay business we are always positive. No it is not negative.  It is the reality.  Someone has to tell you the truth and save you from your own self if you want to honestly succeed selling Mary Kay.

I know there is a lot of self help and success materials out there and just like them, I would like to focus on your success like I have in several posts but I realize I have to point out some of the things that Mary Kay Cosmetics Consultants are doing that are causing them to fail in their business.

If only you can avoid these things you will begin to see a difference in your business and I promise you it will start to grow in the right directions.  If you ignore this, then do not say no one warned you of the danger ahead.  So here are 15 things that will take your Mary Kay Cosmetics business down the drain:

1. You spend time thinking about how much money you want to make from your Mary Kay business but you do not want to spend any money to get your business launched. You are totally not willing to invest in yourself.

You keep giving lame excuses and you buy into your own excuses; you want to make money first before you invest money in your business.  Now, that does not happen in a real business world only in a fantasy business world.

I hate to say it but this is a twisted way of thinking.  Example you want to build a strong customer base for your beauty products, but you do not want to pay any money to get the sensible inventory or samples needed to service your customers.

Now, if your company marketing is one where you get the products to the customers yourself, how is this going to work for you if you have nothing?

Please note I am not talking about you investing thousands of dollars to fill your garage or basement with inventory that you do not need, I am just talking common sense type of inventory to be able to service your Mary Kay customers.

How about you want to get your business online but you do not want to pay someone to design a blog for you and you do not know how to do it yourself but you really want to get online.  You want to market on facebook and create a professional facebook fan page but you do not know how to and not willing to pay someone to do it or to even teach you how to effectively market on facebook.

2. Not sticking with one company to allow yourself to build a solid business.  I have seen Mary Kay consultants who hop from one company to another every few months or every year.  They have tried just about every direct sales marketing company out there.

Every time you convince yourself that Mary Kay is bad and that is why you are not making any money and you jump on to the next and the cycle keep repeating and you end up back in Mary Kay second time, third or even fourth. The truth is, it is not about the company it’s all about YOU and how you market.

3. You are constantly in your Mary Kay Intouch back office monitoring your sales and your team, to see what is going on and when you realize your sales are down and your team is not doing anything, you start agonizing about it.

This completely distract you and suck the energy out of you.  Complaining about what your team is doing or not doing is not going to grow your business.  You need to focus on your own activities.  Are you focusing on Income Producing Activities?

4. You keep posting on your friends walls on facebook and other social media sites about the current hot new Mary Kay products or the latest $50 Mary Kay Starter Kit business opportunity promotion.  Then you spend the rest of the day on facebook trying to see whether you are getting responses.

Then you realize that no one really is paying attention to your postings as all you are doing is spamming folks on facebook.  Maybe just maybe you need to take time out and educate yourself how to effectively market on social media sites and get great results without spamming your friends.

5. You are still stuck in the Mary Kay 1963 Marketing Strategies. You have refused to do any market research about what is working well when it comes to marketing in the 21st century.  You keep buying into the idea “do not reinvent the wheel” maybe it is time to put some air in the wheel.

Things have changed in the last 50 years and if you do not adapt modern day marketing principles like using the power of the internet, then your competitors will always have an advantage over you.

6. Spend most of your time bitching and complaining on some negative online forums about Mary Kay Cosmetics, your Mary Kay Sales Director, your Mary Kay National Sales Director, your team, your Mary Kay unit, your customers and everyone else but you.

Find some like minds… misery loves company.  Complain all day long and blame everybody including the weather- too cold winters or very hot summers as reasons why you are not doing what you are supposed to do.  Always remember you become what you think about.  Your thoughts shapes who you are.

7. When you have nothing else to complain about in those forums, start launching some online personal attacks to others.  Find some more online sites that bitch your company all day long and sites that are known to do nothing else but attack different network marketing companies and their top performers.  See how quickly you will quit and never try anything else.

8. You want to build a successful business online or offline but you have no integrity.  Nothing will crush your business fast as lack of integrity.  No one will want to do business with you.  Your customers cannot count on your to deliver what they paid you for, your Mary Kay director cannot count on you to do what you are supposed to do to build your own success.  Your unit cannot count on you as their Mary Kay sales director.

You manipulate your team or your unit so you achieve you own hidden agenda not caring about their bottom line.  Not keeping your words or just not being honest or respective to others or to others time due to your own selfishness.

If you tell someone you will be there or you will call them, then you have to keep your word or at least have the courtesy to call or email them. Let them know if something comes up and you are not able to keep your appointment whether online, on phone, or one on one. Treat others the way you would want to be treated, it is the golden rule.

9. Take no time to educate yourself about your Mary Kay products, your business opportunity or compensation plan and only rely on your sponsor or your sales Mary Kay Sales Director to tell you.  Do not even bother learning how to communicate with people or how to close a prospect instead just rely on your director doing 3 way calls for you.  You will see how quickly folks will figure out that you have no clue what you are doing and so you feel the need for others to validate you.

10. Keep pushing your Mary Kay Cosmetics business opportunity to your family and friends and when you ran out of your warm market, get into the cold arena and push your opportunity to everyone who comes within 3 feet of you.

Remember the 3 feet rule?  If this is the only marketing strategy you have you can be sure to wait for a long time before building a successful business.

This kind of marketing will slow you down and limit you.  Not everyone within your 3 feet is quite honestly interested in building a Mary Kay Cosmetics business or any other business.  Market your Mary Kay business opportunity to people who are looking not the ones you have to convince.