Earning a Mary Kay Car is Easy
The lies Mary Kay consultants and directors tell about how “easy” it is to earn a car in Mary Kay and how little time it takes! This is a training document which completely downplays the amount of time and effort it will take to “earn” the car. It will cost you far more than if you just went and leased a car on your own!
Out of your 168 hours week you will need to spend 12-15 hours a week in people time to earn and continue using your free company car. Suggested allotment of time:
6 hours – 3 classes per week
3 hours – 3 interviews per week
2 hours – weekly meeting
2 hours – business debut or specialized training
2 hours – reorders, follow-up phone
Car drivers are responsible for attending all local and company sponsored events such as specialized trainings, retreats, career conference, seminar, etc.
All paper work and computer work should be delegated or hired out. Approximately 204 hours a week.
This level of activity continues building your team above 12, assures a $500-$800 sales week ($200 – $320 profit) for a monthly profit of $800-$1300 and a team commission check of $500-$800 a month.
This part-time position earns you the use of the car, tags, and approx.70% of the insurance. With the suggested activity above you will earn a total of $1000-$2100 a month in commissions from sales and recruiting.
And that, my friends is what we call a FALSE EARNINGS CLAIM. You will not “earn your car” in only 12 to 15 hours per week. The time it takes to find new victims, convince those victims to hold parties, recruit from those parties, get the recruits to place inventory order… it is all very time-consuming and claims like the above regarding the time commitment are nothing but lies.
Visit the
And even if (and it’s a big if) you really earned those amounts, that’s not a living wage. Even less when you remember that you have to keep up your own production and that of your minions or else you’re going to have to pay a copay to keep driving that “free” car. Hiring someone to take care of the clerical work, if you can even find someone willing to do that kind of work for peanuts, will eat into your measly profits even further.
Whereas my JOB is 40 hours a week, including all my own computer and paper work and I still have plenty of time to putz around on PT and elsewhere. Best of all, when I walk out the door at the end of the day, I don’t need to think about it for one moment until 8:30 the next morning.
I’m guaranteed the same paycheck whether I have a slow month or a crazy month. The salary isn’t great because it’s local government, but the medical benefits and PTO are fabulous. My car payment was a bit over $400 a month, less than the minimum needed to stay active in MK, and now that the 5 year loan is paid off the car is mine with no strings attached. I can sell it, keep it, trade it, or give it away.
Tell me again why chasing frantically after unwilling victims and paying your own money to keep a prize you’ve “won” is so great?
Let’s say you do qualify for a car from Mary Kay. Do you actually have to take it? Can you get some kind of monetary bonus instead? Seems like that would be more desirable, just take the extra money, put it towards a new car you actually own and not have to worry about the potential co-payment if you don’t maintain the right level of sales. Mary Kay’s car bonus seems to be nothing but a lease program and like a ball-and-chain setup to keep you from quitting. But I am not privy to all the details.
You can take a cash bonus in lieu of the car, but it seems they’ll move heaven and earth to get you to take the car instead. You know, prestige, everyone recognizes the pink Cadillac, people will swoon in admiration, it means you made it, and all that nonsense.
But at the end of the day, yeah, it’s just another tool to keep you under control. “You didn’t do [pink thing X]. You don’t want to…LOSE YOUR CAR, do you?”
“it seems they’ll move heaven and earth to get you to take the car instead”
Oh, of course they will! They even have a designated corporate position (which comes with a salary, benefits, paid time off, etc) specifically focused on helping thousands of ladies keep their MK cars!
They seem to have hidden the job duties/description, or maybe I have a bad link…but I assure you that when the whole post was visible, they specifically stated that this employee is a CUSTOMER SERVICE rep (as in, customers are IBCs and directors, not consumers) and that they’ll be managing the career car program including deciding if you keep your car in times of unit distress; motivating you to keep pushing for your car; and explaining why you did NOT Areceive the car even when you thought you would.
They’re paying good salaries and benefits to someone who can ensure the Kaybot focus is on earning the car.
https://marykay.referrals.selectminds.com/jobs/bilingual-sr-rep-career-car-services-us-976
It still says “… High school diploma or equivalent plus 6 years of customer service experience…”
I took the cash compensation before, and I caught all kinds of hell from my senior and others for it.
A – Who wants to drive a mediocre vehicle? A Chevy SUV (think mid-to-late 90s)? A Cadillac with crappy model years that had serious reliability issues? Don’t get me started on that Pontiac Vibe. (The Grand Am and Grand Prix were both really good cars. The Grand Prix had the 3600 series engine in it, and that thing was a workhorse!)
B – I drove a very nice car (Buick) with more oomph and bells and whistles than the MK Cadillac. (See also part A) I also OWNED said vehicle.
C – The insurance is ungodly expensive.
D – The cash option was more than what my car payment was. Which meant I banked a chunk of change each month.
When I presented these reasons to my senior and NSD, they were both speechless. And neither of them had any argument against my points.
Yeah… Right…
3 Classes/week: 2-3 hours per class AT the class, plus 1 hour driving to/from, 30 minutes packing up all your crap to schlep to the hostess’s house, 30 minutes-1 hour to book the class, 30 minutes to “pre-profile” each guest, 30 minutes to clean mirrors/pack gift bags/prep for the class. More like 6 hoursx3=18 hours
3 interviews/week: Realistically, this should be about 3 hours. But, that’s assuming all 3 show up and don’t leave you hanging at Starbucks because they were never interested in the first place. (Speaking of, add $15/interview to your expenses–coffee dates aren’t cheap!) To actually get 3 interviews, you should probably book 6, so that’s more like 6 hours.
Weekly meeting: may last 2 hours, but if you’re not 15 minutes early, you’re late! And you really should be there 30 minutes early to help set up. Don’t forget to stay 30 minutes late to tear down! Plus let’s say 30 minutes driving. 3 1/2 hours
Business Debut or specialized training: A business debut will take you a minimum of 4 hours by the time you coach your new team member, help her set up, help her tear down, debrief her, do interviews for her, blah blah blah. FOUR HOURS! I don’t know what they’re talking about with specialized training, likely another guest event or something with a national sales director. Count on four hours for those, too, by the time you travel to them, etc. They also don’t mention the cost of those “specialized trainings.”
Reorders, follow-up phone: This totally excludes time to stalk, I mean warm chat, people out and about to get new names. Going to the post office to ship (ching ching). Driving all over town delivering product. On and on and on. Let’s say 4 hours here, too, just to be conservative.
So now your cutesy little part-time job is at 35 1/2 hours/week. That $1,300 month doesn’t seem so attractive now, does it?
I’m not even going to touch “delegating paperwork.” Because they don’t teach you to do actual P&L’s, or do bookkeeping, or do any of the other stuff you have to do as a business owner. Because you’re not at that level as a MK car-driver. IF you do that stuff (which cannot be delegated unless you hire a bookkeeper, and even then, you’re on the hook for the basics), plan on adding another five hours to your week.
Long story short, NOT a part time job. NOT sustainable. You’re NOT going to “earn” a car in 15 hours a week, and you’re NOT going to maintain it with less than a 40 hour commitment.
However, 15 hours per week at a regular job could easily earn you enough to buy or lease a nice car.
This makes NO SENSE!
“All paper work and computer work should be delegated or hired out. Approximately 204 hours a week.
This level of activity continues building your team above 12, assures a $500-$800 sales week ($200 – $320 profit) for a monthly profit of $800-$1300 and a team commission check of $500-$800 a month.”
Maybe the original author meant 24 hours. Even then, you have to pay someone to balance your books and keep your records. How much does that cost? At minimum, it’s most likely $15 per hour. For a true expert, much more.
If the car driver only profits $1300 – $2100 per month and pays out $1440 ($15 x 24 x 4) to an assistant, she’s either in the hole $100 or keeping $600 per month. On top of that are expenses and ordering requirements to keep the car and unit. Just this simple example demonstrates the scam of Mary Kay.
I think they meant 2-4. Which is another gross underestimation, but makes more sense than 24 hours, when the original estimate is only 15 hours of “people” work.
“you will need to spend 12-15 hours a week in people time to earn and continue using your free company car.”
They really do use the words free company car with zero sense of irony.
I’ve heard that the production minimums have been raised yet again but haven’t been able to get specfic numbers.
Things my former director actually said to me:
“So-and-so was only *this many dollars* in production away from doing car qualification this month and she let it go, if she had just put it on a credit card she would still be in car qualification.”
“If I could do it over again I would take the cash bonus instead of the stupid car.”
I’m curious are the numbers out there of how many pink cars are on the road? I feel l’ve almost never seen one, maybe 3-4 in my life. And I’ve always lived in major cities, but ones with plenty of suburban areas (ie. not Manhattan or something).
After I left MK, I got a job at a popular pharmacy. I work in the front store, register. Love my customers, the people I work with, I get paid $15 an hour, plus my regular full time job. I’m making more money that I’ve EVER made in my life. And, like you said, when I clock out, I’m OUT. Not thinking about all the things that MK engulfed my life, my sanity, my emotions, etc. I’m free and loving it!
“6 hours – 3 classes per week
3 hours – 3 interviews per week
2 hours – weekly meeting
2 hours – business debut or specialized training
2 hours – reorders, follow-up phone”
Okay, so where is the allotment of time needed to FIND:
-the faces needed to conduct 3 classes per week;
-the women needed to conduct 3 interviews per week;
-the women needed to be the subject of the business debut, and those interested in “training”;
-the women needed to constitute a customer base for those reorders and follow ups?
It always, ALWAYS comes down to finding enough potential customers and recruits in order to fulfill these meetings/classes/recruitment goals. But that’s not what your director will train you on, because she doesn’t have any magical advice to help you find them. All she will do is tell you what you should do with these leads AFTER you find them on your own.
Pathetic, and guaranteed that you will need to spend a minimum of TRIPLE those 15 hours per week to have any chance of making the contacts needed to THEN fill your calendar with her recommended activities.
Oh and a huge LOL at “All paper work and computer work should be delegated or hired out.”
Good luck affording that on your sub-minimum wage earnings!
“All paper work and computer work should be delegated or hired out.”
retire your spouse to do that or one of your kids or pay in products because they are such high value that anyone would be over-joyed to accept them in lieu of payment.