I Made $600 My First Week!
In response to our Friday “Pink Truth Critics” post, we got a fabulous little comment from someone named Ashley. Does anyone want to mention to her that she didn’t “win” $1100 in free products? She doesn’t realize she bought those. Ashley had to buy a $3,600 wholesale inventory package to get the “free” products that are $550 wholesale/$1,100 retail. Pssst, Ashley…. You’ve already lost. You lost thousands of dollars and you don’t even know it.
My director is a national sales director, one of the top ppl in MaryKay. In one week of starting I’ve made over $600, won over $1100 in free product, won jewelry, a jewelry box, pins, gifts, full makeup pallets and more. In one week. My first week. It’s not a scam but you have to know how to be a salesman. You have to know how to connect with ppl. You have to know the ins and outs of money and taxes and business related things. If you’re too lazy to do the work and research then yes you will fail. Don’t blame it on the company. Blame it on yourself. You are responsible for your own life and actions.
Visit the
“ you have to know how to be a salesman”
The jokes write themselves.
Ok “Ashley” let us know when everything is sold.
It appears as though Ashley is still naïve. Give it 6 months and let us know what your actual NET profits are (use a spreadsheet, show expenditures, hours worked, = net profits will be apparent) – I suspect a LOT less than $600 a week, and after your warm market of pity purchases dry up, you may read more articles here, more closely. Your NSD is a skilled manipulator who has churned through countless versions of you. That’s truly the secret behind the success of MLMs, the ability to churn, a lot, and quickly. Welcome to the churn.
LOL welcome to the churn. Love it!
I set up a spreadsheet and ran the numbers. After 4 months, I had made a whopping $30 and spent more time than I wanted to on MK. I didn’t buy inventory, so it was pretty easy to walk away. The saddest thing is that at the end of the seminar year (I joined in August), I was in the top 10 for sales for the unit.
Oh you sweet summer child. Those trinkets are nothing more than bait meant to get you onto the hook and mask the sting as it goes through your cheek, and the lies about “free product” (what are you going to do with it, anyway?) Are there to keep you from thinking about the barbs that won’t let you wriggle away without a struggle.
So you earned six bills in one week. I’m sure your family and friends bought a whole bunch in order to help you start your business. But who will order from you next week? Next month? Six months? It won’t be them. It won’t be the leads who you’ll run yourself ragged trying to get and praying they won’t ghost you. It sure as heck won’t be your NSD, who will leave you in the dust the second you stop making her money.
I’m sure Bernie Madoff’s victims were all proud of themselves for being smarter and better connected than the rest of his victims, but once he was busted they were just as screwed as the rest.
Ashley’s so busy she can’t take the time to spell out people!
I’m fascinated by these “100 free names”. Where are they coming from? If they were legit customers, interested in buying MK why didn’t MK start providing this at any other point in the last 60 years?!
Also, every successful business owner I know talks about how they know “business -related things.” Sure, Jan.
Ashley, please report back on how many of those 100 names results in a sale. Please.
“100 free names”
My guess:
She doesn’t get 100 names. It’s the Preferred Customer Program (PCP), and her “prize” is being able to add 100 names to PCP free, rather than paying as she normally would.
Oh, that makes way more sense than the “leads” I was thinking of. Good call!
My director is a national sales director, one of the top ppl (sic) in MaryKay.
we’ll have to take your word for this as you never named your NSD.
In one week of starting I’ve made over $600, won over $1100 in free product, won jewelry, a jewelry box, pins, gifts, full makeup pallets and more. In one week. My first week.
All that glisters is not gold. This is Mary Kay’s version of love-bombing. Meaningless trifles that prove nothing.
It’s not a scam but you have to know how to be a salesman.
It’s easy making sales to your warm market as they have a reason to support you. Once that market dries up then you are going to be desperately scrambling to find new victims.. I mean customers. Wear your pin upside down and start warm-chattering strangers on a daily basis.
You have to know how to connect with ppl(sic).
Look out, Sugar Sharp Ladies, there’s a new MKBot in town!
You have to know the ins and outs of money and taxes and business related things.
I hope you follow your own advise and keep a spreadsheet of out-going costs and incoming revenue. Remember to tally the time you have spent on this business to ensure that you are making a reasonable dollar amount for your hours of work. And remember all those trinkets come with a taxable dollar amount so the IRS wants their share of those too.
If you’re too lazy to do the work and research then yes you will fail.
Somehow I don’t think you have done your research either. But I hope you get out before you have lost too much money.
Don’t blame it on the company.
The structure of MLMs of which Mary Kay multitudinous last names’ company is one makes not failing almost impossible.
Blame it on yourself. You are responsible for your own life and actions.
Welcome to Victim Blaming 101. This one is flying high on her new pink wings powered by delusion and wild promises. Let’s hope she drifts slowly back to earth rather than crashing and burning.
Oh, bless your heart! Would you like to know how much I make each week as a travel nurse after taxes? My weekly take-home was easily $2300-2500, and I only worked 36-37 hours weekly. (If I worked an extra shift, those 12 hours meant another $1000 after taxes. My expenses averaged $250/week in gas and groceries.) My work stayed at work, and I didn’t have to worry about making production or how I would unload all of the useless items on my shelf.
Your $600 in a week doesn’t impress me. This isn’t the norm in MLMs unless you live and breathe said MLM and work yourself to death.
I won’t state mine, but it’s closer to Heather, than Ashley. And I’ve never been in sales. Ah, the skull-drudgery of a J O B.
She didn’t “make” $600 in a week. She “grossed” $600 in a week. When put against her expenses, she’s losing money, just like the other 99.6% of MLMers.
MLMs are famous for misusing business terms to fool their audience. When folks hear “make” they assume take-home pay. In real business, one does not conflate revenue with profit. But Mary Kay encourages exactly this. That’s why they show their bonus checks, to imply they are “making” that much money. But they never share how much they are spending. A ledger is not very useful when it only reflects revenues but not expenditures.
Ashley spent 💸💸$3,600💰💰 to make a gross profit of $600 in a week. Since she’s hopefully selling at a 50% profit, she’s still out of pocket by $3,300. 🤷♀️
Her math ain’t mathing.😵😖💁♀️
Hi Ashley,
Please, please, PLEASE come back in one year’s time and tell us how awesome MK is and how wrong we were.
Correct. $600 in pity purchases. With discounts. And free gifts. Very little profit, if any. And if there is any, it will be nullified by that credit card interest on the $4000+ that she plunked down for inventory.
“You have to know the ins and outs of money and taxes and business related things.” Yes, and your ignorance of them is exactly what your Nashy-nash is counting on. You can be distracted from business related things by trinkets and praise for long enough that she can probably suck several thousand dollars out of you before you give up.
Nashy-nash. LOL
Yep – classic “look over there.”
My response was intended for “Lazy Gardens.” RE: “You can be distracted from business related things…”
Meeting at Starrrrrrrrrrrrrrbiessssssss with her teammieeeeeeeeeeeeeeees
Welcome to the community, Ashley. I hope you’ll thoroughly research sales techniques, money management, taxes, and “business related things” as you progress on your Mary Kay journey. Make sure you invest in some business tracking software (it’s a tax deduction, amirite???) to track your P&L. Make no mistake, Mary Kay infinite-last-names-you’ll-learn-soon-enough knew that a good business runs on profit and loss, no matter how many times your nsd bestie tries to convince you it stands for “People & Love.” They know precisely how much “free” product it takes to get you to bite the bullet on that $3,600 inventory order.
And you should be equally concerned with how much profit you’re actually making. Was that $600 you mentioned profit? Was that the net amount of cash in your pocket before expenses? Was it retail product that left your shelves, but at a discount, so you really pocketed $525? How much “profit” are they telling you you made? Check that against an actual business tracking software. You’ll find they don’t match up. How many hours have you spent on your MK business this week? Your nsd will tell you that you should only count the time you spent with potential customers, not on inventory orders, training, travel, or setting up your office. Does that seem like it makes sense? Does your day job require you to regularly put in tons of hours off the clock? Food for thought.
Seriously, Ashley, I sincerely wish you the best. And I wish you didn’t have to experience the next year or so of misery as the scales fall from your eyes and you see Mary Kay for the scam it is. I hope you keep checking back with us. Do a periodic gut check. Right now, you’re in the throes of excitement and emotion, and you’re not seeing things clearly. Once the smoke clears a bit, check in with yourself and ask yourself–if this opportunity is so fabulous, why do you have to tell so many lies, both to yourself and to others, right from the start?
So she spent $3600 and sold $600, isn’t that her still being in the hole $3000?
$3,300 if she sold at 50% profit margin.
Sounds like Ashley had $600 in sales at her debut party.
Sorry, Ash, but it’s all downhill from here. You’ll be stuck selling your inventory at a discount just to get it out of your house.
Good point! I wonder how much she had to give away or discount to get $600
Yes, you do need to know sales. Because you are a salesperson. A sales manager, at best. And the company you work for has manipulated you and thousands of other women to pay them to be their salesperson and do all the work of taxes and inventory for free. They get to sit in their corporate offices making a huge salary with benefits, while you throw money at them. Meanwhile, you make a pittance and have to beg people to buy from you so you can reach your “goal”, throwing in discounts and free product that come our of YOUR profit. And you have to stand up at team meetings every week in front of a creepy portrait of Mary Kay Ash that hangs in every studio like it’s North Korea and smile and tell everyone how “successful” you are when you know damn well you’re barely keeping your head above water and you’re beginning to doubt everything they told you while they were recruiting you.
Come back here when that happens. We’ll help you get out.
Poor Ashley. We’ll soon see her on social media begging for sales to help her meet her next “goal.” (We don’t want her to miss out on that stretch bracelet.)
She’ll be trudging from restaurant to restaurant, business to business, office building to office building, carrying her “Blessing Basket” with Mary Kay samples to “honor working women.” She may even get to hand out some free Charcoal Masks (that she paid for) before she is escorted from the premises by a burly Security Guard.
Ashley, if you’re reading…. We’re not trying to be mean, and we’re poking fun at MK Corp & the MLM model as whole, not you.
Some (many) of the people on this website have been Sales Directors & Senior Sales Directors. 1 was one step away from being a National. Many women earned Cadillacs and taught classes at Seminar & Career Conference. They were in MK for years and they walked away when they realized how financially destructive it is.
We are sick & tired of people losing money to this scheme. It’s not only lazy losers who lose money. It’s 99% of the consultants who signed up. 99%.
I’m sure that sounds crazy to you, but unfortunately, it’s true. Ask yourself, did 99% really just not work hard enough. Or could it be harder to succeed at MK than your director told you?
Your first week is most likely your best week. Most people’s largest orders are their initial order…. That’s literally how Mary Kay & your director make their money, when consultants ORDER inventory, especially their FIRST order. They don’t make any money when you sell your product to someone else.
I do hope you stick around this website & read more of the posts & learn from the people who were in for years & won’t earn a dime off of you. Please take the advice to keep CLOSE track of your income & expenses & the time you spend on everything. This website has a link that will tell you how to return your inventory and get 90% of your money back, if you end up needing that.