Working for a direct sales company

[Millycw]

Hi Ladies! What are your opinions on working for a direct sales company that affords flexible working hours and working from home? Does anyone already work for one? Has anyone considered doing it?

Sorry if you search Facebook the Y sellers are without exception very chavvy looking with a faceful of plastered on make up
If the makeup was any good why wouldn't the company sell it on the highstreet and advertise how amazing it is? I am yet to know of an actual beautician or makeup artist who promotes the stuff

One of the things the MLM cults exploit is the trust factor. If your friend has signed up and says it's good, that's great advertising effectively paid for by your friend. On that note, I agree with throwing's experience of seeing Younique lashes looking appalling. It's really noticeable how none of them look ok. I therefore trust that the product is terrible if not even those motivated by profit can make it look good. You can only take this 'user error' argument so far you know...

I have, all three threads and the bot watch ones.

I have my head screwed on, I know how they work and like I said I did my research. I was heavily against MLM and this included Y. I didn't join on a whim, I spent months watching forum threads, reading blogs and watching how the company operated in this country. At the end of the day, I fell in love with the products so wanted them and selling was a good way of getting my own cheap or free as it happens.

I don't spam friends/family begging them to buy or join. I let them know I sell it, when I'm placing orders and then let them come to me should they wish.

I am in fact about to sponsor my first team member who chose me over probably 10+ other reps who will have replied to her post because I was honest and gave her all the information she needed to make her own choice. If she hadn't of chosen me then oh well, I'd of still happily have given her advice and help if she wanted it.

You can't tarnish every rep or company by the acts of others.

Hahah I am far from chavvy...I'm a goth/emo looking 30 year old who loves black eyeshadow, heavy metal music and my black hoody...with blue hair.

I love how the lashes look...on me! I don't care what others think. I wear make up to make me feel good, not to appeal to others. I don't like people who decide that having an orange face and white neck is appealing but it's up to them how they look.

Why don't Avon sell on the high street? Ann Summers didn't until more recently. It's the business model the company chose, at the end of the day it is their business. It's like turning to a craft seller and asking why they sell on Etsy and not eBay or why don't they have a shop? It's their choice.

lol, yeah I'm chavvy

OED says "a young lower-class person who displays brash and loutish behaviour and wears real or imitation designer clothes"

Nope, not me! I'm a professionally qualified graduate, who is shy and never drunk, with no designer clothes, unless you count branded sailing technical wear. (This sounds a bit like a lonely hearts ad )

I mean, I currently have a Hello Kitty witch face painted on my arm but it's not a tattoo - does that count as imitation?!?

If you have critical ability to gain a degree how on earth have you managed to get sucked into the MLM model?

By doing my research and choosing a company that doesn't follow the normal model.

I look at FL and think no, too expensive, too much focus on recruiting, confusing compensation plan, minimum purchases.

Avon - too saturated, charged for everything inc the bags your order comes in.

Phoenix cards - cheap products but you're going to have to sell massive quantities to make anything.

Etc.

I was not "sucked in" ... I've made a conscious decision to earn some extra cash whilst benefiting from free make up myself. I don't want to give up my proper job. I already have a house, 3 cars, (smallish) yacht.

There is also the...

Oh, I like the look of that mascara. Buy mascara. Love mascara. Lightbulb I could get my personal mascara with 25% off if I join rather than it going to someone else and make a little extra if friends or family fancy buying it too.

To me, that is sense rather than sucked in...surely? I already had a couple of friends who used it before I became a Presenter who immediately switched to buying from me as I was a friend rather than a random Presenter.

pfft, Y has a confusing compensation plan just like the rest. and i did some sleuthing on their alleged charity but could find very little about it in the real world.

Fine, you like their mascara. But there's lots of nice mascaras out there for that price or cheaper - and if there stuff is so danged amazing, why don't they flog it on Amazon?

I thought there were minimum sales?
From the Younique website:
"ROLLING THREE MONTHS: To avoid being inactivated, each Presenter must sell at least 125 in PRS during the previous 3 months" how much mascara is that?
Plus this:

www.youniqueproducts.com/femmemakeup/business/about
made me laugh....

Lastuseraccount123: By not selling on Amazon, eBay etc they are guaranteeing that their customers get a genuine product. I don't know if you have seen in the news lately but knock off makeup has been found to have urine, unsafe levels of lead, paint and knock off fiber lash mascara even has fiber glass in it. By buying direct from the company every customer knows it is a safe, regulated product.

Brysonette: There is no minimum sales in order for a Presenter to receive their commission. They earn from every sale unlike some who require the rep to meet £xx before they see any commission - they might be £1 short of that target and not get anything.

The rolling 3 month target is the number of sales that a presenter needs to make in order to remain active and even then they can just reactivate themselves within 6 months.

Oh and I didn't see the how many mascara question, sorry. That's 5 (well 4.3) mascaras over a 3 month rolling period. So for example

Jan: 2 mascaras
Feb: 1 mascara
March: 2 mascaras

then

Feb: 1 mascara
March: 2 mascaras
April: 2 mascaras

chammy: or department stores, Boots etc. They could flog it there too. OR do those retailers not guarantee it's a genuine product?

gotta say, of all the weak arguments Bots pull out, that has to be one of the weakest. Anybody could stick a Y sticker on a tube of cheapo mascare. and claim they're a Y seller. it's not that hard.

p.s. Timeless Vie makes a really good one made of parsley stems. Did you know our mascara is 500x strongerer than other mascaras? check out our facebook page facebook.com/timelessive

Ok, say you just wanted to buy it for yourself - would you still have to purchase 125 PRS in order that your account remains active and to still get a discount on it in the previous 3 months? That's the impression I'm getting from their website.

What is 125 PRS equivalent to?

Brysonette: If I wanted to buy the mascara now I would received my commission within 3.5hrs from the time I bought it, paid directly into my Payquicker account and able to spend it straight away. If at the end of the month I failed to hit my 125 prs then my account would become inactive but I will still have received the commission from your sale. The discount you mention is the cost of the mascara minus the commission.

PRS is Personal Retail Sales and 1PRS is equal to $1 (as it is a US company). A mascara is $29 so is 29PRS, so 125 is $125 in sales. PRS is purely used to calculate promotions/commission levels for Presenters.

lastuseraccount123: You asked about Amazon so the answer was aimed at that - selling/auction sites like that cannot guarantee genuine though Younique work with them to get fake sellers taken down.

As I've previously said, the company chose the direct sales business model because that is what they wanted to do. It is their company and they sell how they want to. If they decided to start selling in department stores then they could, easily, but they won't.

Yes anyone could claim they are a Younique seller but we all have our own sites so a customer can check it is genuine before they buy. They are also only covered for a refund if bought through a genuine seller/the site.

I get that you are not interested, I'm not trying to convince you to join (I know that you wouldn't) but the original poster wanted feedback from both sides. Just because you don't like how the MLM world operates doesn't mean she will do rubbish just the same as I genuinely enjoy working for the one I work for would mean that she would do amazingly.

it's not just a matter of 'not liking how the MLM world operates" Chammy. I believe they are fraudulent, with a deliberately opaque business model (actually, I don't believe it is a business- rather a fraud/pyramid scheme) designed to suck people in. You can spin it however you want, ultimately that's what you are supporting.

The fact that they don't sell in the transparent marketplace should be a red flag for anyone. It's a deliberate tactic, not just a choice.

chammy, how do they convert the USD into pounds? Do they use a floating exchange rate? or is it a fixed conversion price?

and what's net profit for the seller from 125 "prs". in pounds.

The products in each country are a set cost, the cost and commission doesn't fluctuate. PRS is purely used to calculate promotion and commission levels for the Presenters. I will always received 25% commission (unless I go up a few levels) for ever item I sell and that is 25% of the UK cost, not 25% of the USD cost then converted into GBP.

The 125 prs profit will depend on the customers commission level. If I sold 125 prs which as I've said is roughly 5 mascaras then the commission I would receive is £23, if I was at 30% I would have £27.60.

Why don't ASOS have high street stores? Or Photobox?

Why didn't Apple sell their watches in stores? Or Google some of the Nexus range?

It's not just MLM's that choose to sell stuff online only.

If MLMs sold online then they wouldn't need reps. The product with MLMs is a distraction. It's about recruitment.

none of those companies are MLMs trinity.

they are like, actual businesses.

It very much depends on what kind of a direct sales company it is.

Are you genuinely going to make money from the sales of a genuine product or are you expected to recruit a team and product sales are secondary?

Be very, very careful.

People aren't down on MLM schemes for no reason. Don't be fooled by any hype and do your research.

Or if you don't mind your friends thinking you are a bit of a dick, go for it!!