Page 3 | Being a scentsy consultant?

Talkthirtytome · 2019-10-25T17:37:30+00:00

I'm thinking about becoming a scentsy consultant. I've read up about mlms and I'm not expecting to make a living from it but i don't want to lose money either. Just want some opinions really!

Karmin · 27/10/2019 22:28

Get to spend more time with my family and kids vs. a "cubicle scheme" job — Actually means you are spending every waking moment including vacation time and weekends trying to sell on Facebook and in fact ignoring your family. With a "cubical scheme" job you can leave it on the job and enjoy your time away from work.

TheFatberg · 27/10/2019 22:30

The script they get given is so funny.

Yestermo · 27/10/2019 22:31

Oh man, I can't believe they are still going. They did the rounds here when I had my first baby. I still judge the annoying twats on my fb that pushes their shit on me. I innocently went to a few drinks at "friends" before realising it was a selling party. Fucking horrible. Wasted a valuable evening out to made to feel bad because we didn't want to buy some over priced smelly shite. Avoided those people ever since.

LivingDeadGirlUK · 27/10/2019 22:43

@Dani19922109 you don't have a business you are a commision based sales rep. Your job in Tescos pays you minimum wage, sick pay, pension and national insurance contributions in exchange for performing your role. Your sales rep job makes sales for the company you work for and all you get is a tiny commision, whats the point in that?

Mumoftwoyoungkids · 27/10/2019 23:06

Could one of the people who are earning money from Scentsy give the following info:-

Money made from flogging the products
Money made from recruiting others
Expenses
Hours worked

I know you haven’t done your accounts yet etc but surely you know roughly how much you’ve earned and how long you are spending on it? Or how do you know it is viable?

TheCraicDealer · 27/10/2019 23:08

My hairdresser is a consultant and makes "good" money out of it- she has the melts going in the salon and a few catalogs sitting out for clients to glance through. She has a readymade customer base and doesn't try to recruit anyone or do wax sniffing parties, she just takes orders when people ask. She says she does pretty well out of it for a side gig, but even with her captive and relatively receptive audience it's still only really pocket money.

This is rare though- for most consultants they risk alienating friends and family by chasing sales for very, very little return, or a loss. I know of a few other acquaintances who have started scentsy and quietly dropped it after a few months.

wizzywig · 27/10/2019 23:13

Uugh op, i was one for a couple of years. Even if you buy for yourself, the postage price is high. Im still in some facebook groups (so i can still see what happens), and there are a lot of unhappy sellers who struggle to shift stock and then they have to pay postage out of their commission as most customers dont want to pay it themselves.

GoGoJo · 27/10/2019 23:44

Why would I want a lifetime guarantee on a scented candle?

Misses the point

elliescents · 27/10/2019 23:56

There is no need to slate us all, I don't push sales on anyone, I don't invite people over and then suddenly spring Scentsy on them. I don't post "living my best life" posts or tell everyone I can only afford treats for my kids because of Scentsy. That doesn't make me feel comfortable, it's not me. I'm not lazy, nor am I brainwashed (Yes I know that's what a brainwashed person would say. In that case you're all brainwashed, and if you try to deny it then it's clearly true, that's how it works right?) I'm not spending more than I make but I'm not making a fortune doing it either, this is absolutely fine for me. I am not being pressured! It's something I do because I enjoy it. There are people out there that do this completely the wrong way and make people hate it, I don't blame anyone for having a negative view after being subjected to them. But I'm not wrong for loving Scentsy, I'm not wrong for having fun selling the products and my friends don't 'humour' me. Some buy Scentsy and some don't.... this is fine!

To anyone that has built a business from the ground up and worked hard sourcing and pricing and everything else that goes with it.. I am in awe, you are amazing women! It's not what I'm looking to do though so being a sales rep is perfect for me. I also don't ignore my family trying to sell all hours of the day. I'm not this person you are trying to paint me to be xxx

Liseg2005 · 28/10/2019 07:06

They aren't candles. That's part of the issue is that people.make.comment, but they don't actually know what the products are

OtraCosaMariposa · 28/10/2019 07:17

My hairdresser is a consultant and makes "good" money out of it- she has the melts going in the salon

Sounds like as with most MLMs, she's her own best customer. All the bots say they make good money because their mantra is fake it till you make it. They will tell you that they have cars, holidays, handbags or whatever thanks to their amazing product because that's what they're told to say, and it attracts more people in.

If she took off all the costs of buying the products for herself, the picture would likely be be very different. 99.7% of people LOSE money or just BREAK EVEN.

Gotmychocolateimgood · 28/10/2019 07:18

The product is irrelevant to some extent. It only exists to legally prevent it being a pyramid scheme.

The main customers will be the 'independent business owners' who buy the product to sell it on. Often they will be unable to sell it as it's so expensive, or they offer free postage or discounts from their own pocket to encourage sales.

Training consists of love bombing, brainwashing and setting pointless tasks to distract the 'independent business owners' eg 14 days of lives on fb. Keeps them busy and makes them feel they are 'working their business' whilst distracting them from the actual numbers.

I'm not lazy, nor am I brainwashed (Yes I know that's what a brainwashed person would say. In that case you're all brainwashed, and if you try to deny it then it's clearly true, that's how it works right?)
Face-palm. We're not part of the 'company'!

LivingDeadGirlUK · 28/10/2019 07:33

@elliescents thats all good and well but why do you have to support a pyramid scheme if you just enjoy wax melts? MLM is a pyramid selling scam that is damaging to 97% of the people who are involved, contributing to it because you like a product, which is pretty generic and could be bought in any home store or online retailer, is actually quite nasty. If you like the products there is loads going cheap on ebay, stock people screwed over by the company are desperate to sell.

TheFatberg · 28/10/2019 07:36

I saw some wax melts for sale in Heron Food this weekend.

potatoeseverywherepot · 28/10/2019 07:40

End of day everything is pyramid sales!!

Yeah, do you know what a pyramid scheme actually is?

elliescents · 28/10/2019 07:47

I don't buy stock, so if I don't sell it I'm not out of pocket. We're actually not allowed to buy lots of stock or advertise that we have stock, I couldn't fit it in my house. People place orders with me or direct from my website and the order comes from the warehouse, I don't do anything like '14 days of lives' and I don't have someone telling me how to get sales on Facebook everyday so I feel like I'm working hard. I don't know how else to say it... that's not who I am! And my point about brainwashing was that if you call someone brainwashed and they say that's not true then that means they must be by your logic, so yes 'face palm' you missed my point. I'm not the awful person you think I am. I've signed up to sell a product that I love. I do home parties and I have a Facebook group that people can leave whenever they want, if I don't sell anything, I don't lose anything unless I decide to place orders to keep myself active which frankly is bad business sense if you can't afford to do it, I know I can't. This is my hobby so the objective isn't to make decent money, nobody is 'faking it till they make it' amongst my group of consultant friends, I can spot that a mile off and it makes me cringe, before this I actually joined a company that was everything you're accusing Scentsy of being, it was about faking success and results and I left very fast because it was awful. You will only lose money if you put too much pressure on yourself and if it's the people you've joined under that are making you feel pressured and telling you to 'fake it till you make it' and all the other stuff that goes with that then you don't have a good team. Never join under just anybody. There are people out there that make MLM look really bad. Please don't tar us all with that brush.

BiBiBirdie · 28/10/2019 07:47

Have the Boss Babez Bots chucked a link to this somewhere?
Starting to think "sniff the wax" should be Mumsnet's MLM morons version of drink the kool aid.

Namechangeforthiscancershit · 28/10/2019 07:48

I feel like it might help to understand what a pyramid scheme is before joining one

Anyway don't bash another mum's business. Except it's not one so tricky.

OP don't do it! It's the run up the Christmas I'm sure there is pretty else you can spend the money on.

Liseg2005 · 28/10/2019 07:57

@LivingDeadGirlUK that could be said with any product. Like why buy Heinz when you can get Tescos own brand. Its about quality and preference. I let people borrow my products to try before they decide of they want to buy them or not and I never push sales. I'm the same and doing it as a hobby. People that have tried Scentsy love it so I don't need to push sales as they actually come to me with orders. They know what they are buying as they have ready tried it. One of the main reasons I became a consultant is because I was buying Scentsy already and with what I sell I get credit to spend on Scentsy products every month. The commission for me is just an added bonus

CatToddlerUprising · 28/10/2019 08:07

Is it worth doing though as a side line? If you have one job and do this as a second, don’t you have to pay 40% tax if your personal allowance is allocated to your main job? Just trying to see how it is worth it

OtraCosaMariposa · 28/10/2019 08:15

don’t you have to pay 40% tax

ROFL.

There's a thousand pound trading allowance for the self employed. You take that off any profit when calculating tax. In theory yes, you pay tax on the rest of your profit at 20% or 40% or whatever your tax rate is. In practice though, with 99.7% of people making nothing or losing money, it's not something MLM bots have to worry about.

Mustbetimeforachange · 28/10/2019 08:25

I imagine the hairdresser would make a lot more money hairdressing the people who avoid the salon because they know she is an MLM seller!

elliescents · 28/10/2019 08:33

I don't work a full time job due to my husbands work and needing to be home. I work a set lunchtime shift and extras when needed and I'm able to, so this doesn't take me over my yearly allowance when I file my tax returns. It tops up my earnings a little or a lot on a good month and works really well for me and I get my Scentsy either for free or half price (if I can afford to, if not I don't use it) it doesn't have to cost you any more than the starter kit which gives you the products at a reduction, you'd only join if you love the products and are happy and able to pay for this. Never join because you're desperate, if someone is saying you will make good money fast then that's not right. Also never spend more money than you're earning! There's no point in doing that unless you've only joined to get some of it free and the money isn't an issue, I don't know many people if any in that position.

LivingDeadGirlUK · 28/10/2019 08:35

@Liseg2005 but you are working for an mlm so even if the product is ok its over priced because of all the commision that has to be added to the price. It doesn't matter about the product because its a pyramid scheme. You cant compare it to buying brand name beans O_o. You are working for a company with an immoral business model and you think thats fine because 'it works for you'. I can't decide if your naive and pushing the sales talk, or if you just have no morals!

DialANumber · 28/10/2019 08:45

I have posted about this before.

I know 3 perfectly seemingly normal people who have got involved with Scentsy and turned weird. Almost all the mums at school have paid insane money for some smelly stuff to be 'supportive'. The amount of blocking you have to do to escape the endless 'squeeee, I am SO EXCITED' posts is ridiculous.

Interestingly the people recruited by the first woman in our area are exceptionally vulnerable mums who definitely can't afford to be spending out on stock. It feels so wrong.

Candles, sorry wax melts, are absolutely a discretionary item so it's a dodgy business model to start out with. Add to that the main aim seems to be to sign up everyone who buys anything as a seller - meaning any buyers in your area are outnumbered by sellers, of a completely overpriced and unnecessary product.... makes it a v hard business aim to understand.

If I was starting up my own business I'd want to have a USP, have a product people really want or need, and to be the only person doing it around my way.