Welcome to Pink Lighthouse! I think the reason you won't find many happy consultants here is because most of the happy ones don't look for the "anti-MK" forums. I am not saying that you are not happy, just that you will probably not get a bunch of replies from other active and happy consultants!

I am glad that you are currently content with the way your business is going. I hope that it stays that way for you. But for most of us, we started out happy, and then something changed. Either our Director changed, what was asked of us changed, the product/information/requirements/demands changed, our family's need for us increased, our financial situation changed, or simply we changed ourselves.

There are a lot of horror stories here from people that had terrible experiences with their directors. And there are stories about front-loading and pressure to order tons of inventory. While no one "held a gun to our head" to become a beauty consultant, the sly manipulation of our friends, family, coworkers, and others, lead us down a path that we later regretted.

I hope you are able to gain some information here that will serve you. I also hope that you will continue to find happiness in Mary Kay, for your own sake. But keep in mind that this board is made up of mostly people who are no longer consultants and have very good (and some very personal) reasons for it. While I expect most people will be kind in their conversations to you, some may not, for they are still very hurt and angry about something that happened to them.

Anyway, welcome to Pink Lighthouse!

  Welcome to PLH!

I find this shocking. Like, seriously. People actually become your regular customers, just from seeing your pin and/or your mk website?

I think you're the first person I've ever met who got customers from wearing your pin! LOLLLLLL

but anyway - welcome.

First of all, welcome callesisj!

PC...I second what you said. (I didn't detect sarcasm, just amazement.) Getting customers by just wearing your pin and passing out catalogs is indeed rare. In my experience, you aren't going to grow much of a customer base that way.

If you're promoting your website by advertising online, then you are violating MK's terms for advertising. If you aren't doing that, then I doubt anyone will bother with your website at all.

Not trying to be a wet blanket, but I've been there and so have the women here. Contrary to what some want to believe, we aren't a bunch of losers who sat on our butts thinking customers would show up on our doorsteps. We worked it too, but found out some of the hidden truths, like the fact that there are too many consultants with too much product on their shelves and not enough customers or demand.

One more thing: It isn't your business. It's Mary Kay's business. You just bought, basically, a franchise. You can't do anything you want to promote or run your business like you could if it were truly yours.

 

Thanks everyone so very much for your responses, I truly appreciate it.  I've been reading more posts and the info is great and very helpful.  My eyes are wide open to the pitfalls, and thanks to your posts, I now know what to look out for.  I will do my best not to let things get out of hand, and will quit immediately when it ceases to be fun :-)   I promise there was no sarcasm in my original post :-)  I'm very very careful about how I promote myself and follow the MK guidelines to a T.  I live in a pretty small town, so people really do notice my pin and my decal on my car; everybody knows everybody :-)  They recognize the logo, and most have approached me because their previous consultants have either quit or moved.  When I heard that from a few of my customers, that's what sent my radar up and started me looking around on the net for sites like this, to find out the scoop.  I hit the jackpot here, and it's been a wealth of information.  So I went ahead and posted under "active consultants" to find those in a similar situation as me, and I was so glad to see all the responses! 

So thanks again for being here; you've all been a great help to me :-)  Warm regards to all!

Good for you, Callasisj! I think it's critical that you know what you want out of your business. That helps you stay focused on your goals and to not be swayed by prizes and promotions. I got some clients by wearing my pin, too! They were usually ladies who had used MK before, but for one reason or another, they had lost their consultant. Not a bad gig if you can get it!  Just keep doing what you're doing and don't be swayed!