I think the system is just flawed. Money is made, plain and simple by the company through all of the orders and by those at the top who have recruited everyone at the bottom.

You can work your butt off, but if you are in a saturated area tough luck. I think it is crazy that anyone would be encouraged to buy more than $600 of products when they have yet to hold a party and have no idea who their customers are or what they might order. 

I also think that the party plan is out of date. People don't have time anymore to have parties. There are so many of these companies around now that almost everyone has done the obligatory parties for their family members and are just jaded to it. The novelty probably wore off sometime in the 80s or maybe even the 70s. 

I would guess that many of these ladies who "failed" or "did not work hard enough" would probably do just fine behind a high end cosmetics counter in the mall or in a spa setting.

Tracy,

I agree with you completely!  I love to try new products and colors.  And I hate having to clean my house for a party.  Yuck!

Jen

I think that the system fails at the start by recruiting pretty much anyone without regard to their talents, lifestyle, or financial situation. If you can scrape together $100 for a kit, you're in and the next success story waiting to happen! I can think of so many examples of people signing up that are just not suited to selling cosmetics. For example, a Muslim friend of mine was approached about selling MK. When she pointed out that wearing makeup was against her religion, she gets told, that's OK, you can just sell skincare! Imagine how comfortable she's going to feel in success meetings every week (she declined the opportunity). People get recruited who have never worn makeup in their lives, who have no financial sense, who have no persuasive skills, who don't have transportation to classes, who have other obligations and no time for MK. If a cosmetics counter in a department store hired anyone who came in off the street with no assessment of their skills, qualifications, or ability to show up and do the job, imagine how confident you'd feel having your makeup done at that counter, imagine how little commission most of those people would end up making, and imagine how high the job turnover would be.

The system also fails by encouraging recruiters to hide information from recruits until after they've started. If I apply for a job (much less a business opportunity requiring a financial investment on my part) I need to have correct and complete information to make a good decision on whether to accept it or not. For example, I'm a nurse now. When I applied for my job at the hospital, we discussed in the interview process the exact unit I'd be working on, the number of patients I'd be caring for, the types of illnesses I'd be dealing with, the length and scope of the training I'd receive, the policies on floating to other units, and so on. I was given accurate information and I made the decision to take the job based on the information I'd been given. If I'd been told at the interview, "don't worry about how many patients you'll take care of during training; we'll talk about it later so you can decide how many you feel comfortable with" and then I show up on the first day and was told "you have to take eight patients tonight--everyone starts out that way", I'd realize, that as a new graduate, I'd probably made the wrong choice. To me that parallels how I felt when my recruiter said, "don't worry about inventory right now--we can talk about it later so you can decide what's right for you" and then after the contract being pushed to order a set amount because everyone needs to start with inventory and how can I sell what I don't have and blah blah blah.

As another example: I was sold trying MK after being told that I could just book my friends and relatives and people I meet at their classes, which sounded fine to me. Once I signed up, then I started hearing about warm chatter and calling strangers and hanging up business cards on bulletin boards and all the rest. I've never felt comfortable doing things like that, and once I'd been talked into ordering more inventory than I could sell to people I knew, I was pretty much sunk because I am simply unable to approach strangers in public and strike up a conversation with the goal of selling something. I can sell when the people are already in place to sell to, I just can't initiate the encounter. It's the way I am. If the opportunity had been presented to me completely and honestly, I could have decided to either order an appropriate amount of inventory, at an appropriate time, to service my friends and family, or to decline the opportunity because of the "requirement" to expand my business beyond the bounds of my comfort level.

I agree with those who think that the party system is outdated as well. Everyone shops online or picks up the products they like while they're out doing whatever other errands they have to do. Buying some lipstick and a facial cleanser should not be a three hour project. I'd much rather pay for what I want than clean my house and talk my friends to come over and hear the sales pitch so I can get a hostess gift and a discount. That way I can invite my friends over at my leisure and we can do what we want without pressure--we can even play with my makeup collection if we really want to, for free!

I sometimes feel like a failure for not succeeding in MK, but when I think about the whole company structure, I realize it *probably* wasn't my fault! I've been successful in several other ventures since then, so maybe it's not all me...

I agree that the system is flawed and outdated.  I think that the whole home party idea has ran its course. 

Hey Tank!
You can post ANYWHERE.

Tank, that's really amazing!  I think my hubby's still in shock from the Mk debt or he might say something nice too... just kidding.  seriously, I really like the idea that we grew so much we grew to be better people than MK...

I have not failed at MK because, you cannot fail when you have not been given correct information to make an educated well thought out decision.  The company tells you that the market research shows blah blah blah.  So based on the findings you should order inventory to be prepared.  I confess that I was looking for support and recognition because my self esteem was basically nonexistent.  But what I learned was, I am an individual who when given accurate information can succeed at the task presented.  Collecting "nos" is not a positive or health exercise.  I have also learned that "independent" does not exist in MK. MK controlls everything!  I believe that if we were truly independent we would be successful.  If we operate our business as a then we fail.  If we operate our business as a professional we succeed!  MK sets up all consultants for failure.  There should never be any "secrets" about was the company is doing with the products (constantly changing  everything frequently).  Truth is the best policy in business for success.

Just my  but I can say this because I have walked the path to deception and forced failure.