Avon representative

There are a lot of scams going around when it comes to money making schemes but, in the middle of all that, we have the trusty name of avon. Becoming a representative with Avon may not make you a millionaire, but it gives you a little bit extra money a month for a fairly small amount of effort, and that makes it a pretty good idea in my book.

INTRODUCTION TO AVON

Avon is sometimes seen as having quite a stuffy old fashioned image by some - but I bet the people who think this haven't seen a brochure recently! Not only is there a huge range of make-up, including funky products and colours for teenagers (and those who still FEEL like teenagers!), there's also a great range of skincare products to help your skin look younger, exercise products (in the Wellbeing supplement that accompanies the brochure), lovely underwear and pjs, and even some fantastic accessories ranging from jewelery to handbags. As well as this, they also have a range of men's products, so there should be something to appeal to everyone in it. Basically, once you give someone an avon brochure, there's an extremely good chance they will find something to order. So, in a way, the products almost sell themselves. All you have to do is make sure people LOOK at the brochure and then REMIND THEM to order!

HOW IT WORKS

I got involved in Avon about six weeks ago, when I wanted a bit extra money and decided to apply to become a representative by filling in a form on the website. I soon received a letter from the area sales rep asking me to contact her, so phoned up and left a voicemail with her. Later that day, a representative in my area got in contact with me and arranged to come over and meet me.

Now, don't worry, there's no interview involved here. When the woman came over to see me, it was basically a foregone conclusion that I was now an avon representative - it just had to be made official. This rep went over my details and filled in a form with my information on it, then gave me 20 copies of the latest brochure,order form and some other literature and explained how to fill in the form. She explained that I would have to have my order ready for the 21st March and that, normally I would have to take it to my drop off point (in my case, this is the avon training centre a ten minute walk from my flat) but this time she would come over on the 20th to collect it, so she could check I had filled it in correctly. Then she left me to get on with the business of selling avon.

I could have chosen to do avon door-to-door but I'm pretty shy so didn't take that option, instead opting for the friends and family type scheme. The theory is that if you write down a list of people you know from various sources (eg, neighbours, work, social, etc), and then write down people that THEY know, you can come up with a network of up to 150 people. Well, I'm not sure about this, but I figured that by giving the brochure to my friends (who could pass it onto THEIR friends), a couple of people in my work and my sister (who works in a concession in Frasers and could pass it on to her co-workers), I would probably be able to make a good amount of money. This is a simple enough idea and it does have a few flaws, but I'll mention them later.

Once you have all your individual orders (which you must remember to keep!), you transfer them all onto the main order form (or you can order them online or via the phone, depending on your preference) and, on this form, you also order your brochures for the campaign AFTER the next one, bags for your orders (if you need any) and samples (again, this is optional). After dropping off your order form, your goods are delivered just over a week later (I think it is usually a Tuesday, in my case but not sure if this is dependent on which area you live in) . So then you need to make sure you've received everything you ordered and, using the individual order forms for reference, bag everything up for your customers. That, in my opinion, is definitely the most fun part. I was only sorry I only had eight orders to do - it was over too quickly!

Then you take your orders to your customers, get the money from them and pay avon their share of the money. Easy peasy!

In theory, anyway.

THE MONEY

First of all, in order to make a profit at all, you need to take in orders of over £68 in total. This is actually fairly easy to do. If a few people order goods totalling £20 (which is really quite possible) then you've already hit that amount. In this case, you earn about 20% back on your total orders. So, for example, if you have orders which add up to £100, you've made £20 profit. Not bad for hardly any work.

If your orders total over £128, then you earn about 25% profit on the order. So if your order is £200, then you are making a £50 profit. Obviously, this is even better than £20 and doesn't actually take that much more orders. I only had eight orders altogether on my first go (nine orders if you include my own) and my order came to roughly £195! That's pretty good for a first time!

The brochures come out roughly every three weeks so if you can hit the £200 mark every time, then you can make nearly £900 extra a year. Okay, it's not a huge amount, but even a little bit of money can make a huge difference in your life.

Of course, you do get some money taken off your profit:

*** A registration fee of £15 is taken off the amount you earn - £7.50 from each of your first two orders, so the cost is spread out
*** The cost of brochures. (You receive the brochures for your first two campaigns free but after that you have to start paying).The cost varies depending on the amount you buy, but you can get fifteen brochures for about three or four pounds.
***The cost of bags - you can order various difference types of bags, in difference sizes and in plastic or paper. The paper bags are the cheapest and come in packs of fifty (and it costs less than a pound for a pack of them) so in theory they should last you for a couple of campaigns
***Any samples you have bought - these, like I said before, are optional, but they are fairly cheap, so it depends whether you think they are worth a bit of extra cost.

So the money you make won't be quite as good as it should be - but at least you haven't had to shell out a huge amount of money just to get started. When you receive the invoice with your order, it clearly lays out how much profit you have made after these deductions, and how much money you owe avon, so it is really very straightforward and you know exactly where you stand.

ADVANTAGES

The main advantage of Avon is that you are making a little bit extra money without too much effort and that appeals to me a lot! When I mentioned to people I was doing avon, a lot of them were really excited about it and immediately wanted to see a brochure. It is clearly very popular so there's a lot of potential for money to be made.

You can also progress further within the company, going on to become a sales leader if you so wish. This means taking charge of your own recruits and, in return, you make extra money for their success. This doesn't really appeal to me personally - it sounds like too much work - but I think it shows that avon like to help their representatives make extra money if possible.

The representatives have a chance to purchase demonstration products at an extremely reduced rate (including jewellery, which is especially good!) from the representatives magazine Link, and there is also a special brochure for reps only which contains clearance items you can order. The magazine Link itself is a very interesting read as it tells you all about the new products and gives you ideas of how you can sell them. Avon also offers training in sales techniques at its training centres, so you can learn how to sell more products, and make an even bigger profit.

And the whole process, from giving out brochures to receiving orders and filling in the large order form is fairly straightforward and easy. If you have any problems, all you need to do is phone your area rep and ask for help.

DISADVANTAGES

Obviously, it would be nice to make a higher percentage of money but that is just me being greedy - for the amount of effort you have to put it, 20-25% is pretty fair.

It can be a little stressful at times because you might have to continually ask someone for their order or for your brochure back. I found that a lot of people I gave brochures to took them away and never mentioned them again. This can be a little annoying because you might want to recycle your brochures if you haven't purchased many of them. The only advice I can really give there is to say to the customer at the outset, "Here's a brochure for you to look at, can you give me an order by and if you decide not to order, can you give me the book back please?" Of course, they may not pay any attention, but you probably have more chance of getting it back that way!

This can also prove a problem if you have asked your friends to pass the brochure onto THEIR friends. As you don't have any contact with these people yourself, you have to rely on your friends to get the orders out of them, or to get the brochures back. So, while it can be worth it to get a few extra orders, you're probably best to give the brochures to people you know personally first of all!

You also may have to be prepared for a bit of rejection as some people may not be interested in even LOOKING at a brochure, or may already have a representative. I asked a couple of people if they fancied a look at a book and they said they knew someone who did it anyway - but one of the girls had a look at mine all the same and ended up ordering £22 worth of products, So it's worth asking anyway, and just trying not to be offended if they say no. Easier said than done, of course!

WOULD I RECOMMEND IT?

Personally, I think that avon is good fun and doesn't take up too much time. I think it is a particularly good idea if you have been an avon fan for a while (like myself) and know about lots of the products as it means you can casually talk them up while talking to your friends and make them want to buy! (Evil, I know, but profit is profit!)

If you have a bit of spare time on your hands, and just want a little bit extra money in your pocket each month, I would definitely recommend becoming an avon rep. At least you know it isn't a scam!!!

GO TO WWW.AVON.UK.COM TO FIND OUT MORE AND APPLY ONLINE TO BECOME A REPRESENTATIVE.