When I started my Mary Kay beauty consulting business, I was pregnant with my first child and working full-time at a bank. I was really excited to have my own business because I always dreamed of having my own business ever since I was a little girl. My mom had a Mary Kay Beauty Consultant and she invited me to a meeting. I thought it would be fun to give women makeovers and thought that this business would be a good fit for me. After attending the meeting, I signed my agreement, paid for my starter kit and that was it–I was a new Beauty Consultant.
I had no problem scheduling my first classes because my mom volunteered to be my first hostess. Her friends were happy to help me out and I was surprised at how easily I was able to sell the products. I was so focused on the sales that I forgot about getting bookings. I never even asked for bookings from my first classes and that is really where my focus should have been because if you don’t get bookings from your classes, once you go through your own family and friends, you are out of business. I was sitting there, staring at my empty datebook, clueless how to get more appointments.
Luckily, my Mary Kay director had plenty of ideas on getting customers and I started to get bookings by doing events at the expo and at bridal and clothing shops. However, I found that I was having trouble getting these appointments to hold. One time I even hired a babysitter, spent an hour getting dressed and packed for my appointment only to show up at the hostess’s home and her daughter said that she was out shopping! Needless to say, I was very discouraged and wanted to throw in the towel. I started to rationalize that this was not for me, that I just wasn’t cut out to be a Beauty Consultant.
Once again, my director gave my some great advice and motivated me to keep going by pointing out all of the other people who had the same problems and overcame them. She pointed out that doctors, dentists and beauticians all work by appointment and they don’t go out of business just because someone cancels. If they did, there would be no more doctors, dentists or beauticians! She told me how to coach the hostess in advance so that she would be motivated to follow through on her commitment to hold the class so that she could earn the free product that she wanted. She also said that it was important to double-book appointments in case someone cancels or postpones. That way you have more control over your own income and are not depending on one appointment to hold in order to reach your sales goals. And if both appointments happen to hold, I was able to contact a sister consultant to teach one of the classes for me and she would pay me a percentage of the sales.
By utilizing the wise advice of my Mary Kay director and by listening to motivational tapes, I was able to overcome the problems that I experienced when I first started and was able to remain positive and focused on my goals. Having a home-based beauty consulting business certainly has its ups and downs but I would not trade this experience for the world. It has taught me to set goals, overcome obstacles, remain positive in the face of adversity,and dream big.
