avon calling!!anyone an avon lady?

[pinkcowprint]

hi,need some extra money and have enquired about being an avon rep,is anyone out there one and how do you get paid?is it cash or do you have to use it to buy products?any advice,experience greatly appreciated.

[saxy_jag]

I'm an Avon lady, although I don't do it for the money - which is a good thing as I only have a few customers. I only do it because I like the products and didn't know a rep. I just do it as a favour for family and friends, basically.

Anyway, how it works:

There's a campaign (catalogue) every three weeks. Your customers order the stuff from you, which you then order from Avon. You deliver the goods to your customers, they pay you, and you pay the money to Avon. Avon likes you to take payments in cash (they won't accept third party cheques) and then either pay them online, by cheque or in cash at a Post Office. Some reps, it their sales warrant it, open business bank accounts so that they can take customer cheques themselves and then pay Avon out of the account, although it's not something Avon recommends.

Ordinarily you don't make a profit during a campaign unless your sales are above a certain amount (I think it's around the £70 mark). Sometimes Avon has special promotions where you can make a set profit on certain items. Your profit is what's left when you've collected the money and paid the invoice. There's also 'Presidents Club' where, once you've made a certain sales target for the year, you get extra offers and discounts and invites to special events.

You do have to buy the books, samples, sales aids and demonstration (new) products. You get the demo products at a decent discount and I often end up buying them just because I like them. They sometimes make nice presents for people too, which is a good way of getting more orders.

In short, profits aren't huge, and you do have to work very hard to make anything substantial, but plenty of people do it successfully and thoroughly enjoy it. It's easier if you're a natural sales person, which I'm not, but then I don't especially want to be.

[pinkcowprint]

hi,do you get taxed on it,or do you have to make a considerable amount and have a regular income to be taxed?i was told you made about 20% of whatever you sold,is that not correct?do yuo get stuck with products people order then decide they dont want them when they come?sorry for all the questions just want to know how it works,thanks!

[saxy_jag]

I've never made enough to have to worry about tax, but I'd imagine if you reach a certain threshold then you're going to have to declare your earnings and pay income tax, and that would probably be on a self-employed basis.

And yes, I should say that when you begin to make a profit, it would be somewhere in the region of 20%. Your sales leader (the person who looks after you and is the one who will visit to help you set up) should be able to give you much information on this than I can.

Re. unwanted products - you pay for them initially, but if you need to return them then you just inform Avon when you do your next order. They credit the amount back to your account and you have a set length of time in which to return the product. If you subsequently sell the product to someone else, the amount is recharged after another set period. They tell you on your invoice when stuff has to be returned by. You can return the stuff by post, or you can use a special label/form to return it via your delivery driver.

[pinkcowprint]

ok,thanks for taking time to give me some information,got to ring the avon lady to arrange a day for her to come round,quite excited now,thanks!!