5. Classified Ads (Craigslist, etc)
This was once a good place to advertise your business and whatever else you have to advertise. But unless you want to be bothered day and night by scammers you really need to stay away from craigslist. The more popular the internet classified the larger the number of people trying to take advantage of you. Every time I post on craigslist I get at least 10 scam/spam emails. But it’s free, and in that way it’s almost worth it, however since I have never made a sale from craigslist—I don’t actually break even since I’m putting my time into creating interesting posts. But one sale would make it all worth it, so it’s really not bad. Plus there’s tons of other online classifieds that you can advertise on—however it’s kinda like rolling an Avon catalog into a bottle and throwing it into the ocean…
4. Car Advertisements
I had to beg my husband to put one of those car magnets on our car. Avon advantage sells 2 for $57.95 plus shipping it’s almost $70—ouch! if you really feel the need to advertise this way Vista print sells 1 for free you just pay $6.15 for shipping or 2 for $7.99 plus shipping for a total of $14.14.
I got the one free from Vista print. My problem with car magnets is that I did not have enough customers to make it worth driving with a silly magnet on the car. I live in Florida and I have to drive a lot, but I have only received 4-5 calls in almost 5 months and from that, I only received 2 orders—the orders did earn me enough to pay for the vistaprint sign, so I’m at least ahead.
I think the problem is that most of the time people are driving when they see you. So they can’t really pop out their cell phone or concentrate on my sign long enough to remember the number or write the number down. While you’re parked at the grocery store or walmart is the best time for potential customers to notice you, it just doesn’t happen enough to really praise this idea. Car magnets aren’t really the best investment, you see them yourself all the time, and you just ignore them, but since there’s no reoccurring bills—they’re not the worst way, just not the best.
3. Wearing Avon products
I think we all have tried this. Avon even tells you to do it. But spending your hard earned money on Avon products in the hope that someone will notice them and ask you where they can get them has got to be the worst possible way to invest your marketing dollars. Avon is fine to buy and wear if you find something that you like, but purchasing additional Avon products as a way of marketing yourself to strangers is an investment in failure.
In all my time as an Avon Rep, I have never, EVER been asked, where I got that beautiful dress, what make-up I was wearing or what perfume I had on. Don’t get me wrong, I think that wearing new Avon products as you deliver your orders is a good idea. It definitely can increase your regular customers interest in products they may not have ordered otherwise—however as a way of marketing your Avon business this would be my last choice.
2. Tossing
If you’re looking for an easy way to waste time & lose more money than you earn, than tossing is for you! People usually think that catalog tossing is a good idea. Avon district managers and even on the Official Avon forum they say that you can expect to get 1 customer for every 100 brochures that you toss. In my experience, this is not reality. I spent nearly $100 tossing—zero calls. Well, maybe one call… if you count the call I got from the post office ordering me to immediately stop placing brochures in mailboxes or I would be charged the postage to mail them…
So lets think about this, for $19 plus the time spent putting my name and telephone number on each brochure and the time spend putting 100 brochures on doorsteps, I can expect 1 customer. That customer would have to purchase $100 dollars of product for you to make your twenty dollars back and just break even. Spending $19 every campaign is $38 a month, there are many smarter ways to spend a bi-weekly $19 dollar charge without all the extra work involved in actually having to toss catalogs.
Ok , of course there is the chance that you’ll land an Avon lover, and they’ll sign friends up, and purchase hundreds of dollars worth of product from you—but that chance exists for any method of marketing Avon, so take it from me and toss tossing—save the trees and save yourself the time, energy and money.
1. Stocking Avon Products
This is DEFINATLEY the WORST possible way to investment your money into an Avon business. I went to an Avon meeting and they pushed us all so hard to stock Avon products. They said your customers might need the products quickly, and when that didn’t work they said, when you purchase the products at our discount, you can re-sell them for any price!
Bottom line, Avon wants you to stock items because it’s one less product they have to sell. It immediately becomes your problem. I have a collection of Items I was tricked into buying and others that I received free during Avon meetings—I have a sale basket that I bring with me every time I drop off orders, inside are products at a DEEP discount (ridiculously cheap) and they still don’t sell! If they were interested in these products they would have ordered them to begin with, you would think a discount would make them more interested—but honestly the only discount that would sell these things would be 90% off.
The basket would have to say, “EVERYTHING .99 Cents!” at that point I’m losing money, for what? I would rather use the products myself than lose money for no reason, but that’s not a solution—I purchase the specific products that I want—I don’t need excess inventory, when that money could still be in my pocket. That’s the way people expect to purchase Avon anyway and if they need it immediately, they can order it online from my shop and receive it quickly with free shipping.
Another thing that bothers me a lot is that my apartment gets really cluttered with all this extra Avon stuff. I almost need an extra office room for all my Avon stuff. And who has an extra room to spare?
I just started giving them away for free to my best costumers—at first I tried to have raffles for the basket—that didn’t work—at least I can reward my faithful clients with free products, and when I sign up reps I can give them some free product—it makes the $10 sign-up fee seem easier to swallow, and gets them excited about Avon.
I have read a lot of sad stories about representative’s getting into major debt and finally quitting and calling Avon a scam because they made the mistake of having stock. Avon’s not a scam, but you have to use business sense when running your Avon “business” and it doesn’t make sense to spend money before you make it if you don’t have to. Keep your overhead low and you’ll be much closer to actually turning a profit from Avon. Don’t spend your profits on nonsense and keep track of everything you spend on building your business—it’s the only way you can be sure that you’re actually earning money from your Avon business.
I know there are reasons that people keep Avon stock, But for me, no matter how successful I am, no matter how big my customer base is, I am not going to purchase anymore stock, It’s just not worth it.
