~Avon Hints and Tips~(Part 5)

Aesop

Hobel

With Avon, it is all about promotion. You can ask to be given territory - which means you are allocated roads with houses and flats. You can either knock on the door and ask people if they want to see an Avon book or be a "stuffer", which means you put it through the letterbox. You need to let people know when you are coming back to collect your books and hope they leave them out for you. If they don't, you have to knock and hope they are in and haven't recycled them.

Out of this, you will get orders, hopefully. If your orders are over £78, you earn 20% discount on your total sales. If your orders are over £146, you will earn 25% discount on your total sales.

Some people only make £10 a month, some make £250, some make much more.

You have to purchase your own books after the third campaign, so you need to take the money for your books out of your discount.

There is a £15 admin fee which is taken over the first 2 campaigns but only if you place an order.

Pros in my opinion of doing Avon? I enjoy it, we get discounted products which are as good as Boots, most people have heard of Avon, a lot of people like to buy Avon products, especially when they are in the sales. I have met some lovely people who I would not have met through doing Avon. I get to buy some of my xmas presents cheaply through Avon, and I used to be a Bootser, so did the 90% sales, glitches, etc. Avon has a 90 day guarantee so if you are not happy with something, you send it back - to you, you get refunded at your cost price, for a customer, they get refunded full price.

Cons - in my opinion - it is hard work. You don't get given a list of ready made customers who you can go and see. You have to build your customer base. I am putting this in as I had one potential Rep who was disgusted by the idea of having to look for her own customers.
You have to prep your books and put them out, then collect them back in, reprep and put them back out. If you don't do anything with your books, ie they sit at home, then you are not making any money from them, so you have to put some effort into it.

Some of the ladies on here have great ideas on how to promote products. Lucyclare used to carry round a sample bag of products for people to try. She would spend an extra 10 mins with each customer showing them different products and letting them try them. She said it increased her sales.

Some ladies throw successful avon parties and have made extra money this way.

Some ladies promote through newsletters, special offers, giveaways, free gifts over x spent, bookmarks, wearing the products, etc. I made sales last year through wearing the Avon flipflops and talking to everyone about them, I actually made other reps sales, telling everyone how good they were!

You can sell at work, to family, friends, neighbours, anyone you know.

In a nutshell, it is like any business you own, if you don't put any effort in, you won't get anything out of it. But some say what we earn in discount is not worth the time putting in. IMHO it is a personal choice. However, you could sign up for a 2 week trial period and not have to pay anything up front. See how you get on, if you feel you are not going to get sales, contact who signed you up and tell them you wish to cancel the agreement.

If you are getting sales, and you may be pleasantly surprised, yay, carry on!

claregre

Ref storing stuff, I got a set of plastic drawers from B&Q. They are double width, so 2 drawers are double width and there are then 2 single width drawers at the top. It stores:

140 brochures max in the bottom 2 drawers
Paper bags & plastic bags in the space left in the bottom 2 drawers
Samples and a few freebie products in one of the top drawers.
Plastic brochure bags in the other top drawer.

I then have an open box in the top which has some other freebies and stuff I've accumulated which I reckon I'll be able to sell on. I also shove any stuff I've bought for myself to use in the future in there in case I can sell it in the meantime. If that makes sense.

Could do with another set of single drawers for brochures, but you have to be careful and only put them in the bottom drawers otherwise its top heavy. Also we don't have the room at the moment for another set, so the rest of my brochures are stacked at the side.

Have probably had it for 4 months now and its surviving well considering how many brochures I cram into it (more than 140!!).

When delivery arrives I shove it in the spare room, then when I've packed it I put the bags into 3 Avon boxes - one for each "area" of my territory. Then load those into the car boot on delivery day and off I go. Then when I get home the boxes go into the recycling.

Blimey, it all sounds so organised, doesn't it. Why am I always in such a tizz then? !!!!

Aesop

Loubylou1979 wrote: »

Am I right in thinking you're NOT allowed to put your brochures in the recycling???

This is what Avon say

Brochure Disposal

Please be aware that all Avon Sales Leaders and Representatives are personally responsible for ensuring that their Avon brochures and literature are disposed of in the correct manner. Anyone who fails to do this may be subject to prosecution under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

At Avon we take our environmental responsibilities very seriously. The legislation about brochure disposal is referenced on the 'Important Information for Avon Representatives' leaflet (in the Appointment Pack) so please make sure you point this out when you are appointing new Representatives.

If you have any queries regarding the correct method of disposal in your area, please contact your Local Authority for advice.


I personally put my in paper recycling bin, if I do not recanvass with them. And I know some of my non customers do the same. As far as I can tell, we are not supposed to put them in the ordinary bin that goes to landfill.

I do remember Elliebee saying sometime ago about not putting your name and address on the back of books, in case they ended up at landfill and the authorities traced it back to you.

I put my magazines and newspapers in my paper recycling bin, and they are taken away no problem, and they have never said anything about Avon books.

claregre

Loubylou1979 wrote: »

Am I right in thinking you're NOT allowed to put your brochures in the recycling???

It depends on where you live I think. If I put my brochures at the top of my recycling bin and they were visible by the binmen then they probably wouldn't take it because it would be commercial waste, and you're not supposed to use your bins for commercial waste. So I put them half way down and they can't see so are non the wiser.

I wouldn't put them in my normal bin anyway as I have a concience about putting all that paper into landfill!!

I also take mine to the recycling point if I've got loads and our bin is almost full (I'm lucky as its only down the road), but I go at about 7pm when there's nobody about - as you are also not meant to use that for commercial waste!!!!!

Loubylou1979

Phew!! That's what I've been doing, kept a few of each Campaign just to reference back to but the rest go in the recycling bin

Aesop

I agree it could be classed as commercial waste, as they are business books, BUT do they recycle commercial waste or does it go to a landfill? If it just goes to a landfill, then I would rather my books went in the recycling bin and were recycled!

claregre

Girls and boys, and I think Lozza has said this before, you MUST recanvas your area! Canvas it regularly for 4-5 months, and then stop for 3-4 months, and then canvas again.

I recanvassed one road of 20 houses last night after I stopped canvassing it every campaign about 4 months ago. I previously had 3 customers on that road. I got ANOTHER 3 last night - 2 with orders, and one saying they weren't expecting me so they had already bought stuff.

6 houses of customers, out of 20. Not bad, eh? !!
Can't wait to re-canvas the other roads now.

Had a chat with one of my other customers about how many customers I had and said I wanted to get to 100 (was at 65 before those new ones). I walked back down her drive thinking "mmmm not sure how long that'll take" and then felt considerably more positive when I got home and found the orders!!! Got 2 more from my new territory as well.

Keep an eye on for sale and to let signs as well - there are loads on my territory ATM.

claregre

aureol212 wrote: »

I agree it could be classed as commercial waste, as they are business books, BUT do they recycle commercial waste or does it go to a landfill? If it just goes to a landfill, then I would rather my books went in the recycling bin and were recycled!

Think if you are a business you are supposed to pay to have your waste taken away (landfill and recycling).

Or you are supposed to have a special licence to take it to the tip - your local tips now won't let vans in for that very reason. They are viewed as commercial (even if they are domestic) and so need a licence from the council to be able to dump stuff at the tip.

No idea about whether businesses separate their waste, but yes I am of the opinion that they should have to!! But if they are paying to have it taken away then its the responsibility of the waste disposal firms to insist on that.

Ooooh, whole can of worms all over the floor now ....

Elliebee_2

I see Aureol has beaten me to it in replying to the post about brochures! As she says, I've always been very wary of them being viewed as business waste which would open up a whole can of worms (using house for business purposes etc, not to mention the possibility of a hefty charge for all your waste if you are classified as a business premises :eek:).

My brochures had an expiry date label on the back but no reference to my contact details, and I took them down to the tip myself and put them in the bin as discreetly as possible In fact NOTHING Avon related went in the bins but was either burned or shredded. Even the boxes went to the tip at the same time as the books.

I never had any problem, but better safe than sorry

justintyme

Very good information shared with useful and helpful ideas and nice details.