~Avon Hints & Tips (Part 7) ~

jennmark

hiya,
just getting to grips with accounting for all my outgoings and incomings in one place. i was wondering for tax purposes does anyone know if we can count items we order from the clearance section to be used as customer incentives as a business cost? also i heard that when you register as self employed you automatically get charged ~£2 a week for NI contributions, i also read, i think on one of these threads that you can apply for exemption from this on the basis of low earnings, i dont think i will ever make much through avon, however i also work part time and earn over my personal allowance in that employment, so a) do i still have to pay self employed NICs as i'm employed, and b) if i do can i apply for an exemption or do they take all earnings into account (employed and self employed)? i will be ringing the tax office to register this week but hoped i could get a bit of an idea from all you knowledgeable people before i do!
thanks,

Jen

I,_Geek

SL canvassing - SLs on Connects have reported not being able to get a free street list from their ASM. So even though they would like to target their canvassing in areas that need a rep, they don't know where they are, so have to canvas anywhere. Even though that's allowed, some would still prefer to have more of a strategy to their recruiting.

Reps keeping customers as F+F - it's a dilemma this one. Ultimately I'd have to come down on the side of the rep because they worked to gain those customers and the customers would rather stay with their regular rep than be moved onto someone else. I think reps would be taking it too far if they took on a street, picked up the easiest customers, dropped it after a few campaigns, moved onto a new street, picked up customers, etc etc... until they'd canvassed every street in the area. So their territory could be only a few streets, but at one point or another they would have covered the surrounding streets as well. They would only have to/be allowed to re-canvas their allocated streets so that would be minimal work, but they'd also have cherry-picked the best customers in the village/suburb. So I don't think it should be used as a tactic because it could make it difficult for a new rep who comes along later - but sometimes reps have to give up streets either for personal or business reasons.

There was a rep on Connects who wanted nearby free streets added to her round, but she had to drop the streets she currently had first. Her first lot of streets had been really difficult and she didn't want to lose the few customers she had there. From Avon's POV this doesn't make much sense to me. They could have had the rep carry on doing her first lot of streets, but given her the free ones as well - this gives the best chance of any customers being picked up. More homes covered = more sales for Avon. As it is now the first lot of streets are free so can't be canvassed until someone else is signed up (who knows when that will be?), and if/when someone's signed up they'll find the street a really difficult one to work with the best customers taken already, leaving them much more likely to quit and the street goes back to free.

chalkswindon

Thank you for the support everyone and the PMs received.

The money has now appeared through my door!

Live and learn I guess.

Went out Wednesday delviered around 30 books to a new street, received a couple of calls later that night the new street given to us by ASM has been serviced very well for two years by another rep.

Not really a problem I just hope we get our books back ASM has already assigned another street to make up for it.

dingdongavoncalling

MarsdenCuckoo wrote: »

Bearing in mind that these are personal sales levels, are there actually any Gold level members in the UK do you reckon? If so, would be interesting to know how many..... Know when you achieve Bronze they congratulate you for being in the top 7% of reps so am guessing that it's "quite lonely" at Gold level! :rotfl:

Hehehe this reminds me, yesterday night I had this really weird dream about Avon, rather than me going and collecting books from people's doors I kept driving up my driveway and finding another HUGE pile outside my own door!! I couldn't keep up with all the orders and couldn't input them all on time!! :rotfl:Really made me laugh when I woke up!! I think I must be on my way to Gold PC!! :T

MarsdenCuckoo

Glad you're sorted, CS, and DDA - maybe you need a day off? :rotfl:

:beer:

Dick_here

MarsdenCuckoo wrote: »

Bearing in mind that these are personal sales levels, are there actually any Gold level members in the UK do you reckon? If so, would be interesting to know how many..... Know when you achieve Bronze they congratulate you for being in the top 7% of reps so am guessing that it's "quite lonely" at Gold level! :rotfl:

Yes there are some. I suspect Avon would prefer 'exclusive' to 'quite lonely' though

Tiggerlilly

chalkswindon wrote: »

Thank you for the support everyone and the PMs received.

The money has now appeared through my door!

Live and learn I guess.

Went out Wednesday delviered around 30 books to a new street, received a couple of calls later that night the new street given to us by ASM has been serviced very well for two years by another rep.

Not really a problem I just hope we get our books back ASM has already assigned another street to make up for it.

Very glad you got the payment. As you may have read I also had two new streets recently with a similar issue, does seem there is a lack of clarity as to what streets are already allocated, guess we just have to keep asking for territory until we get ones where we as newer reps stand a chance of picking up some decent customers of our own.

Tiggerlilly

SL canvassing - SLs on Connects have reported not being able to get a free street list from their ASM. So even though they would like to target their canvassing in areas that need a rep, they don't know where they are, so have to canvas anywhere. Even though that's allowed, some would still prefer to have more of a strategy to their recruiting.

I,Geek; I have to say this has me pretty concerned now, as I have just lost out in the new territory (two streets) issued to me by ASM which clearly was flooded with reps, but I am now worried that my other streets which are close to these other streets are likely to targetted by this other sales leader who was canvassing and taking orders in the other two streets. I have only done two campaigns so far in the original territory I was allocated and now think this other SL is going to come and start dropping her books here for orders and recruitment and it seems I can do nothing about it, how can this be right or fair ?
I am due to drop my brochures to the street nearest to the controversial territory tomorrow, so what should I do if i go out and find this SL's already been? , do I simply contact ASM and moan or do I still drop my books? I feel this is unacceptable and should be sorted from ASM or above, and if it realy going to be this much hassle to get/keep a territory, I can not see me staying with Avon long, as why should I have to fight for territory assigned to me by the ASM who should know exactly which streets and even individual houses are already being serviced by another rep. Sorry if this seems moaney but as far as I can see the whole system is poor in terms of fair allocation of territory and proper systems need to be implemented by Avon and the ASM's to make this easy for all concerned.

Also I have the email and phone number of this SL, should I contact her ?, to let her know street has been officially allocated to me by ASM or do I leave it to ASM to sort as sent her a detailed email regarding what I found when delivered my brochures ? Would appreciate any advice.

Claree__x

Got a couple of things to return for the first time and I've filled out the forms and got the barcode thing but I'm just a little unsure about how to package them, is a normal plastic bag okay as long as it's selotaped up?

MarsdenCuckoo

Claree__x wrote: »

Got a couple of things to return for the first time and I've filled out the forms and got the barcode thing but I'm just a little unsure about how to package them, is a normal plastic bag okay as long as it's selotaped up?

Ideally put them in an Avon box, if you still have one, and just sellotape it up. When I first started I was told by the carrier that he actually preferred that because envelopes, bags can easily get lost/be mislaid. Also, I guess, the boxes stack easily.

PS: Nice one !!!!!!! LOL