~Avon Hints & Tips (Part 7) ~

cathj

MrsGSR wrote: »

Thank you for your suggestion MC
How do you become a personal rep? Alternate campaigns sounds a good option too.
Ive not looked into it yet but because MA is for people who are either self employed or people who aren't entitled to maternity leave that in doing Avon makes me self employed and thus I may not able to claim MA if I am still doing Avon and as it stands I will be a heck of a lot better off getting MA than the pittence I get from Avon.
I don't realy have anyone to talk to as my SL hasn't been in touch since early feb when I had a problem with an order, I don't know if this is normal or not but I thought part of the SL role is to support their reps continously, maybe I was worng in thinking this.

You need to look in to the exact ins and outs of MA, I am 24 weeks tomorrow and I still haven't got it straight in my head what I am going to go. I am going to claim MA as I have been paying self employed NI contributions for 2 years. You can work 10 days while claiming MA, the same as some body claiming SMA can work 10 keeping in touch days without affecting the entitlement to claim. I am trying to work out what I can do during the 30 odd weeks and keep my Avon up, with maybe just regular customers, I was thinking of some way of only actually working on the days I need to submit order and the day the order is delivered, of course I wouldn't be able to cover every campaign as it would be more than 10 days, I was thinking I could do it maybe by having a facebook page with the books on for them to look at.

Also I think, if you work more than the 10 days you don't lose the entitlement to claim just the equivalent of what you earnt gets taken away from that weeks payment. I really should have had my head around this a bit better by now.

MarsdenCuckoo

MrsGSR wrote: »

Thanks Lozza, I didn't think of it like that. I'll drop her an email once I have figured out what I am going to say!

You don't have to go into great detail; just say that you're struggling to make Avon worthwhile for you for personal reasons so would like to release your territory and revert to being a Friends and Family rep.

Totally up to you then how you run your own Avon business. You will start to fall off the system if you miss 2 campaigns or more but ordering every few months should not be a problem. Will gladly talk you through it if you PM me with an email address. (PMs are not secure albeit slightly more private than posting in Open Forum.)

MarsdenCuckoo

cathj wrote: »

You need to look in to the exact ins and outs of MA, I am 24 weeks tomorrow and I still haven't got it straight in my head what I am going to go. I am going to claim MA as I have been paying self employed NI contributions for 2 years. You can work 10 days while claiming MA, the same as some body claiming SMA can work 10 keeping in touch days without affecting the entitlement to claim. I am trying to work out what I can do during the 30 odd weeks and keep my Avon up, with maybe just regular customers, I was thinking of some way of only actually working on the days I need to submit order and the day the order is delivered, of course I wouldn't be able to cover every campaign as it would be more than 10 days, I was thinking I could do it maybe by having a facebook page with the books on for them to look at.

Also I think, if you work more than the 10 days you don't lose the entitlement to claim just the equivalent of what you earnt gets taken away from that weeks payment. I really should have had my head around this a bit better by now.

That sounds horrendously complicated... :eek: Looks like we deffo need more input on this, guys. Anyone found their way (effectively) through this maze?

MarsdenCuckoo

PS: Forgot to mention, Avon are launching their new Baby Range soon so you deffo 'need' to hang in there, if only to have your own personal model!

Congrats BTW. :j

MrsGSR

cathj wrote: »

You need to look in to the exact ins and outs of MA, I am 24 weeks tomorrow and I still haven't got it straight in my head what I am going to go. I am going to claim MA as I have been paying self employed NI contributions for 2 years. You can work 10 days while claiming MA, the same as some body claiming SMA can work 10 keeping in touch days without affecting the entitlement to claim. I am trying to work out what I can do during the 30 odd weeks and keep my Avon up, with maybe just regular customers, I was thinking of some way of only actually working on the days I need to submit order and the day the order is delivered, of course I wouldn't be able to cover every campaign as it would be more than 10 days, I was thinking I could do it maybe by having a facebook page with the books on for them to look at.

Also I think, if you work more than the 10 days you don't lose the entitlement to claim just the equivalent of what you earnt gets taken away from that weeks payment. I really should have had my head around this a bit better by now.

Thank you so much for your reply. Did you have to go to the job centre or anything? our local one has closed down so I need to call someone for advice but don't know who! ML and MA is sooo confusing!
Do know when you can start claming MA or do they decide that for you?

MrsGSR

MarsdenCuckoo wrote: »

You don't have to go into great detail; just say that you're struggling to make Avon worthwhile for you for personal reasons so would like to release your territory and revert to being a Friends and Family rep.

Totally up to you then how you run your own Avon business. You will start to fall off the system if you miss 2 campaigns or more but ordering every few months should not be a problem. Will gladly talk you through it if you PM me with an email address. (PMs are not secure albeit slightly more private than posting in Open Forum.)

I hate recanvassing so probably a good thing! I just don't want to miss out on the christmas custom:D
Thing is I do quite enjoy it but I hate trudging down some roads esp when people either don't give my books back or a I put a reminder and they still don't come back (its happened too many times recently:()
Have pmed you btw

parkysaves

Firstly, I apologise if I am duplicating what someone else has already said but having trawled through the pages I am now kind of goggle eyed and couldn't seem to find what I wanted!! Feel free to direct me to the right page!!

I have been asked to take over avon just for our office and maybe a couple of friends. I wouldnt be doing it for earnings and would do what my colleague did, using any commission to purchase goods for christmas, my family use or similar.
I just wondered whether I have to become self employed. I am working part time but receive top up housing benefit, having been in rented accommodation since the break-up of my marriage so naturally don't want to get involved if I am likely to be breaking any rules as such and as I'm not looking at earning from it as such or indeed regularly.
And just to clarify I am not suggesting I am taking benefits as opposed to earning as I do currently work for the govt (who are not giving out extra hours at the moment ) so if it involves any hassle as such I'll let someone else take it on!!!

Thanks in advance for any advice.

goforno

I am a Kleeneze distributor and have 2 customer who are desperate for an Avon catalogue on a regular basis. I have spoken to an agent 2 to 3 weeks ago but she still has left them a catalogue and each have gone on line to request but not had any sucess. Can you advise please.

cathj

MrsGSR wrote: »

Thank you so much for your reply. Did you have to go to the job centre or anything? our local one has closed down so I need to call someone for advice but don't know who! ML and MA is sooo confusing!
Do know when you can start claming MA or do they decide that for you?

There is some really helpful info here directgov

Although it manages to make it all sound horribly compliated with all the weeks before this that and the other. Basically the way I understand it is you can put in a claim from 26 week, but the earliest you will get it from is 29 weeks.

I,_Geek

parkysaves wrote: »

I have been asked to take over avon just for our office and maybe a couple of friends.

There are two areas to consider:
- tax
- benefits (including Working/Child Tax Credit)

You'd have to register as self-employed, and if you're already earning over £7475 from other sources then there's a good chance your Avon earnings will be taxed, too. You might find that the orders from your office and friends don't earn you any money (or very little) and once you've paid for brochures you'll be earning very little, nothing, or making a loss. I know that sounds like the opposite of what many new reps want to hear, but if you're not interested in the extra money and want to avoid paying extra tax then it could be possible. I wouldn't be surprised if at Christmas time at least you did earn something.

When you're self-employed you do a tax return once a year, even if you haven't earned anything/made a loss.

When it comes to benefits, tell every office you're currently dealing with. Some will be interested in the hours you work, some what you earn, some both. I've had limited experience dealing with Council Tax Benefit while self-employed and it was farcical. A "more hassle than it's worth" situation. You could always try and see whether the office you're dealing with understands self-employment, and if it's simple to keep them updated then fine, and if not you could advertise for a new rep by starting a discussion thread on Connects (Avon's forum) or here.

If someone else in the office does it they'll have the same tax/benefits issues to sort out.

I've found HMRC easy to deal with for tax and claiming Working Tax Credits. So that side of things I wouldn't be too put off from. As a rep you'll be able to order things in advance and if you end up with earnings you'll be able to order your own things from the brochure very cheap. The money you pay in tax may be made up for by the amount you save on your own toiletries/make-up/Christmas presents. In fact, my understanding is that your Avon earnings would be taxed at 20%, but you'll get a 25% discount on the items from the brochure if your total order (from everyone you show a brochure to) is £148 or more.