~Avon Hints & Tips (Part 8) ~ Please read first post :)

Brown.Owl_2

just look at your bill and try and figure it out, or spend a week or so figuring out the split you have. I haven't figured mine out yet, but it's nice to know i don't need to have a business contract but can use my home. Same applies for car insurance etc too!

trinity_enigma

To work out the percentage add together all your minutes that you used for Avon then take the total minutes if all the bill and divide by 100 times by the number of Avon minutes and that will show the percentage of minutes used.

Do the same for the number of texts if used. Then find the average between all both the percentages and that should be the average for the bill.

I think this maths should work but would be good if someone could double check?

LilMissEmmylou

The maths would indeed work out a % however my contract is unlimited texts, unlimited o2 calls and unlimited landline calls. I would guestimate perhaps 20% of my bill will end up being Avon related to text or call customers re deliverys and chasing orders. Ill get a nice wee folder next week to start keeping receipts in

trinity_enigma

Remember that even if you have unlimited texts and minutes you are still paying for them through the basic line rental so even if 50% of your calls are Avon but they are all free minutes then they still amount to 50% of your bill.

I,_Geek

Customers ordering online - at the moment this isn't the most advanced system. Apparently Avon are bringing out a system to allow customers to browse online, add items to a basket, and have the order load directly into our main order (without us having to enter order codes). They mentioned it briefly at the start of the year but things have gone quiet. The "new" (it's a few months old now) e-suite is still having teething problems, with fixed discounts not showing, orders disappearing, and the "view subtotal" page isn't laid out well.

To get online orders now you have to post e-brochure links (see page 1 of this thread) or use the Facebook widget (see Avon e-suite homepage). Ask people to ring or e-mail you back, but you still have to enter order codes manually like a normal paper order.

All orders (whether they've come from a paper brochure or online one) will earn you a discount as long as your total order comes to £78 or more. If the online orders didn't earn us money no-one would promote themselves that way.

Getting existing customers to connect to you on Connects seems a bit pointless. Facebook could be a better tool for that. Connects seems to be mostly for reps and I find the blogging tool on there restrictive so I'm encouraging customers to connect online in other ways.

New customers can connect to you on Connects as well - check "my customers" on the "my orders" tab to see if anyone's there. But you still have to post them a paper book or send an e-brochure link.

Mobile phone contract % - this was for my husband's return, but when I rang Tax Aid and said "it's 80% business use" (this was a guesstimate) he said, "well claim 80%". It's probably a bit more - we didn't work it out exactly by examining bills but he makes minimal use of his phone for personal reasons.

Another very important expense - "cost of sales" - how much the products cost you to buy. This is by far our biggest expense seeing as we pay 80%/75% of the brochure price for each item.

Mammato1

I, Geek thank you for this.

'Another very important expense - "cost of sales" - how much the products cost you to buy. This is by far our biggest expense seeing as we pay 80%/75% of the brochure price for each item.'

Do you mean that if I buy a product for myself and use it as demo I can claim it as 'cost'? That would be good.

I need to ring self-employment line - when do you self-employ yourself? Straight away or do you wait to see how the business picks up?

Another question about the area - I am really not happy with the area allocated. I live half week here and half week in a much nicer area of the town where my boyfriend has his property. Iasked the AM to allocate me some streets from his district but she couldn't see on the system as it is out of her area. She promissed to liaise with another AM for that area but has not done it so far and I really would like to deliver there - especially as I have time at the weekend.

How can I approach it? I was even thinking of cancelling the current contract and signing up again in that other area. I kept texting my AM and she keeps saying yes I'll do it and nothing's happened so far.

I left the brochure in my daughter's nursery - hoping I get something there.

Have a good day ladies.

Back to my daily job.

Mammato1

Oh just had a quick look at HMRC website and it says that:
'if you expect your earnings to be below £5,315 for the 2011-12 tax year, you may not have to pay Class 2 contributions'
I need to ring and clarify esp as I have two other jobs as well. If anyone needs a lik here it is
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/selfemployed/register-selfemp.htm

Brown.Owl_2

you should be able to find out the other am's contact details online. Not entirely sure where if you aren't a sales leader, but i'm sure i've heard you can. Perhaps it is in connects.

I,_Geek

Streets in another Avon area - apparently it's near-impossible to have streets in another area allocated to you. The ASM of the other area has to prioritise the reps working in their area (it all helps towards their bonuses and targets). If they hand streets out to reps from outside the area it leaves them with less, and therefore less sales, to give to the SLs and reps working in their area. It's worth a try but all I've heard on Connects is frustration from reps who live right on the edge of an area, surrounded by other reps, with no streets to go to or expand into. Signing up in the other area would be a solution, but be quick cancelling your contract otherwise you need to wait 8 campaigns before signing up under someone else.

Smoosh

Got the issue sorted out quite quickly last night. My SL said another girl had started Avon on that street but quickly gave up and said she didn't want to do it anymore, so they gave that street to me, but it looks like she's obviously still doing it. So my SL told me not to do that street anymore once I've picked up my brochures and she gave me 3 new streets plus this morning she dropped off a bunch of C15 books for me to take to the new streets.