The Myths of Avon

 While it is a comapny for women, women are not the only ones who sell it.  Avon is also known a long time ago as the Cosmetic Company.  That is a BIG MYTH now.  Avon not only sells cosmetics, but sells many other products for men and children as well and in 2011 they are bringing in a product line for babies.  They also sell men's colognes,after shave, talc, deodorant, shampoos, travel accesories, kitchen gadgets, sharper image products and many other things for just men.  They also sell bath and body products as well as skin care for men, women and teens alike.  Avon's ANEW Anti-Aging Products are geared towards women but can also be used by men. 

AVON IS NOT JUST ABOUT NOR DOES IT SELL PRODUCTS JUST FOR WOMEN.

MANY MEN ALSO SELL AVON AND THE TOP SELLERS ARE MEN.

AVON IS NOT JUST A COSMETIC COMPANY.

Most of the information here is taken right from the Avon site so as not to mis-translate the material. You can read more of Avon's Policies on their Corporate Site

Avon began with a MAN. Yes a Man who sold books. This Man would have small bottles of fragrance with him that he would give out for free. Well the small bottles of that Rose Scented perfume took off and he needed someone to help him in selling them to others who really wanted them. That was when he hired Miss Albee, the first Avon Representative. You can read more of this information on my other Avon Hub:

http://hubpages.com/hub/Ten-Womens-Perfumes-You-Will-Love

If you have any other concerns after reading this please feel free to post it in the comment section and I will address it and post it in the hub for all to see.

 Avon is a Member of the Direct Selling Association. 

The Direct Selling Association (DSA) is the national trade association of the leading firms that manufacture and distribute goods and services sold directly to consumers. Approximately 200 companies are members of the association, including many well-known brand names.

 The Preamble states:

The Direct Selling Association, recognizing that companies engaged in direct selling assume certain responsibilities toward customers arising out of the personal-contact method of distribution of their products and services, hereby sets forth the basic fair and ethical principles and practices to which member companies of the association will continue to adhere in the conduct of their business.

Find out more about the Association and it's Members on the Direct Selling Association site

Avon is known for its leading efforts to eliminate animal testing. On June 2, 1989, Avon became the first major cosmetic company to announce a permanent end to animal testing on all Avon-manufactured products.

In place of animal testing, our safety evaluation process utilizes data from in-vitro tests (test tube/cell culture) or clinical tests (on human volunteers), and references existing animal-testing data.

Avon does not conduct animal testing on any of its products or raw ingredients and does not require that suppliers of raw ingredients and finished products produced for Avon conduct animal testing on our behalf.

Avon will conduct animal testing when required by law, at the request of government health or medical authorities, and only after having first attempted to persuade the requesting authority to accept non-animal test data.

Avon partners with other cosmetic companies to identify and develop new testing alternatives. Similarly, Avon is a long-time supporter of research into alternatives conducted by the Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments (FRAME) in the United Kingdom and the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing at Johns Hopkins University in the United States.

Ongoing research on new/existing alternative methods is conducted by scientists in our Cell Biology and In Vitro Toxicology Laboratory at our Global Research and Development Center in Suffern, New York

 One Organization that Avon is on the GOOD list is: http://www.peta.org/living/beauty-and-personal-care/Avon.aspx

Our commitment to the environment has been deeply rooted in Avon’s principles for more than a century. At our locations worldwide, we remain committed to reducing our global environmental footprint, including the issue of climate change, by recycling, reducing waste, conserving energy and water, and monitoring and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. New Avon facilities are developed using green building standards, and we are proud of recent LEED, BREEAM and equivalent certifications in countries including Brazil and the US. We are dedicated to ensuring compliance with environmental regulations around the world, and we strive to continuously improve our environmental performance.

To help drive institutional and individual “green” behavior, Avon launched Hello Green Tomorrow in 2009 to empower a global environmental movement to nurture nature.

In 2004, we established environmental goals and targets for 2008 and have made progress in pursuit of these goals. We encourage you to read about our progress in the following pages, and we hope you will return to this site for updates as we work to meet our commitment to the environment.

It is very difficult to do this. I tried, inadvertently, to do this through my husband's sign up process. There were so many hoops to go through that I found that Ordering on-line is VERY Safe through the Avon Ordering On-line process.

How I know this is because they have three Fail-SAFE mechanisms in place.

When I signed up my husband I used his work address as his mailing address and also for his shipping address. Then I put in his credit card information and when I went to pay for his items I kept getting a error. I was told that the credit card information was wrong. So I entered it again and the same error came up. So I tried putting in my credit card information and again I got the same error. Okay, then I thought that I mis-typed in the information and typed it all in again. This time the error that came up was that it was an error with my bank. So I called my bank and they told me that it went through their system but wasn't paid. I was totally confused. I then called Avon Customer Service. They told me that if the information on the address did not match up with the same address that is on his bank account then it would not go through. They told me that Avon has their own separate security system to catch any fraudulent activity. The bank also has such a service. Ordering AVON On-line is VERY Safe. Anything that you hear about the fear of Identity Theft from purchasing Avon Products from Avon is a myth.

Fraud Alert

Over the years we have warned you about various scams and fraudulent activity that could impact you as an Avon Representative. These scams have involved money orders, bad checks, credit cards and e-mail correspondence.

Recently we have been informed of the latest scam being implemented to trick you into processing an order based upon an e-mail, often from someone claiming to be out of the country and/or unable to go through the proper ordering/payment channels, and sometimes claiming that they do not do business by credit card. The new twist on the scam: They contact you directly on your eRepresentative site making the same type of offer for the same reasons. They then either offer to, or sometimes just automatically send you a check for a much larger amount than the actual order, asking you to deposit the check, take what you are due for the order, plus “something for your trouble” and send the difference to a third party whose contact information they provide to you. Under no circumstances should you respond to such a request.

If you receive an e-mail from someone you don’t know and they are placing an order (any size order), there are ways to help protect yourself from fraud. Consider sending them to the Avon site (www.avon.com) where there are better security measures in place, such as direct delivery.

As a reminder, Avon’s policy on accepting credit cards states that Representatives who accept payments without an imprint of the credit card, a signature from the Customer and a valid authorization code are not protected from chargebacks. A valid authorization code alone is insufficient to protect your account. Payments submitted with only a valid authorization code (even with either a signature or an imprint but not both of these things) may still be processed, and the Representative is liable in the event of a chargeback.

Avon will not get you lots of money in the first few campaigns. A campaign is a two week selling period for a brochure. There are 2 campaigns a month and you can sell up to 2 campaigns back. Avon does expect you to pay for the previous campaign before you put in your next order. In that respect they want their money up-front for the first two campaigns. When you become a Representative you get your first campaigns of brochures FREE and you also get a receipt book, some samples and some stuff so that you can run your business with a good head start. There is a charge of $10.00 to sign up and this kit is what you get.  It in no way totals up to the whole cost of the stuff that you get in your starter kit.  You get a total of 20 brochures which is 10 for each campaign.  This is a good start to start showing and sharing your brochures to others.  When you get your first brochures you also have to purchase the next set of brochures so that you have some for your 3rd campaign. Brochures come in lots of 10. If you want samples you should also purchase them at this time. With each campaign that your oder from you need to order the next campaign and you are always 2 campaigns ahead. That is so that when you put in your Avon order you can start putting out brochures for the next campaign. I have heard people complain that Avon should just GIVE Reps all the samples they need. People don't have a concept of how a business needs the overhead and so Avon can not afford to just GIVE samples out to everyone for every campaign. To sell Avon you don't really need to buy samples, unless a customer asks or you want more sales but it doesn't guarantee that you will get a sale. It really is about talking to your prospective customer.

You have to work at getting your customers. There are some that will have many customers but that is a fluke. Most people will get an order in about 5 campaigns time. It is the rule of business. For one people like to purchase from someone they know. It takes about 5 campaigns before they will kind of know you. That is not just with AVON but with any business. If you are a new Rep please get yourself out to the customers and get yourself known and don't expect things to happen in the first 3 or 4 campaigns.

There are other charges that are waived for your first 6 campaigns. AVON wants everyone to have a solid customer base (even it is is one or two) before they start charging you for such things as E-Rep fees (which you get re-imbursed if you have just one person order on-line), brochures, samples and other business things you may want to have. When you join AVON from another Rep you are joining a TEAM. Never feel that you are alone in selling the products. It is YOUR business and you get all the credit for your hard work but as a TEAM Member it is up to you to communicate with your Upline. If you are having a difficult time getting samples then ask your upline and they will be more than happy to help. The same goes for extra brochures or things like that. A Team works together to help everyone. There is a saying that I like to use and that is: I can't fix it if I don't know it is broken. Speak Up!

Enjoy the people that you will meet and the business because it is yours and take comfort in knowing that you won't be downsized or laid off or fired and it is something that you can pass down to your children.  Just remember it NOT A GET RICH QUICK SCHEME and you have to work at it and it will probably NOT bring in lots of money for a while.

 That may seem so to some who have seen Avon and how it recruits in the past.  Today with Avon being on the Internet now isn't that much right now.  I don't really have an upline and I don't have a downline either.  I have several people that I have recruited that are not in my downline and they can't have me in their upline either.  There are plenty more out there that do not have any lines at all, only themselves.  Avon has a stipulations that we much have 5 face to face sign ups in order that we can go out on the Internet and recruit others.  Sounds easy doesn't it?  We in certain areas where they have many representatives that have been in the same area for many, many years, it is difficult to find those simple 5 New Reps.  Some areas are over-worked and some are in such remote places that it is hard to get those 5.  Because of this there are many of us who do work alone and we do make money at it.  Avon is good product an they put the research into it.