Ding Dong

You know, I have been selling Avon now for 9 months. That's crazy.

My advice to anyone else out there thinking of becoming an Avon Representative? Don't.

The amount of time and effort it takes to get the books out, collect them all back in does not come close to equating the amount you earn from it.

For example, I have just placed this campaigns order. Out of the 20 or so books I handed out, I have received 12 orders. One of those orders is me. Another is my mother. Yet another is my father. And this was an unusually good turn out. And yet, I think I made a total of about £22 in profit. Yeah, Its nothing to complain about; its still money after all, but the amount of work that goes in to other campaigns where I don't make as much, if anything, can be extremely frustrating.

Every other campaign I hand out a total of probably 70 books, covering 50 or so 'new' houses as well as my already established area. Out of these 50 new houses, I have only had two extra orders the past 3 campaigns I have covered the area.

Even after you've dropped the books off and picked them up, there is still work to do. You have to chase up the stray books that the customers have neglected to put out for you to collect, go through the orders to make sure that the forms have been filled out correctly and honestly, deal with any returns, place the order itself, wake up at stupid o'clock to receive the order, package it all up, drop off the orders, go back out and drop off the orders to the people who weren't in the first time, repeat until all orders are distributed, and then start it all over again.

One day, I'll have to work out the total amount of time I have spent doing Avon related business and how much I have earned. I bet it won't be worth it.

However, even though I complain, I still wont give it up. I do like receiving the products, and the clearance section definitely comes in handy. More than that, though, I feel I have an obligation now to my established customers. I have a couple that only order occasionally, a few that order regularly, and two or three that order every single campaign. If I were to stop being their Avon Representative, I cant help but feel that I would be letting them down.

Damn my sense of decency.

<3 x