I recently celebrated my 3 year anniversary with Beautycounter, and so it seemed like a good time to talk a bit about why I chose to get involved with a direct retail company, and why out of all the companies out there, I specifically chose Beautycounter. I have been met with mostly positive feedback when people learn what I do, but every now and then I do get some push-back from readers and even a few friends and family, so I thought I’d share my experience in hopes that it will answer questions and may even help any of you out there trying to figure out if this type of business is right for you. Please note that these are in no particular order of importance.
Admirable business practices. Hey, we’re a certified B Corp! That’s pretty huge and impressive and 3 years later, continues to make me proud and inspired. What does it mean to be a B Corp? Basically, we value people, planet and profit in equal measure and we won’t sacrifice ethics or sustainable business practices, for higher profits.
Advocacy work. I love that the company isn’t just about selling a product, but that there’s a whole slew of advocacy work involved with what we do. When we say our mission is to get safe products into the hands of everyone, that doesn’t mean by just selling Beautycounter to everyone, but working to change the laws that govern the personal care industry, so that safe ingredients and business practices like ours, are not the exception but the norm. Here are a couple of great articles about our recent march through the halls of Congress, pushing for the passage of the Personal Care Products Act, via Refinery 29 and Fast Company.
Effective products. It’s been priority number 1 from the beginning, that the products Beautycounter creates can’t just be safe, they have to work too. It’s why we’ve used the best of both worlds of nature and current science, to create a product line that is primarily natural ingredients (about 80% to be specific), but also utilizes safe and effective synthetic ingredients (about 20%), to create safe and clean products that actually perform.
Fair comp plan that encourages hard work throughout your business. What this means is that there is no sitting on your laurels if you wish to have a consistently, continuously successful business. I have heard other reps say things to the effect that “you get 1 rock star on your team and you’re set” or, “you just need to really work hard when you’re starting out with your business, then once you build a good team and get lots of clients, you can coast.” The structure of the Beautycounter compensation plan is that while your business may ebb and flow, in order to ensure long term, sustainable success, you need to continue to work your business, mentor your team and you can’t just benefit from the success of one singule individual. This may not mean anything to you, and it certainly didn’t mean anything to me nor was it in the top 10 reasons why I joined, but now after doing this 3 years, I have grown to understand and appreciate the structure of the comp plan in that it is fair & balanced.
Multiple ways for clients to purchase. When I first learned of Beautycounter, I had no idea it was a “direct sales” company, in that you could purchase the products from a rep, and that’s because you actually don’t have to go through a rep at all. A client can purchase directly from the website, or via other retail channels when we occasionally do “pop-ups” or collaborations, like we did with J. Crew, Target and Goop. You may be wondering why a sales rep would *like* the fact that a potential customer could go around me and shop directly through the company, and the reason is twofold. First, it helps de-stigmatize the direct sales industry by allowing customers to shop how they wish. Second, it allows customers who don’t have a rep to still purchase, upholding our commitment to getting safe products into as many hands as possible. Bottom line, we don’t care *how* you purchase clean & safe products, we just hope that you do. The numbers confirm though that the vast majority of clients do indeed value shopping with a rep, and taking advantage of the customer service they provide – over 80% of company sales are through Beautycounter reps.
No enrollment plans or auto-ship. I personally don’t like being locked into anything, and I certainly don’t like the hassle of having to cancel something when I’m no longer in need of the product, so I see it as a huge benefit that my clients can purchase only what they need and how often they see fit.
Meet you where you are. Set your own sales goals, no matter how small, and set your own team-building goals, even if that’s zero, and no pressure to move beyond those goals unless you wish to. BUT! I love mentoring and being mentored when it’s time to reach for new goals and push ourselves a bit outside of our comfort zone, and knowing there’s a support system in place.
Transparent business practices & straightforward marketing, with no before and afters. We are actually discouraged from posting before and afters because they can be misleading, and prefer to rely on client testimonials. I like this way of doing things 🙂
Flexibility. I wanted to be able to stay home with my kids, but also contribute to our income and have something I could call my own; my own business to build & be responsible for, my own schedule to manage and something in addition to motherhood, to motivate and drive me.
Gorgeous branding. From the packaging to all the marketing materials, I love and appreciate the thoughtfulness that goes into how the brand is presented, especially with my background in retail and fashion. It’s a superficial reason to love the brand, but it’s important to me nonetheless.
Of course as with every business, not everything is perfect. We’re still a relatively young company and we’ve hit bumps in the road with keeping some products in stock, formulas not working out perfectly and other growing pains companies go through. And it’s hard work; don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. As with any sales job, if you want to really be successful at it, you have to put in the effort, but success is possible and it’s so sweet when you taste it through your own best efforts. There are ups and downs, but the ups have definitely sustained me and helped me get through the downs.
But three years later, I love that I’ve been able to get safe products into the hands of so many woman. I love that I’ve been able to get out of my house and meet new people, socialize and help educate. I love that I’ve been able to bring home a paycheck, and I love that that paycheck has allowed me to keep this blog running and move away from sponsored posts. Every sponsored post I ever signed up for, was with a brand and company I believed in, but the endless pressure that is involved with sustaining a living primarily on sponsored posts and affiliate links was hard and tiring. I don’t begrudge any blogger who makes a living that way, and I fully support them, especially when they’re producing quality content we benefit from. I mean, how cool is it that we can visit the web and find a post/DIY how-to/recipe for any given topic we could possibly conceive of, often times accompanied with detailed photos and/or videos? It takes time and money to produce that content we all get to enjoy for free, so bloggers should by all means be compensated in some form. I’m just saying that I personally felt a huge amount of pressure operating that way, and it impacted my creativity and led to burn out. So with that being said, I’m extremely thankful I can earn a paycheck another way, and write this blog for me and you. And I’m extremely grateful I get to do so from home.
I love answering questions and offering another perspective about Beautycounter, direct sales, and how we operate as a company. I don’t buy into the notion of pretending that the stigma oftentimes associated with direct sales doesn’t exist. I’d rather meet perceptions and objections head on with facts or another point of view, because I ain’t got nothing to feel embarrassed about! 😉 I love what I do, and want others to understand why, so please feel free to message me if you ever have questions.
And I wouldn’t be very good at my job if I didn’t end this post letting you know that Beautycounter just this month, launched a whole New Consultant program, complete with new starter sets, training & development programs, and freebies. Reach out if you have any questions and want to learn a bit more about what it means to be a consultant.
Now, my next post may be about how to do this business in a non-obnoxious way, because I promise it’s possible to be successful without reaching out to your bestie from elementary school via Facebook messenger. 😉
If you want to read more about my Beautycounter skincare routine, read this post.
And if you are interested in receiving samples, visit this page, and join my private Facebook page here.
Outfit links: Top (on sale!) and the most comfortably structured and affordable leggings via Nordstrom, Metallic Slides that come in a ton of colors via Free People
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