Having Trouble with my Facebook Page

Hello everyone,

I'm having a lot of trouble logging on to my Consultant Calamities Facebook page. It's been aggravating, but I'm hoping to figure it out this week. I tried to reset the password, but I'm still having trouble getting into the page to make updates.

Thank you for your patience, especially if you find out about new posts via my Facebook page.

However, my Consultant Calamities Twitter page is working. You can sign up there for updates as well.

- The Calamity Queen

Avon Acquires Silpada Designs for $650 Million

Silpada Designs, a sterling silver jewelry Home Party company, has been purchased by Avon for $650 million.

Here's an article about the purchase. Nearly twenty years ago, friends Bonnie Kelly and Teresa Walsh started a small home business helping people put together outfits from their closets. They then started selling costume jewelry, and eventually moved to sterling silver jewelry.

Silpada Designs is one of the Home Parties that I worked for. I have to say, the parties were easy for a Consultant, and I made a surprising amount of money with the parties. Their jewelry is striking, and I still get comments when I wear some of the jewelry that I kept.

As a rule, I am not a fan of Home Party businesses. I don't think that it's a very good business model. However, I will admit that I had the most fun being a Consultant for Silpada Designs. It was fairly easy and profitable, compared to the two other businesses I tried (Creative Memories and Southern Living at Home).

Apparently, Avon plans to keep the Silpada line separate, and let it operate as usual. Silpada's jewlery costs from $12 to $279. Avon does sell costume jewlery, but at a much lower price point (mostly under $25).

Who knew that Avon was doing so well? Apparently, Avon has over $10 billion in annual revenue. I recently saw an Avon catalog. Their items have really changed over the years.

Do any of you work for Silpada or Avon? What do you think about this?

Those Pans Must be Made of Gold

I went to a Lifetime Cookware party. If you haven't heard of them, you go and they cook you supper. We had salmon, steak, chicken breast, potatoes, carrots, broccoli, and pineapple upside down cake. Very delicious. Then today, the wife of the couple that did the cooking came over to try and sell me these pans. I had talked to my husband and we had agreed upon getting two pans. He couldn't be here right away so I sat and listened to her spiel.

The highest set which included everything in the line was over $13,000 but I could get it for $10,000 something. The next line under was $6000 something, and the bottom was $4000. With any of the sets you could get four free items. Two were specials and two I could choose whatever I wanted. Very nice stuff. Each line had monthly payments you could make.

I knew hubby wasn't even going to let me have the bottom line for $4000. It would have been around $200 a month for 2 years. When we went to discuss it, he said "Either you can spend $4000 on pans, or you can take that money and we can finish the porch you've wanted and do the patio in the back yard. You decide."

I went back upstairs and told her I would take the electric skillet only. Which, by the way, was over $700. When I told her this, she looked at me and asked me what was going to change with my money between now and the time I had a party. I told her nothing, unless my husband just up and changed his mind. I told her what he said about the porch, and told her what my choice was. She looked at me and told me I would get nothing from my porch, but the pans would give me better health and pay for themselves, blah blah blah. I was floored. She definitely wasn't happy with me.

I had to have three parties to get cookware. The lady whose house she went to after mine is widowed and she has a very small income. There is no way she could afford anything at all. I almost felt like I should call her and warn her about the price.

I know these people are selling this stuff, but they really shouldn't act like the world is ending if you refuse to buy everything. Goodness, I just spent $800 on an electric skillet for crying out loud. Who in their right mind would do that? I have no idea, but I just did.

Well, I called the lady that had the party I went to, and asked her if she got anything if I had a party and she said no. I also told her I can buy the same pan on ebay for $150 so she is going to look there also. Hee Hee.

So, I called the sales lady back and told her I wanted to cancel my order and also the parties. I told her about ebay and of course she told me a pan from ebay will not have any warranty. I don't care. I also told her that I wanted to cancel my parties because I couldn't in good conscience let her go into other peoples’ homes and try to get them to buy these pans. She asked if I felt pressured, and I told her what she said about my porch. For some reason, after that the line went dead...

I feel so much better now. It feels like a load has been lifted off of me. And every time I go out and sit on my porch, I will totally enjoy myself without the guilt.

K.K., Illinois

Finally - A Home Party for a Great Cause

I recently read in Redbook magazine about woman named Sarah Symons from Massachusetts. She started a nonprofit organization called The Emancipation Network. You can click on the Made By Survivors site for more information.

The organization helps rescue women and girls from sexual slavery. After visiting a shelter for rescued girls in Nepal, she purchased some hand crafted items that the girls had made, and brought the items back to the United States. She threw a "Shop for Freedom" party. Women at the party bought the crafts, and hosted more parties. The profits were sent back to Nepal.

You can also purchase items directly on the site, or host a party. I'm wondering how much of the money goes to Consultants and Hosts, and how much goes back to the organization.

Any thoughts? I'd be more likely to host a party for a cause like this; although I would like to know what percentage is sent back to the girls and women.

Consultant Calamities is on Twitter

You can now follow Consultant Calamities on Twitter! I'll be making Twitter updates when I have a new story or new info.

Remember to send in any funny stories that you'd like to share to: consultantcalamities@gmail.com

The Mary Kay House

How would you like to go in together and buy a house with your Mary Kay "sister" Consultants? These ladies did just that. Here is a link to the pictures of the house on a Facebook page (which, for now, is still public):

Scary Kay House

How do you like the "shrine" to Mary Kay above the fireplace? Cuh-reeeeepy.

I also sent this information to the fabulous site Pink Truth, where the site owner posted the photos and her thoughts on the house. I've been meaning to post it on here, as well. I wonder if the Consultants are still each able to pay for the their share of the house. This is a bad idea on so many levels.

Can you imagine having the responsibility to pay a portion of mortgage and taxes on a house, with your fellow Home Party Consultants? If you've ever been a Consultant for any Home Party, you know how difficult it is to make a consistent amount of money every month. At times, it's difficult to make any money at all. Some of the MK Consultants are Directors, but that is a tough position to hold, and many lose their Directorship in a short period of time. What will they do if a few of them default on payments? The others will have to make larger payments, or they will eventually have to sell the house.

Plus, who's job will it be to clean the toilets? That's what *I* want to know!


*Thanks to a friend for finding the Mary Kay house online and sending it to me!*

Raise Your Hand if You've Ever had this Happen Before...

I'm so glad to finally have a funny story to share!!

I'm a Scentsy (wickless candle) consultant. One day, I got a call from a lady who bought some of our warmers overseas, and needed some new wax. She heard about me through the neighborhood grapevine, and asked if she could come take a look (sniff) at the scents that I had in stock. I gladly invited her over.

The day she came over, I had everything set up at my kitchen table for her to try them all and see which ones she liked. Half-way through our conversation, she asks me how I like being a Scentsy consultant. I tell her that it's a lot of fun, and that's mostly why I do it. I still have a full-time job, and I just do Scentsy on the side. She goes on to tell me that she wants to tell me about her business, and she says that if I "love money," I'm going to love what she has to offer.

As she begins telling me about her company's line of "shapewear" that is supposed to instantly take you down 3 sizes, I begin to wonder if she really did come here for Scentsy at all. She's got her own sales pitch down pat, and she's going a mile a minute. I should note that this lady is black, because after she has just about wrapped up her spiel, she looks at me and says, "I'ma be honest witcha. I need a white girl." Not only did she want to try and sell me one, she wanted me to become a consultant under her and have me tell all the other white girls I knew, because she wasn't having enough success "breaking into the white market." She then proceeds to pull a garment out of her purse and say, "So can I put you in one?"

Thankfully, I come up with a great, and completely honest, excuse. I had a kidney transplant, and I can't wear something that will constrict my torso so much. I barely refrain from using the word "violently." Honest, from the pictures she's showing me, it really does look violent, what that piece of clothing is doing to those women. It's almost like corseting, and they do promise to permanently decrease the size of your mid section over time. I probably could use a little help in that area, to be honest, but I don't want it that badly!

So, I politely decline, but assure her that if I hear of anybody interested in something like that, I'll definitely refer them to her. Again she says, "Anybody who loves money will want to do this, because I do very well!" Yeah, right. She completes her purchase of a few Scentsy Bars, and leaves, visibly upset. I wonder to myself if she thinks I'm lying. I could have lifted my shirt and displayed the 12" scar across my stomach, but I thought the whole thing was just so funny and insane that I didn't even care if she did think I was lying.

If anything, I learned a great way to NOT get people interested in my business!

- A.D., Louisiana