Today I want to talk about something that is being talked about in several online forums about Mary Kay being a pyramid scheme that is playing on innocent women and scamming them.  This is just one of those posts I did not want to write but I get asked a lot.

If you are in any type of direct sales marketing, you probably have heard it said at one point that all  Multi Level Marketing businesses are pyramid schemes.

Well this seem to be very hot about Mary Kay cosmetics. Unless you have been living under a rock in the last decade, I’m sure you’ve seen some sites and online forums that paints Mary Kay business as a Pink Pyramid Scheme.

There are former consultants who have even gone on the record with some national media to share their bad Mary Kay experience and to proof that Mary Kay business is a pyramid and a network marketing scam.

See, we live in a free country and everyone has the right to express their opinion.  While I don’t believe Mary Kay Cosmetics is a pyramid, some of these women have had some really bad experience with the business.

I would love to address their concerns and what make me sympathize with some of them but I would rather do that on another blog post.  On this post, I just want to focus on the question – Is Mary Kay business a pyramid scheme?

Bear, in mind I am only expressing my personal opinion of the business and my understanding of Direct Sales Marketing in general. The truth of the matter is Mary Kay business is NOT a pyramid scheme.

Mary Kay is a legit business with real products and the company has been authorized by FTC to conduct business in the United States for over 50 years.  I think FTC is very good at hunting down and shutting companies that practice pyramid schemes.  They surely can’t have missed on Mary Kay all these years.

What exactly is a Pyramid Scheme Company?  According to Wikipedia a pyramid scheme is an unsustainable business model that involves promising participants payment or services, primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, rather than supplying any real investment or sale of products or services to the public. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_scheme)

I can see why from the above definition some people might believe Mary Kay is a pyramid scheme.  They take the line promising participants payment for enrolling others.  But notice it says enrolling others into the scheme rather than supplying any real investment or sale of products or service.

Mary Kay Inc is one of the leading cosmetics companies in the US and they sell real cosmetics not fake or non existence service.  So, what makes people think this is a pyramid and companies like Lancome, Mac, Estee Lauder or Clinique are not?

Ohh….. it is the recruiting thing right? Yes! The minute you add recruiting or sponsoring others into the equation then it is automatically referred to as pyramid.  Actually pyramids set up type of business are not bad.   What is illegal is pyramid schemes.  I guess you did not know your daily 9 to 5 rat race is a pyramid too.

I once attended a network marketing event with Grayson Marshall who is a top marketer and it was then I really grasped the concept of the industry’s marketing plan and how to best handle the pyramid scheme question.

First, let’s not pretend that pyramid schemes companies do not exist in network marketing.  It is true that there are a few companies out there that make the whole industry look bad.   But that is a very small percentage and in most cases they end up being busted by attorney generals and eventually shut down.

Why do I even care to address this issue of Mary Kay Cosmetics being a pyramid scheme or not? Well, simply because the good old Bible says that people are destroyed because of lack of knowledge and I care enough for my blog readers to share.  Some of my blog posts are based on the emails I receive from my readers and this is one of them.

Mary Kay is NOT sending me a check to do any public relation campaign for them.  You have seen some of my blog posts rants where I disagree with the company or their sales force. I like to look at both sides as in the good and the bad.  Alright, let’s get back to it.

I have a couple of questions for those of you folks that believe Mary Kay is a pyramid. So here we go:

1. Do you have a job that you work for someone else? If your answer is yes, then here is a picture of what your job most likely look like: So, in this picture if your CEO is at the very top, where else can you be? Drum…roll..Somewhere below him/her towards the bottom.

The truth is someone has to be at the bottom. You have a supervisor who also have a supervisor or manager; all the way up to the CEO..

The problem with this picture is that the folks at the bottom are the ones that do all the work but the folks at the top are the ones that makes all the money.

In this pyramid, you really do not stand a chance of moving up higher than your CEO and the folks above you will always make more money than you.

There is always going to be someone at the bottom of this pyramid. Now, do you like pyramids now that you see your job is one?.  If your job is not a pyramid scheme then Mary Kay business is not.

We agree they both are shaped like a pyramid when it comes to positioning employees or distributors in the case of Mary Kay Cosmetics, but they are not pyramid schemes.

In fact with a Mary Kay business you decide when to move up to the next level.  You alone are responsible of promoting yourself to the next leadership level.  You actually have no glass ceiling unlike most Corporate jobs.

When you have your own business like Mary Kay, you do not have to wait for someone to be fired, demoted or to die for you to get the position. You get the promotion when you decide you deserve one.

In direct sales marketing businesses like Mary Kay, you can actually make more money than your recruiter and whoever else is above the chain when you join. The more you say yes to yourself the more money you will make in this type of business model.

As a brand new consultant today, you have the potential to make more money than your recruiter, director or national director.  You can make that happen in six months, a year, two years, five years or ten years.  You hold the key! You get to decide when that happen and no one can hold you back unless you are a moron to allow them to.

Network marketing is the only industry where the ground is leveled regardless of your background or education level. You just have to get into the playing field and play the game to win.

This is no different for Mary Kay business.  Once you are in, you have to be in it to win it! But you must build your business with integrity so you do not give people a reason to paint the company as a pyramid scheme.

All these Mary Kay pyramid scheme stories can always be traced back to former consultants who left the business with a bad taste in the mouth.  Now, I do not  think they are a bunch of negative former Mary Kay losers.  I have seen and heard some horror Mary Kay stories myself.  But that does not make the company a pyramid.

You will find similar stories in other companies too.  Does that make it right? No!  But when you have over two million people, you are going to have some selfish people who like to manipulate others for their own success.  Those are bad apples that sometimes make the whole bunch stink!

Hope now you can see it is clear that your j.o.b. looks  like a pyramid but yet it is very popular. Well, the truth is, what is popular is not always right and what is right is not always popular.

People budget their lives based on the above Corporate pyramid because they signed up for a salary. Here is the dirty little secret that they do not tell you, they only pay you what the job is worth not what you are worth.

I hope we can now debunk this whole Mary Kay pyramid scheme thing and lay it to rest.  If you care enough to go through a Mary Kay beauty consultant agreement and the Mary Kay advanced brochure, you probably will come to the same conclusion.

Mary Kay is not a pyramid scheme!  No one has to stay at the bottom unless they make the decision to. Why don’t you chose to be at the top so you make money too? In this type of industry no one promotes you to the top but yourself.  Keep it simple and do not complicate it.

I love to read comments from both sides..

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