Avon is the perfect opportunity for stay at home parents and even full time corporate executives. If you have a need for an additional income, you cannot go wrong with Avon. Avon has been helping people earn and save money since 1886. Avon survived the great depression, three world wars, and is stronger then ever. Every second an average of four Avon lipsticks and two mascaras are sold. Every two weeks new products are being introduced which keeps customers engaged and wanting more. Whether your interested in earning money for a dream vacation or to put food on the table, Avon is a great business opportunity. You can work 1 hour a week or 40 hours a week, your the boss. Maybe your passion is to help those in need, Avon has fundraising programs in place to help a friend, school, or other organization you hold dear to your heart raise much needed funds. If your looking for a business that will not only help you earn lots of money, but will also help you give back, consider Avon. I am so glad I did.

My sister in law was selling Avon part time to make some extra money. I took some catalogs to work to help her out since I already knew about the products and ordered them when I was a teen. I handed out to the books to people at work and everyone was ordering. I knew this was something easy that I could do to make money. I thought Avon must be expensive, the catalogs look high end and they must be expensive to purchase. I asked my sister in law about it and she told me how much she paid to start. I researched the business online and decided to give it a try. I was shocked that it only cost around $20 for 100 catalogs and each 100 after that were only $15. I knew Avon was a legit business and I new she had to have been making some good money selling. 

I decided that I was going to give the Avon business a try. My daughter was not going to be born for at least another five or six months and I wanted to stay home with her. I signed up and purchased my starter kit. I was so excited when I got my starter kit in the mail. I went to Goodwill and found some labels and supplies to get started. I tagged all my books and samples and handed them out to everyone who ordered from my sister in law at my work and every two weeks I was getting at least a $200 order from work, my friends, and the people I met when I was out to breakfast with my husband. I was so happy that they were supporting my business but I wanted to get "real" customers... you know, the customers who don't know me and expect me to know about all the products and provide them with great customer service. It is not that I did not think of my co-workers as real customers but I knew that I was going to be quitting my job when my daughter was born and did not want to have to count on their orders. 

My husband and I spent an hour a week stuffing catalogs into plastic bags and we would drove to a new neighborhood every week and tossed books on to peoples driveways. One by one we received orders from doing this. Every two weeks we were adding between 2 and 10 new customers. We made a few mistakes... for example we tossed books on driveways of town homes and since there was an association they called us and let us know that it was fine to do this time but not to do it in the future. I also left some catalogs in the bathroom at church and was told by one of the ladies that this was not allowed. I never let these small setbacks stop me from trying. 

Slowly we would get customers, and from what I am hearing slow and steady wins the race. I don't know how I would have handled my business if it exploded overnight. I know I would have been overwhelmed and I might have made mistakes and probably would have lost my customers as quickly as I got them. 

When my daughter was born, I quit my job and I did not want her to leave the house until she was baptized. I never took her on a customer delivery until I delivered to the customer at least once (just in case they had a psycho dog or something... lol) I have been very blessed with all of the customers that I have, my daughter now looks forward to seeing each of them. They are like family to us. I get referrals and my customers are not shy about asking me for product recommendations. Avon has a 90 day return policy so that has been a benefit to me. I am able to order clothing and shoes in two sizes and return the one that does not fit. If someone wants to try a new trendy color they can return it if it is not for them. I hardly have any returns for makeup and never had a skincare return. 

New Avon catalogs are released every two weeks. At first I did not have a plan in place and often found myself losing out on potential orders. It is important to have a set plan so that your business can be successful. One week is order week and the next week is delivery week. On order week I contact my customers and let them know the specials... I used to make sure every customer had the current catalog and it was easy to do when I only had 20 customers. When you have 50 regular customers it becomes quite a challenge to get them delivered. I tried sending catalogs in the mail and that was too expensive. Now I send my customers a link to the virtual catalogs. They click on it and can look at the catalogs online. One time I spend an entire day delivering 50 catalogs and when I called to get orders they misplaced them and wanted another one or they did not have time to look at it. I knew that each customer would be ordering at least every other campaign. So when they placed an order with me I would include the next two or three catalogs in there bag. When I call them for a reminder I let them know what is on sale and if something they purchase is on sale. I also e-mail or text them the link to the virtual catalogs as well. Doing this very step has saved me lots of time. While I am out an about running errands, taking my daughter on play dates, and meeting my parents for lunch I leave catalogs around town and meet new people and offer them a catalog and let them know they can do what I am doing. 

My name is Kathleen LeMaire, my husband Robert and I have been married since May 2011. We were both really happy in our life, we both worked full time jobs. We would get up early and drive separate cars to where ever we decided to eat breakfast. We met friends where ever we frequented often. We ate out all the time because it was cheaper for us to do so. After breakfast we would drive separately to our jobs. I started a half hour later then my husband so I would sit in the car and listen to Christian radio or watch you tube videos. After work we would go out to dinner and maybe a show, a walk, or go shopping. We both had weekends off, and we would often do vendor shows. I have a jewelry business called FaLaunt Jewelry. We would meet new people and earn some extra money which we reinvested back into more products to sell. There was just the two of us so we lived in a two bedroom condo. 

in 2013 we decided that we wanted to grow our little family and since my husband always wanted a dog, we adopted a research beagle named "Fuzzy". We changed her name right away to Angel because that name really fit her personality. We did not realize that dogs and other animals were being used to test drugs with the FDA so that really bothered us. We donate regularly to Freedom Beagle Project and PETA because they really do care about these kind animals having a life after the laboratory. Angel really needed some quiet time alone to heal so she enjoyed being at home during the day while we were at work. She had the entire condo to hang out. We left potty pads for her but she never used them and after two months she actually started acting a lot more like a dog and would rip up the potty pads. She rarely went to the restroom in the house because we had her on a good schedule and walked her every time we fed her. Just about 5 months to the date we got her, we came home on a Friday and she had her head down. You could see that she was feeling lonely. My husband said he did not care, this weekend we are going to adopt another dog. She needs someone to play with. We went to Petsmart for adoption day on Saturday. There was a beagle named Annie who has nipples hanging and dragging on the floor. She appeared to have had puppies and then was left on the street corner because she was no longer needed. It was very sad. Our goal was to adopt a dog that no one else would want. Angel was very mild and could use someone to teach her how to be a dog and she was very timid and never barks or plays. We found out that we were not a good match for Annie because we were not home during the day. I think the lady who was fostering her just did not want her to be adopted at all.

We ended up going to Anderson's Animal Shelter, the lady working there said that any of there dogs would be very happy living in a condo with another dog instead of a cage in a shelter. That made me feel a lot better, as we really wanted to get a companion for our beagle. They would not allow us to go into the room to see the dogs because if we don't adopt them they get very depressed (or at least that is what we were told). There were all kinds of large dogs, but we wanted a smaller one since we did live in a condo. We came across the perfect dog, at first we were not sure cause we wanted a female dog and Sharpie the 6 year old Jack Russell was a male. I wanted to adopt him because in his bio it said he needs to be alone with no other pets, no children, and since he was already 6 it was very unlikely that he would be adopted anytime soon. I asked the lady at the counter about Sharpie and she was very pleased that we were interested in him. She said that he was next to die at a high kill shelter that they keep in close contact with. They were praying that a cage would open up for him in there non kill shelter and by the grace of God someone came in an hour before the shelter closed and adopted a dog. They sent someone from the shelter to pickup Sharpie and they saved his life. We met with Sharpie and he loved us, he was very kind and kept kissing the care taker showing him to us. They were going to close in a hour and we could not adopt him until he had the chance to meet our beagle, since he was not allowed to be placed with a family who already had a pet. We told them we would be right back. We made it back with Angel within the hour and we were really nervous that Sharpie was not going to like her. Well he loved her, he ran up to her and she put her head down because she is very timid. He kissed her on the face and wagged his tail. We all jumped for joy! Life was good, the dogs were both happy and loving there life together. Sharpie was very protective of Angel, when my husband would come home from work and walk them Sharpie would get mad and bark at any other dog being walked near them. It was also a huge pain to walk them in the rain and we could not imagine going outside with them in the winter. We have already been spending time looking for a ranch style home to move in to, but now we had to really focus on it. We ended up moving into our place right before winter. Since we were both working we could easily afford everything we needed. 

In 2014 we found out we were going to be parents! Life was good and I decided that I was going to be a stay at home mom. It would be great to be home with the baby full time and spend more time with the dogs! I loved my job but it was causing me stress and my husband made enough money to pay the bills. It was not going to be easy without my paycheck coming in but we were willing to take the chance. Our daughter's due date was in September, I had a great part time jewelry business but that would require me to go to vendor shows and event to sell my products. I have an online store but it is not easy to list all the products I have online and it is very time consuming. I did not want to spend the entire day taking picture, listing items, shipping out orders, and purchasing new stock from multiple vendors. I wanted to spend as much as I can with my babies! I was spending time online researching businesses and work from home opportunities which most seemed like a scam, or most required parties, shows, and just as much work as my jewelry business.