How Much Do Avon Representatives Really Make? – Ouch!

The Avon Business Opportunity

Avon is a beauty supplies company that, instead of selling products in a retail setting, relies on a workforce of independent representatives to do the selling, which is why anyone can join the opportunity.

And as I'm sure you are already aware, the products sold by Avon include lipsticks, lotions, soaps, mascaras, eyeliner and a whole lot more.

It is one of the oldest lasting businesses of this kind, first starting out back in 1886 by a man (strange, I know) named David H. McConnell. 

Having been around for so long it must be a pretty good opportunity, right? After all, it is promoted as being a way to "work from home. Anywhere, anytime." and is said to be "your dream gig".

The MLM business opportunity is so luring because of the freedoms it offers and how easy it is to get started (to get started... not to make money!). As an associate for Avon (aka representative) you essentially are your own boss, working when you want. And the cost to get started is only $30 to purchase a Starter Kit.

Sounds like a no-brainer... 

• You get to work when you want and however much you want
• The earning potential is limitless
• It only costs $30 to get started

Ya... well don't get too excited. The ugly stats I'll go over in a second will show you the reality of being an Avon associate.

How It Works

As an associate you will, in a nutshell, be earning money in 2 main ways: 

1. By making your own sales , which can earn you up to 40% commissions.
2. By recruiting other associates into the business, which you will earn commissions from based on their sales.

Earning your own commissions selling products yourself (can be done online and offline) is great and all, but unfortunately it isn't going to get you to the point of earning big money and driving a pink Cadillac. In order to make it to this point you will have to claw your way to the top, which means recruitment will have to be a priority on your daily to-do list.

You will have the potential to earn commissions from the efforts of those beneath you down different levels and generations, which in laymen's terms means that you can earn money from the people you recruit in, the people they recruit in, the people that those people recruit in, and so on.

This is called MLM (multi-level marketing) or network marketing because the recruitment structure of the business encourages building different levels, or a network.

The compensation plan places a great deal of incentive on recruiting more people and building a "team", so if you plan on taking advantage of the earning potential at hand, you will need to do this.

Average Earnings of Avon Representatives

Okay... so you can make up to 40% commissions selling products on your own and can also recruit others in and earn from their efforts... as well as the efforts of those recruited in beneath them... sounds like a lot of potential to earn money here, right?

Well, I suppose there is a "a lot of potential", but the reality is that most people hardly make anything.

Are you ready for some hard numbers?

Unfortunately Avon doesn't disclose any sort of income chart on their own. After doing a little digging around online and Googling, I was able to find two income disclosures from 2008 & 2009 on SequenceInc, which is a pretty reliable source and often helps bring earnings disclosures for various opportunities to the public eye.

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The 2009 statement reads that :

• 36.1% earned 0 – $4,999
• 15.8% earned $5,000 – $6,999
• 26% earned $7,000 – $11,999,
• 17.6% earned $12,000 – $29,000
• 4.4% earned $30,000 and above

That is pretty bad... a very small percentage of people are making enough to live off of. And to make matters even worse, these statistics are somewhat misleading because they are also only from associates after one year working with Avon.

So this means that all of the associates who joined Avon and quit within a year are excluded from these statistics, which I can pretty much guarantee make up well over 50% of the total number of associates. And what this means altogether is that if all associates were included here the numbers would look a whole heck of a lot worse.

Why doesn't Avon disclose the average earnings of associates like some other MLM opportunities do?

Well, I don't know for sure, but I would suspect that it has to do with the statistics being absolutely horrific, so much so that if any reasonable human being were to see them they would probably stay far far away.

Note: Some MLM's do disclose the average earnings of associates for legal reasons. These disclosures are never pretty and always show a very small percentage of people making the majority of the money, which is why they are usually presented in a very misleading way and/or hard to find on their websites. doTERRA & Young Living, Ambit Energy, Tupperware, etc.... it's the same story with all of them.

Why Most People Earn So Little

1) They Give Up Early

There is no doubt that a lot of people simply give up to easily and too early. And unfortunately because of this when you see the statistics for some MLM's, which look absolutely horrible, it's hard to get a clear picture of how much people are really making because these quitters throw the numbers off.

People give up early because 1) this business model is extremely hard to succeed in, and 2) they don't have much at stake so there isn't much lost if they quit. It might be different if you had to invest some serious capital to get going, but you only need $30 to buy a Starter Kit to get going with Avon for example.

2) It's a Pyramid

The other reason the so few people make good money with MLM's like this is because of the very structure that they have, which pretty much ensures this is the case.

What gives these kinds of opportunities so much potential to make big money also makes it incredibly difficult to make money.

At the core of every MLM is a pyramid structure like this...

You recruit in people beneath you, they recruit people in beneath them, and so on. It starts out narrow and branches out near the bottom naturally as people recruit more and more.

This is great, right? Now that you have people beneath you, you are earning commissions from their efforts. The money flows up the pyramid.

In the Avon compensation plan you will be able to earn Generation Bonuses down 5 generations and Leader Bonuses down 5 levels. 

So for example: With the Leader Bonus you will be able to earn commissions from the people that you recruit in (level 1), the people that they recruit in (level 2), the people that the level 2 people recruit in (level 3) and so on.

Sounds Great, But Think About Those at The Bottom

With a pyramid structure like this there will always be more people at the bottom. This is just how it is.

And guess what? These people will be having potential commissions sucked away from them to pay those above them.

Avon could be paying associates more for their own retail sales, but instead rewards their sponsors, and their sponsors' sponsors, etc.

It is this very reason that makes MLM's an incredibly difficult opportunity to succeed with. If you want to make good money then climbing your way to the top is a must, and this is achieved only by recruitment... and a lot of it.

Some Stats Say That 99% Of Those Involved Lose Money

In a study conducted by the Consumer Awareness Center, they claim that about 99% of people who join MLM's end up losing money. Avon happened to be one of the 350 MLM opportunities that was looked into in this study.

Now I don't think they accounted for all of the people that simply gave up to early, but even if they would have I imagine the numbers would still be terrible.

Is This a Pyramid Scheme?

Pyramid schemes are illegal and since Avon has been in business for years, I think it's pretty obvious that it isn't a pyramid scheme, at least in the legal sense of the word.

A pyramid scheme doesn't sell any products and instead relies on the incoming investments of newcomers to pay off older investors, whereas a legitimate MLM does sell real products and this is where all their revenue comes from.

The difference does get a bit shady at times, because many MLM's force new associates to purchase products and much of their product sales aren't to real genuine customers, but I'm not going to get too into this.

Yes Avon does have a pyramid structure. No they are not a pyramid scheme.

An Opportunity Worth Joining or Avoiding?

I'm not going to tell you whether or not you should join because this is something you have to answer for yourself.

I hope to have given you a more realistic look into the earnings of Avon associates so that you can see the reality here, which isn't as good as many are led to believe.

The bottom line is that the compensation plan favors recruitment a great deal and if you want to take advantage of this opportunity then recruitment is a must. And something else that I didn't really make clear is that MLM's have extremely high turnover rates [more info here] and because of this you will have to be constantly recruiting more people in.

What do you think of Avon's business opportunity? Leave you comments and/or questions below and I'll get back to you soon 🙂

PS: If you are looking for a good opportunity to make money from home on your own time, I would highly recommend checking out this program that I use (and have been using since 2015).

Alternatively you can see some of my top picks for making money from home here.