WAHM Forums

Where can I get the whole story on running this business? Are the prices reasonable? I dn't live in a rich area. Can I do it part time? I work 8-5. How talented do you have to be? I couldn't sell water in the dessert it seems. smileys/smiley36.gif

Arbonne is a fantastic business opportunity...


You can definitely work it part-time.. with our new puppy approach, it really makes it simple...


The great thing about Arbonne products is that they are super-concentrated and really last a long time... customers are very pleased to get a product that delivers results and doesn't break the bank in the meantime. And by becoming a wholesale buyer, your customers can enjoy a 35% discount on their purchases... and you will earn in the process...


Arbonne products really sell themselves... no talent required! smileys/smiley17.gif


Seriously, you are more effective when you educate yourself thru training, etc. However, salespeople are more successful when they represent products that deliver what they promise.... and that is what I have found to be true... I share products with friends/referrals and they place order after order ---


And Arbonne is more than just Amazing Skin Care... we offer Aromatherapy, Nutritional Supplements, Weightloss products, Natural Balancing Creams, Color Cosmetics and more!


Hope this helps...


Melissa





www.melissagilbert.myarbonne.com (http://www.melissagilbert.myarbonne.com)

PS.....


The puppy approach isn't the only way to work your business... we also teach health classes, have home parties, catalog parties.. and you can sell thru your Arbonne website...


Alot of the women on this board work their businesses different ways.. trade shows, bridal fairs etc... I really enjoy this board because I constantly learn from everyone here...


Melissa





www.melissagilbert.myarbonne.com (http://www.melissagilbert.myarbonne.com)

If you go to www.arbonne.com (http://www.arbonne.com), you can read more about the company and the business. You can also read success stories from RVPs and NVPs. Go to the bottom of the home page and you'll see that spot towards the right side.


This is the easiest opportunity I've been introduced to. But like anything, you will get out of it what you put into it. Everything takes some effort. I've had more positive responses with this than I have with anything else I've tried. It is very doable, even for someone that works full time.


Like Melissa said, you can run your business several different ways. I do the puppy dog approach and it has worked well for me. Email me if you'd like more information.

Thanks so much for the responses and information. I had been looking at theWAHM site for a good part time business for a few weeks. What got me thinking about it was when I went in Belks, have to walk through to get in the mall, and paused for a moment to look at the makeup. The sales lady caught me looking smileys/smiley9.gifand I confessed I needed some face powder. She kept me there for 15 minutes or so and offered to do a facial. It was nice to get pampered alittle. Then she talked me into this tiny thing of powder. Thinking I had gotten off easy I almost choked when she rang it up at $34!!!! I was too embrassed to tell her to put it back. I started thinking aboutselling a line of cosmetics so I could get a decent priceand product. But now I'm thnking I might could combine thepart time job with the beauty line and have the best of both worlds.


Questions: any answers apprieciated.


Is the training all about marketing or do they teach you to applythe products and and make educated recomendations to clients?


What business expenses would be needed to be successful? Separate phone line? Registered business name? fax machine? etc?


How much time did you work your business at first? now?


Do you travel for training?


What is an online party?


Sorry for all the questions but I take starting a business very seriously, having been burned before, I want to know as much as possible before taking the plung. Thanks so much.


Carol

Arbonne has lots of training right on their site -
www.arbonne.com However the best way to learn is to use their
products. They have lots of good ways to get the most for your
money too!!!



To do the business all you really need is internet/email. All orders are placed online, by fax or phone.



You can attend any training that you like - some may be local and some you may have to travel.



Arbonne is a wonderful company to work for with great income potential. I would love to have you on my team.



Arbonne has 100% growth over the past few years and expect the same
growth in the coming years. Great time to join Arbonne is now
because there are a lot of people who have not heard of it. I
love being the first to introduce someone to it.

1. There are a couple of ways we are trained. We are trained in
product knowledge, both by the company website and our uplines.
We are also trained in the business aspect. Arbonne focuses more
on skin care than on makeup, so I haven't really had too much training
on makeup. However, there is some color training at our monthly
meetings. There is a set of Product Knowledge CDs available that
will really inform you as to what to recommend to customers. I
take advantage of all of it available.



2. Business expenses. You don't need a fax or registered
business name or separate phone line. However, a professional
message is a good idea. I think the computer and internet access
are pretty important, but clearly you have those. smileys/smiley1.gif
You do need some products to show at your classes or in one on
ones. You can do what is called an RSVP where you get $700 worth
of product for $350 to get you started. You will also need to
purchase the color collection if you plan to sell color. People
don't like to purchase makeup that they have not seen. When
I first started, I could not afford all the makeup right away and when
people ordered lipstick, I held my breath until it came in and they
tried it. I often had to replace it with another color for
them. If nothing else, buy all the lipsticks and a foundation
color selector.



3. This is a tricky one, because I don't really write down the
hours I spend on my business. I usually do 2 classes per week, so
that's about 5 hours total. Then I do about 5 hours of follow-up
work, and another 5 of business stuff like filing, ordering, etc.
I do think about my business a lot, and talk about it with people that
I meet and with friends, and people I know through volunteer
organizations. I don't really know how much time that takes as it
is just a part of my day. The important thing to me is thta I am
only away from home 5 hours a week, except when I attend a training or
monthly meeting. The time required for those varies.



4. Traveling for training. This will depend on where you
live and if there are local meetings and trainings. My monthly
meeting is about 100 miles from here. There is an annual
conference (NTC) held in a different city each year. The next one
is in April 2006 in St. Louis. Attendance is not mandatory, but
highly recommended.



5. I don't really know what an online party is. It not part of my business plan.



Good luck to you! This is a great company and this is the right time to be a part of it.



Cheers,

-Beverly



P.S. Where are you located?

As for your "online party" question, you can check here:


http://tbadeals.us/OnlineParty.html (http://tbadeals.us/OnlineParty.html)


To make it short, you set up a online chatroom, invite your guests to there on a certain date and time, then you have a party on the net.


I'm an Arbonne newbie, I don't plan to do online party now, but once I build up my customers base, I would consider to do it, espically in winter, when weather goes too bad, online party is a great alternate tohome party.


Olivia

Is the training all about marketing or do they teach you to applythe products and and make educated recomendations to clients?


There is lots of training available - from your upline, on the Arbonne website, etc. So far my best training has come from asking questions to my upline. Arbonne isn't just cosmetics. It's about safe, pure, and benificial products for your health and wellness. We are in 6 industries -wellness, weight loss, nutrition, skin care, cosmetics, and aromatherapy. The all of our products are designed to work together or seperately. What works for one person may not for another. By reading up on the products and their benifits, you can then start helping customers make the best decision for themselves. Over time you learn.


What business expenses would be needed to be successful? Separate phone line? Registered business name? fax machine? etc?


You don't need a registered business name. You are working under the Arbonne name as an independant consultant. You don't need a business liscense. When you place an order, they take care of the taxes for you and you will get a 1099 at the end of the year. When starting out, I wouldn't get more than you can afford. As time goes on, then if you feel it would best benifit your business to get a seperate phone line, fax, etc. then do it. I'm just operating right now with my internet and home phone or my cell phone. It is recommended (as with any business) to have a special place that is for your business supplies and such. We have a large desk in our sunroom that our computer is at and I have a drawer in there dedicated to just Arbonne. That is good enough for me right now.


How much time did you work your business at first? now?


I work a couple hours a day total. Whether that is making phone calls, networking, checking on orders, doing learn and burns, whatever. If you can dedicate 10 hours a week, then you can be successful. That doesn't mean that if you can only dedicate 5 hours you won't be successful. It may take you longer to promote but it will happen.


Do you travel for training?


There are travel opportunites like National Convention that was just a few weeks back in Vegas. I didn't go b/c I signed too late for that. My upline has a business meeting every Monday morning and if I'm unable to make it, I have the capablity of phoneing in. There is a big training event here in Atlanta in June that it looks like some people are going to be traveling to come to.


What is an online party?


Sorry, can't answer that one. I personally choose not to do the party route. I did that with other companies and I'd rather not have to do that with my family. One thing I love about this company is I can run my business how I feel best and still be successful.


If there are any other questions, don't hesitate to ask. This is a great company. The products are wonderful. Once you see the big picture, it really is eye opening.

Wendy,



Are you going to the training in Atlanta? I am. I'm flying
down from Ohio with some of my team. Can't wait!! It sounds
great. And I love the puppy dog approach - can't wait to hear
Andrew Inman talk more about it. Staying at the Fairfield Inn
Downtown - should be close to the Center shouldn't it?

Are we or are we not allowed to do online parties? I thought this went against Arbonne's electronic advertising policy. Does anyone know for sure?

Jennya-


No I'm not going to the training in Atlanta. I didn't know about it until after I booked my son's birthday party and that is at 3:30pm. I'd love to go and meet Andy, Susan, Shannon, and Rita. But it'll have to wait. I think you should be ok staying at a hotel downtown.

Are we or are we not allowed to do online parties? I thought this went against Arbonne's electronic advertising policy. Does anyone know for sure?


I'm not really sure if it's allowed or not, but I have seen some Arbonne consultants' ad on the net.

Are we or are we not allowed to do online parties? I thought this went against Arbonne's electronic advertising policy. Does anyone know for sure?


I just read through the internet rules. It seems to me that internet sales are prohibited unless through an offical Arbonne website. But since the online party would be in a chat room and chat rooms do not offer online ordering or payment capabilities I don't think they would fall under that rule. No shopping cart or credit card processing capabilities on the site. If someone decided to order during an online party they would still have to put in the actual order through an approved way right? It seems that it would be the same as a home party or calling a consultant to tell them your order. Thats my take on it but I'm not a consultant so I maybe wrong.


Carol

I think it would be against company policies if you were to advertise"come join my online Arbonne Party at www.onlinepartywebsitename.com (http://www.onlinepartywebsitename.com) at 5:00 EST" ~ KWIM? For example, you can't go to an online party site and just list Arbonne parties there hoping people will join in the fun.


However,I think if you have clients that are in another part of the country and want to host a party for you with their friends and the only way for you to "be there" with them is online, then I don't see the problem with holding the party online so that you can interact with the group of women.


I was just thinking about this situation with the clients that I have buying product at my site. How can I offer them host benefits? The only way would be to do it online. Otherwise ~ they would have to go and find another consultant to do their party to get host benefits and my customer is lost to a consultant in their area.


So I would think, in that sense it shouldn't be a problem. What do you think?

But since the online party would be in a chat room and chat rooms do not offer online ordering or payment capabilities I don't think they would fall under that rule. No shopping cart or credit card processing capabilities on the site. If someone decided to order during an online party they would still have to put in the actual order through an approved way right? It seems that it would be the same as a home party or calling a consultant to tell them your order.


You can not process any order from the chatroom, but during the party you will lead your guests to the "shop on line" on your Arbonne website where they can put their orders, if you don't have your own website, then invite them toArbonnecompany site, remind them to put your consultantID when they order.

From what I have read in the policy book &amp; what I've gathered from talking to the policy dept at Arbonne Stacie is right. Anytime you are going to do advertising using Arbonne's name then you have to get it approved by Arbonne first, online or not. And online advertising is definitely against policy unless you have approval. So you would not be able to advertise in chat rooms or boards or anywhere else for the online party. Perhaps you could get around it by not using the Arbonne name but you also couldn’t use anything that identifies it’s Arbonne, like the names of our products etc. Yes, there are people who do it b/c I’ve seen it but I assume they aren’t aware that it’s against policy. <?:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

However, if you want to treat it as a regular party &amp; invite people to come to an online party through email or regular mail you could do that. And they can bring friends. Or you can have a person host a party for you &amp; they can invite friends. That is different than positing an open invitation somewhere.



Policies for any company can get confusing. It drives me nuts, why can’t they just speak in English instead of legalese!? smileys/smiley2.gif

I was under the impression from someone in my upline that when you make fliers as long as you dont use any of the logos then you dont have to get it approved. is this not correctr?

Technically? If you were to ask the policy dept they would say anything that has the Arbonne name in it has to be approved. That would include flyers, signatures for emails, on message boards etc etc etc. At least that's what they told me when I emailed &amp; asked. Now, does everyone follow the policy to that end........


However, if something were to happen &amp; you did get in trouble for something like that it's not like they will just strip you of your ID. People interpret policies for anything in several different ways &amp; if you misunderstand what it's telling you I believe they would give you a chance to correct it. So try not to get too paranoid about it. I know I was pretty paranoid for awhile about it to the point I wouldn't even type the word on a board, lol. I like to think of myself as a bit of a "wild child" but I guess when it comes down to it I pucker fairly easy about some things. smileys/smiley2.gifEdited by: Soonergirl74

For those of you not doing parties or classes; may I ask what you ARE doing and how well it is working for you?


I am thinking about no longer selling because parties are just not for me and that seems to be the main way to build your biz. Plus, I was just reading on another board the Arbonee apparently does not want consultants passing "pups" from one customer to another. They said that the product has been "compromised" and that if the prospect does not buy it - you basically must keep it and eat the expense. Not what I wanted to hear....


Christy :)

I was just reading on another board the Arbonee apparently does not want consultants passing "pups" from one customer to another. They said that the product has been "compromised" and that if the prospect does not buy it - you basically must keep it and eat the expense.


Is this truth? I might miss something, is passing "pups" from one customer to another against company policy?

from my RVP:
<UL>
<LI>we can pass the pups along as "demo sets", </LI>
<LI>we cannot sell an already used set as new, and </LI>
<LI>we cannot return a pupped set under the 45 day money back gaurantee. </LI>
<LI>Also that the night creme should be put in a small container.</LI>[/list]


I always keep the new sets boxed as they come from warehouse, that way the client will have no questions about if what they've bought has been used.

Christy - I don't sell my pups to customers. They use it to demo the product. If they want it, they will order a brand new set. My night cream has a spatula that I put in with the pup and that is what they are to use to get it out. I clean the spatula off. I don't do parties. I do one on one and some small group presentations. I talk to everyone I can about the products and the business. So I make sales I just don't host parties.

I completely agree; and that's what I was doing with my pups. I just saw that some were saying we were not to be passing these "demos" from person to person. That seems a bit ridiculous to me and until I hear officially from the company that it is against policy, I intend to continue that way as well. As long as I continue "doing" Arbonne that is...I haven't really decided that one yet!