MARY KAY ASH

MARY KAY ASH

Founder of Mary Kay

Entrepreneur Mary Kay, founder of Mary Kay Inc., built a profitable business from scratch that created new opportunities for women to achieve financial success. Mary Kathlyn Wagner Ash was born May 12, 1918, in Hot Wells, Texas. Mary Kay Ash left the traditional workplace after watching yet another man whom she had trained get promoted over her. She started her own cosmetics company, using incentive programs and other strategies to give her employees the chance to benefit from their achievements. Mary Kay's marketing skills and people savvy soon led her company to enormous success.

The early career of Mary Kay Ash is, the business leader and entrepreneur was a pioneer for women in business, building a substantial cosmetics empire. In 1939, Ash became as a salesperson for Stanley Home Products, hosting parties to encourage people to buy household items. She was so good at making the sale that she was hired away by another company, World Gifts, in 1952. Ash spent a little more than a decade at the company, but she quit in protest after watching yet another man that she had trained get promoted above her and earn a much higher salary than hers.

The entrepreneurial venture is after her bad experiences in the traditional workplace, Ash set out to create her own business at the age of 45. She started with an initial investment of $5,000 in 1963. She purchased the formulas for skin lotions from the family of a tanner who created the products while he worked on hides. With her son, Richard Rogers, she opened a small store in Dallas and had nine salespeople working for her. Today there are more than 1.6 million salespeople working for Mary Kay Inc. around the world. The company turned a profit in its first year and sold close to $1 million in products by the end of its second year driven by Ash's business acumen and philosophy. The basic premise was much like the products she sold earlier in her career.

Her cosmetics were sold through at home parties and other events. But Ash strove to make her business different by employing incentive programs and not having sales territories for her representatives. She believed in the golden rule "treat others as you want to be treated," and operated by the motto: God first, family second and career third. Ash wanted everyone in the organization to have the opportunity to benefit from their successes. Sales representatives, Ash called them consultants, bought the products from Mary Kay at wholesale prices and then sold them at retail price to their customers. They could also earn commissions from new consultants that they had recruited.

Her approach to business attracted a lot of interest. She was admired for her strategies and the resultsthey achieved. She wrote several books about her experiences, including Mary Kay: The Success Story of America's Most Dynamic Businesswoman (1981), Mary Kay on People Management (1984) and Mary Kay: You Can Have It All (1995).

COMPETENCY OF MARY KAY ASH

Marketing

Mary Kay's marketing skills and people savvy soon led her company to enormous success. There are a few types of marketing that Mary Kay Ash using in her business. Mary Kay Ash is an in person marketing.The most traditional Mary Kay marketing strategy involves in person, direct marketing. Beauty consultants typically start with family members and friends, offering free makeovers and facials and then letting the products sell themselves through these promotions. In addition to friends and family, in-person marketing can include door to door selling as well as networking with local salons and stores to ask if brochures with the sales associate's contact information can be left for their clientele.