How did mary kay ash start her business

Mary Kay's marketing skills and people savvy soon led her company to enormous success. Ash was a pioneer for women in business, building a substantial cosmetics empire. In , Ash became as a salesperson for Stanley Home Products, hosting parties to encourage people to buy household items.

Mary kay ash education

She was so good at making the sale that she was hired away by another company, World Gifts, in 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. After her bad experiences in the traditional workplace, Ash set out to create her own business at the age of 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. 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.

Interesting facts about mary kay ash

Sales representatives — Ash called them consultants — bought the products from May 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. All of her marketing skills and people savvy helped make Mary Kay Cosmetics a very lucrative business.