Sabitha Ramlall is a single parent with 3 children. Her husband passed away over 10 years ago and she had to educate their children on her own using her salary and supplementing this by selling Avon products.
Her eldest son studied Marketing and she was also able to buy him his very first car. Her second child, also a boy, chose to study marketing and Financial Management and she was also able to buy him his first car. Her last born, a daughter completed Matric about 3 years ago and enjoyed a break year from her studies while deciding what she would like to study the following year. Sabitha was also able to buy her a car! In addition to this, Sabitha has travelled the world because of Avon. She has toured the United States as well as Europe. She has also been to Australia and New Zealand.
Sabitha is one of 6 million independent Avon Representatives whose lives have been positively touched by the iconic Avon beauty brand. While each Representative’s circumstances is different, there is a common thread that was first woven when David H. McConnell decided to trade selling books for perfumes.
In his travels as a book salesman, McConnell made two important discoveries. First, he quickly noticed that his female customers were far more interested in the free perfume samples he offered than they were in his books. He made these fragrances himself to serve as “door openers” when he travelled from home to home. Second, McConnell saw women struggling to make ends meet and recognized in many of them natural salespeople who would easily relate to other women and passionately market the products his new company would first sell -- perfumes.
McConnell’s first recruit for Avon, then known as the California Perfume Company, was Mrs. P.F.E. Albee of New Hampshire. Mrs. Albee was fifty years old when she began selling perfumes for McConnell. She travelled by horse and buggy as well as by train, offering perfumes such as the inaugural single-note scents – Violet, White Rose, Heliotrope, Lily-of-the-Valley and Hyacinth – door-to-door throughout the Northeast section of the United States.
In a letter to McConnell, Mrs. Albee wrote, “I know of no line of work as lucrative, pleasant and satisfactory as this.
Not only did he provide Mrs. Albee and other early Representatives with an earnings opportunity when employment options for women were extremely limited, he fostered a supportive environment with a familial feel. (The company newsletter was even called the “Family Album.”) In one of his regular letters to Representatives, he wrote: “All success lies in one’s self and not in external conditions. … Misfortunes are only a discipline, and there are possibilities which often are awakened by them which suggest to us the power and strength we possess, that perhaps otherwise would never have been recognized.” No wonder the Representative ranks rose to 5,000 in just thirteen short years.
Just over 100 years later, Avon is a $10 billion company with over 6 million Representatives that were sharing up to $4 billion in earnings by 2010. In addition the company has raised and donated over $900 million towards philanthropic programmes related to women’s issues. But how has the “Avon Lady” changed since the very first Representative?
Today women are just as powerful a force in the boardroom as they are in the home. A lot of progress has been made in gender equality since Avon was first established. It is, sadly, still true that in many countries women do not have the same opportunities as men. In South Africa, women are certainly enjoying a smaller share of opportunities with only 47% participating in the labour force according to The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Additionally, the financial services firm PwC asserts that women earn over 28% less than their male counterparts. It is clear that there is a large percentage of unemployed women with the youth (15 – 25) most affected at 54%. Entrepreneurship then seems like the most likely solution to the problem i.e. giving women the opportunity to sign their own pay cheques and be their own bosses. Avon has for over 125 years proved to be one such opportunity. In fact in 2012 an Oxford university study concluded that independent Avon Representatives were in the top 10% of women in terms of their income and that their earnings put them in line with what the average black man earns in South Africa. The modern Representative then is not only successful but is also savvy, able to use a laptop to keep track of her business no matter where she may be in the world and ordering products using a mobile app, all while making time for her family
If you are interested in selling Avon or for more information contact Avon
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