Having been involved in two of the most well known and established work from home opportunities I am often asked how they compare to one another.  Direct sales companies all work on the same concept but each have their own unique structures and product lines.

My first experience of working from home was with Kleeneze, a long established direct sales company.  I sold products by posting catalogues through people’s doors directly.  After leaving Kleeneze I recently joined Avon, another well known and established direct selling company.  I also use the same catalogues through doors technique to sell Avon’s products.

The main difference, and the most obvious, between Avon and Kleeneze is the fact that Avon has territories.  You can only give catalogues to friends, colleagues and family and anyone in your territory (around 100 to 200 houses).  With Kleeneze you can drop your catalogues anywhere you like, regardless of other distributors.  Avon’s territory rule does restrict your income massively.

In my opinion Avon’s products are easier to sell and better quality than Kleeneze products although I had no difficulty in selling either product.  I do generate the same amount of sales from Avon as I did from Kleeneze with a much smaller customer base though.  Avon’s products are more competitively priced too.

Avon feels more like a job than a business opportunity if you stick to the selling side of it and don’t recruit a team.  Avon employ area sales managers who have targets to hit and they will call you to make sure you have placed an order in time and if you have a team you will be responsible for making sure they place their orders.  There is a new catalogue every 3 weeks so you do earn commission every 3 weeks instead of every 4 like Kleeneze.   With Kleeneze it is up to you if you place an order or not and you may get some “encouragement” from your sponsor (the person who recruited you) but you wont have to answer to anyone.  With Avon you have to let your area sales manager know if you are not ordering on time and why.  Just like having a boss! 

Kleeneze do pay higher commission levels on larger orders than Avon do.  The maximum commission you will receive on a personal Avon order is 25%.  Kleeneze pay up to 37% commission depending on your sales value.

If you decide to team build and grow a business I think Kleeneze definitely have a better model in place for this.  You can recruit anywhere in the country with Kleeneze and with modern technology you don’t have to meet this team member face to face.  Avon requires you to make at least 2 visits to new team members which restrict you to the distance you are prepared to travel.

Avon’s order management system can take a bit of time to get your head around too and you have to keep track of all your team members and chase them to place their orders in time.  With Kleeneze you train your team members using video, online training, group meetings, telephone, face to face or any way that works.  That team member is then in charge of their own business and can use you as support when needed.  If you don’t place an order you don’t make money.  We are taught to work with the people that work for themselves and anyone not bothering is not worth our time.

 My Summary to Avon versus Kleeneze would be this…

Avon has easy to sell and well priced products.  It is a good opportunity to make a little extra cash every 3 weeks but the amount you can make is restricted to the amount of people you know and how many orders you can generate from your territory.  Avon’s catalogues are small and easy to manage and carry about.  If you want to make a career from Avon and more money you will have to recruit a team, however this is also restricted as to how far you are willing to travel.  The “no money up front” and low start up costs of Avon make it easy to recruit new team members.

Kleeneze products sell and the commission levels are very competitive.  It’s an excellent opportunity to earn an unlimited income from selling products.  There are no restrictions, this really is a business and I believe the no territory rule produces healthy competition that all business’ face.  It truly gave me business building skills and taught me to “think outside the box” in order to rival my competitors.  The catalogues are large and bulky and I did find I needed a car to really get the maximum catalogues out there in a short period of time.  Building a team for Kleeneze is also non restricting and highly rewarding.  However I would say that it is harder to recruit into Kleeneze as the start up costs are fairly high in comparison.

My Conclusion…

Avon is behind with the times in my opinion.  This is definitely more of a job than a business.  If the restrictions were lifted this would be an excellent business.  The fact is Avon’s products, prices and catalogues are excellent and very sellable.  Whilst many have made a great income from Avon I think if you are in business then competitors create a healthy drive and allow growth and personal satisfaction.  Personally I feel restricted and my need to strive and build is heavily repressed by Avon’s restrictions.  Avon will suit those that are not so confident and want to earn an extra income but I feel Avon would have a lot more big earners if it allowed it’s entrepreneurs to grow a business without restrictions and with healthy competition.

Kleeneze’s lack of restrictions and business model are not without flaws but in comparison they are far superior in my opinion.  There products and catalogues are not as good as Avon’s in my opinion but they do sell so you can’t argue with that!  Kleeneze do charge quite high prices for their catalogues but you only need to buy them every 6 months compared to every 3 weeks with Avon.

My personal conclusion would be that if Avon’s products and catalogues were combined with Kleeneze’s business model, I would have the perfect business in which to thrive.  However I would say Avon is well suited to someone who doesn’t mind following the rules wants to build a business and is capable of doing this with restrictions.  Kleeneze is for someone who wishes to think for themselves and has the drive to go get what they want no matter what! 

There are success stories for both opportunities but I guess for me personally I have just never been any good at being told what I can and cant do!