Avon is calling and Avon is educating

What are you doing about education?

Avon announced the creation of its first in-house content studio. The studio, which is meant to better educate the company’s nearly 6 million representatives across the globe, went live in March.

Avon sees the content studio as a way to further emphasize the company’s “Open Up Avon” strategy. “The transformation of our company begins with the millions of our voluntary entrepreneurs” said James Thompson, Avon Products’ chief beauty and brand officer.

“We want to be learning from our entrepreneurs as much as we are training and educating them. Why not help them further their platforms?”

“Two of our three challenges are relevance and service, so by becoming a high-tech, high-touch business, we will have a constant feedback loop for representatives to do their jobs better,” said Thompson. “That’s the only way to be more consumer-friendly and for our business to grow.”

Avon reported the size of the active representative workforce declined by 6% last year. The company also reported two years of sales decline; 14% alone in the last quarter as well as a net loss on the bottom line.

Having been the fourth generation of our family to have owned the business, I read the article about Avon with great interest. While from a distance I would see plenty of differences between the individual with an Avon business and the individual with a business like yours and mine, we are all small business owners.

The observation of differences would note that your business would be much more complicated; employees, building, many more SKUs and inventory depth, insurances, financial statements, a lease or mortgage, and much more money invested in the business.

Avon as a company did $1.3 billion in sales last year, sold by their 6 million representatives. Using these two numbers, the average representative would have sold only $217 worth of product last year. Yet the announcement says they are developing this educational program to help all 6 million become better business owners.

While we share the summary of this news article, we think it should give cause to ask questions about ourselves. If Avon would make that much of an investment to help one of their business owners, perhaps they are on to something about learning how to be a better business owner.

Obviously, you are working with numbers that are much more sizable. You, your family, your employees and their families depend on your business. With this much on the line, we should all be looking at the investment we are making in ourselves as owners and managers of our business.

A friend who owns over 160 locations with his business says his lead question is to ask what is the last business book an individual read. He does not ask for a review of the book but states it is an indicator of a person investing in themselves.

Another appropriate question is to ask what was the last business management seminar you participated in whether in person or online.
We can suggest taking a personal summary of your management and ownership skills. You can create multiple categories to rate yourself. Start with your level of financial understanding and the ability to communicate with your accountant.

Look at your skills in business strategy; do you have a written business plan? If so, when was the last time it was updated?
While many state they have repeat and referral customers, do you have a marketing plan or is your business on auto-pilot?

Have you developed an education program for all your employees or is it just an occasional pep talk or lecture they receive?

Are you looking for new opportunities for your business or waiting for the finish line of retirement?

These would be some good starter points for a self examination to which you can add more to the list. Score yourself as you are likely your own toughest critic.

And with your score you will know just how much of an investment you should be making in yourself. One key component; education should be ongoing for as long as you want your business to be ongoing.

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