Mary Kay Ash Essay

Mary Kay Ash A woman whom we all know as being the entrepreneur that started the highly profitable business, Mary Kay Inc., was much more than just the pretty face that stood as a representation of the company. Ash was even more than a mascot, but rather, the entire mind behind the Mary Kay Inc. Starting out as Mary Kathryn Wagner, born on May 12th, 1918 in Hot Wells, Texas, Ash started her legacy. In 1939, Ash became a saleswoman for Stanley Home products, where she hosted parties and encouraged people to buy household items. She was so good at this that she was hired right away by another company, World Gifts, in 1952. She spent over 10 years in this company until she quit over the fact that yet another man that she trained
had gotten promoted above her. At age 45, Ash created her own business. In 1963, the initial investment put into her company was $5,000 dollars. That’s about $38,000 dollars to us in 2015. Her first purchase was a formula for lotion from the family of a tanner who used it to work on hides. She opened a small store in Dallas with her son, Richard Rogers, where she had nine salespeople working under her. The difference between that and today is that Ash now has 1.6 billion salespeople around the world. The first two years, the company sold close to $1 million dollars in products.
Her cosmetics were sold through events like household parties but she strived to make her company different. She did this by providing incentives and removing sales territories for the salesman. She always followed the golden rule; to “treat others as you want to be treated” and operated by the motto “God first, family second, and career third”. She called her sales representatives consultants. These are the people that bought Ash’s products as a wholesale and allowed them to sell the products and retail prices to their customers. They were also allowed commission from new consultants that they recruited. Ash’s marketing and people skills were the reason that Mary Kay Cosmetics produced a great deal of profit. In 1968, the company went public. Even after the stock market price took a hit, the company remained successful and now the annual sales exceed $2.2 billion. The heart of the organization was Ash’s enthusiasm. She was well known for her love of pink and that her products could be found anywhere. She even gave Cadillacs away to the top consultants of her products each year, because she valued them. So much to the point that she once said: “People are a company's greatest
asset”. Ash was an extremely admirable figure and a very successful businesswoman from the start. I feel that most everyone would come to agree that she is a lot more than meets the eye. She completely broke down the gender stereotypical barrier and proved that a woman can run a strongly successful company, with the help of amazing employees and a positive attitude.