M & A Rainmaker

Since working with Motives Cosmetics in the UK I have not one but four lady bosses – all of whom are based in the US but have visited and are coming over here shortly

They talk about there being a shortage of female bosses – there’s no shortage here though!!

Having one female boss would be a new thing for me but having four is pretty amazing !!

Also I didn’t get your average lady boss – I got 4 pretty amazing ones !!

My BIG Boss is

Loren Ridinger who you can read more about here:

http://www.lorensworld.com/

She is a marketing and social media genius. She is friends with the Kardashians and my other boss…..

La La Anthony

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_La_Anthony

These two ladies came up with the Motives and Motives for La La range of cosmetics products and they have guided the sales and marketing strategy behind the Motives brand.

Working with Loren and La La are Lisa and Joyce:

Lisa Martin connected with Market America in 2002 and has particularly made her name in the Motives cosmetics division of Market America and Market United Kingdom.

She has inspired women across the globe to take control of their lives back and make an impact. She is now a certified trainer for the Motives Division of the company teaching and training both domestically and Internationally and is proud of the fact that she is empowering women to create a lifestyle for their families that most only dream of. She has become one of the most sought after educators of the Motives Brand of cosmetics in the world and works with top celebrity make up artists across the United States and the United Kingdom. Lisa was also the recipient of the very prestigious Motives Trainer of the Year award for 2012/13.

Joyce Jenkins partnered with Market America in Feb. Of 2009. She has since gone on to become a senior Motives Consultant and a Certified Motives Trainer.

Joyce and her husband Rob have achieved many successes with their Market America Business, including TNT ( A special Market America Team ) international business builder for 2012 and 2013.

Joyce is passionate and committed about empowering women to achieve success through their Motives Cosmetic Business.

Hey – it’s a tough job but someone has to work with these lovely, talented women. !!!!!

I have recently talked to a lot of Makeup Artists ( MUAs ) and what a hard working, talented bunch of ( mainly ) ladies they are.

It’s a great job – making people look great – but it is also a very time consuming job. One MUA I know was recently up at 1.30 in the morning to drive to London to get a bride ready for her wedding then back to Birmingham to attend an event and then another private client. She didn’t finish until the evening of that day. A long day and while the pay is reasonable as a freelance MUA it is not brilliant.

Time and money are definitely connected in a strong way.

I personally feel that the objective should be for an MUA to get to the point where he or she can work with the clients that they want to – not the clients that they have to.

The way to do this is to .. Add ( Income )  and Separate ( Time from Money )..

Dealing first with ADD..

At the moment most MUAs only charge an hourly rate or a rate for their art/handiwork. Of course top MUAs can and do charge premium rates.

MUAs have a collection of product that they have assembled over time and know work. This might be in a suitcase or makeup carrier or at their salon. The client might not be aware of the products used – only the end result. If the client is inclined to buy the products that the MUA uses and recommends then it probably means a trip to the shops.

Whilst such a trip might not be an issue it might also be inconvenient and would have a cost to the client in time and money. ( Whether that matters to someone who can afford an MUA is another matter).

It could be that the easy provision of the products used to the client is actually an enhanced service.

If the client goes and buys those products from the shops then there is nothing in that for the MUA in financial terms.

If on the other hand the MUA could make say 30-50% profit on the products sold then this will have added to the income from any particular client appointment. In fact the product profit might be more than the hourly or set rate.

The MUA would need to have the product on hand in order to sell it or have some sort of online shop ( <<<Link here ) where the client can go. Having the product on hand is ok if you have a salon ( although stock is an overhead ) but means that you have to carry it around if you are mobile.

An online shop ( <<< Link ) is definitely preferable especially if it has rapid delivery times ( eg 24-48 hour delivery ).

Talking to MUAs recently I noted that many of them gave the client a summary of what they had done for them during that appointment and what products they used and also kept a record for themselves.

I took this idea and developed the idea of the Online Beauty Prescription ( <<< Link – thanks to a friend who is a Beauty Blogger for that description ) which is a blog post that can be written up afterwards and can be anonymous or name the client and will direct them straight to the place in the online shop where they can buy these products. ( Posting a blog actually has many potential benefits to the MUAs online marketing but I will not go into that now ).

Now, at the time that the client purchases these products the MUA may well be working with another client i.e. the MUA has begun to separate time from money or multiply the effect of that time.

We can imagine the client coming back again and again and the only time that the MUA will be aware of this is when they get an email saying ” You have another order placed from ( whoever ) , Value £x “.

Here’s another great thing about this.. If you have not already got the clients email address you will have when they register and buy from your shop.

That email address can be used to communicate with the client on an ongoing basis. The MUA can email them ” special deals ” or ” new products or services “. Such communication can be automated in an appropriate and tailored manner.

Once you have your own shop you will obviously be able to buy certain products at a ” Wholesale ” price yourself. With some companies ( e.g. Motives and Shop.com ) you can buy more than just beauty and cosmetics products at wholesale prices, You could for example buy multivitamins and isotonic products. Such purchases represent a clear saving to you on products that you are already going to buy. This is the online equivalent of having a Costco or Makro account in the UK.

Lets add another dimension to this.. Some of the MUAs friends, business contacts and work colleagues e.g. Hairdressers, Nail Technicians, Manicurists, Masseurs also recommend products off of the MUAs’ online site that are relevant to them. Again these sales come in without any direct effort from the MUA and they come in alongside the MUAs other work.

One or two of the MUAs friends decide that they would also like to have their own online shop and the MUA helps them set that up and guides them on it’s use. The MUA and the friend both get commission on the sales.

Time goes on and more and more friends are selling products off of the websites or have their own websites. The result is a substantial income for many of them that is independent of the number of hours that they put in and which allows them to select which clients they actually want to spend their time with.

Take a look at this video:

Which is about a product range that originated in the U.S. ( in 2010 ) and was conceived by Loren Ridinger and enhanced by LaLa Anthony ( if you are fans of The Kardashians then you may of heard of them ).

This is a high quality, affordable cosmetics and beauty product range which is endorsed by many Celebrity MUAs globally. ( <<< Link )  It is being sold direct via MUAs, Salon and Spa owners and other beauty related professionals. The reason that you can have high quality product at mid range pricing and give high commissions to resellers is that NO money is being spent on advertising or corporate fatcats – the profit goes to the people that deserve it – the MUAs and their business partners. There is a sophisticated 24 -72 hour global delivery system to support sales from the Online sites though.

The Motives business system is a turnkey system that accomplishes EXACTLY what I have said above. Retail profit is added to time for money ( the appointment itself )  and in addition there is profit sharing for group sales.

N.B. We have built a financial model spreadsheet ( mini business plan ) to support this blog. See what happens when you add this to your normal MUA income !!!!

Contact me @cwindley, skype chris.windley email chris.windley@gmail.com  or phone 07881 500002 to discuss this opportunity in greater detail.

I really had not thought about it much until a beauty blogger friend of mine put pictures on facebook of how her cosmetics had arrived recently.

This box arrived with this product wrapped up in all this packaging….

To replace this bottle that had been delivered earlier.

and I just thought … after carefully selecting the cosmetics product that you wanted from a catalogue or online you would actually be waiting in anticipation of that product arriving at your doorstep. We all know that logistics/delivery companies can be a nightmare and – aside from selecting the ones that you use carefully and monitoring the service that they provide – as a manufacturer or retailer/etailer you don’t have that much control of them.

There are things that you can control though e.g. the time you take to deliver products ( Motives ships in 24 hours typically and arrives within 2-3 days ) AND the quality of the packaging and what you put in the box’s to protect the product.

That’s when it hit me that I had been taking the deliveries, that regularly arrive home from Motives and Shop.com, a little too much for granted.

They all come in nice box’s like this ( I have already had this one open and the product out ) ….

which are padded with brown paper like this…..

and the products themselves are wrapped in bubble wrap …

and when you open them the actual product casings are very high quality and you get an itemised list of the products that you ordered together with a couple of brochures on other products from Shop.com that you might be interested in.

To achieve this actually takes a lot of planning and care and I think it really is a reflection of the planning and care that goes into everything that Motives and Shop.com do.

Of course there is a lot of experience behind this with Motives’ parent company Market America having shipped product like this in America and globally for 20 years.

For more information about Motives and Shop.com connect on twitter @cwindley , skype me on chris.windley or call me on +447881 500002

UK Makeup Artists, Spas and Beauty Salons have celebrity endorsements to ensure confidence in using Motives products

It is really important to have assurance from professionals both here and in the USA that Motives products are both high quality and affordable

The Motives Cosmetics and Skincare range is very high quality but affordable product. Advertising and Corporate Overhead costs have been avoided in favour of direct, global sales and word of mouth marketing ( word of mouth marketing includes electronic word of mouth marketing  like this blog ).

Editorial copy has been obtained in many well known beauty and fashion magazines purely because the writers have tested and loved the products so much that they decided to write ( blog and Instagram ) about them and then these same products have won ” Best in Category ” to add yet more evidence to the story of quality at a reasonable price.

Clearly some people will know Loren Ridinger and LaLa Anthony – the founders of the Motives Cosmetics range – especially those who are watching, for example, Keeping up with the Kardashians, where Kim and Khloe are often to be found using and wearing Motives and other Shop.com products.

As I talk with professional Makeup Artists one of the things that they are impressed with – aside from the quality of the products that they are testing – is the use of the Motives range by celebrity makeup artists like Claudia Betancur..

http://claudiabetancur.com/ ( who counts Loren among her clients )

and

Scott Barnes

Watch this video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsABrs7ysf0

Go to Scott’s website here:

http://www.scottbarnes.com/

in the US and

Kristina Theodoris in the UK…

Her website here..

http://www.kristinatheodoris.com/

and see my previous blog on Kristina doing Stooshe’s Alex Bugg’s makeup.

here

http://mandarainmaker.co.uk/2013/10/14/stooshe-alex-buggs-in-a-motives-make-up-tutorial/

These makeup artists have very famous clients of course.

Not only can professional makeup artists in the UK be confident about the products but so too can amateur makeup artists, spa owners and ladies who just want to use the best.

We will be announcing other Celebrity Makeup Artists who endorse Motives makeup in the US, UK and other countries soon.

Here’s just a few Celebs that love Motives ..

Celebrities That
Love Motives:

Paulina Rubio
Marisol Nichols
Jennifer Lopez
Eva Longoria Parker
Kimora Lee Simmons
Alicia Keys
Leah Remini
Stephanie Jacobsen

Contact me on +447881 500002, @cwindley or chris.windley on skype to discuss how you can get to use these amazing products.

The UK Launch of Motives with celebrity guests is HERE 

Dark Beauty ( you know who you are ) , thanks for letting me enhance your beauty by using selected Motives products.

Let’s discuss the products that we used in this session and let you know where you can buy them again:

First we used Motives Perfecting Face Primer which we love because:

What Makes Motives Perfecting Face Primer Unique is ?

Motives Perfecting Face Primer helps to create a youthful canvas for makeup application. This oil-free foundation primer helps your cosmetic application maintain high-colour pigments with all day staying power. Obtain a flawless and more youthful appearance.

Directions for use: Shake the Perfecting Face Primer well and blend into skin thoroughly during application. 

If you feel any beads upon application, these are natural silicone beads in the formula and with the proper application, blend into the skin without issue. 

You can get more of this product ( click )  HERE :

We also used the Motives Gel Eyeliner which has these primary benefits:

Primary Benefits of Motives Gel Eyeliner:

• Delivers a luxurious, silky smooth application with a simple swipe of the brush
• Natural mineral pigments balance and maintain healthy skin, while providing long wear
• Offering a variety of colours with a pearlised finish and rich application that are talc free, paraben free and fragrance free

That Fantasy Eye Shadow looked so great on you !!

and the Primary Benefits of Motives Pressed Eye Shadow are:

• Impeccable colour retention that does not run or crease so you always look your best
• Even, smooth and silky application for a glamorous glow
• Deflects the light away from fine lines, skin imperfections and hyper-pigmentation, creating a flawless look
• Mix and match to create a soft, natural or dramatic look
• Paraben, fragrance and oil free

get some more of that HERE 

and finally we used the Motives no more shine setting Spray ( CNN’s one of the TOP TEN THINGS TO HAVE IN YOUR HANDBAG !! ). get this HERE 

What Makes Motives No More Shine Makeup Setting Spray Unique?

Say goodbye to shine with Motives revolutionary No More Shine Makeup Setting Spray. This innovative, weightless mist contains an oil control system that absorbs excess oil and controls surface shine, so anyone with oily skin can now have perfect-looking makeup for hours on end. By cooling down your makeup surface, it stops it from sliding and meltdown without excessive drying so you get a matte look for up to 16 hours. Works great with 10 Years Younger Setting Spray.

I look forward to our next session together XoXoXoX

Building business value is one way, building recurring income streams another. Using digital sales and marketing to automate income is also key

School 

When are we first taught that to get money we have to put time in ?? Maybe in school where they give you maths questions like ” If Joe got paid £4 per hour for 10 Hours work and Jane got paid £3 per hour for 12 Hours work how much did they get in total”.

Early Work

Maybe it was when I worked at the Spar supermarket for whatever it was per hour and I knew that the more hours I worked the more I got paid.

Later Work

That equation got a bit altered when I joined the Navy – we never really thought much about how much we got paid and we also didn’t think much about how many hours we put in. We just did what had to be done and we got paid what we got paid. In the end one of the reasons why I left the Navy was because  I realised that although I was always going to be ok – actually, well off – as a middle to high ranking officer I was never going to be a millionaire !!

After the Navy I went into High Tech. sales. Salespeople don’t get paid by the hour – aside of a basic salary they get paid on results. Obviously you have to put time in to meet your targets and get your commissions but there are the beginnings of a disconnect between time and money.

Of course we all also become aware that you can get paid more money for time depending on what you do – doctors earn more than supermarket workers and military people. People that work in the City get paid telephone number salaries that are largely related to the profits that their firms make. Of course doctors and City types work long hours and it is very demanding work.

Your Own Business

We started LanSwitch ( a computer networking company )   in the early 90′s with £2000 ( £6000 total )  on each of our credit cards and we sold it for £65 Million !!! We only paid ourselves a modest salary for the 7 years that we had LanSwitch ( became Voyager Networks and Internet ) but if you divide £65 Million by 7 I guess that is a pretty good annual/monthly/weekly/daily salary !!

It was probably after the sale of Voyager ( to Ronald S. Lauder Communications ) that the concept of the P.I.G. ( Passive Income Generator ) became clearer to me and it became so from the voice side of the telecommunications business.

Part of Voyager’s value was it’s pretty secure, recurring income stream. ( From e.g. Maintenance, Line and call revenue ). However when we started attending the Board Meetings of RSL Communications we learnt about the income that their voice resellers were earning from fixed line and mobile rental and calls. The way this works is that once you sign up a customer as a reseller of a telecommunications companies services ( eg BT or some other Telco ) then you get a small but recurring revenue as commission from those customers for as long as you keep them as customers. As a reseller you don’t have to go and build a telecommunications infrastructure – the Telco already did that. So you don’t have a massive capital outlay but you get an income which, aside from your time and effort involved in getting the sale, is all profit.

Let me just go back to the £6000 becoming £65 Million. This is, in some ways,  fairly common. Early investors in e.g. Google, Apple, Cisco, Facebook and Twitter all ” leveraged ” their investment so that e.g. a $10,000 investment became worth a $Million or even more. To achieve it you must have ” risked ” some money by investing in a company whose value might grow from nothing to something considerable. Everyone who starts their own business probably hopes that one day it might be worth a lot of money. Of course not everyone succeeds in this.

Certainly there was a lot of time that went into this – along with skill, knowledge and innovation. However the value created is not directly related to time. Although over the years I have found that typically it takes around 7 years from starting something to it becoming valuable and I have tested this with other investors and looked at a variety of companies to check its validity.

The telecommunications resellers also put a lot of time ( effort, skill etc etc ) into getting their customers as well. However once they got them they could go lie on a beach, sleep, race cars or whatever and the money kept rolling in.

Many of these resellers have ” sold their book ” to other, usually larger, resellers and Telco’s but you can bet that they never forgot about the PIG’s that they built and which they finally sold for some number times the revenue or profit that they made.

Of course these PIG’s were pre-Internet to some extent. ( Actually the same basic model still exists today and I have friends and business colleagues that still operate it ). I suppose I mean that the money comes in in a traditional way – you send out a bill and it get’s paid. It is not money from an ” Internet ” business although it may be money from the ( telecommunications ) infrastructure of many businesses.

Let us think about other PIG’s …… People write songs and the royalties from those songs come in forever no matter what. Authors write books and the royalties from those also come in forever. ( Think Harry Potter !! ). People invent things and the licence fees last forever. How did the richest people in the world make their money ?? There’s an overview HERE . Typically they built High Tech. businesses; they invested in property; they provided products or services to millions of people.

Even small amounts of money from millions of people are millions of dollars, pounds or whatever.

Some Internet Marketing companies and specialists ( sometimes called Online Marketing or Digital Marketing ) know how to get many people to purchase products and/or information online.  Companies like the Six Figure Mentors ( also called the Digital Experts Academy and PRO U in the USA ) automate the process of acquisition of products from being found or discovered on the Internet to placing an order with eg a credit card. They know that the best formula is to get small amounts of money from lots of people ( say $20 for an entry fee ), slightly larger amounts from fewer people ( eg a monthly $100 membership fee ) and then larger amounts from a few ( eg $2-20,000 for Internet Marketing Training ).

Other companies like Market America / Market United Kingdom combine income from online portals – with huge arrays of products at different prices ( e.g. Motives and Shop.com online shops ) – with multiple membership and training fees. This combines automated  online purchasing with physical recurring income from many people.