“Scentsy is an international leader in home and personal fragrance, offering stylish, innovative and customizable products designed to Warm the Heart, Enliven the Senses and Inspire the Soul.”
When I first read that line from the “About Scentsy” section, I just had to sigh. What a beautiful collection of words! It makes you feel like the company really has you and your well-being in mind when they put it together. And, maybe because I’m a sucker for fragrances and scented stuff, I’m just emotionally rooting for them unconsciously. I am a big fan of ‘Aromatherapy’…
So as you might have guessed this post is about a company that puts smells to things and makes them all the more wonderful.
Scentsy Review – Can You Smell the Money Making Opportunity?
Company: Scentsy
Owner: Orville and Heidi Thompson
Scentsy – The Company
“Scentsy is family.” This is the first phrase that is spoken on their current About Us page video. And since 2004, Orville and Heidi Thompson have been able to grow their family business into an international fragrance company. Most sales happen through direct sellers that the company refers to as consultants. And, from the looks of things, most consultants really feel like family to Heidi and Orville—even though they are independent contractors.
Their business philosophy comes from an Albert Einstein quote CEO and Co-Owner Orville Thompson is said to have had posted on his bedroom wall as a young man— “Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value. A successful man takes out of life more than he puts in. A man of value will give more than he receives.” The company has been built on three core values that have helped them reach the successful heights they are now enjoying: Simplicity, Authenticity, and Generosity.
The Scentsy Products
Though the primary products of Scentsy are warmers and scented wax, they have a variety of other products that consultants can offer their clients. Products are organized into several categories based on price, usage, and type. This seems like it would be handy if you were a consultant trying to find products for your customers. When you first visit the site, you see three price groupings:
$15 and Under: You’ll mostly find single gift items in this grouping. A single Scentsy (scented) car bar. a holiday gift bar box or an ornament for the Christmas tree. Prices ranging from $6 up to $15.
$25 and under: This grouping picks up from where the first dropped off. It consists of more creative gifts, more packaged groupings (like 6 scented bars instead of just the one), and fragranced personal items like hand creams and lotions. Most of these items range from $18 to $25.
$60 and under: In this grouping, you will find the decorative warmers and a few more collections of personal items like the Fine Fragrance Roller Collection. These seem to be more of the kinds of items people would buy as a gift for other people. The prices here range from $28 up.
The actual types of products are:
- scents
- home
- kids
- cleaning
- laundry
- skin care
- grooming
Along with those their scents come in bars, Natural and Essential oils, room sprays, circles, sent paks and travel tins. They have a variety of diffusers to choose from and fragrances come in Citrus, Floral, Fruity, Bakery, Green, Woody Spicy and Fresh.
How Can You Make Money with Scentsy?
As a consultant, you’ll basically be paid by commission. The buy-in is $99. I won’t put qualifiers on it because some people would say “only $99!” …while others would say “wow, $99?” So, I’ll let you decide how you want to react to that.
Referring back to the commission, the same holds true. They start out at 20%. It gets more complex as you start looking at how to make more in the compensation plan.
The company, in my opinion, is another version of the multi-level marketing model, so you’ll have to do extra to make actual money from it.
Can’t say that I find the compensation plan straight forward. Fulfill this fulfill that and get this or that in bonus…
What are Scentsy Consultants Saying Themselves?
Here are a few screenshots from 3rd party websites.
These are from indeed.com
These are from pissed consumer:
As you can see people have mixed feelings about Scentsy.
Let’s look at the numbers, their own income report statement doesn’t lie.
You have to consider the cost involved as well. If you as a certified consultant make an average annual commission of $463 how much did you spend to get there?
I must say that these numbers do not impress.
I can see people loving their products, but I would think long about approaching it as a business opportunity.
Final Thoughts, Is Scentsy Worth It?
I have mixed feelings about the company. As I said, in the beginning, I like Aroma Therapy. And in essence, this company promotes that through its various scents, products and gift offerings. It seems like it would be a great way to make money running your own business.
You’d walk up to someone and with a smile say, “Hey, …smell this!” LOL… or something to that effect. But, eventually, you would get their attention and make your presentation. There would be no real pressure you would have to put on people to buy; they have a wide range of pricing– so everyone could have an opportunity to purchase something, and there is a great potential for repeat sales! That is a win-win-win situation.
However there are a few snags you, as a consultant, would have to work hard at if you wanted to ensure you made money, and even then it seems hard… You would need to work at building a report with your potential customer. Ensuring that you were the person they would order through. In building that relationship, you would have to make sure that you placed timely orders and delivered those orders so that the customer remained satisfied and become a repeat customer.
You would also need to help them see the vision and benefit of buying Scentsy products for different occasions and not just go down to a local Wal-Mart or Target to get a similar item. That requires you to be involved enough with them to know when they had upcoming events they’d need to buy a gift for.
Personally, I would have to think hard about always having to build a team. I’d much rather have my commissions increase on the amount of volume and sales I made. Having to remain at 20% –unless me and my team did well is not for me.
Now What?
If you love the products you can always stay a customer. If you truly see a business opportunity with Scentsy I wish you the best of luck! I suggest you read this one article before signing up as a consultant:
It’s always best to be prepared.
If you’ve decided that Scentsy isn’t for you, let me give you another suggestion, affiliate marketing.
With affiliate marketing, you promote products online and make a commission. No need to ask family and friends for purchases orders. You can work with any kind of topic or product that you enjoy.
This is how it works.
- You set up a website on a topic you enjoy, say a website about fragrance and scents (super easy with today’s technology)
- You write helpful content that will add value to your visitors
- Then you can promote scent and fragrance products from Amazon for example.
- Every time somebody clicks on your affiliate link and purchase something you will get a commission.
Does it sound interesting?
Read more about how to get started here!
No matter what route you take I wish you good luck!
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