The company finally opened The products were manufactured by a Dallas company and sold through a network of salespeople, who were called "beauty consultants" and were required to purchase an initial "Beauty Showcase" kit. The beauty consultants were trained in scheduling and conducting parties, or "skin care classes," in private homes.

Beauty consultants purchased the company products at 50 percent below retail and resold them. They also received commissions for sales of salespeople they recruited.

The company tried to differentiate itself from companies that used illegal pyramiding. Unlike pyramid operations, the company sold its products to all of its consultants for the same 50 percent discount. It also took recruiter bonuses out of company earnings, not out of each sales recruit's earnings.

Contrarian business strategy

The company also developed specific guidelines for its salespeople. Emphasis at home parties was on teaching, rather than selling, and the number of guests was held to no more than six. Delivery and payment on the spot were required, and beauty consultants could not purchase from the company on credit. The company also limited its product line so that salespeople would be knowledgeable about each product.

Unlike many companies, this company did not limit sales territories. Beauty consultants could recruit other consultants from anywhere in the world.

You must be thinking the company must have gone under very unlike todays competitive and cut throat world but…..

The company initiated an incentive program that included the use of a pink Cadillac. This famous prize was established in 1967 when a pink Cadillac was awarded to the top sales director. The year after that, five Cadillacs were awarded and the next year, ten.

By 1970, the company was awarding 20 Cadillacs. Later, rather than awarding them on a top-seller basis, they were awarded to any sales director reaching a preset sales level. By 1993, 6,500 consultants were driving pink Cadillacs or other complimentary cars.

Annual conventions were held to recognize achievement, a practice that quickly became an important public relations event. Among other programs, the conventions featured workshops for husbands of company consultants on how to be supportive of their wives' careers.

In the first full year of operation, sales totaled $198,514 and the company had 318 consultants. Soon, more office space was needed and Mary Kay moved to a three-office headquarters with a training room and warehouse space, for a total of 5,000 square feet. Within two years, it had about 850 beauty consultants selling its beauty products.

So how would you have gone for expansion after initial success