Entrepreneur celebrates building up a £5.5 million business as an Avon lady

A WOMAN who left school with no qualifications is celebrating building up a £5.5million business as an Avon lady.

Gail Reynolds, 39, has built up the Weymouth-based business in the past seven-and-a-half years, first by selling cosmetics and then recruiting representatives.

Since inspiring her husband Brian to join six years ago, the pair have built up a team of 2,500 representatives with projected sales of £5.5million for the current financial year, while their own forecast annual income to April, 2011 is £150,000.

Mrs Reynolds, who lives at Lodmoor, Weymouth, said: “I left school with no qualifications and worked on a fruit and veg stall for about a year.

“I was a single parent at 19 and then worked part-time as a bookkeeper.

“I never in a million years thought I’d be earning this much money.”

Mrs Reynolds, who met her husband 10 years ago and had two more children, became an Avon lady after moving to Weymouth from Hastings in the hope of meeting new people.

With no sales experience, she was amazed with her success and within a couple of months became a sales leader ‘where the real money is’ and then earned enough to give up her job.

The entrepreneur recruited her husband when she became the main breadwinner and the pair recently earned a record £35,894.67 in nine weeks.

Mrs Reynolds said: “Year to date we have clocked up £127,493.24 in earnings from our Avon business, it’s been a roller-coaster of a ride to say the least.

“I used to earn £5.50 an hour, now we earn £800 a day – which equates to £50 an hour each.

“Eight years of hard work and true dedication has been the key to this kind of success.

“Brian joined my Avon business six years ago and he’s become the backbone of the business.

“We recruit 10 to 15 people a week, train, coach, develop, incentive, motivate, and help build businesses for anyone that has personal commitment to build a future with Avon.”

Perks of the job have included all-expenses-paid holidays, a new Mercedes, afternoon tea with actress Reese Witherspoon and a meeting with Avon chief executive officer Andrea Jung.

The family returned to the resort four years ago after saving enough to buy their first home and now they are set on buying a £1m house in Bowleaze Coveway within five years.

Mrs Reynolds, whose 20-year-old son Ashleigh is also a representative, added: “Not a lot of people realise the opportunity Avon offers, it’s not just £50 pocket money, if you want to build up a business, work around the family and have a new career it’s an easy concept.”

Find out about working for Avon visit http://www.gailsreps.co.uk

or call 0800 63456 12.