Beauty Blog: Dress for Success . . .

Dress for Success

Whether you are a CEO of a large company or you are a janitor in the local elementary school, you are expected to wear a "uniform". That "uniform" could be a suit and tie or it could be jeans and a shirt with your name embroidered on it. No matter what your "uniform" is, you will make an impression on anyone that you meet while wearing it. In business, it is all about "first impressions" and the way you dress is how you will be perceived by others at first glance before you even open your mouth.

My son was about 14-15 when he was hanging around a bunch of kids that were into skateboarding. This was back when the skateboarding was in it's infancy and the kids liked to wear those big baggy pants . . . the wider the bottom of the legs were the better . . . and the T-shirts with all the crazy "wording" or "printing" on them. I know, I know . . . there are still some kids out there that dress that way. Anyway, he and his friends were at the mall one day, walked into one of the stores and started to get some weird looks by, not only the clerks of the store, but the patrons of that store too. When he came home, he was all upset about how they were looking at him. He said,

"Mom, they looked at us like we were going to steal something. And, they kept watching us while we were in the store!"

I explained to him that the way we dress gives people a "first impression" of us. If someone is dressed like a person who is more likely to steal something, then that is what they are going to think about them. Even if it isn't true. If you don't want to be judged as a thief, then you may need to change the way you dress. It was shortly after that when he gave up the baggy pants and printed T-shirts for dress slacks and dress shirts. I was never so glad to give away clothes as I was back then. So you see it is true . . . not only should you "Dress for Success" but how you dress will send a "First Impression".

Now, you are probably saying to yourself "I'm just an Avon Representative! Why do I need to wear a suit?" You don't! However, how you dress will depend on how far you are wanting to take your business. For example, if you just want to sell Avon to customers, you could get away with a nice pair of jeans and a nice top or sweater. However, if you are wanting to get into leadership and make a real career out of your Avon business, then you might want to wear a pair of nice slacks, a top and maybe a jacket.

No matter which direction you wish to go in your Avon business, you should dress in something other than a pair of sweat pants and a T-shirt, your hair should be clean and styled, you should have some make-up on (perferably the products that you sell) and maybe some nice jewelry (again, something that you sell). You will be coming into contact with various types of people who are in various income brackets. So you want to be somewhere in the middle of the road as far as dressing goes. You don't want to look like you are "panhandling for money". You want them to feel comfortable buying their beauty products from someone who cares about how they look.