Have you ever looked at someone and think to yourself, damn they're very stylish or fashionable. Some people just have a knack for putting the right outfits, shoes and accessories together. But then you have the flip side which are folks that are slaves to fashions.
I probably fall somewhere in the middle. You won't catch me rocking anything that a Kanye West or some of these NBA basketball players pass off as fashion (i.e. leather man skirts, painted on Jeans that cut off your junk's circulation, “mandals”, etc.) But I do like looking nice and have served as my wife's stylist from time to time. Don't judge me. LOL
So what does this have to do with anything? Well for those of you that have always wanted to get into Fashion or just have an eye for putting things together for yourself or others, you may be interested in my Stella and Dot Review. This company may turn your Fashion sense into some real “cents” and hopefully a lot more!
What is Stella & Dot?
Stella and Dot is a boutique fashion jewelry and accessories company that was started back in 2003. The company and website were founded by Jessica Herrin. Stella and Dot is based in San Francisco. Most of the jewelry was created by New York designers.You can find many of their products on celebrities, in fashion magazines and they have received a lot of positive press over the years.
The Stella and Dot Business Opportunity
Stella & Dot is a direct sales and multi level marketing company that you can earn commissions by selling their stylish jewelry and accessories. Reps for the company are known as a Stella and Dot Stylist. When you host a home party they are known as “Trunk Shows“. You can also earn money by recruiting other Stella & Dot Stylists.
You can sign up as a stylist for $199 but there are other options.
Stella and dot is one of those work at home opportunities that will require some extra time and effort. If you want to start earning immediately then it might not be what you are looking for. To start making money today, you may want to try websites like Inboxdollars.com, Fusioncash.net, Surveyjunkie.com or Swagbucks.com since they allow you to make money for things you already do online like watching videos, answering polls and more.
Stella & Dot Compensation Plan
Stella & Dot pay their stylist every week via a debit card. You can make up to 35% commission every week based on your personal sales. Or you can build a team & can earn up to 18% on your team's sales. Either way you have options.
Stella and Dot Complaints & Bad Reviews
If you've read my blog long enough, you know I'm always going to dig out the cons that any home based business opportunity may have. Please understand it doesn't mean that a company is a scam or bad because they have some complaints. Like human beings you're always going to have the good and bad. Unfortunately most of the Stella and Dot Reviews you'll find will only paint one side because they want to sign you up. That's fine, you can easily find those reviews. But before you do sign up I want you to have the complete picture. So I'll let you know the flip side as well so you can make an informed decision by balancing out the good and bad. Many reps dislike this but that's tough cookies for them. I don't want you going into any opportunity blind sided when you discover these complaints later on your own. So let's dive into them.
Poor BBB Rating
Personally I can give a damn about a Better Business Bureau rating. I know from my years of experience that having a positive or poor BBB rating can actually mean nothing. I discuss this in more detail here. But some of you live and die by the word of the BBB. If that's you, then you won't appreciate the low rating that Stella and Dot has received at the time of this review. You can see the ratings here. Again I'm not a big fan of relying on one source to determine a company's legitimacy. I prefer to explore multiple touch points to get a fair assessment. But that's me.
Sign Up Costs
As you read above there is a $199 signup fee. This will probably turn some of you off or you may not be able to afford it. Either way, you have to keep in mind this is a home business and not a job. There's always start up costs in any type of home based business. Even if it's just selling coffee….where would your coffee ingredients and supplies come from? Could you start a Starbucks without investing money? Well a home business works the same way; you need money to make money. The one advantage is the cost is usually lower.
That said, for many of you the idea of investing any money in a work at home opportunity just doesn't sit well with you. So if that's you, Stella & Dot isn't for you. You may want to consider other types of work at home opportunities like Surveyjunkie.com, Swagbucks.com, Inboxdollars.com and Fusioncash.net that do not require any startup fees. They pay you for activities you already do online such as visiting websites, playing games and much more.
Yearly Renewal Fees
There is a yearly renewal of $59 to stay a rep/stylist for the company. I don't understand the need for this. If I'm making sales isn't that enough money for the company? I just feel like it's another way to squeeze a little more money out of the reps and unnecessary. I'm totally fine with the initial investment but the yearly fee seems like an add on unless it includes some tangible benefit like more products, etc.
It's an MLM
If you choose to participate in the MLM (Multi Level Marketing) part of of the Stella and Dot opportunity and build a team, they require at least $500 in personal sales per month. However, it's NOT mandatory that you get sponsors. This is totally up to you. And just for the record, if you are unable to sell $500, your team will roll to the Next Qualified Leader. But you will still be a rep/stylist. What now? Did I read that correctly? So let me get this straight. If I do a great job of recruiting people but happen to suck at personal sales, you're going to pass off everyone I brought into the company to someone else? Awww hell to the nah! Let's face it, some of us may be better at recruiting people then selling products. And you shouldn't be penalized if that's the case. Ideally they should have a separate path for people that are good at recruiting. But then again it may open up the company to accusations of being a pyramid scam. Who knows? Either way, I definitely don't like their policy and one of the other reasons I dislike MLMs and some of their pushy reps.
Weekly training calls for 60 days
There are some people that don't like to sit in on these training calls. I'm just sharing what I found so that you'd be aware of this. I didn't want to get you all excited about being a rep/stylist for this company and then find out there are training calls for 60 days. Look I barely call people that I know. Most of my communication happens to be email or texts. So enduring weekly calls would be a tough sale for me. I'm sure they're useful to help you be successful. But I'd prefer webinars I can watch at my own pace or just being able to email people.
Home Parties
I don't really think home parties are necessary these days; especially when you have the option of creating a website that sells for you 24/7 or using social media to get the word out. But that said obviously it must work because so many of these MLMs still have these home parties. It doesn't look like the “trunk shows” are required but they definitely seem to be highly encouraged. Either way you seem to have a choice between that route and promoting other ways. Although I get the impression with this business you'll need to do these home parties to move these products.
So Is Stella and Dot Legit?
Honestly I think Stella & Dot is a legitimate company and a perfect option for people that want to get into the fashion business. I like the flexibility in the sign up options and that you're not required to recruit others to make money. Given the fashion industry is huge and the price of the products are affordable, I think this is a viable business to consider despite some of the minor cons. That said, I've laid out the good and bad so now it's up to you to decide if this is right for you.
If there were things about the company that didn't appeal to you and you want another option, you can always check out the other work at home websites that I suggested. Swagbucks.com and Surveyjunkie.com are two of the most popular ones with long-standing reputability. Both of them, along with Inboxdollars.com and Fusioncash.net also have great BBB ratings.
If you want to make top dollars, you can take a look at the way I make my money online. It doesn't involve any home parties and it's not limited to one type of industry or product. In fact if you have other passions outside of fashion and want to start a business around it, this company can help.
Check Out My Top Free Recommendation
Either way, let me know what you all thought about my Stella and Dot Review and the company. I would love to have some nice feedback on this company from you guys. Or even better…if you have had any experience with it, please leave your thoughts in the comments below as well; I would love to hear them. 🙂
If you want more of me, you can always catch me on Twitter, Facebook, and also Google+ . Be sure you subscribe to my newsletter as well so you don't miss any of my reviews by clicking here.
Until next time,
Eddy with a Y!
Great review. Great comments. Eddy, you are a sneaky bastard. I love it.
Thanks, I think? I’m not trying to be sneaky in my reviews. I provide the good and bad about a company. And I give people other options they may want to consider. Then it’s up to folks to decide what they want to do. I think it’s pretty transparent. lol
I was a stylist for a while, and life happened, and I fell out of it. When I went back to it, my card on file had expired, so I missed the $59 renewal fee. I updated it, they charged me the fee, great! $59 a year isn’t that bad for me to run an online fashion business – but wait there is a catch. $129 a year for their “e-suite”. You can’t run an online trunk show w/o it. That was a deal breaker for me. I just called and canceled my e-suite and my stylist account. There are too many other MLMs out there that don’t charge you these ridiculous annual fees and expect you to maintain the latest samples every quarter. I’ll still purchase their jewelry from another stylist who is successful enough to not notice 200 bucks, but for me, it was a deal breaker.
Or you can skip the whole MLM business model all together. So there are other options out there. Either way, thanks for sharing your experience.
This was amazing!!! .. im signing up next paycheck ! .. this was exactly what I needed to read .. ive been doing my research on this company .. and I already own a load of jewelry , bags ..etc from them … thanks again !!
Cool Emily. I’m glad the review helped you make a decision.
Great article and comments. I was considering selling Stella and Dot and now j have much more to consider in making that decision.
I’m glad it helped you Rachel!
Hi Eddy~
I just wanted to say that I just hosted a Stella & Dot party at my house, and it was about the lowest-pressure home party I’ve ever been to. There were 12 women there, only 4 placed orders, but more importantly, the ones that didn’t place orders didn’t feel pressured in any way to buy something. The presentation was short and the Stylist was amazing. I think it’s also important to note that Stella & Dot will take back/refund/replace ANYTHING that fails, tarnishes, falls apart, etc. They will even take back something if you order it and receive it and you simply don’t like it. It’s also very important to note that this company GLOBALLY supports women and mothers. They have donated literally millions of dollars in funding for mothers in third world countries so that they can have successful pregnancies and births. I love what this company does for women all around the world.
Thanks for sharing your experience Jacqui.
Watched undercover boss tonight and could not believe how cheap the owner was with her people. Stella and Dot got a millon dollars worth of free advertising but when it came to rewsrding their employees basically gave them promotions and salary increades it appears they already deserved. VERY SELFISH
Hey Len,
I didn’t know the owner was on this show. Thanks for sharing your opinion.
This is a very well put together article that I will surely share to potential stylist! I echo the sentiments of Alysa! I have been a stylist for a little over a year and thoroughly enjoy it. The only things I will add is the $59 annual fee (just actually did some research on this) also includes $30 in buiness credit you can use to purchase things like lookbooks (the books you pass out with merchandise) and other branded merchandise. I will say there is one other fee not listed; The emarketing fee of $129. You are definitely able to opt out of this but to me it’s vital to your business! You can pay this quarterly or at one time. It is free for the first 60 days. The emarketing includes: access the Trunk Show Planner checklist in your Stylist Lounge. Your personal website, Dottie(an app for IPAD to use during shows), Online Invitations, and being searchable on the corporate website are all only available with an e-Marketing Suite. Overall I am VERY happy being a stylist! But that’s my own experience.
Hey malikah,
Thanks for sharing your experience and updating us with this additional information. It was useful.
I signed up as a stylist for Stella and Dot a few weeks ago I could only afford the $199 kit which only gave me about 7 items which is not a lot when you do a trunk show because people want to see variety of things try them on not just look in the catalog or on the website most of that stuff is made in China and it looks cheap the Rings I was wearing to show up turn my fingers black one of the three way necklace is broke the minute I took off one of the pieces and try to put back on to show how they are interchangeable I ordered a new bag which took up most of my $350 in samples and the next day the bag was sold out and out of stock. A scarf is $69
a lot of the necklaces are between 150 and 200 dollars I bought a clutch as part of my kit that you can use two ways over the shoulder or as a clutch I asked my upline where the chain is for the clutch that was almost a hundred dollars and they said you have to buy that separately would you go to Macys and buy a clutch like that and have to buy the chain to put it over your shoulder separately people found the products to lack quality and be overpriced and they have a sorority like motto when it comes to doing business a potential customer pointed out this website to me and after reading it I could never represent a company like this so I got out yesterday.
Check out glassdoor.com reviews of stella and dot i tried to paste it here i couldn’t
Hey thanks for sharing your experience about this opportunity. It definitely doesn’t sound like it was a good one for you. Fortunately there are other options you can explore. So if you’re still looking for a home based business you may want to look into my Wealthy Affiliate Review. You can still get into the jewelry business without worrying about products being out of stock or the customer service aspect. Or you can explore something else that is truly your passion. So either way all is not lost. That’s part of this whole making money process. Some things will work and others won’t. You just need to find what will work for you.
Hi Eddy,
Thanks for a great review. I was thinking about joining Stella & Dot, because jewelry is one of my passions. I’ve read nothing but glowing reviews which always makes me skeptical. I love the good, bad and ugly of your review and it will definitely help me make an informed choice. Great post!
Hey Jacqueline,
Glad you like the review. And that’s exactly why I write them because most reps of these companies won’t give you the good and bad. Unfortunately they don’t realize it actually helps them recruit the right people. But I’m glad you can make an informed decision now. Sounds like this may be for you. Keep me posted.
Hey Jacqueline, I’m not sure if you are already working with another Stylist, but if not, I would love to help you get started and mentor you. You can see from my comments below that I am honest and up front. Also there is a special in January for new Stylists. Let me know if you would like help or if you are already covered.
Alysa, are you still looking to sign up Stella & Dot Stylists? I am interested but would like to know if there are any specials currently for signing up. Thank you.
Robin I can let you know the current promotions, but maybe we should have this convo outside of Eddy’s blog 😉 Can you email me at alysase@roadrunner.com. Thanks!
Good idea Alysa. 😉
Eddy, thanks for your honest and up front review. I’ve been a Stella & Dot Stylist for over 4 years now, and I can honestly say that they are really good to us. I thought I would help you clear up a few things though:
1.) The annual renewal fee – yes we pay $59 to renew. As “Stylists” we have access to lots of free training, we earn free accessories, and can earn free business supplies. I’m not entirely sure, but I’m guessing that this $59 helps offset that. Also, it separates the business owners from the “kit nappers”. It’s very easy to sign up as a Stella & Dot Stylist, and with your starter kit you typically get $350 in jewelry with your kit (some months you get $450) so many women will sign up just so that they can get what they want at a discount. If that’s the case, this group will not want to pay to “re-up” for the year, clearing the way for those that want to actually work their biz.
2. 60 Days of Phone Calls – that’s not true at all. We have training calls going on all the time for all different “career” levels. They are not obligatory, you simply dial in when you want more training, or need a little boost of energy. These calls are often recorded so that folks with a different schedule can listen at a convenient time.
3. What Happens in Your First 60 Days – this period of time is called your “Jumpstart”, where you earn unlimited free accessories based on your sales. Once you hit $1000 in sales in the first 60 days, you start earning “Free Product Credits” which are a percentage of your total sales during that period. In my experience, most Stylists hit this $1000 in sales with a party or 2, so they get their original investment back, plus the free swag. After that first 60 days, you can still earn free jewelry, but the sales goals are monthly and quarterly, and are a little harder to reach.
4.) Sales minimums – if you are just a “regular” Stylist, there really aren’t any. You don’t have to sell $500 a month, but if you do, you earn free business supply credits (to use on catalogs, order forms, etc). You are only required to keep this minimum if you have recruited team members.
5.) Stella & Dot Team Leadership – most of us with a team make as much or MORE money on our team then our own sales. We are paid those team overrides with the understanding that we are leading these other Stylists and helping them out to some extent. We are not the boss – more like a cheerleader and first point of contact with questions, frustrations, etc. The concept is that if as a team leader you are not selling $500 in a month, then you are not having even 1 Trunk Show (home party) per month, and therefore would have no clue how to lead, encourage, or educate your team. As a veteran Stylist, I still call my Director 1 or 2 times per month, to ask for advice or get a quick question answered. She is paid well for giving me that support, and I in turn support my downline the same way. It would be totally discouraging to reach out to your team leader, only to find out that she is disengaged and knows less than you do. That said, after 3 months of not “qualifying” (selling less than $500) then your team will roll up to the next Qualified Leader.
6.) The Home Party – you are not meant to sell to your friends and family forever. But we are not a brick and mortar store, so Hostesses that offer their dining room table as a temporary shopping area are rewarded with free accessories for being hospitable. Of course your first few parties are with fam, but that’s where you meet ladies you don’t know and pretty quickly you are booking parties with, and selling to people you just met. To be honest, my family and friends have never been a source of income for me because if they want something, I give it to them at my cost. I make $$ off of my customer base – not my peeps. As a side note, some things just look better in real life. I do make sales off of my website, but when people try it on, and feel the weight, etc, that’s where the $$ is.
7.) Crap on Ebay – most of that stuff is not legit. They are knockoffs just like a fake Coach handbag. Stella & Dot corporate forbids the sale of our stuff on Ebay, and if it is found that a Stylist is selling this way, she is warned, and/or terminated. That cheapens the brand, and we already have web-sites we use.
OK, sorry to be so wordy. I hope that was helpful to you and any of your readers.
Hey Alysa, I appreciate all the additional information you provided. I’m sure it will be useful!
Another excellent review here Eddy! 🙂
@Robin, there are some reviews here on the site that doesn’t require home parties. You can have online parties as well as promote on the social medias. =)
I belong to a MLM company now and am not making it work so this would probably not be for me. Also the idea of home parties for a marking plan is not an ideal plan. So many of the MLM rely on selling to family and friends and they really hate to see you when they know that is what you want from them.
Hey Robin,
I agree with you. I dislike the home party model very much. The idea of having to harass my family and friends doesn’t sit well with me. What I’ve noticed is that when folks started to see how well I was doing which was a result of applying what My Top Free Recommendation taught me, then they naturally wanted to know more. I didn’t have to invite people to a damn home party. So that’s the way I would prefer to “market” to friends or family. It’s by not marketing to them at all and letting my own success inspire them.
But home parties must have some merit because so many of these MLMs still use it. And fortunately Stella & Dot doesn’t seem to require it so that’s good. Either way, thanks for chiming in!
Stella and Dot has a website that they sell from. There are also a lot of Stella and Dot products on ebay that say “new with tags,” “new on card,” “new in box,” etc. A few on Amazon.com as well. I checked. They must be good at the high pressure sales pitch. I don’t think I’d want to go to a Stella and Dot party, let alone host one.
Hey Marilyn,
You can find a lot of products from these MLMs on various websites. I can’t speak to if they use high pressure sales tactics or not. I don’t get that impression. But for any business it makes sense to market your product in as many places as possible so I don’t see a problem with that. That’s just smart business. Why limit your audience or profitS? Either way, I appreciate you sharing your opinion. It’s always welcomed here.
A few weeks ago, you had an article on a company about data entry. I know, Eddy, I know…I should remember the name, but finally got so disgusted, I deleted it. I took all the tests and I did not think my scores were bad, not fantastic but I considered them normal. I never heard a word after I took the tests. Just wonder where I went wrong.
Hey Sandra,
I’m not sure what this has to do with my Stella & Dot review above. But I think the article you’re talking about is here. If that’s it feel free to share your experience there about it.
Thanks.
Hi, Eddy,
I’m sorry, of course it has nothing to do with today’s article. I enjoy them all and thankful for your service. yes, Virtual Bee is the name of the company. My only excuse is that it is over 90 degrees and humid so my brain has dissolved. Please forgive me.
LOL, The heat fries my brain and other things too. So I can totally relate. 🙂