Pros
You make your hours. You get out of it what you put in to it. Once you finally connect with Designer Care, they are so pleasant but not always able to solve. It's possible to make money, but must be careful. I love my mentor and it is nice to meet other like-minded designers.
Cons
I've been a Designer for three years. I did make money selling the product, however when you subtract my excess inventory, selling costs (postage, shipping, mileage, business cards, etc) and other selling 'paraphernalia' I did not make any profit. Here is my caution to any new designer: You must keep in mind that the O2 'business model' is to sell as much product as possible - the primary vehicle being that they sell product to us, the Designers. If you get caught up in the excitement you can be left holding so much excess inventory that you hope and pray to sell to anyone. Let's say you decide to stock up on the new Spring line, but it doesn't sell right away. You potentially will sell some of this product past the warranty period and then you are on the hook to replace any broken parts. For example, I have a new gold mini crystal locket in my inventory that I no longer can sell because a few of the crystals disintegrated. They literally crumbled in my hand. I can't go to Designer Care to have it replaced because it's out of the warranty period. I eat that cost. O2 also makes money on any Jewelry Bar display items, O2 branded merchandise, your business cards, charm cards, invites, TOMs catalogs, etc. So if you buy these - and most new designers do - you are helping O2 make THEIR money, but this is an expense for you that cuts in to your margins. The 'cost of doing business' if you will. At my most successful season, I realized I was putting in 40+ hours per week. So many hours fighting with the Back Office, trying to place orders, on hold with Designer Care plus following up with customers, trying to get a Jewelry Bar scheduled, and physically packing, driving to, unpacking, setting up and holding the JB, etc. etc. Lost packages from the Nest where they had no clue where it was and in the meantime the Limited Edition items had sold out so I coudln't reorder, and there was no solution to provide for my customer. When I did the ROI and analyzed the hours put in, I realized I wasn't hardly making any money. I'm also very unhappy that they've cut the commissions for designers if you don't meet a minimum PV. This just seals the doom deal for me. I do think if you are smart - meaning you exercise serious restraint and do not buy all their stuff - if you keep your costs very low - then you can realize a true profit. If I did it over again, I would become a new designer, order some business cards - and I would NOT keep an inventory, not order or design marketing cards, not purchase tablecloths, display items, not purchase items each time they had a Back From the Vault sale, etc - just not buy more than I actually had for an order. What's the problem with this? Most people like to see before they buy. They want to touch it, make their lockets in person, see how the charms look and fit. You still need to create marketing materials to reach these customers to convince them to schedule a jewelry bar, too. And having an attractive display set up for your jewlery bars does make a difference with how much you sell.