IBS alumni Dorottya Vass and Veronika Csente, alias Prémecz sisters, are talking about their business success.
How did you get involved in NU Skin, a company selling anti-aging cosmetic products exclusively through the internet in 52 countries?
We met the company 7 years ago. At the time we had already finished our studies for some years and we were looking into different options. We set up our own media company, we did publishing and we also came up what we called, Patients’ Health Documentation Folder that we distributed in hospitals. All the three of us, we have a brother as well, were working on this product. Actually, our brother has now a web-design company that grew out form this project. We also tried to get into the business of tourist services, restaurants, anything that seemed to be financially rewarding. We had all kinds of undertakings. The two of us, we, the sisters, have always been thinking about selling promotional options for companies. However, we had to realize early on that this required investments, a lot of money, which we did not have. Neither did we have the know-how, to be honest, about how to build up a company. We have never been employees and we never wanted to be. We wanted to be the master of our own workforce and time.
Do you have a family tradition to get into business and avoid being employees?
Not really. However, the way we grew up is the reason why we are like that. Our mother was still at university when she already had three kids, and due to the unexpected twist and turns of life, she brought up three kids on her own. She wanted to give us everything so she worked a lot and she also expected us to work and contribute to the family finances. So we did everything together, we worked in the market in Szeged where we were brought up. She is a doctor, a psychiatrist. She decided to stay at the university after her studies and she was working all the time at the side. Wherever she saw an option for work, she took it. She sold at the market place, she did everything possible and this influenced the family spirit. We too have been working all the time, even after school and on holidays.
Why did you choose IBS?
Honestly, because we did not have any idea what we wanted to do. We saw IBS and it seemed to leave ways open for us, we also had good English. All three of us studied in the US. Our mother saw an advertisement that “everybody’s child can study in the US”, she thought if that is so, then, my kids should go. So, she really went after it, and first my brother, then my sister and eventually I went to a student exchange program. With IBS, we made the right choice, we loved the school. IBS was the first school where teaching was something like we grew up with, working in teams, cooperate, sharing knowledge. We liked our teachers, with some of them, we are still in touch. We use the presentation skills that we learnt at IBS a lot in our business right now. We learnt things that we teach now.
IBS is a private university and it may have been difficult for your mother to pay the tuition fee for the two of you. How could you manage the payments?
Paying the tuition fee was a “team work”, we the family did it together. We learnt to try to reach everything we wanted.
What are you doing exactly in Nu Skin?
We are introducing Nu skin to people and get them involved. Unlike other companies that sell through a network, we have a structure, a technology. Nu Skin’s main product is a concept. This means that if you build up a business network in three to five years, then you will have an income from this structure. This is our main task. The concept is that you can have a high quality income. We are focusing on the entrepreneurs, we do not have to do anything with the product, we are not selling it. We are showing people how they can become leaders and how they can have time and money freedom by building an international business network. We are looking for people who would like to change their lives and we are helping them by showing how it can be done. Nu Skin is actually looking for entrepreneurs and we show them what they can show to others. We are partners of the company. The company is doing the job for you. Marketing is our job and the company is paying us a fee. The company has consumable products and we connect the company with people. Some say they want to be a customers, some that they want to have a high quality life, and they want to become entrepreneurs themselves. We make our living through a concept. Everybody decides what she wants. We sell a system to them.
Could you explain in what ways you became especially successful?
Everybody is beginning from the bottom. We quickly understood that we need to find 12 people whose businesses will generate 3000 Euro sales volume per month to fully utilize the compensation plan. This 3000 is made from customers who consume the products directly from Nu Skin. We found approximately 30-40 customers in 2007-2008. Since then we do not need do anything in our business. It generates a passive income. In order to move on, we decided with my sister, that we will find 12 entrepreneurs around us who would do the same as us. For 7 months we worked really hard, we did not sleep, we approached people. Eventually, we managed to do what nobody else did in Europe until that time. In 7 months we reached the top. We received the prize of “Women Entrepreneurs of the Year 2008”.
Our motivation came from our mother. We saw our mom working hard for 30 years. We appreciate that and admire her, but we also knew that we were not strong enough to do the same. We wanted security, an income to raise our kids in well-being, to have time and spend that time with our family.
Is your private life connected to Nu Skin?
Yes. We both met our husbands in the business and the greatest thing is that we can do every part of our lives together with them. Time is the most important thing in life and now we can decide how to spend it and with whom. Nu Skin products helped a lot to get our families healthier and live a more valuable life. So we can say that what we have dreamt of, we made come true! We also think it important that we give back something to society. We do charity work to help children, we organized Christmas Eves in the prison of juveniles and we have a team of entrepreneurs who support a children’s food program and people with multiple handicaps.
