Avon Products, Inc, known as Avon, founded by David H. McConnell in 1886 is a direct selling company in beauty, household, and personal care categories. In 1886, 32 years before women in the U.K. earned the right to vote, Avon’s founder, David H. McConnell, helped give them the chance to earn an independent income. McConnell didn’t set out to create a beauty company. He was a traveling book salesperson, and offered beauty products as perk. He soon realised customers were more interested in the free perfume samples than the books, and that many of them stayed at home while their husbands went off to work. From a small New York City office, McConnell mixed the company's first fragrances himself, and recruited a team of women to be Sales Representatives. It was an inspired idea: women had a passion for his products and loved networking with other women, so it turned out to be a brilliant business model, which works just as well today.