Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Amway - Buy From Yourself?

One of the apparently common practices among major IBO groups is still the concept of "buy from yourself". I believe IBO leaders teach this because most people are not familiar or not comfortable selling goods and services. Therefore, to teach buy from yourself makes the business an easier sell. In reality, an Amway IBO is simply a comissioned salesperson with no benefits. But presenting the opportunity that way is unlikely to yield results either, thus the buy from yourself has become a common practice.

Buying from youself makes you a customer and not a business owner. Buying from yourself doesn't generate your business a profit. Would you open a car dealership to buy a car? Now I am not suggesting that supporting your own business is a bad idea. What I am suggesting is if you are the primary or exclusive customer of your Amway business, then you aren't really running a business. You are simply a glorified customer.

What an IBO is really doing is paying his upline's bonuses. Amway overcharges more than 30% of the cost of their product. They have to do this in order to be able to pay IBO bonuses. Since most IBOs are at 100 PV or less, the lion's share of the bonuses earned are channeled upline when a purchase is made. It is not a level playing field as some IBO leaders might suggest.

What compounds the situation and makes it worse is when an IBO pays for standing order or attends functions where some of these IBO leaders may teach this bad business practice. You as an IBO already pverpay for products for which upline gets most of the bonus, but then the problem is compounded by IBOs paying to receive this bad advice. When I was an IBO, I heard speakers talk about skipping rent or mortgage payments to attend more functions, or having your family skip a meal so you can buy standing orders. Buying from yourself is just another example of bad advice given fro upline to downline. What makes it worse is that some uplines profit by giving bad advice.

Are you buying from yourself almost exclusively? Can you think of any truly successful business where the owner is the main or possibly the only customer? I can't think of any.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did you hear of a thingy called 'spellchecker'?

Joecool said...

Did you ever hear about someone actually making money in Amway?

Anonymous said...

I thought you said you were before you quit, ha!

Joecool said...

Nope, I was at about the break even level even at 4000 PV.

Anonymous said...

Nice statement Joe but we need to know what backs up that statement.

Joecool said...

Go thru the archives of this blog and find Joecool's story. That backs it up.

Anonymous said...

Your story is personal and it doesn't convince me that Amway doesn't work. I've personally assisted to a job retirement party where a wife came home to be with her husband and kids. Oh, by the way did you retire your wife yet?

Joecool said...

Anonymous from Canada,

I'm glad you were able to attend a retirement party. Did you see the retiree's financials? Maybe he won the lottery?

Anonymous said...

I don't think the husband won the lottery. Instead, he gave his wife a better present, something you never will.

Joecool said...

You don't know why the wife was able to retire? Good for her. Maybe she inherited money?

Anonymous said...

I know why she did retire and it wasn't because of lottery or money inheritance. Her husbad, built a strong Amway business to set his family free, something people like you will never do. People like you know nothing better but to just tear down others who want to be free. People like you are the excuses of why not instead of the achievements of why yes. People like you are failures instead of achievers. I'm sorry for your wife. She married a winnie instead of a winner.

Joecool said...

What is a strong Amway business? Greg Duncan is a triple diamond and he is in bankruptcy proceedings last I heard.

Anonymous said...

Last I heard... who gives a crap about what one heard? You know, I heard about 2012 too but honestly I don't give a crap. The Bible says that only God alone knows about the last day of humanity. 2012? Give me a break! Also, give us a break with your crap stories!

Joecool said...

What crap story. Greg Duncan IS in bankruptcy proceedings. It's all over the internet.

Looks like Wolgamott is seperated also.

Anonymous said...

Yeah man, a 'looks like' statement is nothing more than the 'last I heard' statement. A bunch of total crap. People need info from real sources not just some guy who comes up with statements of he's heard that... Anyway, typical Joecool at his best.

Anonymous said...

anon, you're full of crap as always. stop making a world-class idiot of yourself.