Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Is Amway A Viable Business Opportunity?

Over the years I have been debating with Amway supporters, I cannot see what is so great about the Amway opportunity. Are some of these Amway defenders that stupid or dense that they truly believe that a business where one out of a few hundred people might make a profit and most of the remaining IBOs will lose money is a good opportunity? I'm not talking about people who sign up and "do nothing". Many IBOs sign up and put in a great deal of time, effort and money, only to find out that the system simply does not work (especially in the US) and they make a business decision to quit and/or to do something else.

Of course there are some people who make money in Amway. If nobody made money, then the opportunity would cease to exist. But it is basically exploitation of the downline that accounts for upline success. Amway's admission that sales to non IBOs are low, confirms this. Thus certain upline make their income from their downline's PV volume, and on tool purchases. I mean even a lottery has winners. Even ponzi schemes and other questionable opportunties have some winners. This is not to suggest that Amway in not legal. Amway is perfectly legal, but the way the opportunity is set up, those who profit, primarily do so at the expense of their trusted downline.

There are no groups that I know of where all the IBOs can win and earn a profit. I would guess that there might be a few rogue groups who only focus on retail sales, and while these groups can be profitable as a group, they are few and far between. This is because most IBOs fall under an LOS such as WWDB, BWW, LTD or N21, and these groups all seemingly focus on recruiting of new IBOs. Yes, they may sprinkle in some suggeestions about selling goods, but generally speaking, their "training" materials consist of motivation speeches, feel good stories (whether true or not), and the theme of never quitting while continuing to purchase more tools.

Some upline have the nerve to start teaching downline that their Amway business is not about making money, but to save your marriage, make you a nicer person, or some other diversion to make you forget that you are losing money month after month after month. Some groups even mix in religion and politics into their functions and meetings. As far as I can see, the typical business buildiing IBO signs up, gets some of the tools and attends a few functions, and finds that the products are hard to sell because they are not priced competetively with other retailers, and that a damaged reputation is nearly impossible to overcome. These IBOs realize they are not going anywhere, and they walk away, chalking up the losses as a life lesson. But apparently, many uplines who lied and deceived in the past are continuing to do so today, often just revising history for their benefit (i.e. lying about making any profit on tools).

Many IBOs, prospects, information seekers and critics read this blog. My question is very simple. What is so great about the Amway opportunity? For most, it is just a bad use of time and money. While some may exist, I don't know of a single person who "did the work once" and sat back collecting barrels of Amway money while sipping Mai Tais on the beaches of Jamaica. I see crown ambassadors working as hard today as they did many years ago. Diamonds losing homes to forclosures, a prominent diamond in bankruptcy proceedings, and a hoard of WWDB diamonds apparently selling off mansions that they allegedly paid for in cash. (It os quite possible that their lifestyles are simply not sustainable).

Where is the benefit in the business for the typical IBO? Just as there are some diamonds, there are lottery winners. Displaying a lottery winner doesn't make it prudent to spend your money on lottery tickets. Displaying a diamond's lifestyle doesn't make Amway a good opportunity. While Amway is a business and not a game of chance, the results of either, sadly are eerily similar - that is a few winners and millions of non winners.

What is so great about the Amway opportunity? I don't see it.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was platinum and spent about 8 months in it in the early eighties in the uk. Here is my view. Cant see this is a great or even average opportunity. Its hard work. 4 or 5 hours per day , 7 days a week. So small return for big effort. As so few people make money and most drop out conclusion for me is its not worth it. From this blog i learned about this tools part in the usa. This is really stealing from people who are clue less. The wealth and walking beaches is obviously nonsense. The only opportunity argument is that the big pins probably make big bucks. I think these guys have figured out how to motivate large groups of people which is a rare talent. To me these are the only types who will make money and there are very few. Here i mean the yaegers, britt , dornan etc who built groups with hundreds of thousands of people. These guys have tens of thousands of people joining their groups monthly so easily replace those dropping out. And they make big bucks on tools. Imagine how much they pull from a 20000 funtion. The ordinary guy will find it hard to sponsor 3 people and will never make anything and will lose money on tools. That will be the case for most people. There will always be a few big pins types coming in and driving the business. Thats why it will continue to grow.

Unknown said...

We all know the details about the Amway company, it's provides the best products for the people. With this products we can improve our life style as more stylish and comfortable. We have to choose the franchise recognized things.
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Anonymous said...

Amway has its growth track record. No problem there. Despite this the statistics are clear. Only less than 1% make money. The rest probably lose money. So probably 10 million have lost money and 10000 made money in 50 years. I think this sums up the opportunity. I think amway grows because the big pins figured out a great system that allows them through their groups to sponsor faster than people quit. And to milk those newcomers sufficiently while they stay committed. As i said above a few new big pins come through yearly but the vast majority give it up. Joecool. What do you think of my simple analysis. You seem to have studied this in detail.

Anonymous said...

lol u guys are funny

Anonymous said...

Nothing great about Amway surely but many people first do not understand it and even after they understand they have no guts to admit it.
Of course, everyone commits mistakes in their lives but one day at least they need to sit down and say 'Sorry I have told too many things about Amway, but it simply does not work. Of course I had been part of Amway till yesterday, but I cannot keep doing something which does not work. I am sorry if I had hurt you, but shall we leave the past and start living present and for future?'. This needs self-image but most Ambots self image dies when it comes to quitting Amway, they keep hanging on with false hope.

Unknown said...



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Anonymous said...

robot :p

Anonymous said...

it was for me an unmitigated waste of time........products are good but overpriced so a strong retail business is almost impossible.....personally using the products for a 100 pv per month and attending functions and buying "tools" not to mention prospecting& showing the plan (if they show up)drives out most people in a few months.....invest your time/money in a business that has a product that is value priced and people want

Unknown said...

I'm going to do a documentation on amway, and I'm going to try and film every meeting I go, and interview as many people as I can so not only the facts, but real people are going to be involved.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Amways-Truth/377170129076199?fref=ts

Adriano said...

Amway system is perfect, but if you had no success is because you never learnt how to do it in the right way, period. Sorry about your experience with Amway but the problem was your lack of knowledge, no Amway corporation.That company is really growing if I do not grow with it that problem is mine, then I have to change the strategy and no writing my frustrations to disencourage another people..

Anonymous said...

Amway is an amazing opportunity, and thats what it is, an opportunity. I am an IBO with a succesfull upline that mentor me closely. Ot works if you do it right. And what is this with losing money? The products you buy would be purchased anyway from a retail store, not the same brand but relatively the same product, the only difference is you get a cut of the cash whereas with buying from ypur local retailer you only leave with the.product. This is an opportunity worth the initial.time investment. You guys are a joke.

Joecool said...

A joke is you losig money in Amway and saying you made money?