One of the things that attracts many IBOs to the Amway opportunity is the idea that they can work part time, 2-5 years and gain a "shortcut" to ongoing and voluminous wealth. Many of the prospects don't have the kind of income or resources that they would like, so the possibility of a shortcut to these trappings sounds like a good idea. They sign up and get started, and then the realities of the business sets in.
100 PV, is the defacto minimum quota for business building IBOs. It costs about $300 to purchase 100 PV worth of products. How many young and single people or couples for that matter, use and/or need $300 worth of household products each month? How many of these same people can actually afford to expend that much cash on household products? The pitch is to change where you shop but how many people were buying these kinds of good prior to Amway? My guess is none. I know I purchased many items, including vitamins, and I didn't need or use before Amway. But my desire to be teachable and to be an example to my downline kept me buying the goods, and trying to pawn off some stuff on friends and relatives to lessen my PV burden.
I also found that getting people to see the plan was no easy task. While my business was growing, it took more and more effort to recruit downline and I can see where many IBOs would reach the saturation point where there simply aren't anymore viable recruits and they might need to resort to cold contacting in order to generate potential prospects. This is probably why there are stories of IBOs stalking people in bookstores, malls and supermarkets. Even when people saw the plan, there wasn't a high percentage of new people signing up. It is why building and maintaining a business is a nearly impossible task, and it is why I believe there aren't people who retire, walk away from their Amway businesses and enjoy six figure residual incomes for life.
The more likely scenario is an IBO signing up, buy and using the products and tools and slowly but surely build up debt. There are countless stories of ex IBOs who got fired up, started building the business and fouond that in a relatively short period of time, found themselves in thousands or tens of thousands of dollars in debt. All the while upline was encouraging them to buy more tools and attend more function, even when they were not profitable. In my opinion, this is confirmation that uplines care more about their tools profits that they do about downline success. I sat in functions where upline would teach about reducing debt, but in the same breath, say it was okay to go deeper in debt if it was to purchase more tools. Self serving advice.
It is why I believe this opportunity, along with the tools system, will nearly guarantee IBO failure. It is sad, but it is also a reality.
13 comments:
Hello JoeCool,
I have witnessed this business absolutely ruin friendships. It is a tragedy people spend their hard earned money on these tools and functions only to never experience the promised dream. From a business model is does not make any sense and Amway products are not superior then other cheaper brand names offered at your local store. Good hard working people sign up in the hopes of becoming rich, but usually the opposite happens. As for the success stories I never believe someone has retired or is a millionaire unless I see their portfolio or business account. You could be 100's of thousands in debt and stand up on stage and preach about how successful and rich you are.
Thanks for the comment. Yes, I saw people's finances wrecked following bad upline advice. I witnessed a bankruptcy and two homes foreclosures in my short stint in Amway.
In fact you can preach anything and people will believe you. This is the key success factor of amway. They say the products are good , money to be made and in 2 -5 years freedom. Nobody asks to see who is rich, who has freedom and how many buy the products. The answers are. A few are rich but mianly from tools, nobody has been able to walk the beaches and there are no repeat product sales.(Only friends buying once off as a favor and dreamers autoconsuming products they dont need ) But as long as there are powerful preachers and naive listeners this will continue. So if you want to win you have to become a convincing preacher. This is a real tough task.
It's too bad the internet provides a platform for so many uneducated comments and posts.
Like yours?
A lot of people have way to much time to blog stuff and don't really know what they r talking about everyone consumes food eg fruit n veg meat and house hold products and you don't have to start up a business just have across the board u save 20% N get a cash bacon On what you all ready buy it's the 21st century shop smarter!!!
It is pretty sad that because YOU and a couple of OTHER people were not able to be good leaders, to have the right mind, and to have the right path through that "promising future" you start commenting incorrect and wrong stuff about the #1 network company! It is #1; it has worked its way up for the last 54 years, and it will continue to grow WITHOUT YOU
LOL!
If I wasn't a good leader it's because the WWDB leaders taught me wrong! I did everything I was told and had eagle parameters and was 4000 going platinum and still did not make a profit.
The #1 network marketing company is only company sales and has nothing to do with IBO profitability.
@Anonymous May 7, 2013 at 4:31 PM
"...and it will continue to grow WITHOUT YOU"
And I'm glad so! La Cosa Nostra is an organisation that grows without us either. Another banal ambot high as a Georgia pine tree on scAmway kool-aid!
It's the 21st century read, think, be smart! Stop tithing to scAmway and it's lords of heehaw diamond gods. Wake-up!
How is spending more saving 20%? I'll put my purchases against yours, one by one, and show that the vast majority of mine are cheaper, even after your wholesale discount and bonus check. And, I don't have to pay a yearly membership fee or file extra tax forms for the privilege of spending less than you.
A couple? Try MILLIONS. I know, it's the greatest opportunity in the world, except decades of evidence doesn't bear that out, and even the most successful of distributors doesn't publish their actual income. Why shroud in secrecy? Maybe because reality doesn't match the fantasy?
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