Monday, March 3, 2014

The Reality Of Amway?

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 goods 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.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was stalked at a food fair. While eating the ibo tried to get my info. Gave him my # so he'd leave me alone. I can't even imagine buying 100.00 of personal goods from Amway. I get free soap,razors,skin cream,mouth wash and shampoo from my local fitness center.

Joecool said...

What kind of line did the IBO use? I'm curious how they do it these days.

Anonymous said...

He said nice shirt and I had no clue he was a Ambot. I saw a Amway wwdb type recommended book and he started sound like one. I was busy eating so just gave him my #

Joecool said...

Interesting story. Could have been entertaining if you knew this right at the start. LOL

Anonymous said...

LOL @ Ambot. Priceless.... Although, Amborg would be a bit more fitting IMHO. I too have an Amborg trying to assimilate me into the collective. Met one a few days ago, met up with them, and was a bit suspicious about the whole thing as the Amborg was very careful not to divulge too much information. Just seemed really excited, which for me is a red flag. Maybe I am somewhat of a pessimist, but overly happy people scare me, as I have learned that usually means they are hiding something. Anyway, we have another meeting, and I was invited to attend the next WWDB gathering (figured out who they were by the time/date/place I was given). I will still go to the meeting with the Amborg so I can explain face to face why I am not interested, but will not go to the WWDB thing.

Joecool said...

Interesting experience. I hope you will return and share it for the benefits of the readers.

Anonymous said...

so joecool u r here to talk ridicule abt mlm companies u say u r writing n criticise amway from last ten yrs so how much money or future u made by criticising others u hv got bad exp that doesnt mean amway is bad.
Yeah sorry to say as u r doing job that is y ur mentally is like "Just Obey Boss" ie job n for ur kind information amway is an opportunity to do business its ur business mr. not ur uplines nor ur downlines so if u wanna do any business change ur job mentality

Joecool said...

What is a job mentality? Most IBO's need a job to support themselves so do they have a job mentality? With your business mentality, why are you losing money in Amway?