Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Is Amway A Viable Business?

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. Certain upline make most of 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 legal on paper, but the way the opportunity is set up, those who profit, primarily do so at the expense of their 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 building 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 is 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.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

The only reason Amway is legal in the United States is because Amway has paid off many legislators to overlook its pyramid-scheme structure and its dubious business practices. And Amway has stacked some governmental investigative agencies with Amway partisans, who always decide in favor of Amway. A great many persons in our government are paid-up whores on retainer for the business.

I would advise every person who is thinking about signing up with Amway or any of its other-named offshoots (Quixtar, WWDB, BWW) to check out on line what the governments of the United Kingdom, Britain, India, and China think about the Amway "opportunity." What you read will make you think twice, believe me.

Joecool said...

Agreed. Amway escaped with a bad ruling in 1979 and now through political cronies, they have become almost bullet proof.

Anonymous said...

Yes, they're bulletproof with the government, but not the internet. Here the truth comes out, and the truth isn't under their control. That why that lying shill Steadson ("IBOFightback") runs around like a lunatic fireman trying to put out every single blaze of testimony and information that appears on the internet about Amway's thievery and corruption. What a pathetic schmuck!

Well, it's too damn late for that. The horrid facts about Amway are now out there for all to see, and are so well documented and evidenced that only the willfully blind and the hopelessly prejudiced don't acknowledge them.

AMWAY IS LEGALIZED THEFT.

Unknown said...

Proud to be a Downline IBO of this system and work with my upline team. Friends.
Amway training says: there are two person , one is able to see mentally this activity , the more dream you have the more success your reach. True wherever you are doing.
The second is not able to see this activity , no dreams , no freedom , forced to work for your whole life . I could debate for each phrase written but would be stupid. My suggestion ?
What is so great about the Amway opportunity? Give you the opportunity to get in and understand how it's works and benefits you'll get. Clever people give their selves the opportunity to try. If you don't try you won't understand it. 90 days and then you sign out and you'll get all money back ( 30 Euro!! what an investement!) .

PS: many friend of mine didn't reach high level but they changed their life anyway.

Anonymous said...

No matter how you look at it jts not a great business. Even dialonds make a low income when you take the net earnings. Unless tools compensate. And most diamonds fall back to zero. So really only crowns earn bkg money and there are very few of them. And they still have to keep going to avoid it collapsing

Joecool said...

The internet basically made it impossible for Amway to hide the secrets about the tools scam. You're right, IBOFightback's "job" was to insert positive comments on thousands of forums and blogs and to divert attacks onto critics to get the discussion away from Amway.

Joecool said...

What success do you refer to? Only a fraction of 1% ever make any decent money. Your friend didn't reach a high level but changed their life? What does that mean? Your friend is now bankrupt because of Amway?

Joecool said...

Most of a diamond's income from Amway comes in the form of an annual bonus so their monthly bonus checks might be fairly small. And diamonds must pay taxes, medical insurance and business expenses. Once it's all said and done, a diamond might be lucky to live a middle class lifestyle but certainly they aren't vacationing all year long with money rolling in.

Anonymous said...

Agreed! We're just gullible and desperate at the same time.

Yes, there is nothing great. Period. It's just that we're blinded by our emotions and desperation that we see this "networking business" as a "great opportunity".

Emotions and desperation are those who suffered a never ending disappointments because they have NO job, NO moral support and that's what caused them to think of Am*** as a "great opportunity" and a "solution" to their problems.