One of the things I heard as an Amway IBO and I believe is still said in some Amway meetings is that conventional businesses do not profit for up to five years. That's bogus. Conventional businesses make a profit as soon as they sell their first product. They may not have a net profit right away because of the initial investment into equipment and rental property, but they do profit by selling goods. The same principle would apply to an Amway business except that Amway IBOs have difficulty selling products. If you opened an Amway catalog and compared their prices to local retailers, you would know what I'm talking about.
Despite the small start up costs and the little to no overhead costs, most IBOs never turn a profit. I will acknowledge that many IBOs probably never do a single thing once they sign up. I believe there is an underlying story behind this as well, but I will move on. Out of the more serious IBOs, even in this group, most of them will never make a net profit if they are using tools. Factoring the cost of the website, the voicemail, standing orders, books and functions and cds, IBOs simply get drained of their money a couple hundred of bucks a month at a time. Amway uplines meanwhile, are earning nice profits on product purchases and someone upline are also earning profits on the tools. The tools carry a higher profit margin so it would make sense that some uplines earn more from tools than from Amway.
Toss in other challenges such as high prices for many products (higher than local retailers) and a crappy reputation from IBO behavior such as tricking people into meetings and you have an opportunity with nearly insurmountable handicaps. Yes, a rare few and usually charismatic people can overcome these odds, but only one or two out of tens of thousands are able to do so. And even those who reach the pinnacle of diamond, may not be able to maintain qualification. It's very common for someone to reach the level of emerald or diamond only to backslide and not qualify the following year. So much for residual income and walking the beaches of the world.
So I don't know all of the detailed statistics about how long it takes for a conventional business to turn a net profit. It may take up to five years. But based on my experiences and some number crunching, I'd have to say that the vast majority of Amway Business Owners NEVER TURN A PROFIT - EVER, and most of them ending up with net losses when business expenses are factored in. And toss in the fact that Amway allegedly has little or no overhead costs and I can only conclude that the Amway opportunity sucks.
Hi Joe, I just wanted to mention that I was recently swindled into this Amway nonsense all of last summer, and that everyone said to “give it 10 years” at every speech, meeting, etc. I live in a big city where all the “special” Amway folks come visit, and they were all super focused on this 10 year timeframe. They all kept saying that that’s how long it takes for a business to truly bloom (I wish I was kidding). I do think they changed it from 2-5 years since too many people were quitting early, who knows. Anyway, thought to let you know. Thanks for all your work on here. I lose around $800 and god knows how much more if it weren’t for these kinds of articles online.
ReplyDeleteI wish my daughter would look at all the stuff online and snap out of it. I am sure she has lost more than $800 since she started a few months ago.
DeleteThanks for your comments and the information. I have not heart about a 10 year plan but I could see upline telling the downline to stick it out, or that it's 2-5 years only if you do everything right. Basically, the longer you stay in, the more you lose. LOL
ReplyDeleteThe change of propaganda from "2 to 5 years" to "10 years" is a direct result of the massive failure to keep down-line in North America. IBOs are dropping out, and it is becoming harder and harder to recruit replacements. So the lie about getting rich quickly has to be altered to be more plausible.
ReplyDeleteThe cause of this is anti-Amway and anti-MLM websites like this one. Joe Cool, Dr. Doe, Anna Banana and many other brave persons have broken the back of Amway's information-control. It is impossible to prevent IBOs from looking things up on the internet, unless you actually confiscate and destroy their computers.
Amway and all its lousy little subsystems like WWDB and Network and BWW and the rest of them are getting thoroughly butt-fucked. They are hemorrhaging profits, and they can't recruit down-line easily.
How delightful!
Dear Anonymous:
ReplyDeleteSeveral years ago a professor produced a major report on Amway, showing it to be a criminal enterprise similar to the Mafia or other organized crime cartels. The professor was G. Robert Blakey.
You can still access his report on line at this address:
www.ratbags.com/rsoles/comment/amwayblakeyreport.htm
The Amway Corporation has tried very hard to suppress this report by Professor Blakey, just as they have tried to destroy all copies of "Merchants of Deception."
Amway is VERY dangerous, both financially and psychologically. I hope your daughter sees that soon, before she is sucked into the racket forever.