Amway IBOs Talk A Good Game Plan?

 Having blogged for a number of years now, I have observed that IBOs talk a good game about retailing, sponsoring and doing Amway business related activities. They will tell you to set yourself up with 20 customers, sponsor 6 frontline, show a number of plans and set up certain follow ups with contacts, and doing other activities supposedly to build an Amway business. I find if humorous when these same IBOs start throwing insults or diverting the discussion when someone asks if they are actually making money. Of course, it would be understandable and perfectly reasonable if a new IBO would admit they had not made a fortune as of yet, but it seems that even that response is not forthcoming from IBOs.

It seems that the Amway business is simple enough. Buy some products, sell products and try to sponsor some downline in order to leverage your volume with your downlines. IBOs mistakenly believe that you can build it once correctly and that the income will flow into future generations. What goes unnoticed is that IBOs come and go with such a high frequency, that a business generating residual income would be like a sandcastle on the beach. You might build it nice and big, but the waves of attrition would quickly turn that sandcastle into nothing. The same would be true of an Amway business. The IBOs dropping out would wipe out your business unless you are constantly replacing the people who quit. IBOs like to talk about Amway sales and how the company is growing in sales, but the Amway sales have no relationship with making IBOs more profitable.

IBOs may also toss in comments about how they are nicer people or how they are improving their marriage because of the Amway business. I often wonder how that can be when functions and meetings take you away from your family and spouse. I suppose it could be because the uplines talk about people being nicer or tossing out lies about Amway and the AMOs saving marriages. I remember a WWDB diamond talking about how WWDB members had a 2% divorce rate while the rest of society has a 60% divorce rate. Ironically, that diamond's marriage ended in divorce. I believe this crap is still taught as a WWDB IBO who blogs, had mentioned this tidbit on his blog last year. I don't believe Amway IBOs or anyone else has a higher or lower rate of divorce than society, but it becomes an issue when uplines teach it and their downlines repeat it.

It would seem that Amway IBOs talk a good game. They know what to say and how to act, but they're like poker players who are bluffing. If you call them on it, they are likely to fold in their hands because they don't have the goods. It is why many Amway discussions turn into an insult contest, when the IBO suddenly gets confronted with facts that are contrary to upline teaching. It's usually quite funny but I wonder if these folks question their upline or go on their merry way repeating uplines lies? It becomes apparent to everyone but the IBO when they are repeating crazy stuff taught by their upline. Good luck to anyone who tries to build this business against nearly insurmountable odds.

Amway IBOs can talk the talk, but struggle to walk the walk.

An Amway Shill?

 Nice Article. Could not resist posting it.  This article is a bit dated but it illustrates the lengths that suspected shill IBOFB used to go through to defend Amway.  Joecool did not author this article.  But enjoy.  LOL

http://network21amway.blogspot.com/2011/04/truth-about-amway.html

The real truth about Amway is that Insider is A Paid Shill - IBOFightback has been exposed.

Massive News for those familiar with the history of deceitful Amway business practices, it's finally confirmed: David Steadson AKA IBOFightback / IBOFB / Insider / Insider201283 who for years everyone has suspected to be paid by Amway has finally been exposed as a professional shill / public relations imposter and we have proof!

Talk about "selling your soul" for the almighty dollar.

For those who are not aware of David Steadson, his ignorance is only matched by his arrogance. He'll go to any lengths to make his point no matter how stupid or false. Constantly lying and spinning the truth, which appears is actually what he does for a living.
For those who are not aware of David Steadson he is pretty much the only pro-Amway person on the internet. He runs at least 20 (we found 23+) sites dedicated to attempting to improve the public image of Amway, Network 21 and Multi Level Marketing schemes in general, and cover up any material that does not paint these companies with a super positive point of view.

What is already known about his role as a distributor?
In one source from November 2008 it was claimed IBOFB was not building an Amway business and was last fully active in 1999. "This business" was handed over to his ex-wife. We find that a "David Steadson" had a 100 PV business in Australia in 2008. On the Amway Australia website data reported IBO number 6195154 David Steadson from QLD Australia qualified for the minimum bonus level in 2008!
How does this contradiction occur? "I've operated 6 different and separate Amway businesses" IBOFB says.
Why would anyone operate that many Amway businesses? Cause for suspicion.
On Dec 17, 2009 he stated "I currently have three" when asked about his many Amway businesses.
That is not even more than a year and a half ago, yet last night we were informed of this interesting claim by Insider made only the other day "More than a decade ago I actively built an Amway distributorship, I have not done so for many years and that business was transferred to my former wife. Like many other people I continue to maintain a membership primarily for the purpose of getting Amway products" It seems the truth about Amway and David Steadson changes whenever it suits him, yet another lie and deceiving behaviour.


Some of his propaganda sites include:
http://www.amway.com/nedami
http://www.thetruthaboutamway.com / www.thetruthaboutquixtar.com / ttaa.biz
http://www.amwaywatch.com/
http://mlmliberal.blogspot.com/
http://amwaynorthamerica.blogspot.com/
http://quixtarbusinessreview.blogspot.com/
http://quixtatic.blogspot.com/
http://amwaylatin.blogspot.com/
http://www.amwaywiki.com/
http://amwayaustralia.blogspot.com/
http://www.amwaytalk.com
http://amwayeurope.blogspot.com/
http://www.amwaywatch.com/
http://amquixvideo.blogspot.com/
http://ibofightback.vox.com/
http://ibofightback.livejournal.com/
http://www.amwaypricecomparisons.com
http://www.mlmfacts.net
http://www.nedami.com - Network 21 promo site
http://www.youtube.com/user/insider201283 Copyright issues?
http://twitter.com/#!/ibofb

and these are just the ones we found with a few minutes research, there are possibly many more.
The name is a bit of a slip up anyway, "Insider", a reference to working from the inside of the company, not just an IBO, or perhaps a reference to the movie about the real life situation of big tabacco companies, law suits, coverups and public relations gone mad?

Why would you, and what would motivate someone to run so many sites dedicated to one cause? Running a hobby site or 2 is way more effort dedicated than most people would want to waste time on, 20 is beyond obsession, more like profession. His close minded verbose rants on Wikipedia are enough for a part time job in themselves. I don't have the time nor inclination to read and dissect his over 2000 contributions / propaganda efforts, mostly on Amway, Network 21 and MLM related articles under the alias Insider201283, but the truth is obvious to any half intelligent person that reads any of his edits.
In particular I have been made aware of:







He is posting heavily biased contributions, attempting to remove or play down all negative aspects



Rewording things to sound much better than they are in reality (like replacing the term pyramid scheme, or attempting to remove it all together etc)



Outright lying



Posting press releases, sometimes with data not yet even available to public (which is proof enough of some dubious inside connection).



Generally making the articles sound like promotional material and advertisement brouchures.



Posting his own sites as references, then lying through his teeth saying he has not.

Attempting to discredit and character assasinate anyone with a valid fact that does not meet his not so hidden agenda, one of the lowest forms of debate, and indicative of someone who's argument holds no ground.

As a result of his arguments holding no water, he uses these tactics a lot on Wikipedia and on all of his sites and other people's. Smart people can filter out this cheap trickery, however it may work on a certain demographic, such as those less intelligent, more desperate in life people that pyramid schemes seem to attract that are not by nature critical thinkers but more like easily led sheep.

There seems to be a couple of minor efforts to keep him in check, but I think most people have better things to do with their time than sit on Wikipedia and makes hundreds and thousands of edits childishly arguing the rules to the same extent and a few other people on there do. Whatever the case, that is one sad excuse for a life.

So where is the smoking gun evidence that David Steadson is paid to promote such companies, and trawl the internet all day attempting to fix their image?

There is a mountain of circumstancial evidence, as mentioned by others in the past, made obvious in his own posts, and little things like Amway/Network 21 removing other people's videos due to copyright claims, yet allowing "Insider201283" to post all of these official Amway videos (and who do you think gives him these videos in the first place?):

Our attention was recently directed to these mysterious sites discovered:

www.tribetalk.net
www.tribetech.net

Registered to one:David Steadson
Phone Contact: +46.732536211 Email: david@steadson.com

From these sites:
"Reputation management in the Internet Age"
"TribeTech provides professional internet community development, monitoring, reputation research and crisis response services"
"Whether you like it or not, you and your company are being discussed on the Internet. With our unique cross-discipline experience in internet technologies, public relations, social media, and marketing we can help you build a positive brand presence on the internet, and in the marketplace.
• THREAT ANALYSIS
• CRISIS RESPONSE
• SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
• MARKET RESEARCH
• COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
• SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT
• REPUTATION MANAGEMENT
• STRATEGIC INFLUENCE"

Funny, isn't that the description of exactly what he is already doing for Amway? Sounds pretty guilty to us. That is clear admission, and evidence he is a public relations paid shill.

When you're already dedicating enough effort to your tonne of Amway sites, arguing on the internet, doing legal document research and constantly corresponding with official Amway employees, enough to easily be a part time (if not full time) job, where do you get time to run your reputation management / propaganda business? Easy, you combine the two! Everyone on honest and legitimate Amway blogs and websites have long been making these accusations, as it just looks obvious, but there was never any hard proof apart from his completely disengenous posts that are not at all believable to anyone with a brain. People have for years been disproving his lies and credibility (and reporting his honest level in the Amway business), and know not to trust a word of what he says ever, especially when he disguises his warped opinion in facts and an undeserved authoritative tone.

Now it makes perfect sense that some part of the Amway organisation is paying Mr Steadson, and if you ask us, the fact he has a site offering his services for these exact accusations is pretty damning proof!

So who pays the money to Mr Steadson for his efforts, is it Amway Global, Network 21, Jim Dornan, Alticor or perhaps some obscure shady Delaware corporation? It is doubtful he will ever come clean and admit who pays him for his reputation management services, but my money would be on the IBOAI, or some other general Multi Level Marketing association or other Amway front group. Just another tick in the box for these merchants of deception.

Now it all makes perfect sense, and the final piece of the puzzle has been put in place, not that he had any credibility to begin with.


Operating these businesses, and working in other IT fields as reported on his other sites is proof enough that the Amway system is a failure. After more than 10 years being in Amway he obviously is not living on an island paradise, but is in fact working at least one JOB, constantly busy, and his wife has left him, not really the picture of a successful Amway person is it? Can you believe this guy is basically the public face of, and self proclaimed expert on Amway?

Even if we didn't prove Amway was paying David Steadson, and for
arguments sake let's just imagine he had no vested interest, and honestly was just doing it for the love of the company, success or not. At best, he is a crazed zealot, likely to have some kind of serious mental disorder. What sane person would champion Amway so fiercly, and waste so much time with all those websites, trying to fix their tattered image as a complete business scam for tools. You'd have to be not quite right in the head and not have a shred of integrity to be living such a lie.

Let's pretend for once his lies and deceit were true and he was just legitimately sticking up for Multi Level Marketing Scam groups (though only selectively for obvious reasons), he still would be the biggest loser in the world. What a tragic excuse for a life.

Now, even if Mr Steadson came out and admitted he was on the payroll as a paid representative or employee of Amway (even if technically disguised in reality as a 3rd party consultant), he is doing such a poor job, spreading lies, stretching the truth, and giving such a dishonest representation of the truth that anyone can see through the marketing hype. When your stories, research and lies you present as facts seem so fake, do not seem at all genuine, it's a wonder why Amway would pay (or even allow for free) anyone to stuff up their reputation so badly. He is doing a lot more harm than good, which is hilariously ironic if they are the ones paying for such poor service.


Very special thanks to those who wrote in and helped provide damning evidence and research and Wikipedia references, I can't use it all unfortunately. We've had a surprising spike in feedback lately, and we appreciate it all, from the poorly typed insults and rebuttals from scammers, spammers and brainwashed idiots, to the cries for help from those family members who feel their loved ones have been suckered in, and of course all the helpful feedback and support.

Is An Amway Business Sustainable?

 One of the big selling points of the Amway business is for people to do the work once and then reap financial benefits for life. Thus, the term lifelong residual income or passive income. But that simply does not happen for the vast majority of IBOs. The reason why most IBOs do not have a sustainable business is because their business is not based on sales to genuine non- IBO customers with a genuine need or desire for these products. Most IBOs themselves will not buy Amway products once their affiliation with Amway is over. Many IBOs are willing to pay the "premium" prices while they believe Amway will make them rich, but when the reality sets in that they are not making money or losing money (more likely), somehow their loyalty to Amway products goes out the window.

If you are an IBO doing your 100 PV monthly, then your only way to increase volume is to sponsor downline in hopes that they will also do their 100 PV as shown in the plan. And even if you are somehow able to accomplish this and sponsor a bunch of people as shown in the plan, chances are that many IBOs will "do nothing" and of the remaining, some will move 100 PV, but they will likely quit in one year or less. The attrition and failures in Amway make it nearly impossible to build and sustain a group. Even diamonds are working hard to help their downline keep up the volume or they too, will fall out of qualification. Has anyone actually heard of a diamond who walked away from Amway and is collecting large residual checks while doing nothing? IBOs often talk about it but not a single one can name one of these individuals.

In many or possible most cases, IBOs are only selling the Amway opportunity and not Amway products. They sell the possibility or hope that they will build a business, walk away and collect untold wealth for the rest of their lives. It isn't going to happen. Say for example, you sold 100 PV monthly on a consistent basis to customers. These customers will automatically go online and make purchases when they run out of their products. If you are lucky, they will also refer friends to make purchases. But most IBOs do not sell products, they are selling the opportunity. Thus, once the business building stops, so goes the product purchases in the vast majority of cases.

That brings up the next point about why an Amway business is not sustainable for most. The products cost more than most other retailers. That will limit the potential for customers and referrals. Amway defenders like to cite quality issues, but most customers who shop online aren't familiar with Amway products and have no way to know whether Amway has quality products or not. That leaves them to decide based on prices. And Amway in general, costs much more than Walmart for the same or similar products. A tough sell indeed and for these reasons, I find the Amway business to be unsustainable. There is no other conclusion that can be made.

The Foolproof Business?

 One of the pitches I heard about Amway was that it's basically "foolproof". And what the speaker meant by that is that when you join Amway, you either make money or save money because you save about 30% by buying from Amway. On the surface, that sounds like a can't lose proposition. How can you lose when you either make some money by selling tuff or at least save money by purchasing at a discount from your own "store"? Well, if you take the statement at face value, you'd be a fool not to sign up right?

But most people do not check into these statements with a skeptical eye. Amway products are generic in nature, but premium in price. And they have to be because Amway's "generous bonus" to the IBOs are included in the cost of their products, not to mention Amway has to make a decent profit. For that reason, you would be hard pressed to find similar products at Wal Mart or Costco that aren't a fraction of Amway's prices. Take the time to do your own comparisons and you'll see. Also, the 30% savings that is referred to is 30% off full retail price for Amway products. It is not a 30% savings from comparable products you can get at Wal Mart or Costco. So, a good example, is Amway's flagship vitamins (double x). Double X multi vitamins (30 day supply) is around $80 at full retail price and the IBO price is about $52 or so. So yes, you have significant savings as an IBO from the full retail price. However, I can get a 90 day supply of multi vitamins at Costco or Wal Mart for about $24.99. You can argue quality, but there are no unbiased scientific studies that indicate that Amway vitamins are any better.

The other flaw in Amway's foolproof opportunity is Amway's money back guarantee. Amway has a decent return policy on products that aren't satisfactory, and they may even refund your signup costs for the business opportunity. But here's the flaw in that refund policy and in the past, resulted in Amway settling (without admitting fault) to pay damages for people who lost money running Amway businesses. presumably following bad business advice by Amway uplines and diamonds. So, look at it this way. You get lured into a business opportunity where you can spend significant time and money after signing up to be an Amway IBO. You can follow upline advice and you can still lose a lot of money. For all your lost time and money, Amway might make some product refunds and refund your small signup fee. Despite what you may have been told, you may have endured significant financial risk running an Amway business. Some people have lost thousands, tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands trying to build their business. It's no consolation to get some product and possibly the signup fee refunded.

Therein lies the scam. If you are trying earnestly to follow upline advice and "hang in there" and try your best, you may expend significant time and money trying to succeed in your Amway business. Big deal if Amway gives back the signup fee. What about the thousands you may have spent on standing orders, attending functions, ordering books, and "driving the miles" to succeed. While Amway may have some small print disclosures about how you may not achieve the same results, there certainly isn't the kind of full disclosure that legitimate business opportunities have. And Amway is legally separate entities from their IBOs because they are "independent". In my opinion, the only way to stop this is to hold Amway accountable for lies and deception used by their IBOs. And that's how it should be - because if someone lies or deceives to get someone to sign up and build the business or to sell products, Amway is certainly a beneficiary of those lies and deceit. They should be held accountable.

Amway is far from foolproof, unless you have been fooled.

What's The Bottom Line?

 In my point of view. one of the most critical mistakes that many IBOs make is to ignore the bottom line when analyzing their Amway businesses. (Many IBOs don't even analyze their businesses) Most business building IBOs, sadly, are taught by their uplines to ignore losses, or to view losses as investments into their businesses, or that money is really not important. Some upline may teach that the business is more about making friends or being a nicer person. All of these things may be nice side benefits of reading personal development books, etc., but when running a business, the only goal should be to turn a profit. 

For many IBOs, their businesses consist of listening to standing orders, attending functions and meetings, but not focused on selling products and earning a net profit. And for most IBOs, nobody can blame them as upline may give them bad advice and because the Amway business is person to person selling, it is so inefficient that many groups end up teaching IBOs to simply buy their own volume and get others to join the business. For groups who operate primarily in this manner, you are probably running an illegal business because new and existing IBOs can profit only by continuing to add more downline IBOs in the hope that they too, will buy their own volume and sponsor others. 

When you look carefully at the business plan, whether it is 6-4-2, 9-4-2 or some other variation, the majority of these business building IBOs will have low volume and likely to earn only about $10 a month. But to earn that $10 a month, you are likely to have to spend $300 on products, and if you are on standing order, voicemail and functions, then you likely spend anywhere from $150 to $250 monthly to participate in the teaching system. Thus, these IBO's bottom line is a net loss! It is only when you are able to sponsor many downline that your losses will get smaller, and you will only profit when you have a sizable downline. That means your bottom line is a loss. And while Amway defender will argue that Walmart doesn't even give you $10 a month, you can certainly get more products from Walmart for $300 than you can get from Amway for the same price. Walmart will match any advertised price on a product that they and a competitor may carry. Also, Walmart's advertising reaching millions of people, which is much more effective than person to person. While Amway runs some ads now days, they do not directly drive customers to IBOs. The vast majority of IBO business is still to themselves and their downline, and not to non-IBO customers. 

I challenge IBOs to look objectively at their bottom lines. It is likely a new loss. If it is, ask your upline how long this is expected to last. Set hard goals and if you are doing what is advised by upline and results to not improve, you may have to ask yourself what will change to make your business profitable. Basically, if you aren't adding active downlines and customers regularly, you aren't going anywhere and are likely to be running your business at a loss month after month after month. It won't take long before you realize that you have lost thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars. 

As a former IBO with a 4000 PV business with eagle parameters, I was not making a net profit. I saw my bottom line and although doing and achieving what my upline advised, there was no money. I decided the effort, time and money invested wasn't worth it. Plus, my upline started to interfere in my personal life. I saw my bottom line and wasn't satisfied, and I left Amway. I later discovered the lies my upline had fed me to keep me in the business and to keep me buying tools. It is why I started blogging. For now, my bottom line is to get the truth out about the unethical and IMO, illegal tools scam run by upline. That is bottom line for this blog.

Why Amway Is A Tough Sell?

 In one of my very recent posts, there was discussion about how in theory, someone could make a living selling Amway products.  But that person would have to be working nearly full time, servicing customers and prospecting for new customers.  My comment was that anyone who was that talented in sales could form a much more lucrative career selling cars or houses if that had that much accumulated sales acumen.  Let's face it, sales is a tough business.  That's why some uplines train their downline to ask prospects if they like sales.  And whether the prospects likes or hates making sales, the answer is "great, then Amway is perfect for you".  If the prospect likes sales, then you guide them towards sales and those that do not, are guided into the "buy from yourself" group.

The inherent problem with Amway, in my opinion, is that the business is set up where you cannot reach the high levels such as emerald or diamond, without an emphasis on recruiting downline.  It's possible for someone to reach platinum or ruby levels in Amway because they are based on PV volume and downline "legs" are of no consequence.   However, as far as I know, there are no long time sustained platinums or rubies based only on sales volume without downline.  They might exist, but they are likely more like sasquatch or UFOs.   People have heard about them, but there is no conclusive proof that they exist.

Back to sales, the challenge for Amway IBOs and prospects, is that they are selling generic in nature products (Amway stuff) for premium prices.  Selling little or un known stuff for high prices makes for a difficult challenge in sales.  Even premium products for premium prices can be challenging, but at least you get premium commissions.  Not so in Amway with the multi tiered layers of upline and downline.  And to make it worse, your spot in the hierarchy, including your upline, is all based on who signed up first.  Do you know how ridiculous this sounds in real life?  Especially when upline generally counsels downline on business and even marriage issues at times?

Let's say a 50 year old well established businessman with a good marriage joined and is somewhere downline of 20 something year olds.  That businessman is expected to take business and life advice from young kids because they signed up before him.   Yes, this is part of the Amway business, as taught by the LOSs such as WWDB, BWW, N21, etc.  Of course teachings might have variations and some groups might show a little more common sense, but the hierarchy exists in all Amway LOS, as far as I know.  For these and other reasons which we'll explore later, it makes Amway a very tough sell for anyone.

 

Why Critics Are Needed?

 I often wondered what the Amway opportunity would be without any critics. Many Amway supporters think that critics exist only to tear down others or to bash the Amway opportunity. As if my differing opinion would crush someone's big Amway dreams.  If they quit that easily, they likely would have found another reason to quit eventually.  I see it completely opposite. I believe that Amway critics are important for IBOs. Without any opposing voice, IBOs would mistakenly believe that they are in Amway utopia except that eventually, they would eventually notice that they are losing their shirts.

When I was an IBO, our upline (and many others apparently) claimed that nobody made any profits from the system (voicemail, books, tapes/cds/audios. functions). Without any opposing voices, this might still be happening. IBOs had no way of knowing back in 1996 or 1997 when I was an IBO. Upline just told bold lies and got away with it. To this day, none of these "awesome" leaders have even been held accountable for the lies. The diamonds simply ignored it. Sure, they now speak about tools profits, but there is little transparency about how you actually qualify for a share and how much you get when you qualify.

Critics have also pointed out that many IBOs are taught to ignore important facts such as their profits versus losses. Some IBOs are taught "fake it till you make it" or they are taught to "buy from yourself", both of which are ridiculous from a business standpoint. But without an opposing view, IBOs would never question upline. In fact, many IBOs are taught to avoid all negative. Don't watch the news or read the newspaper. In other words, upline wants you to be apathetic and only read and intake their Amway propaganda. This is why some people accuse Amway leaders of running a cult.

Think about this. Your body has pain sensors for a reason. What if you could turn off your pain sensors because you see it as a "negative". Do you think this would be good? Minor cuts or infections could become major health problems or other minor injuries untreated can become life threatening. You could touch a stove and burn your hands, but you wouldn't know it without some pain. For this reason, I believe that having opposing views are also important for IBOs to consider. Valid criticism is good for IBOs who are serious about building their businesses. To avoid negative just for the sake of avoiding negative is silly. Critics are important.  

What Residual Income?

 One of the things that got me interested in the Amway business was the talk about lifelong or even generational residual income. Residual income is something that keeps coming in even if you don't do anything. For example, if you put $100 in the bank, you would earn interest every month. The problem is that $100 would only get you a few cents each month and it would not be enough for you to retire and enjoy the trappings of wealth. But what is a reality is that you will not achieve this in an Amway business, unless you are one of a tiny fraction of 1% who can overcome incredible odds.

The IBO retention rate of Amway IBO is about 50%. Many IBOs last less than a year and only about 5% of IBOs last more than a few years. Thus, any hopes of "residual income" is highly unlikely. You cannot get repeat customers and downline when they are quitting faster than you can recruit them. And certainly, you can conclude that you cannot receive residual income when you cannot retain IBOs. In fact, I don't know of any IBOs who have ever "walked away" from their Amway business to enjoy residual income. Have you even wondered why diamonds and crown ambassadors are still working and none of them have quietly retired? I would guess that they don't retire because they cannot. Once you stop, more than likely your income stops. A diamond lifestyle would take a lot of income to maintain. Thus, how can someone walk away and expect to sustain their lifestyle? The answer is obvious to me. You can't walk away and retire. It is probably why even crowns and all the diamonds continue to work busy schedules. I highly doubt they are working because they "love" their downline.

It's no secret that diamonds earn income from the sale of standing orders, voicemail and functions. But once you stop appearing at functions, I do not believe you would continue to share in tool profits. Also, Amway has a requirement of "side volume" in order for an IBO to receive certain bonuses. How can you maintain a level of side volume without being active and recruiting IBOs? My upline said your downline will do what you do. If you "walk away", so will your downline. The only way for your Amway business to survive is to keep working. Sometimes I wonder if the diamonds even have a plan and enough savings and investments to actually retire someday?

Breaking down a diamond's income is basic math. Even a $250,000 annual income isn't that much when you break down all of the expenses associated with a diamond lifestyle. The diamond lifestyle is an illusion of wealth. One that looks flashy, but I am not convinced that these diamonds are living large behind the scenes. Many professional athletes end up broke within years after their playing careers are over. These athletes earn much more than Amway diamonds. The difference is that diamonds can keep working while pro athletes cannot. But the common denominator in my opinion is living a lifestyle that your income cannot sustain. I hope you see the similarities. To me it is crystal clear.

Building Wealth?

 One of the Amway myths that upline used to, and likely still perpetuate is the claim that you can build an Amway mega empire on 8-12 hours per week. I'm venturing an educated guess that this number is used because while it still represents time, it is probably less hours than working a part time job. But let's take a closer look at this 8-12 hours per week.

If you listen to one (1) cd per day as recommended by upline and read one of their "success" books 15 minutes each day, you already spending close to nine hours of time used and neither of these activities produces any income for your Amway business. In fact, both activities cost you money and produce no tangible result. If you spend another 15 minutes a day contacting people, you are close to 12 hours per week. Where will you find additional time to show the plan and to expand your name and contact list? What about servicing customers, at least for IBOs who actually may have some customers.

What about attending meetings and functions? These are also non income producing activities. It's no wonder the vast majority of IBOs don't make money. Their upline has them running around participating in activities that produce no income for their businesses. Ironically, their non income producing activities such as listening to a cd, produces a lot of income for certain uplines who produce and sell them. To me, it is just an elaborate game of bait and switch played by upline. Your upline might tell you that you "need" these tools to succeed but the reality is that the tools take away resources and you wind up in non-income producing activities such as listening to cds.

You sell the prospect the dream of financial freedom. You tell that prospect that Amway is their best chance. You tell them that you can help them and that the tools of the business (standing order, voicemail, books, functions) are the key to their success. Those who are serious enough to commit to the system likely won't quit without making some effort and will allow uplines to earn some nice profits before these downline eventually realize they aren't profitable and quit. Because many IBOs are sponsored by family and friends, you don't see too many formal complaints about the business. Most people chalk it up as a life lesson and do not complain.

But IBOs and information seekers, do not be fooled into thinking that you will create a financial empire by working 8-12 hours a week. If you attended a big meeting, look around and see how many people are rank and file as compared to the "successful" IBOs. It's likely less than 1%. Not the kind of odds a real businessman would undertake.

Don't Quit Your Day Job?

 So many Amway IBOs have grandiose dreams of untold wealth, financial freedom. They think they will "build it once' and sit back on the beaches of the world sipping exotic drinks while the 6 figure checks keep coming in the mail. Sure, it's a nice thought, but not a single IBO I have encountered can name a single IBO who achieved diamond, and walked away from the business to enjoy freedom while the money pours into their bank accounts. It is very likely that nobody like this exists. I suppose someone could go diamond and walk away from the business and still earn some bonuses, but very quickly, that business would likely fall out of qualification and the bonuses would shrink to nothing very quickly. Also, to earn bonuses, I believe an IBO needs to have side volume exceeding 2500 PV, which is roughly $7500 monthly in personal group volume. With normal attrition, it's easy to see how a diamond business can fall apart faster than a cheap suit without maintenance.

I also see and hear many IBOs popping off about how someone in their upline earning $60,000 a year. While it may seem like a nice income to someone who has a low paying or entry level job, that income is gross and may not leave much left after taxes and associated business expenses. Even a diamond with an average income of $150,000 in a year likely has a very low monthly income from Amway as much of that income comes in the form of an annual bonus. As a former emerald once told me, you needed to budget out that annual bonus or you could be in financial trouble later in the year, if Amway is your sole source of income.

Also, you may have seen diamond showing off sports cars and other displays of wealth. My former LOS, WWDB has a function called "Dream Night" where they show off lavish displays of wealth. Well, it is my informed guess that most diamonds cannot afford the lifestyles and toys that they show off in these functions. If you do the math, you can see that after taxes and other expenses, a diamond lifestyle is likely to be quite ordinary. Normally, nobody would care about this but since diamonds use this display of wealth to recruit IBOs and to sell tools, it is significant for IBOs to know.

While it is great for someone to have dreams and goals, it is also important to have achievable goals. It is simply impossible for a room of IBOs to go diamond and to earn the kind of income that is shown in "the plan". Amway recruiters will show you "what's possible", but not "what's likely". To put perspective on that, it's "possible" that you can start a software company that puts Microsoft out of business, but it's not likely. It's possible for you to win the lottery, but not likely. My advice to IBOs is not to quit your day jobs - ever. Your dreams and goals can be accomplished in many ways, but it is unlikely to be achieved with an Amway business.

Food for thought. If diamonds have so much free time and money to burn, why don't we see slide shows of them donating $10.000 checks and volunteering to help the less fortunate more often?

2-5 Years?

 One of the things I heard as an Amway IBO, and is still promoted is the concept of a 2-5 year plan to financial freedom. As a prospect, 2-5 years of hard work in your spare time sounds reasonable. After all, anyone can work an extra 12 hours a week for a couple of years with that kind of reward awaiting you at the end. The sad reality is that you are likely to suffer 2-5 years of financial losses without getting any closer to financial freedom.

When Amway morphed into Quixtar, a very relevant question was how many diamonds were "quixtar only", meaning they signed up in 1999 when quixtar was implemented and then became diamonds in the advertised 2-5 years. As far as I know, there were very few (if any) new diamonds. The new diamonds that were named all seemingly came from other countries, not the US or Canada. Even now, my former LOS (WWDB) is touting "double eagle rubies" which is not a recognized achievement by Amway (as far as I know), and there is no assurance that achieving such a level makes an IBO profitable.

Even today, I do not see a steady stream of new diamonds emerging from Amway. If the 2-5 year plan actually worked, there would be new diamonds constantly emerging. Instead, my former LOS (WWDB), actually has fewer diamonds now than back in my IBO days, as far as I can tell.  And of those diamonds who remain, some of them had homes foreclosed and it also appears that at least a few of them ran into some financial difficulties. Makes me wonder what a diamond's finances actually look like. I suspect many of them live in debt, especially if they flaunt the "diamond lifestyle", which is probably not sustainable on diamond income as reported by Amway.  If so many Americans are in debt, why wouldn't diamonds also be in debt when they flaunt a lifestyle of excess?

So while it might be possible to achieve diamond in 2-5 years (some have done it), but tens of millions (or more) have tried. It is much more likely that you will win the lottery (provided you have a ticket) than it is likely that you will join Amway and go diamond. It is also unlikely that people in the US and Canada who join will go diamond in the advertised 2-5 years. The 2-5 year plan is not promoted by Amway, but by the LOS leaders. I believe it is a hoax and the numbers back up my claim. You are much more likely to be better off working part time for 2-5 years and saving and investing for your future. If not, you will end up with 2-5 years of losing money on functions and standing orders.

As many Amway leaders will state: Look at the fruit on the tree. In the US and Canada, the trees are bare.

Amway In A Closed Society?

 Imagine an a city or island with 100 adult residents. One guy gets sponsored into Amway from a cousin in another area off the island. Well, the island residents are a pretty tight knit group so the one IBO immediately sponsors his six best friends and eventually, all 100 island residents. They are all dead serious about the Amway business so they all work hard, but because everyone is an IBO, they can only self consume 100 PV each. Thus the 100 IBOs move 10,000 PV each month. The group as a whole generates about 30,000 BV and the group receives $7500 in bonus money from Amway. Of course, the first IBO sponsored is now a platinum receiving most of that money with the rest of the group receiving smaller bonuses.

Being serious IBOs, they all get standing order, books of the month, and travel by air to functions. They pay on average about $250 a month for their Amway training/tools. Thus the group pays about $25,000 a month for the training that will one day allow them to retire and quit their jobs. The island community is losing a net of $17,500 ($25,0000 in expenses minus the $7500 in income generated from Amway) from their local economy each month. However, there is one resident IBO who is making a nice income urging everyone one. Let's evaluate the group.

The platinum IBO is making a nice income and will also receive a $20,000 bonus at the end of the year. His 6 downline friends make just about enough to break even (approximately 1000 PV) or lose a little. The rest of the residents have lost collectively, over $200,000 ($17,500 a month). The guy who owned the local grocery store went out of business and all the entertainment related business closed up because the residents had no disposable income to spend money on anything except for Amway related activities. Eventually they all quit, including the platinum because once his group quit, he too, began to lose money.

Now Amway defenders will cry that this could never happen, but it shows that even if you could get everyone in the US to join, this scenario is what would more than likely, happen. I believe the Amway name and reputation is for the most part, saturated in the US. Nearly everyone will have heard the Amway name and/or will know someone who had a brush with Amway. Because of the tool peddlers such as WWDB, BWW, or Network 21, there are likely millions of people in the US who ended up with a bad experience, perhaps tricked into attending a meeting, or lied to about something related to Amway.

While this story is fictional, it is what I believe would happen if there was a city/island where everyone joined the business. It is what happens today. Few people benefit at the expense of their downline. And as usual, it is the tools that drive people to lose money - on Amway island, or anywhere else.

Joecool Is On Vacation?

 Joecool will be on vacation until January 21st.  I'll be in a few western states with a short stay in Vegas.  No Amway money needed!

In the meantime, here's a short story called "What's the Point"?

There are still a handful of Amway defenders who continue to defend Amway as if it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. No doubt that Amway works wonders for their owners, who are billionaires, and a select few leaders who make handsome profits from selling tools (standing orders, functions, voicemail) as well as Amway bonuses.  Nobody really disputes these facts, but the main point seems to get lost.

The main point is that, even if the Amway owners and some Amway leaders make a nice income from Amway, it doesn't change the fact that the masses lose a lot of money attempting to build an Amway empire. What's more, many of these leaders earn money directly from the pockets of their trusting and faithful downline. The downline are taught to trust the leaders and to do what is advised. Often, that advice is to buy more and more tools and function tickets regardless of how an IBO's business is progressing. There is no business analysis or a look at profits and losses and a return on investment. IBOs are taught to be happy, avoid negative, and keep consuming those tools and functions. Oh, and do it with a big silly grin on your face as well.

Failures in Amway appear to be rampant, but leaders absolve themselves of blame by claiming that the failures are the result of laziness, not enough effort, not doing things right, or lack of follow through on the part of the IBO. Sadly, many IBOs believe this and blame themselves, even if they did work hard and follow upline's sage advice. I believe that over the years, billions of dollars have been lost by millions of IBOs who chase the dream sold by upline. Because many IBOs are sponsored by friends and family, those who quit tend to fade away without much fanfare, leaving Amway and the upline leaders clear of any responsibility.

Too many IBOs miss that point. Hard work and following upline advice doesn't necessarily lead to success, and in fact, more people end up at a loss than those who gain a positive experience in the Amway business. I challenge IBOs to analyze their efforts and their income versus expenses. You are more likely to be expending more on support materials than the amount of income that is received. That's the real point and too many IBOs miss it. Losing money is not success, even if your upline says it is.  Look at the facts, not the advice from someone who has a financial interest in you following that advice.

Money Buys Options?

 One of the things I heard as an IBO was how money may not make you happy but it buys you options. I agree with that, but what is not said is that for 99% (or more) of IBOs, they are likely to have less money because of their involvement in Amway. More specifically, the tools end up being a drain on IBO resources and income, thus the result is a net loss. Factor in the time spent doing the business related activities and the collateral damage can begin to get significant.

I find it somewhat ironic that the reason why many IBOs get involved in Amway is to attain the dream of having more time and money. The time to do anything you want, and the money to be able to do anything you want. This dream however, is like chasing the end of a rainbow. You can see it but it is always out of your reach. Your effort makes no difference, you can never find the end of a rainbow. Just as IBOs are out chasing the dream, hoping to find like-minded people to sponsor.

No matter how many people you can find, it will never be enough. Just look at the triple ripple mega crown ambassadors and quadruple diamonds. How many of them are doing what they want, whenever they want? Sure, you see slide shows of them on trips or at Disneyland, but stop and think. Why are they constantly at functions and meetings? Do they really and truly want to be playing Amway when they can do anything they want whenever they want? Or is it more likely that they profit from selling you standing orders and functions so they continue to work? Do you honestly believe that the diamonds are philanthropic and work out of love for their downline? If so, then ask why they are compensated for doing so. If they loved what they are doing, they would do it for free right? That's how they related to my job, that if I loved it, why would I need compensation?

Money is an important aspect of life. Everyone needs to earn some money to pay for their homes and to put food on the table. Having more money can obviously give you more options. But do diamonds really have all that money? I suspect not. Diamonds seemingly speak about being "job optional", and being able to walk away from the business, but it makes me wonder why nobody can name even a handful of people who built an sizable Amway business, and walked away to enjoy the beaches of the world while the money keeps pouring in. Amway's been around more than 50 years. Surely there must be many people who are retired and living large on (primarily) Amway income. But these Amway retirees are about as common as the sasquatch or UFOs. Everyone seems to know about them and have heard about them but noone has bonafide proof that they actually exist.

Money buys you more options. But the question is whether or not you can actually attain that money from Amway. My conclusion is that it is highly unlikely.

Dream Night?

 One of the things I was taught as an IBO was to "fake it til you make it". I believe this is probably still true today, based on my interaction with and observation of IBO behavior. If you have followed the trials on various upline leaders such as Shores or Duncan and their financials, you can likely conclude that even the diamonds can be in financial difficulty. Some former diamonds who have left the business or quit have also expressed some similar sentiments. 

But if you examine functions like "Dream Night", where the diamonds show off pictures of mansions, sports cars, boats and jet skis, you can conclude that the diamonds are implying that all of these goodies are a part of their regular lifestyles, including the notion of waking up at noon and never having to work. I believe for most diamonds, this is just a facade, or an exercise in deception of the downline. I recall the diamonds urging the crowd to "come join us". Some IBOs want it so bad that tears roll down their cheeks as they watch the presentation. They honestly believe that 2-5 years working the system assures them of success.   

Around this time of the year, the Amway lines of sponsorship typically conduct a "major" function called "Dream Night".  A function where you have a sit down dinner while the diamonds show slide shows of their alleged wealth.  You'll see pictures of mansions. nice cars, etc.  Of course, nobody really knows if all the diamonds own these things or if a long time tenured diamond owns all the luxuries while the lesser diamonds own little to nothing.  Dream night is just to get IBOs to think big and create dreams that will motivate them to work harder.  In the end, it's a dog and pony show, in my opinion.

The sad reality is that most IBOs, even with some, or a lot of hard work, will end up making nothing, or if fully engaged in the system of functions and cds and books, will end up with a loss. IBOs who stick around for a few years might see losses in the thousands or tens of thousands. All the while their upline may have been telling the group the never quitting is the key or that you will "make it" if you keep going because success might be right around the corner.  Nothing could be further from the truth. There's no evidence that working hard and never quitting will result in anything but additional financial losses.

If diamonds and high pins are putting on a show, what about the average rank and file IBOs? I believe that many of them are also fakes. They may wear suits and talk about success, but ask one of them if they actually make a net profit and you'll get more excuses than answers. The typical answer will be that it's none of your business, or that their results are not indicative of yours because it depends on effort. This is just a diversion. If someone is promoting the opportunity and then flaunting a lifestyle that can allegedly be attained through the opportunity, then the folks making the claim should be able to qualify their claims. It is normal in everyday business for potential business partners or investors to seek evidence or proof that the business produces what is being advertised. Why Amway IBOs believe otherwise is puzzling, but not surprising. I believe it is because many Amway IBOs are fakes, starting from the top.

Why I Don't Care For Amway

 Once upon a time I was an Amway IBO. This was back in the 1990's. My first brush with Amway was being invited to a "beer bust" while I was in college. I remember showing up to the party only to see my friends in the house wearing suits and with a white board set up. I recall thinking WTF?? Anyway, so as to not be rude to our friends, I stayed and saw the plan and left afterwards thinking what a dirty trick it was to invite us to a beer party to show us the plan. It sucked.  A friend who attended the beer bust with me, had a discussion about whether money could actually be made.  But we dismissed the idea shortly after because we didn't see any real prospects.

Some years later an old friend of mine contacted me and wanted to explain a business proposition to me. He showed me the Amway plan and of course, I only had a bad experience with it. I told my friend to call me later if he actually makes any money off it. About a year and a half later, my friend calls me and tells me he is now a platinum. It got my interest as he said it was not hard and he could easily guide me to do the same. I bit the bait and joined. I actually moved up the ranks quickly, reaching the 4000 PV level in about 6-7 months. But I also realized that moving up was exciting, but my net profit was still practically zero. And along with zero profit, my upline expectations went up. I was supposed to "submit" and do what they say. And there were extra meetings and functions which were at my own expense.

That's when I realized that the whole game is a scam. Yeah, I figured that the diamonds might have it good, but for everyone else, it was a scam. Sure, you can out gain your sponsor and sometimes, a person even breaks through and goes diamond. But it's quite rare and people who achieve diamond can easily lose it, as evidenced by all the former diamonds.

But what I realized that for the rank and file and even the Platinums, it's a scam. You are basically selling false hopes and dreams. You get some young and motivated people to join but the reality is that an excess of 99% of them will fail and most of them will lose money, some lose significant money. But for most, they never even had a chance when they signed up. That's because to perpetuate the scam, prospects are told only the best-case scenario and not what's likely. They aren't told that most people do nothing or that most cannot sponsor anyone. Products are difficult to sell and that a neutral price comparison would be damaging to Amway.

Instead, we were told to be open minded.  we were told not to talk to family and friends about the Amway opportunity, listen only to upline (who have a conflict of interest), and to never quit. This is all great advice for the upline diamonds who greatly benefit from this advice. Especially since they profit from almost everything you do. They tell you lies about being a nicer person or strengthening your marriage through Amway but once you are signed up, it's rarely about how much money you are making. They want you to enjoy riches vicariously by living your upline's dreams. They often think their diamond walks on water when in reality, they are just lying and deceiving downline in order to sell them tools and functions.

Your diamonds might be living their dreams, but they do so by taking advantage of their downline while pretending to be their trusted advisors and mentors. And that's one of many reasons why I dislike Amway.

Evidence Against The "System"?

 It is my observation that people who join Amway usually end up losing money in the end. They may get involved to make a few bucks or because they are mistakenly led to believe that they will become millionaires in Amway in 2-5 years. I know my sponsor convinced me that we would be millionaires in a few years. These folks who recruit new IBOs into Amway are often associated with a "system" such as Worldwide Dream Builders (WWDB) or Network 21 (N21). These system promoters, often diamonds, may mislead the recruits by showing them pictures of mansions or other luxuries, implying that they attained these goods with their Amway business. In many cases, it is a deception, especially when to know for a fact that some diamond leaders who proclaimed that they only make cash purchases, had their homes foreclosed. Without the hype, I am sure there would be fewer sign ups. But what is the evidence?

It is simple. Amway reports that the average active IBO earns about $202 a month in gross income. This average includes diamonds and other higher end IBOs. I believe if you calculated the median, the average would be much lower.  Also, Amway disregards IBOs who "do nothing" by counting only "active" IBOs.  Active is loosely defined as an IBO making an attempt at a sale or to sponsor a downline.  However, a true "average" income would thus be $100 a month gross income.  

But what makes IBOs operate at a loss is the system expenses. The system generally consists of voicemail, standing orders, cds, functions, books and other materials. An average business building IBO might spend an average of $250 a month (or more, depending on the level of commitment) on these expenses. Amway defenders like to decry the amount, but there are couples who would likely spend more and IBOs who must travel by air to functions would spend more. Single IBOs who buy only the minimum might spend a bit less. Some IBOs with abusive uplines might spend much more than $250 a month on tools. I believe my former sponsor probably spent easily an average of $1000 a month on average. (I am from Hawaii so the average cost of functions is greater due to long distance travel)

Thus, if the average IBO earns $202 a month but the same average IBO spends $250 a month, or more, on tools, the average active IBO is losing at least $48 a month, with lower level IBOs (i.e. 100 PV) would lose more.

Look at a group of 100 IBOs at 100 PV. (This is just a model). If a 100 business building IBOs average $250 a month on tools, they as a group would expend $25,000 a month on tools. Their volume would be 10,000 PV, or about 30,000 BV. This would generate about $7500 in bonuses per month. Thus, this group spent $25,000 to learn and be motivated while the group splits up $7500 a month in bonuses. The platinum would get the lion's share of the bonus but most of the rest of the group will suffer net losses. As the group grows, the bonus may grow, but so will their expenditures on tools.

The only way the group can make money as a whole is to avoid participation in the tools altogether. The evidence is right here with simple math. The systems do not work because the cost of the system is likely to consume all of the Amway generated bonuses and more. I gladly challenge anyone to explain in detail how this post is not reflective of the reality of being in Amway and a system such as WWDB or Network21.

The facts speak for themselves.

The Retiree Myth?

 I was watching a show on Discovery channel the other night about Sasquatch. It was followed by a show about evidence of UFOs. It made me start to think about these phenomena. It seems like everyone has heard about or knows something about Sasquatch (Big foot) and/or UFOs. There are many documentaries showing pictures and evidence of both, but to date, there is no bonafide evidence that these things exist. You'd think that a body or bones of a Sasquatch would turn up somewhere, sooner or later, or we would find compelling evidence of a spaceship from another galaxy.

It sounds just like stories of people who built a diamond ship, then "walked away" from their businesses, retired in the lap of luxury and did nothing while the money kept rolling in. I heard numerous scenarios about this happening, but looking back, all the diamonds kept working and since Joecool left the business, the diamond either kept working, or quit or got terminated. But I never heard anyone name some higher up Amway pin who built a business, and then walked away from it to travel the beaches of the world while hundreds of thousands of dollars kept rolling in. Many have heard about it but nobody seems to be able to name any of these folks. I mean after over 50 years in existence, you'd think some of these folks would exist, especially when it seems to be a selling point of the business for many AMOs.

It is my opinion that Sasquatch, UFOs and retired Amway diamonds (with significant Amway income) are non-existent. If these folks existed, there should be at least some shred of evidence of it. The lack of evidence indicates to me that it is either non-existent or so rare that nobody can display bonafide proof. I mean there aren't any T-Rexs roaming the earth anymore, but fossil evidence proves that they existed at one time.

Keeping in mind that the Amway business has a high attrition rate, coupled with low sales to non-IBOs and you can easily conclude that residual and significant income is nearly impossible. An Amway business that is left alone will deteriorate like a sandcastle does as the waves wash it away. You (in theory) could possible walk away from an Amway business for a while and collect some income, but you won't be collecting enough income to live the "diamond lifestyle" as portrayed by diamonds in their functions and open meetings. I'm not even sure that active diamonds can comfortably afford that lifestyle even when building their businesses. There is ample evidence to support my claim. Diamonds losing homes to foreclosure, former diamonds revealing secrets about their income. If you really believe you can walk away from your Amway business and collect untold wealth, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. :-)

IBO Or Sales Person?

 IBO = Independent business owner. I thought it was cool, but looking back at the bottom line, IBOs are just salesmen for Amway with no fringe benefits and no guaranteed salary. Or, a commission only salesman. Salesmen earn their income by selling goods and services, and earn a commission. Sadly, many IBOs sell very few items because they have been taught that you make your money by purchasing items from yourself.

On the surface, buying from yourself sounds sensible but you don't truly make a profit by purchasing your own goods, you simply empty your checking account. Any profit you think you have earned has actually come out of your own pockets. In any business, you must have a base of customers in order to have a steady income. If you are purchasing the majority of your goods, you are only making a profit for Amway the corporation, who makes, or in the case of partner stores, distributes the goods. The ones who actually produce the goods are the ones who profit. An IBO is just someone who sells the goods and who distributes them for a commission.

For most "real" business owners, building their business might mean advertising, creating special sales, and increasing the number of customers or by increasing the volume purchased by existing customers. An IBO who is "building the business" is rarely ever trying to attain more retail customers. In fact, some of Amway's regulations make it difficult to attain a mass of customers such as restrictions on advertising. Therefore, most IBOs who are "building" are simply seeking to add downline who will hopefully buy their PV and also attain more downline. In this manner, IBOs are increasing volume, and therefore their commissions by adding people to their downline. Ultimately, the upline is making their money by the efforts of their downline and often, from the jobs of their downline because there are usually not enough customers to sustain any significant level of sales.

In this day of social networking and power advertising, Amway apparently remains a dinosaur. While they do advertise some of their product line on TV, the salesmen or IBOs have little ability to market their products on a large scale. Instead, it is word of mouth, individual to individual. It is highly ineffective. Do you know why it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars for a 30 second commercial in the super bowl? It's because tens of millions of people are watching. What do you think is more effective for increasing sales, a super bowl commercial or word of mouth advertising. Keep in mind that zany IBO behavior has already damaged the Amway name, thus giving you a disadvantage over other opportunities.

In the end, or the bottom line is that an IBO is just a salesman who receives no fringe benefits, and a relatively small commission. It's a great deal for Amway, but is it a great deal for an IBO?

Live Better, Save Money?

 Live better, save money. It's the slogan of Wal Mart. Save money. It's what many people look to do, whether there's a good or bad economy. Wal Mart is wildly successful and because of their volume, they are able to squeeze the best prices from the manufacturers and pass on the savings to consumers.  This is why consumers are driven to shop at Wal Mart and Sam's Club.  Customers don't need to recruit others and Wal Mart has a good reputation, which is almost diametrically opposed to Amway.

It's kind of ironic that Amway's slogan is "So now you know". They've been around for over 60 years and their commercials say "so now you know". What are we supposed to know? I don't know why they went from Amway to Quixtar, then to Amway Global and now back to Amway. The name changes didn't seem to fool anyone and because of some nutty IBOs, the corporate reputation may have gone through the mud again. But in stark contrast to Wal Mart, Amway manufactures some of their own products. But oddly enough, even these products are not priced to compete with Wal Mart. I suppose there could be merit to the argument that Amway doesn't truly care about the best prices for their IBOs and customers because the IBOs are apparently the primary if not the only customers (in some cases) of Amway products.

Walmart says they will match any published advertised price. Thus, if you wanted to buy say, a bottle of shampoo and you bring in a current printed ad showing a Wal Mart competitor with a better price, Wal Mart will sell it to you at that price. Try doing that with an Amway IBO. LOL Seriously, when you compare sales volume and the delivery system of the two companies, Wal Mart is the present and Amway is in the horse and buggy days. Advertising person to person, while effective in some ways, but is one of if not the least efficient means of moving a large volume of products. I wonder if the Amway executives have evaluated the effectiveness of their "now you know" campaign. I suspect the ads have not made a difference in Amway North American sales.  In facts, sales this past year caught up with Amway's best year, which was 2012 or something like that.  Of course, if there is bonafide evidence to the contrary, I will be glad to post it.

Live better, save money. Wal Mart rocks!

Upline Abuse?

Happy New Year! 

Below is an excerpt from an apparently newbie IBO in Britt Worldwide (BWW). Note how they are taught that they must ask upline before doing their work. This IBO also talks about not having to use his brain, just follow your upline’s advice. Submit to the leaders. Follow the system and success is guaranteed. Right, and Amway apologists have the nerve to deny that this stuff still goes on? I suspect it is more common than Amway defenders will admit.  I was taught this same garbage back when I was an IBO and while this data is a bit old, I still see evidence of it happening now.  It's just that Amway forums and discussions are not as prevalent as it was about 10-15 years ago.  

That is a part of the reason why I still blog and share experiences.  That's because it gives information seekers and prospects a chance to learn about possible problems and pitfalls with the Amway systems.

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http://greatdealmway.blogspot.com/2009/08/bww-system-and-get-success.html

*3 Cardinal rules

A. never pass negative advises or rumors to your down lines.

B. you must ask to your up lines before going on your first work.

C. never ever go bad with anyone’s self motive, money and family members.

*4 powers

1. Unity: unity is most powerful aspect. Do work in unity.

2. Power of submission to your work, up lines and customers: you must understand that you do not need to use your brain in this business. Just follow your leaders and submit yourself to them.

3. Power of spoken words: try out this simple but effective formula to gain success in your life. Speak out regularly about what you want in your life. It should be for this business, for family, for country or anything you want. This will reduce the negative energy and will create positive energy around you.

Do best and follow this system. Success is guaranteed!