One of the battle cries I heard as an Amway IBO was how one day, we would all be financially free and walking the beaches of the world. Being free and not having to own an alarm clock and not reporting to a boss. I mean it sounded like a cool deal. All you had to do was work the system 2-5 years and follow the proven system of success. At the time, I thought honestly that I was going to do just that. But as time passed, I started to notice things said and taught by the upline leaders that just did not make sense.
For example, why would we constantly be told to get out of debt and live below our means, but it was okay to go deeper in debt to attend a function or to buy more standing orders? If debt is bad, then debt is bad. There wasn't much talk about using your business to generate profits to reduce debt. Just more recruiting and sponsoring. I suspect it's because it's just not feasible to generate enough sales to make any serious income from selling generic brand products for top premium prices. Thus, spend more on tools and get it done right? All hype with no substance, If you see beyond the thin veneer of half truths, it becomes clear what upline is doing.Of course, now I know about how upline's apparent greed was what led to this type of advice. Or we were taught that God was our top priority, followed by our spouse, family, job and then the Amway business. But when anything conflicted with am Amway function or a meeting, the Amway function was ALWAYS to be the priority. "Never miss a meeting, period" was the advice we got from upline. Attend "all" functions. All means all. So much for prioritizing God, family and our jobs before Amway. It was just talk without any action. Even church was secondary to the Amway God. More teaching without substance.
Which leads me to ask prospects and IBOs. What progress are you making? When will you be walking the beaches of the world? Why aren't any of your upline leaders retired from Amway, collecting mountains of cash and walking the beaches of the world? Why doesn't Amway advertise residual income as a benefit of the business if it were true? Can you even name one or two people who built an Amway business and actually walked away from their business and collects income? Surely a 50+ year old business with this benefit must have hoards of people realizing this wonderful benefit? Why can't people name a single diamond who built the business, walked away and enjoyed this benefit that's used as a selling point for Amway?
What many people, including IBOs don't know is that you can never go inactive in Amway. Amway, as far as I know, will only pay bonuses on an active business, thus if you ever walk away, someone will have to run your business. You will also need to move a certain amount of volume in order to qualify for some of these bonuses, and you will have to hope that none of your downline ever quits or stop ordering products, or else your bonuses will dwindle down to little or nothing very quickly. For the higher up diamonds, if you stop, not only will your Amway business fall apart, but you will not receive tool money because you aren't participating. Thus diamonds work until they are physically incapable or until they pass away. That is not freedom.
Not being able to go inactive goes hand in hand with not being able to sell the business. It means there is no separation between business and owner.
ReplyDeleteIn many businesses, when the owner wants out, the business can be sold. But not in Amway, because the "investments" are all in the owner's head, they seem to comprise a long period of acquired wisdom through meetings, coaching and events. Not things you can be sell in a business transaction.
Quite ironic for a business opportunity advertised as easy to get into. For comparison, when a friend brought a car wash he spent a week shadowing the previous owner. He was quite life savvy, but he knew nothing at all about the car wash industry. All investments, the machines, the taps, the storage facilities for the soap and brushes, the vacuum cleaners, were assets worth something to whomever owned the business. That worth was paid for and transferred to the new owner. What is more, when the business was stable and he got a good manager, he could go away for a while and the business would run and generate income for him.
The Amway opportunity is the polar opposite of that, it is the ultimate non-walk-away business. The walk away promise is build on theory. The theory that you'd sign up a few, you spur them on to do the same, and they do the same. All join hoping to recruit and do the same, but their "sales" are what they buy for themselves, and you'd skim a bit of all these purchases. The one problem is it's easier said than done, people know about Amway. You mentioned North America, but it is not really different in many other parts of the world, like Europe or Australia or South Africa. Just the mention of Amway is enough to make people run.
This sets up every owner for a constant battle to address perceptions and get prospects to hear you out, and to keep downline to not quit trying. The business never gets a life of it's own, and there is no walking away, no real concept of liquidating for money, no selling it, no leaving it in the hands of a capable manager, no leaving it as a nest egg for retirement or to offspring.
I'll tell the next eager prospector, that while I don't really have the time to build the business, if the books look good I'll hear him out of he wants to sell it. My accountant tells me there are guidelines for pricing a business without hard assets, for example annual net income after overhead expenses times 4. The problem in an Amway distributor business, is that the net income after overhead expenses is very seldom positive, so it will in most cases be impossible to prove the business is worth anything at all. Even if it was, why would I buy a business that requires a multi year journey with conferences and dream nights to learn the necessary secrets on how to run it? Isn't that ridiculous if my friend could learn the car wash business in a week?
That is if you must buy a business. Because for many people with any semblance of a skill or talent in something, doing your job well yields better returns than an Amway "business".
Amway is based on mythology -- that is, fictional tales that make you feel good and fill you with false hopes. The biggest myth is the "walking the beaches of the world" after you "retire" from Amway. This is pure fantasy. Nobody retires from Amway if they want to keep on getting a bonus check.
ReplyDeleteEven Amway refuses to use the phrase "residual income" in any of its publications. Why? Because THERE IS NO RESIDUAL INCOME IN THE AMWAY RACKET. Once you stop recruiting and buying products, your down-line goes right into the hands of your immediate up-line.
Amway is a disgusting and unpleasant cult, based on total lies.
kwaaikat,
ReplyDeleteSpot on!
When I was a regular on Amway blogs, fighting misinformation against IBOFB, I cam across some former pins. One of them was a former Emerald who actually did primarily retail and owned a small warehouse to move the volume. She said she sold the business, but it's extremely difficult and can be sabotaged by upline.
You need to offer it all the way upline. But upline can simply decline and then you can go downline. But why would upline buy your business? They can decline and if you simply quit, they inherit all of your downline anyway.
But since it was primarily retail, with some active "direct" legs, they still qualified for the emerald bonus.
She said she (didn't disclose the exact amount) got about the equivalent of a full year's worth of income.