Amway has been around for a long time. When the company first began, it wasn't uncommon for people to go door to door, perhaps with products in a radio flyer to sell them as a way to make some extra money. There was no extensive training program that I know of and certainly, there wasn't the stigma that the company has now. But in today's world, when people refer to Amway as being a scam, what they usually referring to the motivational leaders and the associated systems. I believe that the systems were first invented as a genuine way to train distance groups, but the income and power of systems seduced some upline leaders into becoming conmen. Thus, I believe that many if not most systems are corrupted. I witnessed personally and still hear of stories where IBOs are encouraged to go into debt or sacrifice basic family needs in order to purchase more system materials. Amway's involvement in this is knowing that these abuses occurred and not taking any substantial action.
But what are the merits of the program when broken down? Many Amway defenders are quick to point out that many IBOs "do nothing", which may be true, but for the sake of argument, let's not even consider the ones who do nothing. Take the 6-4-2 plan that many use in recruiting. It involves 1 IBO with 78 downline, all of whom do 100 PV. This plan also generally assumes that IBOs will be a part of the system apparently, because non system IBOs generally do not have the dedication to keep moving and selling products. This is because many systems teach IBOs that they are successful when they lose money! In 6-4-2. you have one platinum, allegedly the points point for system IBOs, and 78 non platinums, spending money on products, and winding up with a net loss, if they are dedicated to the system.Of course, system expenses vary, depending on which system you are a part of. I have heard IBOs mention that their system expenses may be as low as $75 a month, to over $1000 month for hard core fully dedicated IBOs. I have issued a challenge, which no one has ever undertaken, to shows an actually platinum group where the collective group made a net profit after system expenses were accounted for. Noone has ever come forward to disprove this point. I believe a retailing group could show a net profit, but I do not believe that a group of prosumers or buy from yourselfers could ever collectively net a profit.
So for Amway IBOs and prospects, please keep in mind that it is the system that is often the downfall of many IBOs. A dedication to any system is very likely to nearly guarantee that you will end up with a net loss as an IBO. Can someone still succeed? Sure, but your chances are similar to that of someone hitting a big jackpot in the lottery.
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All of the Amway Motivational Organization subsystems (there are dozens of them) depend on three things: endless recruitment, payment of monthly fees, and the sale of tools. Are they interested in the retail sale of Amway products to the general public? Yeah, sure -- in a vague way. If you manage to sell some stuff to your relatives and friends, that's fine with the AMOs.
But they know that recruitment brings in regular monthly fees and sale of teaching tools, and the big fees from attendance at functions. So an AMO is concerned with three things: getting you to sign up, getting you to recruit others, and convincing all of you to stay in the AMO for as long as possible, paying all your monthly fees and expenses. That's it, period.
The AMO has no concern with your personal success as an Amway salesperson. Just as a college has no concern with your personal success after you graduate as long as you have paid your tuition.
Recruitment is where it's at. Monthly fees (in URA / URAssociation / UR Association, they called it "membership" which was some useless app), conferences, seminars, tools (including audios), and even wardrobe in some instances ("team" shirts, gear, etc.).
And IBOs are so giddy and wide-eyed wanting to start off on the right foot, they are low hanging fruit in a sense that they will do almost anything they are told to do.
But one of the biggest cash cows on the volume side for Upline is forcing Download to process a 300PV Ditto on the 1st of every month (if it processes later, or you don't process any at all, you will catch heat from it). Right before I left, they were pushing 500PV Dittos. And some folks were even processing 1,000PV Dittos on the 1st of every month. God help their credit card bills.
But when you have a base membership of $50 a month for an app that only had to be created one time (I guess having WhatsApp groups aren't good enough), then that is a rolling cash cow. Little to no overhead (maybe a hosting service and maybe a part-time IT person is all you need) for an app. Plus, the higher end memberships with north of $100 a month.
And...what AMOs don't tell you is that they cut little side deals with other AMOs to sell the other AMOs audios on their own app. For example, prior to me leaving, we had to pay $3 for an audio to send to each prospect. The audio was produced by another AMO for that AMO's leader. It's easy to deduce that there was some sort of split revenue sharing there between the AMOs (the AMO selling the audio and the AMO producing the audio). Whether it was even at $1.50 apiece of $2 to $1, I find it interesting that for all the talk we hear about not listening to Crossline as they don't have an financial interest in you, that they are pushing alleged teaching materials from other Amway Motivational Organizations.
And this buying audios from another LOS goes against the upline rule of no crosslining. Hypocrisy is big in Amway.
A 1,000 PV ditto every month? No IBO could possibly make that up by sales and recruitment. It would be like owing money to a Mafia loan shark. URA is a predatory racket.
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