Building Your Business?

 I had a recent comment that Amway IBOs might not even know what building a business is all about.  I would say based on personal experience and observations, I would have to agree.  IBOs mistakenly believe that building a business is simply recruiting down line because the emphasis on teaching from upline is recruiting. You can’t achieve higher levels in Amway without downline.  

What many IBOs are unaware of is that upline diamonds want and need you to recruit an army for them because it means more potential customers to purchase voicemail, standing orders, books and function tickets.  The more the merrier as far as your diamond is concerned   They get to parade around at functions, get treated like rock stars all while making piles of cash for selling false hopes and dreams to all the Amway hopefuls.  I was in WWDB and an important part of the business teaching was about how many tools and function tickets were flowing through your business and not at all about product sales.  

In a real business, building a bigger customer or client base is important because that’s how profits are generated, by sales of products or services.  If Amway IBOs were honest with themselves, they would realize that they typically sell very few products and instead are just self consuming products in order to comply with upline teaching to be “duplicatable”, or in other words, a good example to others including any downline.  

But self consumption is not a business model or plan.  It’s a cleverly veiled product pyramid, in my opinion.  Can you imagine any successful store where the majority of goods and services are purchased by the store owner and/or the employees?   The fact is that there is no such thing as a successful self consumption business but somehow, IBOs and prospects are tricked by upline into believing that self consumption can be successful in the Amway model.  Sorry, it doesn’t work there either.  

In the end, a dedicated IBO who is following upline teaching in general will spend about $300 a month on Amway products and then additionally another $200 to $400 a month on average for tools and functions.  It could be a little more or less depending on your level of dedication and whether you are a single person or a couple. 

How many IBOs would actually sign up with full disclosure that Amway would cost you an additional $500 or more each month instead of the pitch that you will make money or at worst save money by participating in Amway?   I bet there would be very few takers, which is why I am still blogging after all these years.  To provide information and insight to this mess of a business opportunity. 

Watching The Simpsons?

 One of the funny things taught by our upline was that broke losers would be at home watching episodes of the Simpsons while the rest of us were building our business and securing our futures.  He would laugh that people’s homes would have a blue glow coming from their homes, meaning they watching television.  

Now that would be fine and dandy if Amway IBOs were actually making money but the fact of the matter is that nearly all rank and file IBOs were losing money because of the Amway business expenses such as standing orders, books and functions.  Here the IBOs were losing money plus spending their spare time to boot.  But they thought they were doing something good and worthwhile. 

The true irony in all this is that people sitting at home watching “The Simpsons” were better off because they were being entertained and they were not losing money in a fake business designed to extract money from rank and file distributors for the benefit of the diamonds.  It sounds nice that you’re working to secure your financial future bit losing money doesn’t secure much does it?  

That’s the really insidious part of Amway. The diamonds feed you lies that anyone and everyone can get in and go diamond when it’s just not true. The common 6-4/2 plan or similar versions show a large group of IBOs with a platinum or direct distributor.  And that’s how it will always be.  1 guy on top and a lot of rank and file downline.  

The reality sucks which is why the diamonds sell you on hopes, wishes and dreams.  The bad part is an IBOs participation only delivers dreams to the diamonds who profit handsomely from your participation in the tools and functions.  

My Upline Is A Mentor?

 One of the humorous things that Amway IBOs talk about us how their upline is some kind of mentor.  I find it humorous because someone standing on a stage makes a no mentor. A mentor has a personal relationship how the person they are helping and they likely spend a great deal of time with the person the are mentoring.  

Another aspect that IBOs overlook is that mentors don’t charge their pupils money for their help.  This is just another BS line that the upline diamonds have dropped one the die line that makes them feel good.  My time spent at functions or large meetings are hardly anything close to resembling mentor ship.  Even if you got to spend some time with your upline diamond, you are still spending money on tools and functions.  A diamond would never give time to an IBO who was not serious enough to invest in tools and functions.  

I’m curious as to what specifics a diamond would teach a die line because the things that IBOs parrot seem to be ridiculous and out in left field, so to speak.  I engaged in a conversation where an IBO told me the facts don’t matter because he has a big dream.  Another IBO told me that even if he’s buying from himself he still made profits because he charged himself full retail price for products, therefore he was profiting.  I mentioned that moving cash from your savings account to your business account is not true profit.  Not to mention that the amount of cash you moved from one account to another is now subject to taxation.  

The diamond’s main theme will always be to get you to participate in the tools and functions because they can profit from you and then because of the sunken cost fallacy, sone IBOs don’t want to quit despite losing money month after month because you’re already invested in the business.  

The fact remains that the relationship between a diamond and IBO is not  mentor ship and student.  The upline is more like a paid consultant that unfortunately has miserable results.  That’s a fact.  

Amway Team Meetings?

 One of the lame things during my time in Amway was what upline called “team” meetings.  I mean we are all individual businesses so it seems weird to be referred to as a team,  based on my own experience, many IBOs seemed to be their only customer, simply buying 100 PV and having no due line but hanging in there hoping to finally strike it big down the road.  While these IBOs have no chance of going diamond or even platinum, they are valuable to the diamond because of the income from tools and functions.  

Our team meetings often took place at midnight on evenings when we had to work the next day.  Our upline told us that our willingness to do what most won’t do will result in rewards that most won’t see.  In the end, nothing useful was ever learned in these meetings and it just made it difficult to work the next day.  Imagine that, our jobs that supported ourselves and the Amway business were supposed to be of secondary importance.  

Most of the discussion at team meetings were just platitudes about success that our upline wanted to drill into our brains.  It was primarily to never quit and to invest more of our money into tools because we were told that standing orders, functions and books were vital to our success.  After a while I thought it was odd because so many people were absolutely dedicated to the system but had not made a dime in profit or sponsored a single down line.  

There’s a saying that a good tree gives good fruit and a bad tree gives bad fruit.  The diamonds used to say this but most people simply had no fruit from their efforts.  This  is because most people just don’t realize that the Amway system is severely flawed and only exists to provide income to the diamonds and higher ups.  There is no documented and unbiased evidence to suggest that the system works. 

Sure, occasionally someone can overcome power ball lottery types of odds to go diamond but they are often unable to remain qualified and often disappear from relevance.  But these Amway rising stars are the poster children for why the system works. That’s despite the fact that tens of millions or more have failed over the years despite assurances from upline that everyone can be successful. 

For information seekers and any IBOs who see this, look at facts and analyze your income and expenditures.  Look at your actual prospects of improvement.  If your upline tells you that more tools and functions are the answer, get in wringing that these expenditures are refundable in cash if business doesn’t improve, of course you’ll never get it.  

But good luck if you read this and still decided to try.  😃

Amway Numbers?

 The Amway opportunity is often sold to prospects with false hopes and dreams. The diamonds, some who may actually be in debt, are telling you that you can achieve financial freedom via Amway, along with untold wealth if you will do as they advise.  Of course they never prove that they are wealthy. You might see photo copies of checks or slide shows of wealth. 

But what is the reality?  What are the numbers?  It seems that Amway obfuscates their numbers do you don’t really get a straight answer. You have to extrapolate in order to make some conclusions.  

First off, Amway sales have been fairly stagnant and that’s prior to covid. Covid will likely make it worse. But here are some numbers.  The average IBO earns around $200 a month, but that’s if you don’t count the IBOs who don’t do anything, thus the real average is about $100 a month and that includes diamonds and other big shots, although it does not factor in annual bonuses.  But then again rank and file IBOs do not get large annual bonuses.  

Some figures may have changed but approximately 1 in 400 IBOs attain the level of gold which is where you allegedly break even if you are also involved in tools and functions. About 1 in 20,000 or so go diamond and maintaining the level is another story, 

But the important numbers are this; if you are a CORE IBO and buy your 100 PV and attend all functions, you likely spend $500 or more (and even more for couples) each month fir your products and your “training”.  In return you earn an Amway check of about $10 which is a huge net loss each month unless you have down line to absorb the losses for you.  

Amway might seem like you financial solution until to really look at the numbers.  

Success Is Around The Corner?

 I recall being taught to never give up and never quit in Amway.  They would tell stories of perseverance and feel good stories about people who would hang in there and eventually succeed like the story of Rudy, which was portrayed in a movie.   Or they would talk about a fierce competitor like a Michael Jordan who would never quit. They would keep fighting,   You are to never quit because success might be right around the corner and you might quit just a little bit too soon, so keep going!  

But Sports is not the same as a business.  Rudy was on the Notre Dane football yeah but he never got much playing time even if the ending of the movie might have been inspiring.  Michael Jordan would never quit but he was still in teams that lost games.  But the Amway business isn’t a sport and having the never quit attitude is nice but if you aren’t making a profit and the prospects of improving is not good, the. It’s just a bad business decision to never quit.  

Like Michael Jordan might have been on teams that lost games, his team could regroup and win the next game. The same can be said if a business.  If you’re not profiting and cash flow negative, sometimes the best thing to do is to close up and do something else.  After all, the objective is to make money.  It doesn’t have to be exclusively from Amway.  There are many other opportunities that you can explore and experiment with, even if that might be a job.  

The diamonds try to imbed in your mind that only they Amway can you build wealth and riches.  That’s incredibly false.  You don’t even know if your upline diamond is wealthy.  You assume they are wealthy because you’ve been told they are but they don’t disclose any information that would demonstrate that they are wealthy.  They could be up to their ears in debt.  Many Americans are in debt.  Why would diamonds who flaunt a lavish lifestyle be any different?  It’s not secret that many wealthy people don’t act it and the opposite is also true, that broke people can try to act wealthy. 

And why not?  You could be a broke rank and file IBO but you are to wear a suit to meetings to portray an image of success.  Who’s to say the diamonds don’t do the same thing but with a few more expensive props?   Showing photo copies of big checks are not a reliable indicator of success but your upline wants you to believe it is. 

Amway: Failure By Design?

 It’s no secret that people fail in droves in the Amway businesses.  The diamonds will say they didn’t try hard enough or they didn’t follow instructions correctly or they make up other excuses that blame the victims.  It’s sad because many IBOs are hard working and motivated people but when this is designed for failure. Well, that’s what you get.  

The Amway business is designed to fail.  Let me explain. Amway products are generic in nature.  Some products are decent and some suck, but there’s nothing special about Amway products overall but they come at a premium price.  Who wants to buy generic nature products for premium prices? And worse, how do you sell the generically natured products for premium prices?  

If that’s not enough, the diamonds exploit the down line by selling them and endless supply of training.  Now training would be fine if the training was effective but instead Amway’s own disclosures show that only a small fraction of 1% ever reach the level of platinum.  And platinum is the level where you allegedly start to make actual profits.  

All of these handicaps added to a business opportunity that has a bad name reputation and you have an opportunity like swimming the English Channel with an anchor around your necks.  It amazes me that the scam has gone on fir so long.  I’m glad I’ve been able to keep running this blog to provide information and my personal experiences so information can be found and shared so prospects can make informed decisions about whether to join Amway or not.