The Game Plan?

Joecool will be taking a weekend vacation (without Amway money) to Las Vegas.  I'll be there on the Strip for some fun and relaxation.  I'll be back on Tuesday of next week.  Until then, enjoy this article: 

Having blogged for a number of years now, I have observed that IBOs talk a good game about retailing, sponsoring and doing Amway business 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 it very 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 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 individual 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 some years ago. I don't believe Amwayers 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.

So it would seem that 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 a 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.

Early Retirement?

 One of the humorous things I read is when an Amway IBO says he or she is 19 years old and will be "retired" at the age of 24 because of the Amway business. I personally don't know of anyone who has retired primarily on residual Amway income, as many seem to claim. I am not suggesting that nobody has ever done this, but I suspect that there are so few people who may have done it that it is not noteworthy. Even the Crown Ambassadors appear to not only be working but have very busy schedules where they are constantly on the run. In recent years, some crown ambassadors have passed away while still on the job. Why don't we see any Amway retirees? I know retired teachers, police, fire fighters and such. I don't know of any Amway retirees.

The poor retention rate of IBOs would suggest that even a sizable Amway business could fall apart rather quickly without a constant replacement of IBOs. It is for this reason that I suspect that Amway folks never retire. They need to keep working or their businesses will fall apart. If you are a diamond, one downline platinum falling out of qualification could drop you to emerald status. Diamonds are not forever, especially in Amway. They may carry the diamond pin, and could be speaking at functions, but they might be a former diamond with a small downline group.

I ask this of IBOs. Is your upline diamond, or someone in between you and the diamond retired because of (primarily) Amway income? Do you as an IBO have a projected date when you will "walk away" from the business and retire? When I was an IBO, I always wondered why nobody "walked away" from their business after they went diamond. I believe the answer is crystal clear. Because IBO turnover is so high, if a diamond were to walk away from the business, he would probably fall out of qualification in less than a year. The bonuses would disappear, and the diamond would probably have to look for a job. There are many examples of diamonds who have quit, and in some cases, went back to work.

Many unsuspecting prospects may be lured into the Amway business with the hope of an early retirement. Amway recruiters may mention that control of time and money is the key to success, but ironically, for most who sign up, will end up with less time and money than if they did not join at all. For many people. especially young people, it might be a good idea to seek financial advice from a professional and to make long term investment goals. Am investment of about $200 a month can net you close to a million bucks after 30 to 40 years.

Yes, there may be "some" people who retired early due to (primarily) Amway income. But I don't know any. And not a single Amway defender has ever been able to name one. It reminds me of bigfoot/sasquatch. Many reports and allegations are there that these creatures exist but there is no real evidence to support that such a creature actually exists.

Premium Products?

 I had a site visitor contact (some years back) me by email to toss insults and exchange views on Amway. He tells me that he is a regular user of Amway's "Perfect Water". Perfect water was presented some years back and IBOs were making all kinds of hoaxes and fake demonstrations. There were all kinds of zany claims and eventually, Amway had to issue a clarification that IBOs should not be making false claims that did not come from the corporation. There were these balance and flexibility tests that people allegedly benefited because of perfect water. It was a sham. Here's a good link to an article about it:

http://www.amquix.info/amway_perfect_water.html
Ironically, this IBO who claims to be concerned about his health, thus he drinks perfect water. The funny part is how he says he also drinks energy drinks as well. WTF? Energy drinks are not good for you as far as I know.

I presume that IBOs refer to Amway products as premium because it gives them a feeling of justification for paying Amway's ridiculous prices. A case of perfect water costs about $48 and that doesn't include shipping fees and applicable taxes. IBOs might pay less than $48 for a case of perfect water, but still, who in their right mind other than dream induced IBOs would be willing to pay that much for bottled water? I can go Wal-Mart or a local retailer and pay approximately $5 for a case of water. Someone can feel free to show what additional benefit someone would receive for paying nearly ten times more for a case of water other than a lighter wallet.

IBOs often claim that buying Amway products are like buying a Cadillac or a Lexus rather than a regular car. The problem with this is twofold. First of all, who other than Amway IBOs think of Amway products as the Cadillac of soaps and household cleaners? Obviously if Amway's products were so great, the market share would confirm that. How many people use Amway laundry soap compared to people using Tide for example? No contest! Secondly, even if Amway's products were the Cadillac of soaps (but it's not), the vast majority of people do not care! They are perfectly happy using Tide for their laundry and Dawn to wash their dishes. And they get it cheaper at local stores than IBOs can provide. It seems that only IBOs who have dreams of early retirement and residual income are buying these "Cadillac" products. I don't really know of former IBOs who are hard core loyal to Amway products. Some may exist but I highly doubt that these people are common.

In neutral comparisons such as consumer reports, Amway's cleaners and detergents were rated as basically average with "premium" prices. Maybe that's why Amway IBOs call Amway products "premium"? Because they charge premium prices As an IBO, I bought Amway products while I thought I might earn residual income. Once I realized the tool scam and quit, I never bought anymore Amway products. It is my conclusion that if Amway products are called premium, it is because thy carry premium prices, but not necessarily because of premium quality. Of course you are welcome to try and prove me wrong.

Wealth Creation?

 Amway can make you rich is what many uplines will proclaim. Many IBOs say they were told that Amway was not "get rich quick". But obviously, someone must have given them the impression that Amway would eventually make them rich, otherwise, why would anyone join? Why would anyone want to work that hard and embarrass themselves in front to friends and family to promote a business that will more likely get you more funny looks than money. But can Amway actually make you rich?

Well, yeah, Amway can make you rich if you are a diamond selling voicemail services, books, standing orders and function tickets. Amway can make you rich if you own Amway and sell to millions of IBOs who "buy from themselves". Amway can make you rich if you write a book that millions of IBOs purchase. Amway can make you rich if you can get enough loyal downline to keep purchasing products so that you can get the bonuses. But aside from these few people who I just described, the Amway opportunity is more likely to make you broke, or at least lighter in the pockets. The facts are there. Amway published them. It's called income disclosures. The average IBO earns around $200 a month, which is after "non active IBOs" are disregarded (Averages that do not include the entire IBO population are not true averages).   Thus, the average income of all IBOs is about $100 a month, which included the diamonds, platinum's and crown ambassadors. Do the math.

Most Amway IBOs do not even earn enough to cover their monthly voicemail expenditures, much less the other support materials that are pushed on the downline in groups such as WWDB or BWW, or N21. These materials are touted as the "key to success" in Amway when in reality, it is the key to success for the uplines who share in the profits from these materials. The real kicker is despite claims that these materials are key to success, the uplines get their followers to blame themselves if the system doesn't work for them. Kind of like tossing a coin and saying, "heads I win, tails you lose". Upline wins as long as you buy support materials from them, and your results are of no consequence to them. In fact, they probably don't want new diamonds as they would then have to share the tool s and functions income with them.  

So can Amway make you rich? I would guess it is possible, but it is also possible for you to win the Powerball lottery. It takes normally, over 100 downline IBOs to create a platinum ship. And a platinum ship is .26% according to Amway, which is roughly 1 in 400 IBOs. And at that level, you likely make a little profit or break even. Where is the wealth created by the Amway business?

Anonymous Comment?

 A blog visitor sent me this email. It might be helpful to some people, so I'll post it.

We were part of what im coming to find out as a smaller more unknown team in our region. I’ve run into many Amroids since I first joined until now, and they’ve always seemed to be part of N21 or BWW or WWDB but im not sure if our group was any of those? We were part of something called the UR Association. I believe through some unspoken issues years ago in upline, our group was adopted either to Dexter Yagers organization or from his organization. Its never been fully or properly explained to us. Anyway, my upline always had CDs from multiple organizations teaching systems, and we purchased them all. This was because we partly refused to sign up with URA and partly because we just didn’t have to money for that type of monthly fee. We weren’t on Kate either because of this. When my significant other (SO) and I first joined almost 4 years ago, we were typical for this business; broke, unemployed, and young. We went through the paces or coming out to the meetings as guests for free, attending some product expos, etc, until one day it started costing us as guests (we were still evaluating at the time) to attend the regular open meetings. Foolishly, we figured “well we might as well sign up then!”



Looking back now, all the signs were there for us to see since the start. After we got in, our uplines group slowly fell apart. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen his group grow or be on the rise since I joined. I was told of the glory days just months before of how there were over 100 people in his group attending functions, all the pin levels on his team, the recognitions they’ve received, etc. When we joined and he was on the decline, we thought nothing of it, as it was played off as normal and that “Some Will, Some Wont, So What, Some Where, Six Will, so Stop Whining, and Start Working”. We also attended a major Family Reunion shortly after officially signing up and again, the signs were always there, but we just never noticed. That function that we went to was the largest our upline Diamonds organization was we’d ever see. Our open meetings slowly began getting smaller, and we had to increase ticket costs to “pay for the room”. It went from an open meeting every 2 weeks at $5 to an open meeting once a month at $10. Over the years it started switching locations as well, from one hotel conference room to another, and now it is currently held at a Condo, in the main floors’ lobby room (I believe there is still a cost incurred)



One of the CDs that we were always so “keen” to listen to was one by a young diamond from the US, who built a good portion of his organization in Hawaii and in the western states. He’s young, funny, relatable, and therefore an obvious hit with our young group. Anyway, on his CD he mentions that the only “negative thing that can be found online about Amway is that we allegedly make all our money off books and CDs”. Im loosely paraphrasing, but basically he went on saying “…like that’s a bad thing. Think about it, whats the first thing you do when you are successful at something? Golfing, any sport, a business? Don’t you write a book, cut a CD and go on public speaking events?!” Which of course when twisted around it does seem to make sense, so we never really questioned it. We thought Wow these are totally honest about it! Theres not really much else to write about at this point, like I said earlier, a lot of your blogs were 100% correct about what still goes on. The mind games, what uplines say, whats said at opens, all of it. My SO and I reached a max of I believe 300/400 PV and 200PV respectively. SO had a slightly larger group (we were building it separately at the time) with maybe 5-6 downline at its peak, and I had maximum 2. We’ve been in it for 4 years and have seen no results. Despite having no money for monthly subscriptions to books and CDs, we were core. We tried our best to get the proper 50/150, we always used all the products and promoted it like crazy. We tried contacting all the time, and showed plans whenever we could. We listened, read, attended all functions, were accountable, honest, and the only thing we didn’t have was Kate. But the results were never there. Even with the amount of downline each of us had at our maximum, we still never broke more then 300-400PV. It just wasn’t happening. Since we’ve stopped, I have purchased a new(er) car, 2010 top trim, and with a 1 year delayed gratification goal, we saved enough money for a destination vacation paid for in cash. We spared no expense while we were there and bought all sorts of gifts for our friends and ourselves. We are also planning more trips in this coming year.


There are little details here and there im sure i could mention about the really crazy BS we've been through, but perhaps another time :) we're in a phase right now of not thinking about it or dealing with it.

Thanks for reading!

"Anon"

Humorous Comment?

 A comment left on the blog. My commentary is below:

Anonymous wrote:
So let me ask you this, all the time you people spend bashing amway or whatever you want to call it what has it accomplished for you?? Yes I am in Amway. Yes I am an IBO. Do I consider my self an ambot or some other term you people like to call it? nope. If you people got into amway became IBO's were lazy and didn't build your business your own way than I pity you all. You are suckers. You chose to go an spend your money on motivational CD's and Tapes. You chose to follow the poor advise of you got form your upline or you were just plain lazy and couldn't sell, so you quit and decided to place the blame elsewhere besides yourself. I don't see how people think the products are over priced. I find the Vitamins to be less expensive and of better quality then stuff I'd find in GNC, Vitamin Shoppe and other such stores. The Cleaning products work great and are much less expensive than the likes of Lysol, 409, Tide, Gain, Pine sol etc etc. The Energy drinks are also pretty damn good vs the likes of sugar loaded crap like Red bull, Monster and other such drinks. So again I say too you what is there to bash? You suck selling easy to market items that is your fault not the business model fault. I don't go to meetings, I don't listen to CD's. When my upline says I should go to a convention or do something I don't want to do I simply say "NO, I'm doing fine with out it" I get my checks every month and I am doing just fine. My business is growing and I couldn't be happier. This whole planet has a problem at placing blame on others instead of living up to your own inequities. Most people can't hack it as IBO's cause they get sucked into the "GET RICH QUICK" idea and forget it's a BUSINESS that you need to invest TIME and ENERGY for it to grow!! Go open a brick and mortar store tomorrow and tell me how you do your first week, month, year. It is just really sad how all I hear is "amway is a scam!" well so is corporate America and 90% of business in general nobody seems to have a problem with Wall Street or the Financial institutions that scamed ohh what 150+ BILLION from the tax payers? wake up people! stop being sheep! think for yourself and stop blaming everyone else for your own stupid mistakes!



Joe's Commentary: Where am I "bashing" Amway"? For the record, I do this as a public service and sort of as a hobby.  Since most people lose money chasing the dream as promoted by Amway diamonds, not doing anything is usually financially beneficial for most people.  Therefore, how can Amway be treated as a good business opportunity if this is the case?

The cleaning products are not necessarily better or cheaper than others.  The energy drinks such as red bull and monster come in sugar free varieties so they're not all full of sugar. And they are cheaper than XS drinks.  Unbiased product comparisons typically come out in favor of Amway's competitors.  I haven't seen any unbiased reviews where Amway wins when factoring in price and value.

Notice how the commentator says his business is growing but does not mention a profit. LOL The comment then calls corporate America a scam. So what if it is? It doesn't take Amway off the hook does it?  I got a few good laughs so thanks for the comment.

p.s.  Notice the grammar?

Critical Mistakes?

 In professional sports, whether it be football, basketball or baseball, there are many close games. In close games, a critical mistake made will likely cost your team the game. A good example of this would be a football team trying score the winning touchdown, but they commit a game changing turnover. Or a baseball pitcher slips and throws a fastball up in the zone and it gets hammered for a home run. Or a basketball player shooting fouls shots but missing in the last minute of the game. A critical mistake nearly assures you of failure.

In my opinion one of the most critical mistakes that many IBOs make is to ignore the bottom line when analyzing their Amway businesses. I recall, in my experience, business building IBOs, sadly, taught by their uplines to ignore losses, or to view losses as investments into their businesses, or that money is really not important, because you keep building the business and the "money will be there", which is not true. Some uplines may teach that the business is really about making friends or being a nicer person. All of these things may be nice side benefits of reading personal development books or attending functions, etc., but when running a business, the most important goal should be to turn a profit. The sole purpose of a business should be to sell a product or service for a profit. Period.

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 pyramid 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 (or more) 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 defenders 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 net 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 do 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. Uplines often say insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

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 little to 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 tools scam run by upline. That is Joecool's bottom line.