IBO = Independent Business Owner. Most Amway folks consider themselves IBOs, or independent business owners. To some, owning a business sounds cool. It sounds like you are achieving something and it may even seem that there is status involved in being a business owner. It is one of the reasons that may compel someone into signing up for the Amway opportunity. It was a small factor in gaining my interest many years ago when I was pitched the "plan".
Based on what I see and hear from Amway related blogs and forums, most people involved in the Amway opoprtunity are not business owners. They are simply Amway customers. They are customers of Amway and they are customers of the system consisting of voicemail, cds, books, and seminars. Does this sound confusing? Think about it. Many groups teach "buy from yourself" and get others to do the same. If you belong to one of these groups, you are being taught to be an Amway and system customer, nothing more and nothing less. Both Amway and the system profit from your loyal purchases and they fool you into thinking you are getting a good deal by giving you a tiny rebate each month. Only if you are able to lure enough gullible people into your downline will you finally be able to leverage their purchases to make a small profit. If you can get a large following, then you might make some nice coin, but it will come at the expense of the people who trusted you enough to sign up and follow you. It is unlikely to come from product sales since Amway products generally are generic in nature but premium in price.
If you stop for a minute and truly think about a business, what business can thrive without a whole lot of customers? I cannot think of any businesses where there are little or no customers. Why would the Amway opportunity be any different? If you are your only, or your own best customer, then maybe you are not even a business owner, but simply a customer of Amway and a customer of the system. Think about this for a moment. Certainly WalMart or Target would be out of business if they relied on sales nearly exclusively from their employees.
Without any sales to customers, or to people who are not Amway IBOs, any profit simply comes out of the pockets of the people in the Amway system. When you receive a rebate, you are simply getting some of your own money back. You have not generated any real profit. The only way to generate real profits is to sell to outside customers. This brings money into the system or Amway economy if you will. If not, an IBO is just a glorified customer bringing profits to Amway and the tools systems.
Nice post Joe! I completely agree! Amway IBO's have never been able to understand the difference between running a business and spending money. They continuously misconstrue running a business and spending money to generate sales with continual monthly purchases for self-consumption.
ReplyDeleteI have yet to see an Amway IBO come out and try to run it like an actual business with an emphasis on selling to customers. I believe it is mostly because of the shameful "mentors" teaching them to "shop from themselves", but that can't be 100% of the reason. I believe the people at the top also don't sell to the public because they understand it simply isn't possible in their respective categories to be competitive.
The products, as you stated, are over priced and or generic, and they are honestly more difficult to purchase than they would be from a retail store. Why would anyone want to order Amway products online and wait for them to be shipped if they can buy them faster and cheaper from a local store? Back in the day, it seemed to actually be worse as Amway would ship out the products to a higher pin and then they would have to stay organized and manage the distribution. This is terribly inefficient and unreasonable.
I look forward to hearing a difference in opinion from any Amway IBO that suggests this is somehow a lie and that the bulk of their commissions comes from sales. Good luck out there!
Thanks Dr. Doe. When I was an IBO, we called the order by phone to the upline and the orders were placed by the direct distributor (now platinum). Then the next week we picked up the stuff (if it arrived) and we in turn distributed them. Amway has improved that with drop shipping but it's more expensive and Amway products are even less competitive.
ReplyDeleteIf I have an Amway product that I bought many years back, or that was given to me as a gift, I am not allowed to sell it. If I try to put it up for sale at ebay or amazon, lawyers from Amway will take action against me.
ReplyDeleteWhat does this tell you? There isn't any other retail product on the planet for which this restriction is enforced. If you own something, you can legally sell it in any way you want, for whatever price you want.
The products in Amway aren't actually meant for normal, uncontrolled retail sales. The products are purely a cover for recruitment, and being a part of "The Plan." That's why Amway is so fanatical about not allowing their products to be sold outside of the Amway racket.
Let's see if some stupid Amway IBOs show up here to defend this practice. It will be interesting to see the logical contortions they go through. Maybe that jerk "Rick" will come back to entertain us.