Should I Join Amway Or Not?

Recently, I've gotten this question posed to me via email quite a bit recently. My contact information is on this blog and some information seekers have asked whether I think they should join Amway or not. Unfortunately, I cannot answer this question for anyone. What I can do however, is provide information and share my personal experience so anyone considering the Amway business can make a fully informed decision.

Here's a few suggestions I would make to prospective Amway IBOs. Obtain an Amway product catalog or g to www.amway.com and look at their product line and pricing. Ask yourself if you would honestly use these products as a customer if you were not going to be involved in Amway. Try asking a few friends or relative if they would be interested in these same products for the quoted prices. What I found was that Amway products are generally not priced competitively and I could usually get more product at a cheaper price shopping at local retail stores instead of Amway.

I would also try to truly understand how the bonus schedule works and the costs associated with it. For example, your lowest bonus level would be 100 PV. 100 PV is roughly $300 in personal use and/or retail sales. Does a married couple typically spend that much each month on toothpaste, household cleaners and laundry detergent? For me, the answer is "no". Imagine being single and expected to go through that dollar amount of products.

You should also be fully aware of how much it will cost to be an independent business owner, or "IBO". For example, your upline or "mentor" will expect you to read books, listen to cds, subscribe to a voicemail system, and attend meetings and functions. These "tools" have a cost and it will typically cost about $200 or more for someone to be involved with Amway and to get "training". What many prospects are not aware of is your sponsor is supposed to train you at no charge, because they get to leverage any volume you produce. What many people also don't know is that upline and your "mentors" often earn significant incomes from selling these tools and that they make large profits, regardless of whether you make any profit and they profit even if you go bankrupt. There is also no unbiased evidence that the training is effective in producing results for you.

As an IBO, you are restricted by Amway's rules, which can inhibit sales. For example, you are not allowed to advertise your business or products unless you can specific approval from the Amway corporation. You are not allowed to sell products on ebay or craigslist so you have that handicap. Basically, you act as a commission only sales person for Amway whose only recourse is to sell products by word of mouth, typically to family and friends (ever see anyone get wealthy doing this?).

Lastly, if you do join and you move 100 PV, and participated in all the training, you will spend (approximately) $500 a month minimum, less any retails sales you are able to generate, and you will get about $10 from Amway. That $10 is compensation for all the time and effort needed to move that product volume. Typically, you will spend about 10-20 hours a week in your Amway business if you are even halfway serious. Conversely, you could get a 1% cash back credit card and earn $5 for doing nothing other than spending about the same amount that you did on Amway related goods, but with a cash back card, you likely spent very little of your time.

I could go on and on, but I've presented a few points about Amway that I believe will allow most people to make an honest and informed decision about the business. My contact information is on my profile for this blog if anyway has additional questions or thoughts about the Amway business. In the end, it is still ultimately your decision on whether to join or not.