Monday, April 25, 2022

The (Am)Way To Retirement?

 One of the things Amway leaders do is to disparage people with jobs. Oh, they would say we needed people to wait on our tables and clean our toilets, but in general, jobs were put down and basically the group was told that Amway is their best chance at achieving financial freedom, giving them the ability to flush their jobs. Ironically, IBO's jobs are what funds their Amway businesses. Most IBOs would be out of business within weeks if not for their job income funding their Amway businesses. The upline gets people to dislike to even despise their jobs. I remember an upline saying if you wouldn't do your job for free, then you don't like it that much. But to that, the same can be said about Amway right?

The key selling point appears to be the 2-5 years of part time work rather than working a job for 30 - 40 years and then retiring on a pension or social security which may or may not be there when you retire. This plants a fear in people about the future and then the Amway opportunity is presented in a positive light because the Amway opportunity comes with a low start up cost. What uplines do not mention is how the opportunity can become a money pit as the monthly defacto 100 to 300 PV quota starts to add up. It is my guess that if people only bought items they truly needed, these IBOs would likely move 100 PV every three months, unless they are actively selling goods to non IBO customers (which is not that common IMO).

When an IBO finally agrees to register, it is then that the hidden costs are revealed. Many uplines will introduce voicemail, standing orders and functions and present these tools as vital to IBO success. Most new IBOs don't know better and feel subtle pressure to conform and give it a try. Some upline may loan some tools to downline in the beginning but eventually, the IBO will be encouraged to be a "serious" business owner who should be purchasing their own tools to loan to their downline and the cycle goes on.

If you examine some version of the Amway recruitment plan, you will see that most active IBOs are at the 100 PV level, which will reward you with a monthly bonus of about $10 or so. If that same IBO subscribes to the tools system, than IBO will likely be losing over $100 a month not including the product purchases. And because many IBOs have been convinced that working a job is so horrible, that they can be convinced that this condition of losing money is temporary and that untold wealth is right around the corner. Sadly, for most, this condition is the norm and even the sponsorship of a few downline, the losses continue to mount. Yet many are convinced that this is better than a job.

There's no retirement in Amway. Over the years, not a single Amway defender could name and provide evidence of a single person who built Amway, and walked away to enjoy massive residual income. Diamonds are forever in that they work forever, never retiring because if they stopped working, their income would stop. And if I may add, portraying a diamond lifestyle is a very expensive endeavor. There is no Am-Way to retirement.

Ironically, a job allows people to pay their monthly bills, feed their families and many people enjoy their work and co workers. While upline leaders may convince you otherwise, it is this very same excuse upline leaders use when asked why they are still working instead of walking the beaches of the world collecting massive amounts of residual income. I would encourage IBOs to truly analyze their efforts in Amway and determine if it is beneficial to your finances. In most cases, your Amway efforts ONLY benefits your upline's finances. For most who get involved, the Amway opportunity is not better than a job. Be careful!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The counter argument to any brushback that Upline would give if a new IBO would balk on the tools and membership and conference ticket fees (which they lock in for you the day you sign up by the way) is that, "It's like paying for a gym membership. If you don't go to the gym, you're not getting any value out of that."

So any potential new IBOs need to be ready to hear that if they join my old group which is URA.

David said...

Hi Joe Cool:
I ran across this article about Amway’s 2021 sales for 2021. I noted that that the majority of their sales growth occurred in overseas markers like Malaysia and mainland China.
https://www.directsellingnews.com/amway-reports-8-9-billion-in-2021-sales/

Anonymous said...

If you are in a business where you can't sell your products to ordinary retail customers on a regular basis, YOU'RE NOT IN BUSINESS. You're just kidding yourself.

The Amway subsystems tell you that you can make money in the Amway racket by simply recruiting down-line, and buying Amway products every month for your own use. That is a downright LIE.

Amway products do not sell. If they did, you'd see them in stores competing with other brands. The entire Amway racket is designed to circumvent this problem by creating a vast network of unpaid salesmen who will (in order to qualify for bonuses) purchase enough Amway products every month to make up for a lack of general demand from the public. The only people making real money from this set-up are the Amway Corporation itself, and the very small minority of high-level up-line IBOs.

Amway propaganda makes a big deal about "Free Enterprise" and how great it is. This is pure hypocrisy. If Amway actually believed in free enterprise, the company would get out there in the real world and compete with other brands to win a real market share -- not a fake market share bolstered by the forced purchases of low-level IBOs.

Anyone who thinks you can "retire" by being in a fraudulent business like this is totally deluded.