There has been much debate over tools on this blog recently. IBOs contend that they need tools to build their businesses. Some uplines compare tools to the same tools that a carpenter or a mechanic uses. It just so happens that a friend of mine is a mechanic. He attended automotive technology college for about 18 months and occasionally goes to workshops to update himself on the technology used on newer cars, which his employer pays for.
After finishing school, he bought a decent set up tools. He occasionally upgrades some of his equipment. Some of these upgrades are also paid for by his employer. But the majority of his time is spent fixing cars, earning a living for himself and his employer.
The Amway opportunity consists of buying goods, selling goods, and recruiting others into the system. Not the most complex of activities if you break it down to its simplest form. But IBOs seem to think they need an endless supply of tools to build this business. They do not.
IBOs need to stop and think about this for a minute. An IBO only makes money if they sell a product for a profit, or if they sponsor enough downline who actually move enough volume to make a difference. Thus, if an IBO is spending say $100 to $150 a month on cds, books, seminars and voicemail, what return are you getting on this investment in tools? A mechanic or carpenter puts out an investment in tools, but they make up that investment and then some within a month or two. Anything they earn after that is how they earn a living. Most IBOs never recoup their first month's investment in tools, let alone enjoy a net profit.
Stop and think about it. When was the last time a book, cd, voicemail or a function led directly to a product sale or to the sponsoring of downline? And even if you did get a sale or a downline due to one of the tools, was it enough to make it worth buying all those tools? I would guess that for most people, it is not worth it.
Also, if the tools were so valuable, taught you success principles and the like, why do former IBOs sell them for pennies on the dollar when they quit Amway? Why don't IBOs continue to use these tools when they leave the business? I believe IBOs only use these tools because they have been told that the tools will lead to their success. Unfortunately and sadly, for the vast majority of IBOs who use tools, the tools only lead to a lighter bank account.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Amway - IBOs - CORE - Non Income Producing Activity?
One of the things touted by many upline leaders as the "key to success" is CORE. I have outlined the elements of CORE here:
1 - Show the Plan
2 - Retail the Products
3 - Tapes/cds
4 - Books
5- Functions
6 - Accountability
7 - Counsel with Upline (Be teachable!)
8 - Buy 100% of your own products
9 – Communikate
In these nine steps, only #2 may actually net the IBO a profit, but this steps is not emphasized in many groups. In all the other core steps, you either spend time and/or money doing things that do not produce income for your business. If you, as an IBO spend most of your time in non income producing activities, guess what? You will suffer losses. It is no wonder nearly all IBOs lose money, they are taught to spend most of their time in activities that do not produce income!
Imagine owning a brick and mortar store where you open the store for one hour a day. The rest of the day you are reading books, listening to tapes/cds, and paying to attend seminars and listening to voicemail messages. Oh, and in addition to opening your store for an hour a day, you don't advertise except for word of mouth. Could you survive in business? I think not. Amway now advertises, but you are not Amway, you are an independent business.
So can an IBO make money by spending most of his/her time in non income producing activity? I think not.
1 - Show the Plan
2 - Retail the Products
3 - Tapes/cds
4 - Books
5- Functions
6 - Accountability
7 - Counsel with Upline (Be teachable!)
8 - Buy 100% of your own products
9 – Communikate
In these nine steps, only #2 may actually net the IBO a profit, but this steps is not emphasized in many groups. In all the other core steps, you either spend time and/or money doing things that do not produce income for your business. If you, as an IBO spend most of your time in non income producing activities, guess what? You will suffer losses. It is no wonder nearly all IBOs lose money, they are taught to spend most of their time in activities that do not produce income!
Imagine owning a brick and mortar store where you open the store for one hour a day. The rest of the day you are reading books, listening to tapes/cds, and paying to attend seminars and listening to voicemail messages. Oh, and in addition to opening your store for an hour a day, you don't advertise except for word of mouth. Could you survive in business? I think not. Amway now advertises, but you are not Amway, you are an independent business.
So can an IBO make money by spending most of his/her time in non income producing activity? I think not.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Amway - Why Most IBOs Fail
Most IBOs fail. That is not a wild guess. That is a fact. Amway supporters will argue that many IBOs do little or nothing, and while that might be true, even the remaining IBOs who work hard, still find little or no success. The system is set up that way. If you see a diamond "walking the beaches" as the cash rolls in, that means someone is putting forth the effort to make that happen. It is the downline IBOs who purchase Amway products and tools that allow these diamonds to enjoy what they portray as success.
We also know that some diamonds overhype their success. There has been evidence that the diamond lifestyle is often not what people think it is. If you could truly earn residual income by the bucketload, why do diamonds quit, resign, lose homes in foreclosure proceedings, and even wind up in bankruptcy court? One could argue that some diamonds are failures. The diamond lifestyle is an illusion created by upline leaders as a means to entice recruits.
Many Amway zealots and apologists try to make ridiculous claims comparing a company owner to a diamond. The big difference is that a company owner has employees who get a regular paycheck. These employees generally wanted the job and probably applied for the work. And if and when an employee leaves, there are other applicants who are willing to step in and do the work. Thus the business continues to meet their demands and continues to profit.
In the Amway opportunity, the IBOs spend money purchasing products, and then upline leaders expect these same folks to spend even more money to learn how to be motivated to do the Amway business. But in reality, if IBOs made profits, that would likely be sufficient motivation to run their businesses. Because it is hard to find enough (suckers) IBOs to join the business and fork out cash while they lose money, other IBOs have resorted to trickery, deception and outright lying at times, in order to attract potential downlines.
The 6-4-2 system ensures that the majority of business builders must "do the work" to uphold their platinum, who (probably) barely earns a net profit. And then you need 3 or 6 groups of IBOs losing money in order to maintain an emerald or diamond.
Amway has revealed that less than 4% of product moves to non IBOs. The absence of non IBO customers nearly guarantees that most IBO groups will lose money or make very little. Most IBOs are destined to fail. And it is not necessarily the IBO's fault. The system itself comes with many flaws which most IBOs cannot overcome, even for those who put forth much effort. It is why most IBOs fail. It is why I hope prospects will find and read this information before making a final decision to sign up or not.
We also know that some diamonds overhype their success. There has been evidence that the diamond lifestyle is often not what people think it is. If you could truly earn residual income by the bucketload, why do diamonds quit, resign, lose homes in foreclosure proceedings, and even wind up in bankruptcy court? One could argue that some diamonds are failures. The diamond lifestyle is an illusion created by upline leaders as a means to entice recruits.
Many Amway zealots and apologists try to make ridiculous claims comparing a company owner to a diamond. The big difference is that a company owner has employees who get a regular paycheck. These employees generally wanted the job and probably applied for the work. And if and when an employee leaves, there are other applicants who are willing to step in and do the work. Thus the business continues to meet their demands and continues to profit.
In the Amway opportunity, the IBOs spend money purchasing products, and then upline leaders expect these same folks to spend even more money to learn how to be motivated to do the Amway business. But in reality, if IBOs made profits, that would likely be sufficient motivation to run their businesses. Because it is hard to find enough (suckers) IBOs to join the business and fork out cash while they lose money, other IBOs have resorted to trickery, deception and outright lying at times, in order to attract potential downlines.
The 6-4-2 system ensures that the majority of business builders must "do the work" to uphold their platinum, who (probably) barely earns a net profit. And then you need 3 or 6 groups of IBOs losing money in order to maintain an emerald or diamond.
Amway has revealed that less than 4% of product moves to non IBOs. The absence of non IBO customers nearly guarantees that most IBO groups will lose money or make very little. Most IBOs are destined to fail. And it is not necessarily the IBO's fault. The system itself comes with many flaws which most IBOs cannot overcome, even for those who put forth much effort. It is why most IBOs fail. It is why I hope prospects will find and read this information before making a final decision to sign up or not.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Amway - Why Joecool's Blog?
I recently saw some disparaging comments about Joecool on another blog. I understand that the position I hold, is contrary to what many IBOs are taught, therefore uplines probably teach their downline that a critic is their enemy. I would like to take the time to clear up what my "mission" is.
Aside from what I see as higher than ordinary prices, I actually have little to complain about Amway the corporation. When I was an IBO, I found their customer services to be very satisfactory. My only other criticism of Amway itself is their inability or unwillingness to curb upline abuse of downline. There are plenty of testimony and verifiable issues which indicate that AMOs continue to abuse their downline financially.
The bigger problem lies in recruiting tactics of some AMOs. They lure in prospects by showing fabulous wealth. The wealth is supposedly attained by Amway income. The wealth is also probably promoted as easy to attain. Then when the prospect bites, the prospect is often taught that they must be on standing order and attending functions in order to succeed. These unsuspecting newbie IBOs then become dedicated "customers" of Amway and the AMOs. What is often excluded ot glossed over is that many upline might make a significant income from the sale of these tools, and that there is no bonafide evidence that standing order and functions actually work. One could argue that many who achieve diamond are on the "system", but in the same breath, you could also argue that eventually, someone wins the powerball lottery as well. This is not comparing a business to a game of chance, but drawing an analogy to your odds of succeeding.
Why is Joecool so against the AMOs? Because I have seen firsthand, and strongly suspect that abuses continue to this day. IBOs taught to sacrifice anything to buy more cds or function tickets. IBOs told to quit their jobs to attend a function, IBOs taught to skip making rent or mortgage payments to attend a function. I know of two former crossline who followed upline advice into home foreclosure or bankruptcy. There is evidence that this continues to this day. Sadly, there are far more IBOs who suffer debt and massive financial losses than those who achieve platinum or higher. The AMOs succeed on the backs of their downline while making the downline think that losing money is success.
Aside from what I see as higher than ordinary prices, I actually have little to complain about Amway the corporation. When I was an IBO, I found their customer services to be very satisfactory. My only other criticism of Amway itself is their inability or unwillingness to curb upline abuse of downline. There are plenty of testimony and verifiable issues which indicate that AMOs continue to abuse their downline financially.
The bigger problem lies in recruiting tactics of some AMOs. They lure in prospects by showing fabulous wealth. The wealth is supposedly attained by Amway income. The wealth is also probably promoted as easy to attain. Then when the prospect bites, the prospect is often taught that they must be on standing order and attending functions in order to succeed. These unsuspecting newbie IBOs then become dedicated "customers" of Amway and the AMOs. What is often excluded ot glossed over is that many upline might make a significant income from the sale of these tools, and that there is no bonafide evidence that standing order and functions actually work. One could argue that many who achieve diamond are on the "system", but in the same breath, you could also argue that eventually, someone wins the powerball lottery as well. This is not comparing a business to a game of chance, but drawing an analogy to your odds of succeeding.
Why is Joecool so against the AMOs? Because I have seen firsthand, and strongly suspect that abuses continue to this day. IBOs taught to sacrifice anything to buy more cds or function tickets. IBOs told to quit their jobs to attend a function, IBOs taught to skip making rent or mortgage payments to attend a function. I know of two former crossline who followed upline advice into home foreclosure or bankruptcy. There is evidence that this continues to this day. Sadly, there are far more IBOs who suffer debt and massive financial losses than those who achieve platinum or higher. The AMOs succeed on the backs of their downline while making the downline think that losing money is success.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Amway - More On "Buy From Yourself"
At a recent church function I attended, some of the members were selling food as a means to raise funds to go on a mission to China. They were selling lunch and it gave me an interesting but very real analogy to explain why the "buy from yourself" method as taught by upline is just ridiculous if that is your primary means of moving products from your business to the end consumer.
At my church, these folks were selling chili dogs for $5. It probably costed about $2 to buy and prepare these chili dogs, thus each sale netted the mission group about $3. But to make a point, how much profit would be made towards the mission if only the missionaries bought chili dogs? Simple, their profit would be $3 times the number of chil dogs sold. But there is no true profit as the money is still coming out of the pockets of the missionaries.
You could argue that it is still profit, but from a business standpoint, it is not a true profit. If I owned a retaurant and dined in my own restaurant, it doesn't increase my sales, nor does it increase my profit.
Buying everything from the Amway catalog (Or Amway partner stores) for yourself does nothing to increase your profit or sales. It makes you a customer. Any rebate you receive from buying your own goods, still comes out of your own pocket.
Now if you bought nothing but sold some Amway goods to people, you realize a true profit from a business perspective.
There is nothing wrong with buying what you truly need through your own distributorship, but if your upline is teaching you to buy from yourself without selling goods to non IBOs, you are being taught some poor business practices.
It is my guess that some upline leaders teach the buy from yourself method because YOUR loyalty and dedication to 100 PV brings stability to their business. Stop and digest this for a minute.
At my church, these folks were selling chili dogs for $5. It probably costed about $2 to buy and prepare these chili dogs, thus each sale netted the mission group about $3. But to make a point, how much profit would be made towards the mission if only the missionaries bought chili dogs? Simple, their profit would be $3 times the number of chil dogs sold. But there is no true profit as the money is still coming out of the pockets of the missionaries.
You could argue that it is still profit, but from a business standpoint, it is not a true profit. If I owned a retaurant and dined in my own restaurant, it doesn't increase my sales, nor does it increase my profit.
Buying everything from the Amway catalog (Or Amway partner stores) for yourself does nothing to increase your profit or sales. It makes you a customer. Any rebate you receive from buying your own goods, still comes out of your own pocket.
Now if you bought nothing but sold some Amway goods to people, you realize a true profit from a business perspective.
There is nothing wrong with buying what you truly need through your own distributorship, but if your upline is teaching you to buy from yourself without selling goods to non IBOs, you are being taught some poor business practices.
It is my guess that some upline leaders teach the buy from yourself method because YOUR loyalty and dedication to 100 PV brings stability to their business. Stop and digest this for a minute.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Amway - Buy From Yourself?
In a recent exchange with an Amway apologist, we debated the merits of buying from yourself. Here's the exchange:
Joecool: Nobody actually makes money buying from themselves. In what other business besides Amway do people teach business owners to buy from themselves almost exclusively?
Awesome!!! said...
Not true Joecool. If you own let's say a car factory making sports cars, you would turn to one awesome car your factory does make, maybe even custom made. So, you end up buying it from your own business. To me that just makes sense. Only to a blind man does that not make sense.
--------------------------------------------
Joecool's commentary: It is apparent to me that IBOs like "Awesome" are compleetly fooled by upline teaching about "buy from yourself". If I owned a car factory and I bought a car from myself, I would make nothing. If it costs say $20,000 to make a sports car, and I purchase it from my own factory for my cost of $20,000, I made nothing. In fact you could say I took a loss because I still had to pay the factory workers to make the car.
While it may seem plausible to buy from your own store, that is not the key to the success of the business. The key to the success of a business is selling your goods and services to customers! A friend of mine used to own a franchise food business (not McDonald's) and frankly, he could not stand eating at his own retaurant. The only product from his restaurant that he consumed regularly was diet coke!
Folks, there is nothing wrong with supporting your business, but you will not be successful if you are the primary customer of your business. Do the math and it's easy to see. When you buy from your "IBO-Ship", the biggest beneficiary is Amway, who makes or sells the products. The only way to overcome this, is to sponsor enough downline who will do the work and suffer the losses on your behalf.
That's how Joecool sees it.
Joecool: Nobody actually makes money buying from themselves. In what other business besides Amway do people teach business owners to buy from themselves almost exclusively?
Awesome!!! said...
Not true Joecool. If you own let's say a car factory making sports cars, you would turn to one awesome car your factory does make, maybe even custom made. So, you end up buying it from your own business. To me that just makes sense. Only to a blind man does that not make sense.
--------------------------------------------
Joecool's commentary: It is apparent to me that IBOs like "Awesome" are compleetly fooled by upline teaching about "buy from yourself". If I owned a car factory and I bought a car from myself, I would make nothing. If it costs say $20,000 to make a sports car, and I purchase it from my own factory for my cost of $20,000, I made nothing. In fact you could say I took a loss because I still had to pay the factory workers to make the car.
While it may seem plausible to buy from your own store, that is not the key to the success of the business. The key to the success of a business is selling your goods and services to customers! A friend of mine used to own a franchise food business (not McDonald's) and frankly, he could not stand eating at his own retaurant. The only product from his restaurant that he consumed regularly was diet coke!
Folks, there is nothing wrong with supporting your business, but you will not be successful if you are the primary customer of your business. Do the math and it's easy to see. When you buy from your "IBO-Ship", the biggest beneficiary is Amway, who makes or sells the products. The only way to overcome this, is to sponsor enough downline who will do the work and suffer the losses on your behalf.
That's how Joecool sees it.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Amway - My Upline Has My Best Interest At Heart?
A shocking testimony!
http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=87404&page=3
I have a similar experience with Amway and my marriage. My dh was totally taken in....we had no job...no money.....and my doctor had us over to 'visit' and we spent over $100 to get a basic start-up kit! Plus, we still had to buy more motivational materials AND for the kicker....drum roll.....my doctor decided I needed to stop breastfeeding my then 10 month old baby so that dh and I could spend more time recruiting our down-line. That way baby could stay with a sitter (she ate every two hours around the clock). I did not want to do this. This was my third and last baby, and the only one I had successfully produced milk to feed. But dh was adamant that Amway was more important (even when I pointed out to him that we had already spent more money than we had and my parent were supporting us!), and he would NOT let me feed my baby again! Instead, my baby cried and cried, I cried and cried, and we had to sign up for WIC to get formula. Because of Amway. Sick.
And, dh made me listen to these motivational tapes every time we stepped in the car to go anywhere. They made me sick. Down right sick. The most important thing was making money and having more, more, more. And leaving your kids to make this money was necessary. Being content with where you were in life and being happy in your current job was NOT ok, and forGET being frugal: spend, spend, spend....especially to go to meetings, meetings, and more meetings to meet wonderful Christians that had wonderful money in our wonderful up-lines.
Sick. It was just.sick.
Doctor and dh told me I was going to make my dh fail. It would be all my fault because "I" wasn't "doing my part". Nope. Taking care of 3 small dc, the house, the cooking, the laundry, the bill-collectors, etc. while dh went to meetings instead of to job interviews.....that was failure as far as Amway was concerned. Because I didn't go with him. I didn't hire unknown sitters to stay with the kids. Sick.
Finally, I sat dh down and told him if Amway was his thing: fine by me. But I wasn't interested in a group of people that thought money was more important than their children and their families. If he wanted to pursue it; fine. He could do so without me. I would just stay home and hold down the fort. But I would no longer use their inferior products (dh made me purchase their disposable diapers which leaked like mad and cost twice as much). If he liked a product and wanted to use it: fine. But I was purchasing products that worked for me. (I also hated their shampoo/conditioner and laundry detergent and make-up)
I can not tell you how relieved he was when he finally admitted to me that I was right and he had been totally taken in by the 'life-style' that was constantly put in front of him by these people. He apologized for the breast-feeding thing that could NEVER be recaptured, he applied for real jobs, went to interviews, got hired, and we could finally pay our bills.
And, all those wonderful Christian friends he had met? We never saw or heard from a one of them again, and my doctor 'recommended' me to 'someone closer to where I lived'. Yeah, right. Sick.
I hate Amway.
http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=87404&page=3
I have a similar experience with Amway and my marriage. My dh was totally taken in....we had no job...no money.....and my doctor had us over to 'visit' and we spent over $100 to get a basic start-up kit! Plus, we still had to buy more motivational materials AND for the kicker....drum roll.....my doctor decided I needed to stop breastfeeding my then 10 month old baby so that dh and I could spend more time recruiting our down-line. That way baby could stay with a sitter (she ate every two hours around the clock). I did not want to do this. This was my third and last baby, and the only one I had successfully produced milk to feed. But dh was adamant that Amway was more important (even when I pointed out to him that we had already spent more money than we had and my parent were supporting us!), and he would NOT let me feed my baby again! Instead, my baby cried and cried, I cried and cried, and we had to sign up for WIC to get formula. Because of Amway. Sick.
And, dh made me listen to these motivational tapes every time we stepped in the car to go anywhere. They made me sick. Down right sick. The most important thing was making money and having more, more, more. And leaving your kids to make this money was necessary. Being content with where you were in life and being happy in your current job was NOT ok, and forGET being frugal: spend, spend, spend....especially to go to meetings, meetings, and more meetings to meet wonderful Christians that had wonderful money in our wonderful up-lines.
Sick. It was just.sick.
Doctor and dh told me I was going to make my dh fail. It would be all my fault because "I" wasn't "doing my part". Nope. Taking care of 3 small dc, the house, the cooking, the laundry, the bill-collectors, etc. while dh went to meetings instead of to job interviews.....that was failure as far as Amway was concerned. Because I didn't go with him. I didn't hire unknown sitters to stay with the kids. Sick.
Finally, I sat dh down and told him if Amway was his thing: fine by me. But I wasn't interested in a group of people that thought money was more important than their children and their families. If he wanted to pursue it; fine. He could do so without me. I would just stay home and hold down the fort. But I would no longer use their inferior products (dh made me purchase their disposable diapers which leaked like mad and cost twice as much). If he liked a product and wanted to use it: fine. But I was purchasing products that worked for me. (I also hated their shampoo/conditioner and laundry detergent and make-up)
I can not tell you how relieved he was when he finally admitted to me that I was right and he had been totally taken in by the 'life-style' that was constantly put in front of him by these people. He apologized for the breast-feeding thing that could NEVER be recaptured, he applied for real jobs, went to interviews, got hired, and we could finally pay our bills.
And, all those wonderful Christian friends he had met? We never saw or heard from a one of them again, and my doctor 'recommended' me to 'someone closer to where I lived'. Yeah, right. Sick.
I hate Amway.
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