Amway - Your Realistic Chance Of Success?

One thing that many Amway promoters don't like to talk about is what your realistic chances of success are. I will define success as Diamond because that is what the outcome of the 6-4-2 and 2-5 year plan. Of course you may be able to earn some income at lower levels, but my understanding is that diamond is where the real money from Amway and the tools start rolling in. And I can also understand why people promoting Amway do not discuss your realistic chances of winning. Afterall, lottery promoters do not show you the millions of losers, they only parade the winners in front of you.

Many people, including Amway enthusiasts will agree that many IBO do little or nothing. Some people never even place an order or make any attempt to do any business. For the purpose of this article, I am not speaking about these folks. I am talking about people who actually put in some effort to the business.

For many people who want to make an earnest effort, they will purchase and hopefully sell a few items with the goal of reaching 100 PV. For that effort, you will receive approximately $10 from Amway and whatever profit you might have earned by selling products. Here's the catch. You will likely need to pay website fees in excess of the $10 you earn from Amway. For the more dedicated IBOs, you may be payin for voicemail, standing orders, book of the month, and possibly attending functions. These expenses will exceed your income month after month unless you are able to increase your volume by selling enough products and/or sponsoring downline who buy and sell products.

Because Amway has to include the IBO bonuses in their prices, the products come at a premium price. Thus sales to non IBOs are relatively low. Without sales to non IBOs, the only other way to generate more volume is to sponsor people who will buy and sell products. But due to past unethical IBO behavior, getting people to see the Amway sales and marketing plan may be a challenge. Also, most IBOs are unable to sponsor a single downline.

Some Amway enthusiasts will claim that if you do their CORE steps for 2-5 years consistently, that you are likely to succeed. Sound easy, but becaue of the factors I have identified, some of these steps are impossible to do consistently. It's not like walking a mile each day where you have control of the step. People will likely fail in showing the plan and sponsoring others because they cannot find enough people who are willing to see an Amway plan. Many, possibly most other IBOs can and will do certain steps consistently such as listening to a CD daily and reading a success book. But because of a spotty reputation in the US, IBOs will very likely fail to be able to show enough plans to succeed.

Your realistic chance of success? My informed guess is less than 1 tenth of 1 percent. That's the likelihood of going diamond. Your chance of going platinum? My informed guess will be less than 1/2 of 1 percent. If you think you can beat those odds, go for it. For most people, it might be wise to look into other opportunities.

Amway - Tapes/CDs, Books And Seminars Are The Key To Success?

I recently saw a commentary which I thought was very significant about the Amway "educational" system. This system is not run by Amway, but the for profit motivational systems such as BWW, WWDB, LTD, N21 et al. In many cases, these systems are touted as the key to an IBO's success. Unfortunately, there is no unbiased evidence that I know of to suggest that these materials do anything to help an IBO progress towards their business goals. Furthermore, these materials cost money. If upline didn't succeed until downline succeed, woudn't they want everyone moving along, tools or not? As far as I know, uplines don't offer much help unless you are on tools.

Also, what is interesting is that IBOs do not have a indivudual training plan. Uplines are often refered to as "mentors". I disagree. A mentor would work with someone one on one and make an assessment as to how to train someone. That isn't what happens for most IBOs.

Instead the upline will generalize all of their downline and tell that that books, tapes/cds and seminars is how they should learn. That eliminates many people from succeeding already. Many people do not learn in these types of learning environments. Many people have difficulty in picking up information from a tape or cd. Some upline may not be good at transfering information to downline in this manner as well.

But still, upline convinces the masses that a one size fits all teaching system. They may also encourage some people to overspend on these materials, without any regard to an IBO's finances or progression in the business. Techinically, a sponsor is supposed to train any downline without cost.

I wonder what sincere efforts your uplines make to train and to mentor downline? Flying to a seminar where they might make $100,000 for a weekend doesn't seem like much personal attention when perhaps over 10,000 may be in attendance.

These training materials might be the key to success. But that success is much more likely to be enjoyed by the people who are profiting by selling these materials, and not those who are purchasing them.

Amway - WWDB Dream Building?

I have been in touch with an IBO who is in WWDB. Apparently dream building is a big part of WWDB. While it is good to have goals and dreams, I find it somewhat interesting to know that only a select few people in WWDB ever reached these goals and dreams because of their involvement with WWDB and Amway. In fact, despite claims by our upline that WWDB was the "best" and more profitable LOS, there is little or no evidence that this is true. I have not seen many new diamonds emerge from WWDB, but on the contrary, I have seen evidence of WWDB diamonds having their homes foreclosed and/or involvement with bankruptucy.

In my opinion, this dream building approach is simply a tactic to get a prospect interested in the opportunity and then the upline will tell the prospect that the way to achieve these dreams is to be dedicated to the system (WWDB). This is the same system that has few new diamonds and diamonds in apparent financial difficulty. These dreams may also help to retain some IBOs in the system as it would seem that quitting Amway and WWDB means these dreams are no longer attainable.

If you are an information seeker or a struggling IBO, a question you may want to consider is whether your dedication to Amway and WWDB progressing you towards these stated dream or if you are simply channeling your money into products and training materials which helps achieve other people's dreams?

Below is an excerpt from a WWDB IBO about dreambuilding:


So that’s why we have pictures and words of affirmation around our house. When you come into our condo you’ll see words like “Overcome”, “do the opposite of the masses”, “The best is yet to come”, “Play Injured”, “Are you living a dream, or just living your life”, “Break through the wall of fear”, “We' re all in” and more. We believe these things motivate us and give us a dream. Then you’ll see stuff on our fridge like pictures of Kelowna where we want to live, Wineries, because we love wine, in my office you’ll see a picture of a Breitling Chronomat B01 watch because that’s the watch I want, you’ll see magazines with inspirational things in them that relate to us. It’s these things that keep our dreams alive.

It’s so important to do this whether you are building this business or not. This what i’m writing about is part of the 95% of what we do with World Wide Dreambuilders. The 5%, the Amway Global portion is the vehicle for the 95%. You need a dream, goals and passion so that you have something to work towards.

We’ve got BIG dreams, and so should you!

Amway Pin Winners?

I hear many Amway enthusiasts and apologists crowing about all the pin winners. Some of them speak about the thousands of new platinums and people moving up and on. But one point of contention where I think there is a lof of merit. In the US, there are very few new diamonds. I can't think of more than a handful of new diamonds in recent years.

Also, if I'm not mistaken, north american sales for Quixtar and now Amway (again) hasn't really grown. Amway stopped reporting seperate sales from North America and the rest of the world, but I believe North American sales have tapered off or even declined. I recall a message from an Amway corporate blogger confirming that the US diamond club held in Hawaii a few years back had 160 diamond businesses in attendance. That's not really much after 50 years of existance. I know that there was some Amway event recently where it was reported that 4000 diamonds were in attendance. I don't think there were many from the US, unless diamonds routinely turn down free trips to Hawaii.

But here's my main point about the pin winners. If Amway sales have not significantly increased, then it is probably unlikely that there are a lot of new pin winners, unless these new pin winners are simply replacing platinums or diamonds that are not currently qualified anymore. I believe the new pin winners and growth are occuring outside of the US. I believe it is because the Amway name has been put through the wringer by IBOs who may have tricked or lied to people about the opportunity, and due to abusive IBO leaders who were greedy and wanted to squeeze every cent from their doenline's pockets.

It would appear, that in the case of North America at least, new pin winners are simply replacing former pin winners who do not qualify anymore. It would appear that the "net" amount of success in all this is zero.

Amway - Failing Businesses Succeed By Opening More Stores?

After years of studying Amway and blogging, I've noticed some thing taught by IBO leaders that simply do not make any sense. It doesn't make sense business wise and it just doesn't add up. I know that sometimes, you need to think outside of the box and go against the grain to succeed, but some of the IBO practices are simply insane and it's no wonder that so many IBOs fail in their pursuit of their Amway "dream".

Most IBOs never sponsor a a single downline and relatively few products are sold to non IBOs. These are the reasons why most IBOs do not turn a profit but for some reason, many IBOs still seem to think that training materials are worth the money they pay for them.

Buy from yourself. A fairly common practice. It is okay to support your business, but if you are the primary or only customer, you won't make money. Any profit you might turn is coming out of your own pockets. I don't know of any successful stores where the primary customers are the owner and the store employees. Yet some IBOs think this is how they will succeed.

Sponsor others. So you are struggling as an IBO. But the key to success is to try to open other stores by sponsoring. As a famous Amway apologist likes to claim, you do nto get paid for sponsoring others. So why is this the emphasis for so many IBOs? Why would you think that opening more stroes will make you successful? Yes, it is a way to possibly generate more volume, but your "success" will only come by having a bunch of struggling businesses under you. Is that how you wish to succeed? Also, the quest to sponsor others is probably how Amway got a bad reputation when IBOs tricked people into attending recruitment meetings and/or being deceptive when invitig someone to see the plan.

Folks, you need customers to succeed. I live in Hawaii and when tourism is slow, our local economy suffers. It's a very similar concept to your Amway business. Without customers circulating money through your business, you will eventually go out of business.

Amway - Conventional Businesses Don't Profit For 5 Years?

One of the things I heard as an IBO and I believe is still said in some Amway meetings is that conventional businesses do not profit for up to five years. I don't know how true or untrue that is, but whether they do or not, how long does it take for an Amway business to profit?

Despite the small start up costs and the little to no overhead costs, most IBOs never turn a profit. I will acknowledge that many IBOs probably never do a single thing once they sign up. I believe there is an underlying story behind this as well, but I will move on. Out of the more serious IBOs, even in this group, most of them will never make a net profit if they are using tools.

Factoring the cost of the website, the voicemail, standing orders, books and functions and cds, IBOs simply get drained of their money a couple hundred of bucks a month. Amway earning profits on product purchases and someone upline earning profits on support materials that apparently do not work for the vast majority.

Toss in other challenges such as high prices for many prdocuts (higher than local retailers) and a spotty reputation from IBO behavior such as tricking people into meetings and you have an opportunity with nearly insurmountable handicaps. Yes, a few rare and usually charismatic people can overcome these odds, but only one or two out of tens of thousands are able to do so. And even those whe reach the pinnacle of diamond, may not be able to maintain qualification.

So I don't know the detailed statistics about how long it takes for a conventional business to turn a profit. It may take up to five year. But based on my experiences and some number crunching, I'd have to say that the vast majorty of Amway Business Owners NEVER TURN A PROFIT - EVER.

Amway - 3.4% Of Amway Products Are Sold To Customers?

What store can survive by self consuming 96.6% of their own goods? I don't know of any and that includes Amway businesses. Buying from yuorself makes you a customer and not a business. Here's the link and article:

http://www.webraw.com/quixtar/archives/2008/01/couldnt_do_any_worse.php

Over on the Ada-tudes blog there was an article by Todd Krause which seemed to address some comments made on an earlier article he wrote about Quixtar sales. Anyway I found it a bit funny that he was addressing those who made statements to the effect that the corporation does not have the credibility to tell IBOs how to sell or build Quixtar/Amway businesses. Todd Krause agreed with the statements saying it was not their intention to go around IBO leaders.

Well in my opinion the corporation is doing more to teach IBOs how to sell a product then IBO leaders are. IBO leaders are concentrating on teaching IBOs how to sell a "system". One look at the numbers that only 3.4% of all Quixtar sales were sold to actual customers tells you how good the IBO leaders have been at teaching selling techniques. So I don't think the IBOs should concern themselves so much with where the teaching is coming from, 3.4% isn't exactly a high bar that has been set.