Amway Or A Job?

 One of the ways that upline diamonds would put down jobs was to toss in the phrase that a job was simply trading hours for dollars. As if it were demeaning to have a job where you got paid for your time. I believe it's all relative. Being that many IBOs are young and maybe working in more entry level types of jobs, then yeah, your hours wage might not be that great. If you earn say $10 an hour, then you might be struggling financially, and it may take time before your skills and knowledge increase to a point where your experience is worth more money. What if you had a job paying $1000 an hour and earned over $160,000 a month? Is that a lousy deal trading hours for dollars?  It's all relative, isn't it?

Conversely, having a business can be good or bad also. If you have an Amway business earning less than $100 a month and you spend $200 on functions, standing orders and other training and motivational materials, then you are losing money. You would be better off working for free. That is still a better alternative than working a business where you are losing money. I think most people agree that a platinum group typically has a 100 or more IBOs. Thus, a platinum is in the top 1% of all IBOs. I have heard that the platinum level is where you start to break even or make a little profit, depending on your level of tool consumption. If platinums are barely making a profit, then the other 99+% of IBOs are likely losing money. How much is that worth per hour?

I think uplines cleverly trick IBOs into thinking that a job is bad. Trading hours for dollars, after all, sounds like some kind of indentured servant of sorts. But in the end, what matters is your bottom line. If you are an IBO with little or no downline, and/or not much in terms of sales to non-IBOs/customers, then you are losing money each and every month if you are attending functions and buying standing orders. Your 10-12 hours a week of Amway work is costing you money! But if you spend 10-12 hours a week, even at minimum wage, then you might be making about 300 to 350 a month grow income. After taxes, you make about 250 to 300. At least trading hours for dollars gets you a guaranteed net gain at the end of the month.

Uplines trick you into a "business mentality" where you think that working for a net loss is just a part of business. IBOs should realize that a business promoted as low risk and no overhead should be one where you can profit right away. Instead, IBOs are taught to delay gratification, or to reinvest any profit back into their business in the form of tools and functions, which results in a net loss. If that's the case, I would choose trading hours for dollars.

Remember, trading hours for dollars is not a bad deal if you are making enough dollars per hour. And even those who make less, are better off that those who "run a business" but end up with a net loss. It's all relative and hopefully, this message will help new or prospective IBOs who are being enticed to join the Amway business opportunity. Good luck to those with jobs and those with businesses. You can be successful either way. Remember that!

The Freedom Myth?

 When I was an Amway IBO, I saw my upline diamond driving around town dressed in a business suit. I used to think why does he keep working if he can walk away and collect residual income? My sponsor told me that the diamond only works because he loves and cares about his downline and wants to help them. So, there are two possible scenarios, the diamond is working to help his downline out of a genuine concern, or possibly he is working because he has to! The only difference now is that the diamond works the night and/or graveyard shift, because many IBOs are building the business after they complete their day jobs. **We should also note that my former upline diamond dropped down to the emerald level around 2005 and has since re-established his diamond level. He also moved from Hawaii (he said he loved the ocean) to Washington State and lives in a middle-class neighborhood.

Now Amway has stated that the average (non Q12) diamond earns about $150k a year. That is a decent income, but after taxes and paying for basic expenses such as medical and dental insurance, the average diamond probably lives a very middle-class lifestyle. Keep in mind that a large portion of a diamond's income comes in the form of an annual bonus, thus a diamond's monthly income may be quite small. Yes, diamonds may have other sources of income such as speaking engagements and income from standing orders and functions. But this income depends on the diamond's continued appearances and efforts. Stop "working" and the income stops also.

So is it likely that a diamond is "free"? I would have to conclude that a diamond is not free and may actually have to spend more time maintaining his group than if the diamond simply had a 9-5 job. For one thing, a diamond needs to maintain a personal group to keep qualifying for bonuses. With a poor retention rate in Amway, I am fairly sure that a diamond spends much time recruiting personally sponsored IBOs to maintain this group. Additionally, a diamond must help his six or more groups of downline platinums to maintain their businesses or face the possibility of falling out of qualification. My former diamond dropped down to the emerald level but has since re-qualified at diamond. A diamond must also dedicate time to reward up and coming movers and shakers, to keep them motivated. I got to spend time with my upline diamond when I was considered a promising up and coming pin.

In order to continue to receive tools income, a diamond must also travel to numerous functions and speaking engagements. Although the tools income allegedly doubles a diamond's income, it also adds a lot of expenses, especially if the diamond and his family travel first class to show off the diamond lifestyle.

After breaking down projected income and considering projected expenses, I can only conclude that a diamond probably lives a middle class lifestyle, and probably works as much as a man with a 9-5 job, except that a diamond works nights and weekends. A good portrait of this is shown in Ruth Carter's book (Amway Motivational Organizations: Behind The Smoke and Mirrors). In the book, the diamond had a net income of over $300,000, but lived in debt, could barely pay his mortgage, and was always on the run from one function to the next. Is that financial freedom?

I believe that diamonds may actually be busier at the diamond level than an average Joe who has a 9-5 J-O-B. The difference is that the diamond works the night shift. Is this the freedom you are seeking?

The Reality?

 One of the things that keeps some Amway IBOs going is the "honest reality". What I mean by that is for some IBOs, once you have been in Amway for a while, it can be hard to quit. You were possibly recruited with dreams of lifelong residual income and walking on all of the exotic beaches of the world. Retiring young and spending that time with your wife and family, and Amway friends. To quit means an IBO would have to face the reality that these dreams will not come true, at least not with the Amway business. The fact is that the Amway opportunity probably would not have delivered those dreams anyway. Even a diamond more than likely cannot afford those dreams. In fact, I would estimate that most diamonds, if they flaunt some excessive lifestyle, are near broke or in heavy debt as a diamond income cannot sustain a jet set lifestyle, save for a founder's double diamond or something similar. I believe the prominent WWDB triple diamond bankruptcy shed a lot of light into the finances of an upper-level pin and it wasn't as impressive as I would have thought.

The triple diamond who filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy made about half a million dollars annually from Amway. That's a great income and more than most people earn, but seriously, a half million dollars income is not going to allow you ti buy mansions paid for in cash, or a fleet of sports cars. After paying taxes and business expenses, I'm not even sure someone with that kind of income even lives a worry free life of leisure. And we're talking about a triple diamond, not your average run of the mill regular diamonds who I would safely assume, earns much less than a triple diamond.

But what really is the harsh reality? It's working hard only to drift between 100 and 500 PV. It's finally sponsoring a new IBO only to have a downline quit. It's talking to people about Amway and getting laughed at or getting rejected. It's your upline or sponsor pushing you to do more. Possibly your upline is one who questions your manhood if you aren't working hard enough. It's your upline or sponsor reminding you that a winner doesn't miss functions, especially the major ones. It's staying up late for team meetings or night owls when you need a good night's rest to do your job the next day. It's driving the miles to show a plan, only to have your prospect not show up. It's having to be deceptive about what you are doing. It's skipping functions with family and friends so you can be core to the business.

As IBOs, do you see any of this? I saw some of this during my involvement. While I have not been an IBO in some years now, I still see many testimonies and comments by more current and even some active IBOs to indicate that a lot of this still goes on. While Amway defenders will deny it, I see no reason why any of this would have changed over the years since Amway has made no significant changes to stop abusive uplines. If Amway did make any changes, they are not immediately apparent, and the continuous string of comments and testimonies do not confirm that any clean up has been done.

For active IBOs or prospects, these are the harsh realities that may be attached with the Amway opportunity. Much of it is because of motivational groups such as WWDB, but if you are seeing these traits in your group, ask the tough questions. If you happen to decide that the Amway opportunity is not for you, take heart! There are other ways to achieve your financial goals and dreams and there are more efficient ways out there. Sometimes, quitting something that isn't working is a wise business decisions and sometimes you can lose more by not quitting. Good luck in whatever you decide.

Can You Trust Upline?

 Based on my observations of diamond's behaviors over the years, I have come to the conclusion that many of these men in nice suits and flashy smiles are in reality, cut throat ruthless businessmen. I would not be surprised if some of them would literally steal candy from a baby. During my tenure in Amway, I heard many instances of "never miss a meeting" and "do whatever it takes". These kinds of thins were said to downline IBOss without regard to the IBOs likelihood of success in Amway. One diamond even suggested that a family could skip a meal because something heard on a tape could turn your (Amway) business around for the better.

Sadly, the result of this was incredible IBO turnover, bankruptcies, home foreclosures, and IBOs overspending to meet upline goals, regardless of an IBO's profitability. It is my guess that these IBOs have all quit since my time in the business. I would also guess that even the most abused IBOs never bothered to file complaints because the group was taught that failure was IBO responsibility, no matter how much effort was put in.

The wonderful diamonds will parade around on stage, showing off displays of wealth such as mansions, jets, sports cars and fabulous vacations. All of this was supposedly attainable by the rank and file IBOs if they will only do what the upline diamonds advise them to do. It is all a lie. Since I left Amway and WWDB, I believe more diamonds have quit or moved onto other ventures than new diamonds have emerged. What's more, seems there are countless numbers of lawsuits pitting diamonds versus diamonds. I believe these lawsuits are born out of greed over tool money. Tools income is still a dark secret to many. While some leaders may speak about platinums earning a share of some tool income, how much and the qualifications appear to be shrouded in secrecy. Something that Amway accreditation was to fix. But it looks like the AMOs have skirted the parameters of the spirit of accreditation. Sad, but not surprising.

What is really hard to swallow is knowing that many IBOs, young, motivated and eager to achieve, are often needing and/or wanting more income. Thus they are open to the possibility that the Amway opportunity afford them that "break" that they needed. Upline will use this as a means to suck them into the system, telling them that the tools (voicemail, books, standing order, functions) will nearly guarantee their success when the opposite is true. The tools nearly guarantee failure for the vast majority of IBOs. The tools only guarantee profit for those who sell the tools. What is troubling is that these uplines do this while trying to pass on the impression that they are mentors to their downline. What the unsuspecting downline doesn't know is that some of these upline mentors would steal the shirt off their backs, literally. If you are new, your upline may loan you or even give you some tools to appear sincere. But once you sponsor someone or decide to build a business, the bar will be raised and you will be expected to be a leader and buy your own tools.

Beware, many diamond leaders are simply cut throat businessmen wearing a nice suit and a nice smile. Don't be fooled.

Amway Is Fair?

 One of the bogus things my upline taught us was that the Amway opportunity was fair. That it was a completely level playing field. On the surface, that sounds right because "everyone starts at zero". While everyone does start at zero, the compensation plan is unfair to those who "do the work" and in my opinion, should be revamped so lower level IBOs make more money. It would probably help with IBO retention and maybe, some higher-level leaders wouldn't have to work so hard to keep replacing people who quit. It is my informed opinion that many IBOs quit because they aren't making a profit. Real profits would motivate people to stay involved in the business.

If you are a new IBO, then you might not be really familiar with the Amway compensation plan. Amway pays out about 30+ percent of their gross as bonuses. Thus, if you move 100 PV in goods, or about $300 in sales, then Amway pays out about $100 in bonuses. You as a new 100 PV IBO, would receive about $10 and your uplines, some of whom don't even know you exist, will split up the remaining $90 in bonuses. It truly is not a case of doing the work and getting paid. You are doing the work so upline gets paid. To add insult to injury, upline wants you to purchase materials (functions and other tools) that tries to convince you that this is a good deal.

And something very significant to think about. In what other sales profession are you compensated so low (3%)? I can only think of real estate, but in real estate, your sales are likely in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. In just about any other sales related profession, you get a much higher cut than 3%. Yes, your bonus or commission can be higher if you move more volume, but then you are likely receiving more money because you are now exploiting people doing 100 PV who get only $10 back. In other words, your profits come from your downline's pockets.

Even after you consider the unfair compensation, you must factor in the cost of tools. Most uplines promote tools (cds, voicemail, functions) as vital to an IBO's success. Some uplines push the tools harder than others. But the tools purchases will often be the primary cause of IBO financial losses because the cost of tools will normally exceed an IBO's bonus. It is very common in the US for monthly tool purchases to exceed $200 a month on average, and very very few IBOs will ever reach a high enough level in the Amway compensation plan to earn enough just to break even. Also, the tools apparently do not work. There is no unbiased evidence to suggest that tools have any causal relationship to IBO success.

With Amway's crappy reputation and the unfair compensation plan, IBO retention is spotty. Many IBOs sign up and do little or nothing, and many IBOs don't even last a full year before they quit. What happens is IBOs begin to figure out that recruiting downline is next to impossible and therefore, generating more volume is nearly impossible, even for individuals with skills. If you are a new IBO or a prospect, I encourage you to sit down and really look at the math and factor in the cost of tools. There are many ways to earn a dollar, I just don't feel that Amway is an efficient way to do that.

Low Overhead?

  One of the selling points for the Amway business was low overhead (basically business expenses) and the ability to make quick profits.  But is this true or just another list of lies told by the diamonds?   Basically, when you’re being pitched on Amway, your told that you can sell stuff to make money, and that you can save money by purchasing from yourself.   Sounds simple and seems like common sense on the surface, but these claims are just that.  They sound good until you try to actually apply them in real life. 

Then because you have low or no overhead expenses, Amway just makes sense.  But it’s all just a selling point because the upline diamond will then sell you overhead.  In other words, they will sell you on the vital necessity to purchase tools and functions.  I questioned this as a prospect and was told that so and so diamond was a multi-millionaire and feels that tools are as vital as breathing air, but I was welcome to go it alone and succeed where nobody else has (without tools).   While tools are optional, when it's framed in this manner, it sure doesn't sound as if optional is a real choice.

This is an outright lie because in the Amway business, the tools are your primary business expenses, or overhead.  Even if you manage to sell a few products to actual customers for a profit, more than likely you will still wind up with a net loss because the ongoing use of tools and functions can become expensive immediately and over time.  Many former IBOs have indicated that you can pile up thousands of dollars in losses over a few months and much more if you remain dedicated to the system and the teaching.  

Now the cost of tools and functions would be worth it if the system was churning out success stories on a regular basis. To try and up sell this, diamonds will show you examples of a new platinum or other pin, but won’t mention that a bunch of other big pins may have failed to requalify for their current t levels.  If you go and look up Amway revenues for the last handful of years, you will see that revenues were flat or in decline, which means business was not growing.  

So, what does this all mean   Simple, it means joining Amway makes it highly likely, nearly assured that you will have a net loss of income if you join Amway and participate in the system of tools and functions.  Also now with covid 19, I can only imagine that the ability to recruit down line or approach others to sell products is greatly hampered by state or local restrictions.  Good luck to you if you read this and join anyway.  

It Works?

 The Amway business works if you work it! That's what many gung-ho Amway enthusiasts will claim. I do not believe that is true and I will further explain in this post. Many Amway IBOs who claim that the business works are usually new and are unable to show any real evidence that the business actually works, except perhaps to show a dated photocopied check from an upline diamond or the like.  Some may come up with questionable anecdotal stories,  Some Amway IBOs are taught to fake success and pretend to be successful while losing money each and every month.

Let me make a disclaimer that "some" people do make money from Amway, but most of those folks are tenured diamonds who are in an exclusive club. And these diamonds often do not make all their money from Amway. A significant amount of income is generated from the sale of cds, voicemail, books and seminars/functions.

Also, there is only a short list of new diamonds that I know of in North America, and I have heard that even these new diamonds may have had legs in other countries. It would seem that Amway is severely declining in sales and revenue. Amway sales peaked at about 11.8 billion about a dozen years ago and has declined quite a bit since then, with the last revenue/sales figures sitting at 8.8 billion.

Ok, so Amway enthusiasts claim that the business works if you work it. Business in its simplest form is selling a product or service for a profit. Yet many IBOs spend so much of their time doing other things, as advised by their upline "mentors" who sell them training materials that take up much of their valuable time. Listening to tapes/cds, attending functions, reading books, and other training activities not only costs the IBO money, but takes up valuable time in non -income producing activities. Nobody makes sales reading books or attending seminars. Furthermore, these books and seminars do not necessarily result in IBOs being able to move more product as a result. Inviting people to see "the plan" may be a way to help generate volume if the prospects join, but with Amway's reputation, even this is a hit and (mostly) miss activity.

Yet IBOs spend almost all of their time doing these activities (the work) when they could be better off not getting the training and focusing on selling the Amway products and services. Even that comes with a handicap as Amway products as a whole, costs a lot more than purchasing similar or the same products at a big retailer such as Costco or Walmart. It is why most IBOs eventually get discouraged and quit far before the promoted 2-5 year plan.

Few people will even bother to see the plan once you mention "Amway" and for those who are open minded and motivated to register end up having to deal with a hard to sell opportunity along with high priced common commodities such as soap, vitamins and energy drinks. It's pretty easy to see that the business does not work, even for most of those who actually work it. There are simply too many issues with the business that handicaps those brave enough to try. It seems even the fiercest defenders of Amway are unable to provide a shred of evidence that they have actually made a profit from this opportunity.

I believe Amway doesn't work no matter how hard you work it.