Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We have been doing network marketing / MLM - almost 5 years. This company isn't a "pyramid scheme" like people try to say they "all" are. But hey think about the 1 guy at the top of Walmart then the 2-3 below him then some regional managers below them and a bunch more store managers below them......followed by all the workers..... HRM! envisioning a pyramid yet?
Nope. Not a pyramid. People who work for Wal Mart are paid a regular wage. They aren't required to recruit anyone to earn money. They aren't required to buy inventory to re-sell.
If given a choice, I'd rather work for Wal Mart than join any MLM.
Nope. Not a pyramid. People who work for Wal Mart are paid a regular wage. They aren't required to recruit anyone to earn money. They aren't required to buy inventory to re-sell.
If given a choice, I'd rather work for Wal Mart than join any MLM.
But here's the thing, not all MLM's fall under what you just said. My wife sells Pampered Chef. It's a MLM. Doesn't require you to recruit or purchase inventory in order to make money. It does require an upfront fee to start, but you get a bunch of demonstration items up front for that cost, and hosting one successful party pretty much wipes out that fee, quickly. She makes money from it each month, gets free stuff all the time, can buy PC products at a small % of the regular cost, and she enjoys doing it. There's a demand for the products - because the products are high quality and last forever.
Another MLM is Beachbody. But again, Beachbody provides products that are high quality. How many people have you heard that has done Insanity or P90X? Avon is also MLM.
The point is, you can't lump all MLM's as pyramid schemes or scams. Yes, MLM at its basic definition thrives off of recruitment, and yes, the higher you are within the MLM, the more money you make. Not any different from any other business. But, if they have a product that the public demands and that product is of a high quality, then what is the actual scam? If I start a business, work my butt off, and able to bring in people below me to make the business run - you think I should pay them equal to what I'm making?
The point is, you can't lump all MLM's as pyramid schemes or scams. Y?
Yes, I can.
What they do or don't require is irrelevant. The real money is made through recruiting. They all have a pyramid like structure. The vast majority of people in them either never earn much at all, or lose money. Sure, there are minor variable differences in them but that's pointless.
I don't think you'll convince anyone here that MLMs are a great opportunity. They're not. If they were so great there would be no need to recruit anyone. People would be jumping at the chance to join them, right and left. People would be begging to join them. They're not. They often have to be manipulated and persuaded like crazy to join them. Also, I had someone commit fraud to sign me up for Beachbody without my consent. These people are freaking desperate.
Last edited by PriscillaVanilla; 02-08-2019 at 01:51 PM..
What they do or don't require is irrelevant. The real money is made through recruiting. They all have a pyramid like structure. The vast majority of people in them either never earn much at all, or lose money. Sure, there are minor variable differences in them but that's pointless.
I don't think you'll convince anyone here that MLMs are a great opportunity. They're not. If they were so great there would be no need to recruit anyone. People would be jumping at the chance to join them, right and left. People would be begging to join them. They're not. They often have to be manipulated and persuaded like crazy to join them. Also, I had someone commit fraud to sign me up for Beachbody without my consent. These people are freaking desperate.
Totally agree. And Pampered Chef is, indeed, a MLM pyramid scheme:
Unlike most articles criticizing MLM's, he actually goes into more detail the specific reasons why MLM's are not sound businesses. I highly recommend people read his excellent analysis.
In short, he lists five big flaws why MLM's are bad business:
1. You create your own competition. What legitimate business or marketing system bases its success on recruiting potentially limitless numbers of people under you, all selling the exact same products? None. Only MLM's do this sort of thing.
2. Conflict between active and passive income. MLM's sell false dreams and hopes by having people believe that it's so easy to achieve passive income where you don't have to sell products. Yet, you can't get passive income unless your recruit people. And no one needs or wants the products you are forced to sell, and no one wants to be part of your recruiting efforts, so MLM's fail on both ends.
3. Questionable profitability. MLM's usually sell products that can be found anywhere, are of inferior/unknown quantity, and have terrible profit margins. In addition, people who first start out in MLM's are deceived at first since they use social capital, their friends and families who they sell the products to. Once they run out of people to sell and recruit to, reality sets in and no one wants to buy their stuff and no one wants to be bothered by the sales pitch to join the cult.
It's like Amway, when the majority of people in MLM realize they can't sell their overpriced products and can't recruit anyone, their last desperate financial move is to keep their 'business' afloat by buying all the overpriced junk themselves. Hence, the biggest customers of companies like (sc)amway, are the 'business owners' themselves. I bet if you were to go to an amway rep's home, their bathroom closet and kitchen cabinets are overflowing with amway detergent, soap, toothpaste, and other assorted carp that no one wants.
When landlords went to evict tenants from their apartments, some of them would find boxes and boxes of unsold Amway products in their unit. The downlines got pressured/goaded into maintaining the uplines' quotas, so they kept buying the products just to remain in their good graces. However, they could never sell that stuff, so they had no money left to pay for rent. It's simultaneously sad and heartbreaking.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PriscillaVanilla
Yes, I can.
What they do or don't require is irrelevant. The real money is made through recruiting. They all have a pyramid like structure. The vast majority of people in them either never earn much at all, or lose money. Sure, there are minor variable differences in them but that's pointless.
I don't think you'll convince anyone here that MLMs are a great opportunity. They're not. If they were so great there would be no need to recruit anyone. People would be jumping at the chance to join them, right and left. People would be begging to join them. They're not. They often have to be manipulated and persuaded like crazy to join them. Also, I had someone commit fraud to sign me up for Beachbody without my consent. These people are freaking desperate.
-They tell you NOT to mention it's Amway/Quixstar by name.
-They encourage you NOT to go on to the internet, or keep up with news. If you bring up all the stories of scams, they try to brush that off by saying if you're really going to believe "the internet", or them (like you could just willy nilly trust them)
-If you bring up that family and friends have their doubts, they brush them off
-If you bring up that a spouse has their doubts, they manage to turn you against them
Quote:
Originally Posted by Suburban_Guy
This was an incredibly well written piece by an individual who analyzed why MLM's in general are very faulty business schemes:
Unlike most articles criticizing MLM's, he actually goes into more detail the specific reasons why MLM's are not sound businesses. I highly recommend people read his excellent analysis.
In short, he lists five big flaws why MLM's are bad business:
1. You create your own competition. What legitimate business or marketing system bases its success on recruiting potentially limitless numbers of people under you, all selling the exact same products? None. Only MLM's do this sort of thing.
2. Conflict between active and passive income. MLM's sell false dreams and hopes by having people believe that it's so easy to achieve passive income where you don't have to sell products. Yet, you can't get passive income unless your recruit people. And no one needs or wants the products you are forced to sell, and no one wants to be part of your recruiting efforts, so MLM's fail on both ends.
3. Questionable profitability. MLM's usually sell products that can be found anywhere, are of inferior/unknown quantity, and have terrible profit margins. In addition, people who first start out in MLM's are deceived at first since they use social capital, their friends and families who they sell the products to. Once they run out of people to sell and recruit to, reality sets in and no one wants to buy their stuff and no one wants to be bothered by the sales pitch to join the cult.
4. Similarity to pyramid scheme.
5. Cult-like indoctrination
Another writer comments that in order to make significant money in MLMs these days, you'd need a downline that EXCEEDS the population of the earth.
Yes..Getting paid by only recruiting is illegal and considered a pyramid. All marriages are a scam. All college degrees are a scam. Al children bore will become drug addicts.. See where this is going?
The key to doing big things at your chosen company is to learn to skills. Sales and recruiting. Learn those two skills and have a simple system for the masses and yes big money can be made..
Yell scam at every opportunity especially listening to others who don't pay your bills can be a blessing blocker..
Here's an example of a business that offers individual sales and the opportunity to recruit a team and yes get a commission from their sales. The product(s) can be offered on an individual basis or offered to businesses as a group benefit. Now get this. Once the item is sold and processed by the company the commission is usually paid out to the associates bank account..
MLM isn't for everyone and not all companies are the same. Just keep yelling scam. In the big picture the numbers don't care.
-They tell you NOT to mention it's Amway/Quixstar by name.
-They encourage you NOT to go on to the internet, or keep up with news. If you bring up all the stories of scams, they try to brush that off by saying if you're really going to believe "the internet", or them (like you could just willy nilly trust them)
-If you bring up that family and friends have their doubts, they brush them off
-If you bring up that a spouse has their doubts, they manage to turn you against them.
These are the same isolation tactics used by cults.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
