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The average Amway business owner, known as an IBO (Independent Business Owner) makes $1400.00 per year in gross income!
You would have to look no further than the Amway printed business material for this shocking statistic.
So what about all the promises of making millions of dollars as a Amway IBO? What does it take to get to Diamond and Emerald levels in a network marketing business that has a mixed reputation? Is Amway, formerly known as Quixtar a scam or is it a legitimate business?
I took a look at the Quixtar business model three years after I decided that it was not for me and I found some very shocking evidence that there might actually be a Quixtar scam…some of which I already knew.
My Experience with Quixtar
In 2004, I signed up with Quixtar after my old man introduced me to a lady who was an IBO. Wanting to supplement my paycheck to paycheck income as a government worker, I sacrificed and paid the EC$595.00 that it cost to become an IBO.
I thought it would be easy, being my first time doing network marketing. I soon found out it wasn’t.
I attended the meetings figuring I’d get better at it. I borrowed my uplines books because she bought them and didn’t mind sharing. The books were great. I learned a lot from those.
I tried to sell the products but people always complained that they were too expensive although I managed to sell a few things to some of my friends. Others promised they would buy but it always seemed that I couldn’t find them afterwards.
I got my upline to show a few people the Plan and I showed a couple people the Plan as well. No one seemed to be interested. It was always, “Its too expensive”, or “I might sign up, I don’t know yet”, or “I’ll buy something from you instead”.
All in all, I didn’t make much as a Quixtar IBO but paid whatever it was to attend meetings or buy some product. Somehow, it was instilled in me that I mustn’t quit and I signed up for a second year in which I grew less and less interested and began once again to search for something else.
I was lucky to find out about affiliate marketing soon after which I found more rewarding and much better than being a Quixtar IBO.
Dateline’s “Quixtar Scam” Investigative Story
Dateline did a story to expose Quixtar as a scam. It also posed the question of whether or not Quixtar was a cult.
Ok, scam is a bit harsh but cult? When you watch the videos though, it appears that they may be on to something. Hmmm.
Was Quixtar a Scam?
Surprisingly, I never looked at Quixtar as a scam. Just because it didn’t work out for me doesn’t make it that.
It was more of a legitimate business to me although it has a pyramid structure. There were product to sell and there was the opportunity.
Most pyramids just had the opportunity and no product involve or a vague product.
You might say that I didn’t try hard enough. Admittedly though, it is hard to make it in Quixtar no matter what they told you. The stats don’t lie.
Most of the people that acted “fired up” and had you believe that they were making it weren’t making that much. Many weren’t making any more than US$300.00/month.
There were others though that I’ve seen do very well and their stories always intrigued me.
Here’s What’s Wrong with Network Marketing
Of course there was something wrong with MLM businesses like Amway. They required you to purchase the products in order for it to work and sell them to people. They also required to sell the opportunity to people in order to advance and make more money.
The problem was that you had to go and find these people who usually didn’t want the product or the opportunity.
Now pick a business or store in your area. McDonalds. Starbucks. When was the last time you saw them go looking for people who wanted fast food? When was the last time somebody came to you and tried to sell you coffee?
The reality is that they advertised and the people who wanted what they sold came and got the products because they wanted it. It is definitely much easier to make money that way.
The Problem with Quixtar
Quixtar, as I had been told in meetings wants to be a business built on word of mouth marketing. You couldn’t sell your products from a store – all sales must be referred through an IBO.
Even though IBOs have their own replicate websites, they couldn’t advertise on the internet – although I’ve seen many persons doing it. It’s all in the Quixtar terms and conditions – you just can’t do it.
If you could do otherwise it would surely make it a whole lot easier to sell the opportunity and the products. With such harsh restrictions, they are hindering IBOs progress but some do get away with it since it seems the rules aren’t enforced.
Quixtar has since rebranded itself into Amway which is the name they go by these days. And me…
How I Eventually Made It
While I was still a Quixtar IBO, I began to look for other opportunities for making money. Some went nowhere but I found an ad in Small Business Opportunity magazine which led me online.
The benefits of this opportunity:
- I didn’t have to buy any products/carry inventory
- I could chose my own hours
- I didn’t have to cold call customers
- I didn’t have to involve my friends or family
- Thousands of products I could choose from
and my personal favorite
- I could work from anywhere in the world.
I had found affiliate marketing and now work full time from the comfort of home since quitting my government job in 2009.
Do you have any experience with Quixtar? Have you been approached about joining? What do you think? Let’s hear it in the comments below.
I was an Amway distributor in the 1970s and learned the hard way, that I was nothing but a customer for the company’s over-price products. I tried a couple of others with the same results. The laundry ball was great. I made $15,000 in three months, but then 60-minutes exposed it as a fraud and killed the business. But I have always believed in the power of networking so when crude oil dropped from $150/barrel in 2014 to $28/barrel in Feb 2016, I felt that I had to do something to give ordinary people a chance to cash in on the obvious fact that oil would go back up again…and it is rising fast already. It took me three months to devise a system and now we are ready to roll.
It is an affiliate marketing system similar to an investment club based on rising oil prices, with a generous 10-level payment plan. The idea is to give ordinary people the opportunity to buy large quantities of oil for nothing but a membership fee of $25 per month. Nothing to buy, nothing to sell, and no actual investment. All that’s required is to help us grow a huge membership.
I believe I have the tool to make many poor people wealthy over the next few years, but I need someone like you, with the experience and marketing expertise, to make it grow quickly before crude prices level off again. Will you please take a look at it and either join me or give me some advice?
Thank you.
Calvin Smith
I mis-typed $150 a barrel in 2014
I edited your comment to reflect the correct amount otherwise it would just be confusing.
Calvin, this sounds like a pyramid scheme to me. On a 10 level payment plan, the people at the top are the ones that are going to be killing it and the ones at the bottom aren’t going to be making anything. With no product, you’re crossing into ponzi territory which you know is illegal.
Neither Amway or Quixtar is a pyramid scheme. The bottom line is we all buy products ans services from somewhere. Walmart, Bj’s, Amazon, Ebay, etc… Toothpaste, toilet paper, napkins, shampoo, detergents etc.. With Amway you buy the products you would already be buying but you purchase them from yourself through the umbrella corporation which is Amway. Then you find other people to do the same thing, that is it. You only get paid from the company. You do not get paid by anybody under you that you sponsor as a business owner. $250 in Business Volume (BV) = (PV) Points Volume 3%. The more BV business you do every month the higher the points and higher the %. Amway pays everybody the same for the efforts they do. I get paid for my efforts BV by Amway not by my downline. They get paid for BV from Amway not by their downline, and so on. Showing this to your friends and family will not get you anywhere. You need to find wealthier families that dont wat to have to shop every week that can order their products and services online from themselves through Amway and get paid from Amway by telling their 100’s of friends that are like them to do the same thing, and so it continues over and over and over. This is how hundreds of people a month are making a full time income and becoming financially free.. The only people that think that is a pyramid scheme are idiots…
Don’t call people idiots Mark because what you just described there is a discount club and is not how Amway is supposed to work. Of course, I’ve heard that before at seminars and if you look up the definition of pyramid scheme on the FTC website, you would find what you just described there fit’s the description exactly. To NOT be a pyramid scheme, an MLM must have retail customers outside of the business. In other words, your retail customers must not be other distributors (IBOS) of Amway. If everyone just joined Amway so they could purchase products and use them and then get paid for the points then that would be a classic pyramid scheme because all of the money is circulating within the business with those at the top benefiting the most from the activity of those at the bottom who get very little at all.
Where is the people that made the buisness. Amway is not Quixtar. HAHAHAHA this is not amway
Amway used to be called Quixtar for a long time before they changed it to Amway. They only started using Amway around about 2005 when I dropped out.
Are you an IBO for Amway?
Jay – Amway has been around for decades, WELL before the Quixtar name was used. Amway introduced Quixtar as some kind of subsidiary or branch of the company, when online sales started taking off. 1999 I believe. (I was briefly in the business before realizing that it absolutely did not work for me, but I do have to give them this: the products were very high quality. Too expensive to be competitive, but I did like the products.) I got the impression that Quixtar’s primary purpose, besides trying to break into the online sales market, was to allow IBO’s to avoid having to use the Amway name, which many people have a very negative reaction to.
Ok thanks for the info. I knew about Quixtar’s history but didn’t realize that they were Amway before they completely changed the identity to Amway around 2005. Maybe I heard that in the seminars or something but it just never registered.
It was Amway first from the 60’s to around 1992 or 93 when Internet came out then became Quixtar an Internet based business. I was an IBO in the 90’s. Even though I’m not in it anymore, I still don’t believe it’s a scam. Never a scam.
I agree with you and yes it was and always has been Amway… Quixtar only came out when Amway was trying to be high tech. I joined the business when it was only $160 to be an IBO. However, this is work and it’s not easy work at all and you will get out of it what you put in it. I did make money… I made my initial investment many times over. However, this Amway/Quixtar business is non stop… if you and you’re people aren’t buying you don’t make money… this is not residual income by any means.
There is a fantastic business out there and I would be more than happy to tell you about or at least find somebody to tell you about it. It is residual income and all you do is what you already do and make money.
What’s the name of the opportunity? I’d like to know more about it.
Your facts are definitely incorrect. Jay Vanandale and Rick DeVoss crested Amwayway before Quixtar. When the internet really got going is when Quixtar began because I was a distributor doing both back in the day. I stopped because my job transferred me away from by upline people. The business was fun and I really enjoyed the people associated with it.
TF
Yes I know that now. Amway has always been Amway and had an identity as Quixtar for a brief time.
Sorry to tell you i was there on countdown 1999 AMYWAY IS Absolutley Quixtar!
No doubt about. I was there for the launch of Quixtar too. Quixtar became the North American arm of Amway. The rest of the countries they operated in it was still Amway. The group I belonged to pushed the “books, tapes, seminars” as “the system” and that was the scam. The products were great even though the were pricy. Anyone not buying into “the system” was told straight out that they weren’t going to make money. The books were great, even outside the business. The tapes & seminars were just rah-rah platforms to get more of your money under the guise of motivation material. I made a bunch of money real quick when it launched but the novelty wore off and that went away in a year or two.
I think you just summed up my whole experience with Quixtar. Except for the bunch of money part.
You absolutely summed up the whole Quixtar experienxe. Except my name for it was “Quacksh*t. 😕 Very greedy, pushy, horrible Upline, expensive tools (books, tapes, CDs) that we were forced to purchase. When I finally had HAD Enough of the nonsense, I told my hubby that I was Done. Drove to a dumpster and threw out each and every book, tape and CD. Good Riddance. It was a glorious moment.
Not only are several of your claims wrong, but as per how Amway, which became Quixtar in 98/99, which about ten years later returned to Amway, works … the goal is to first sell something, even if it’s only one thing, to any given customer. THEN open up more communication with them. If they like the ability to save money then bring up the business opportunity. There is the start~up cost, but over time it pays for itself and from then on it’s saving money. Those that don’t care to join the business opportunity can simply remain customers and purchase as they’re able to. Of course then there’s the product cost, despite the product quality factor. However, the products that IBOs should ‘push’ are the products that no other place has. The XS Energy drinks are the best energy drinks on the market (and only sold, initially by Quixtar and now by Amway). There’s their Artistry products… and other products that are Quixtar/Amway specific. Those that claim Quixtar/Amway is a cult, well… look up the definition of cult. Not one word implies any kind of self~employment opportunity as the possibility of being a cult. In fact, check Amways BBB rating (they’re an accredited BBB business)… it’s rated A+ … they currently have ten complaints closed in the past three years and four just in the past year. (So, try telling me Amway is a scam.)
http://bbb.org/western-michigan/business-reviews/multi-level-selling-companies/amway-in-ada-mi-17004933
Well I didn’t say that Amway was a scam. I used to be an IBO of Amway and I’ve said that the experience was beneficial but it’s a tough business to maintain and grow. I won’t recommend anyone actually get involved in the business side of Amway but some of the products are very good.
IT IS A SCAM! EVERYONE WHO HAS A BRAIN KNOWS IT!
It’s impossible for Amway to be a scam and still around after more than 50 years.
Network marketing is a legitimate business model when done correctly and legally…which Amway has done for decades.
I was an Amway Distributer for a couple years. Joined just before the launch of Quixtar. I checked it out thoroughly prior to signing up. It’s true, there is a bit of a cult-like feel. A LOT of members are also heavily into religion or, at least, something faith-based. You kinda need to be with the Amway business model. It is NOT a scam. You make as much, or as little as you can based on how much effort you put into it. The more prospects you approach, the more potential members you recruit. When you boil everything down, what makes this Multi-Level Marketing (“MLM”) opportunity NOT a “pyramid scheme” or scam is: any member can out-perform other members, even many levels ABOVE them, in any given month. That means you can get paid more in a given month than your Sponsor’s sponsor’s sponsor. In a Pyramid Scheme, someone on the bottom can NEVER make more than the person who sponsored them. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission (I have heard) uses the Amway business model as a guideline. If a new MLM company enters the arena, the FTC looks at their model and if it does not perform like Amway’s it is said to be a Pyramid.
“So, why are you not still doing the business if it’s so great?”, I hear you thinking. You need to find, in the early days, at least 2 or 3 other people or couples willing to follow your lead and join in under you. When new prospects see you investing your time and energies to making those people successful, and they are doing well at such an early stage, it gives you credibility. I was surrounded by people with a “I’ll watch you for a while and jump in only when I see real progress” type of mentality. And, I really didn’t give it the full effort it needs in the early stages. You can’t have a great harvest without working the land, weeding and watering, and generally maintain those crops every day until the harvest. So, that was on me. I may try it again soon.
Thanks for your insightful comment Adam. I didn’t know that the FTC used Amway’s structure as a guideline for determining pyramid schemes. I know you said you heard but I really need to look into this some more.
I know from experience that the selling of products is really emphasized as much as the recruiting with Amway from the meetings and seminars I went to. The people I knew really sold products because there were a wide variety to sell too. I think it’s the price of those products which kinda turned me off and the need to recruit other members. That type of business model is definitely not for me.
$1400 bucks a year. Jeez.
It’s even worse when you consider how deceptive averages can be. When you take into account the handful of people making six figures, the vast majority of Ibo’s are making zip.
I got the pitch from a guy back in the 90’s who said “Hush Amway.” The company has a bad reputation so you try to sell people on it without admitting what it is.
Yeah, that sounds like a formula for success. “Hey, buy this crappy car that looks and drives like a Yugo, but I’m not gonna tell you what brand it is…”
Amway invented products that were safe for the environment way before it was cool. The established manufacturers used their lobbyists and media cronies to soil the reputation of Amway. This article has many false statements. Statistics show that 80% of ALL small businesses fail in the first 5 years. Away has a 5 year plan, and if followed ( just like following a successful franchise plan ) you will become financial independent. A Starbucks cost half a million dollars to start up so how is the Amway 500 dollar start-up considered expensive? Am way is a brilliant, easy to run, convenient way to shop (100’s of other manufacturers products are available for purchase except you buy from your store instead of your neighborhood grocery store, stuff you already buy every month anyway) Amway, since 1959, has shown an annual increase in business every single year, 9 billion dollars in 2014. The business model, like many, works. The challenge is people don’t. IBO’S run into so much negativity when trying to introduce prospects to the opportunity.
When the world wide Web started and e- commerce became available, existing IBO’S could continue to market the Amway products and personally handle the priducts, or choose to switch to E-commerce (which Amway named Quixtar) that partnered with 100’s of manufactures and thousands of products. You virtually owned your own Costco but without a building or inventory, and products yor bought for personal use were delivered to your front door, or to your customers front door. MUCH EASIER AND TIME SAVING. Teach others to duplicate what your doing ( like the franchise model ) and soon the volume in your business is enough to get your monthly personal goods (stuff you use to give your $$$ to Walmart to buy and lug home) for free. Than those people your teaching show others how to do the same thing, now your supplementing your job income with your small business income, and you have the satisfaction of seeing your business partners ( called down line or crossing ) succeeding and not stressing out with more month than income headache. After a few years, you quit your full time job to run your part time business because your Amway business has tripled your income, and your partners ( now your best friends ) and you can enjoy life instead of dreading Monday mornings. Does that sound like a pyramid scheme or a cult? Sounds like the American dream to me. Don’t let negativity, stink’n think’n, or fear, steal your dreams. Me personally, I was on track to have a huge Quixtar business, but sometimes life happens ( my mentors daughter and her boyfriend are murdered, crossline friends are killed by a drunk driver, etc.) But Amway saved my life, streaghthened my Christian faith, taught me to constantly learn from successful people, changed me from a negative, sour puss drunk, to a positive upbeat , enjoy every second of my like crazy fun loving dude. K.B.B.T!!!
It sounds like a solid plan on paper but I guess it works for some and not for others. I tried it and it wasn’t for me.
That’s exactly what it can be, and it’s not a get rich quick business, it’s a 5 year plan. And what if you don’t do it? Those 5 years are going to pass you by and there won’t be any wealth created. Start your IBO today. You can write off your business expenses for tax savings, and even write off some products that you use as samples, etc. Love your comment!
I’m always surprised how quick people are to call legitimate MLMs a scam or a pyramid. Most people work in pyramids and don’t even realize it. Don’t believe me? Go ask the CEO of your company if you can be CEO too if he’ll even accept a meeting request from you. After CEO laughs at you, ask if you can at least earn the same income. Last I checked most companies have 1 CEO with a pyramid of workers below.
The reason most MLMs get a bad reputation is because the workers aren’t willing to do the required work, or just don’t understand the concept. Most of the posters here sound like hard working entrepreneur which is great, but the problem is most people don’t think that way so it’s hard to build a deadline.
Quixtar was really the original Amazon, and well ahead of its time. The difference is Amazon was selling its products at a loss for years in order to build market share while Quixtar was selling at a high margin and paying affiliate fees to its business owners.
The Quixtar concept is so simple. Start your own business. Buy stuff from yourself that you would normally buy anyway, even if it’s higher margin because you’ll get residual income cand tax benefits of being in business. Teach others to do the same.
It’s so simple, and most people won’t do it. Instead people would rather work a dead end job, pay retail, and watch sitcoms and facebook.
Next time you look at an MLM ask yourself, would you rather make Bezos rich, or your friends rich?
A ‘pyramid’ can be applied to a lot of things but a ‘pyramid scheme’ has to do with how the money is distributed within the ranks of an MLM, not just the way they’re structured.
The CEO of a company’s income doesn’t come from it’s bottom level workers putting their own money into the company they work for. All the income come from outside the company. If all the money originated from people in the company then it would be a ponzi scheme. Also companies don’t require more people to join so that the company doesn’t collapse.
MLMs and regular companies are very different even if you perceive that they’re structured like a pyramid. The key difference is where the income is derived.
“The Quixtar concept is so simple. Start your own business. Buy stuff from yourself that you would normally buy anyway, even if it’s higher margin because you’ll get residual income and tax benefits of being in business. Teach others to do the same.”
That’s not a business. That’s a buyer’s club.
You HAVE to retail products. You have to sell enough products every month to make a profit, even a small one, over and above your costs of doing business, which includes all the tapes, books and meetings. The small bonus check you get for buying your 300 PV a month won’t cut it.
You should be profitable before you sponsor even one person. Unless you sell products and generate a profit, your downline will be “duplicating ” a money-losing hobby, and they will quit.
I was in from 1997-2000 and was there at the Quixtar launch on 9-1-1999. The “buy from yourself, teach others to do the same, and get rich in 2-5 years” hocus-pocus has all but destroyed what should be a good second-income small business opportunity.
I’ve always said the same thing about these MLMs. No Amway IBO is a business owner because they have to play by Amway’s rules and not their own. Buyer’s club just about sums it up. Since I wrote this article about six years ago, my perspective has changed although I still maintain that I did learn some valuable lessons from being in Amway years ago.
I worked the quixtar and did nothing but lose money along with several family and friends that I unfortunately helped get into quixtar. Yes they had some good products but EVERYTHING else was a scam. Went to meetings where speakers would bring in copies of so called checks that were not real. Lies and lies and No one but the very top ever benefittted.
I was involved with quixtar and I personally knew individuals that were getting $10,000 bonus checks from the company. In fact I hunted down and got acquainted with a guy who was emerald back when it was originally Amway, stepped out of the business to start his passion a watch repair shop and told me he kept paying his licensing costs and was making over a hundred thousand a year still from the Amway business he built years later bc he was still getting royalty checks. When I got involved I was addicted to meth and was living a double life which led me to prison, but the quixtar business was the positive thing going on in my life that God was using to try and get me to come back around. It’s a numbers game anyone who has worked telemarketing or sales knows that. You swim through the no’s to find the yes’. When it first came out time magazine said that Amway was a revolutionary business that could change the world for better. All this negative crap is exactly that, it’s not a scam,it’s not a trick but it takes being a people person, and thick skin to make it to emerald or diamond. If lil Wayne can make the world like him, then shouldn’t it be possible to get even a portion of that following to be successful in a business that many people don’t even know about?
I was an IBO for a few years and had a similar experience to yours. A lot of the perception of the business being a scam has to do with what LOA you’re involved in. The “other side” of the business where the business support materials and conferences are sold. Amway is certainly a legit business that’s been around since the 1950’s, has its name on an NBA arena and currently sponsors the national college football coach’s poll. It develops real products and has formed affiliations with other businesses to market their products and services. Amway is a SALES business. But over time, the LOA’s started piggybacking off of it pedaling their “systems”, which absolutely can be very cult-like. When I decided the business wasn’t working for me, that I just didn’t have a passion for it, my upline told me he didn’t think I’d be a success in life if I wasn’t “in the business”. It doesn’t get more cult-ish than that. And it’s a shame, because Amway does provide a good opportunity. You don’t have to be involved in any LOA to have success either. I met a couple once who were Quixtar IBOs and all they did was sell gift albums to businesses to use as employee rewards, and they made over $250K/year from it. No functions, no showing the plan, just B2B sales. But anyway, Amway shares the blame in their bad reputation for not coming down hard on those LOAs and their questionable practices.
What I love about this comment is the example you gave about the couple selling gift albums and succeeding with Amway. It’s the same thing I was trying to explain in this article where I encourage people to find one particular niche and work on that instead of trying to sell everything in Amway.
Just showing the plan distracts you from your sales effort but you could build a team just showing them exactly what you do to make it work. Imagine if that couple had met someone from another area that that they had no access to and showed them what to do. They would be getting bonuses based on the sales of their downline.
Amway is a marketing business but the sad thing is that most people who join Amway never learn how to market. And they aren’t taught how to do so at the seminars or by their upline (possible because they don’t know either). It’s the lack of marketing knowledge that contributes to the bad practices of the LOAs.
Your website has credibility and you express your points clearly. However You erroneously state that Quixtar evolved into Amway. Truth is Amway has been in business for decades. Quixtar was created by Amway to break into the internet market.
Peoples comments are interesting and mostly opinions on their experiences. We all have our own schemas with anything we have experienced.
I have been an IBO for 25 years. I never really had the heart or drive as a sales person. I used to attend conventions, annoy people with the plan and even became an artistry make up consultant at a hefty price for the training and start up kit. I don’t market the plan or sell products to my friends or relatives anymore. I honestly just like the laundry soap. I suppose I could just buy it from another IBO and not pay IBO membership fees but have my loyalties to the company.
Amway is a legitimate business with high quality products and a distribution plan that many other businesses have tried to copy.
Did I ever think I would become rich? Not really but I had fun with my friends for a while. Showing the plan gave me the confidence to stand in front of a group and was the catalyst for me towards pursuing my goals and becoming an excellent Professor.
Thank you Dr sarah for sharing your thoughts and experience on this topic and also for bringing to light my error in the history of Amway/Quixtar. I wrote everything here based on my own experience and what I knew about the company including the investigative reports by Dateline. I’ve learned a lot over the years from other readers like yourself and from doing my own research on the company.
What I really want to know is how many people that quit selling amway can say they didn’t take anything positive from it? Also after quitting this business did you go on to create success in a traditional business? I’m a current IBO and it’s amazing how many of the up and coming IBOs were traditional business owners and were in huge amounts of debt and found this opportunity to be a better way to create wealth and duplicate. Because it has such a small start up cost unfortunately everyone can get in so you get a lot more uneducated people that would rather lose $500 then make real changes in their lives. If it were $500,000 investment like it is for a typical franchise it would be a little harder to quit and a little easier to put your heart and sole into the business. Just like any business their are positive and negative aspects and most of the negitive aspects are because of people’s bad decisions. Was Enron’s business model a scam or did some bad people scam others? I haven’t even started making money in the business but I know it’s possible if I want to put in the time and effort. Just like a traditional business if you follow the business plan and put your heart and sole into it it will grow. I guess the best part of the business is also the worst the choice is yours focus on what you want.
It’s possible but it’s not easy and I think if you haven’t started making money as yet with MLM, you’re going to see exactly what people feel even if they just spent $500. I think everyone starts out positive and willing to try just like I did. But the reality is that some of these MLMs are just not set up in a way for people to make money. For example, many MLMs don’t have the right marketing training so many people try to be multi-level MARKETERS without knowing how to market which is a recipe for failure.
You have the right attitude though and I think you would do well with a better business model like affiliate marketing which is what I found success with after failing in MLM. It’s the perfect business model in my opinion.
My husband and I were silver distributors from 1988-1992. Amway has been around since the 60’s as mentioned in a previous comment. There are 3 different ways to work this business
1. Sell products at retail
2. Enlist people to sell below you that also sell product….
3. Join an established distributorship that is doing the Multi Level Marketing networking plan.
Sell products to yourself and recruit other people to sell to themselves and so on. We joined because of the mlm potential. If I remember correctly we paid 150.00 for a start-up kit. We did well, but I think part of the thing that makes people believe it is a scam is the part where you are encouraged to go to functions and weekend up-line( sponsors above you) meetings. We were pretty much convinced by our upline that our business wouldn’t grow without attending these things. The problem though was these events weren’t close to home they were in other states and expensive to attend. We kept being told you have to spend money to make money. We spent money we really didn’t have and ran up credit card debt. I finally convinced my husband that the diamonds and emeralds were just making money off of us going to these functions. We were losing a lot more than we were making for certain. I would make a little bit of money selling some products at retail.
Amway is Not A Scam but some of the distributors are and they can make money off of people’s hope of a better life.
I’m not exactly sure how quixtar worked. I know I wanted to buy some amway products after 2008 and an old distributor upline we knew told us to buy on Quixtar we had to buy a membership it was 35.00 and then we were able to start buying stuff again. I ordered some products for a while and even sold some, but since they are so concentrated it takes a while to use them. When I tried to Oder again I couldn’t find Quixtar.
I still love their products my favorite is the Liquid organic cleanser(LOC), when my son drank a bunch when he was 3 it didn’t hurt him. I liked that I could be confident that if I accidentally left it out again that it wouldn’t poison my children.
Amway is a good company and we still use the products when we can get them.
Thank you for sharing your story Carla.
Having been in Quixtar/Amway, I can tell you that it’s not a scam. Those who call it such tried it and couldn’t make it work, or knew someone who tried it and couldn’t make it work, and blamed the system rather than themselves. I tried it and couldn’t make it work for me. It’s not the systems fault. I’m just not naturally good at cold selling products and such. In other words, I’m not a good salesman. Just like if I start a McDonald’s and it goes under, I’m not going to say “McDonald’s is a scam!!” There are obviously a lot of people who are successful at running a McDonald’s. And there are plenty of people successful at Amway.
I like Amway because it gives a chance for people with average income the ability to start their own business for next to nothing and see if it works for them.
“$550 is not next to nothing!!!” You say. Well, compared to $500,000 to start a Mickey D’s, yes it is. Nothing is free, peeps. But Amway is as close to free as you can get.
I went into Amway with my eyes wide open. I had dreams of being a Double Diamond and owning my own island. But I knew the type of person I am so settled for aiming for just being able to replace my current income. I soon discovered that I was not a salesman so I left. Amway is still a great opportunity for the right people. And it is still a better model than any business I know of. Your job is a pyramid scheme in itself. The elite few at the top make all the money while the peons do all the work and get nothing. The difference is that at your job, the peon will never be at the top. Amway makes it possible for the hard working peon to get paid appropriately for their work
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Two things I want to touch on here.
1. “Your job is a pyramid scheme in itself”
Your job could never be a pyramid scheme. You’re not paid to get more employees into your company. And your compensation is guaranteed at the end of the month. A pyramid scheme is retail business that focuses more on compensating distributors for recruiting other distributors than it does on retail sales. So if your MLM is more about sponsoring new recruits and you almost never sell products or move less products than you recruit then you’re essentially in a pyramid scheme. In other words the revenue is coming from the signup fees of the recruits instead of selling product. This doesn’t happen in any other business (only Ponzi’s and some MLMs that should be shut down).
2. “And it is still a better model than any business I know of.”
Well, you have not heard about affiliate marketing. Check out why I call it the perfect business.
For one, you don’t have to recruit others and you don’t have to “sell”. So it’s perfect for you if you’re not a salesman.
MLM is old school and the way it is done (direct sales) isn’t as efficient as a business model that fully leverages the internet. Affiliate marketing
can be scaled very quickly but it does have a big learning curve at the beginning.
And there are still other business models like drop-shipping that are much better than MLM and the Amway business model.
This is the reason why I started this website so that I can inform people about the differences between MLM and affiliate marketing.
I started doing research on Amway, when a friend told me he was being recruited. He recently became an IBO. I’ve had my suspensions about companies like this ever since my parents were duped into the Organo Gold MLM. From what I’ve found, it seems the business model is fine in theory. But as you’ve rightly said it seems hugely difficult to even have a small profit margin without the marketing know how and some rule breaking.
However, what has set this and similar companies as mostly scam than business opportunity, is how easy it is for various operators to use it as what is essentially a pyramid scheme. Simply meet your monthly quota by purchasing frome yourself while building a downline army.
My friend now having attended his first meeting as an IBO, said to me that the presenter and his mentor/upline have openly told them that the main focus and the main way of making money is to recruit other members. That they should focus mainly on this. At this point he has already paid his start up fees, has no idea how he is getting access to products, or what are the prices for the products I his start up kit. But there is no shortage of information or encouragement on recruitment. He’s already made his first recruiting call. Been asked if he will speak to his friend (me) who drove him to the meeting. But information on how he is going to sell the product to to make money? Zilch.
That is a bad sign and this is exactly the type of thing that will turn an otherwise good network marketing opportunity into a shady pyramid scheme. The main focus should be selling product because the company’s main objective is to sell products through a network of people.
I hope you can advise your friend and hopefully he’ll listen to you.
I did the whole Quixstar thing when I was in my teens/early 20’s. I made some money, but I never looked at it the way the people in the meetings wanted you to see it. It did have a little bit of a cult like feeling to it to be honest, and I quickly disengaged from those meetings. I basically did my own thing. I would buy cases of stuff and sell them individually on my own. For example, their energy drinks. Pretty good drink and energy drinks weren’t so freely avaible everywhere so I sold them to fellow college students and left cases at my friends hangouts with like a box next to them for money. Poker games, outside soccer matches or sports events, stuff like that. I never tried to recruit other friends for the referrel bonus or really advertised my website much. Like I said, I made a little money on the side, and it does basically have a pyramid structure, but it felt a little cool acting like you were an independent buisness owner. I also heard of people using vending machines and stuff too. It isn’t bad to do on the side if you don’t be the creep who tries to push it on your friends and family. I never wanted to be “that guy” lol. Just know what you are getting into. Don’t buy into the belief that you are going to make thousands a month by building your own network. That takes wayyyy too much time invested and money, plus most people just sign up for one year and don’t renew. You’re better off just pursuing your career. That’s my 2 cents.
Thanks for sharing your story Matthew and that is very good advice. I think people get too caught up in trying to make money fast with something like Amway instead of trying to have fun and take their time to just sell the products. It’s not their fault either way because the upline and others higher up in the organization push them like that.
I like the way you did your own thing and if someone was interested in doing what you were doing that would be true duplication. I think that was the way it was meant to work.
You absolutely summed up the whole Quixtar experienxe. Except my name for it was “Quacksh*t. 😕 Very greedy, pushy, horrible Upline, expensive tools (books, tapes, CDs) that we were forced to purchase. When I finally had HAD Enough of the nonsense, I told my hubby that I was Done. Drove to a dumpster and threw out each and every book, tape and CD. Good Riddance. It was a glorious moment.
Quixtar / Amway have proof to they are not a scam! Only way this not a scam! They pay for it! Then I’m right! This is a scam.
Pay for me or go to hell!!
No one is going to pay you. Everyone has a right to their opinion unless you want to explain why it’s a scam.