Why PartyLite consultants aren’t making money

Chicks dig candles.

Seriously, they’re a decorating staple more popular than Paris memorabilia and cheesy wall quotes. Don’t put a bird on it – make it smell like the latest seasonal holiday pumpkin spice apple cinnamon cookie dough latte cupcake and put a wick in it.

You can charge a pretty penny for scented wax too if you call it artisanal or manage to gain a following. I’m talking upwards of $30 to $40 for one candle.

So does this mean I’m involved?

This video explains everything:

Make sense? Either way, here’s the full review on PartyLite.

Overview

Who would pay $40 for a candle??

A lot of people actually..

Yankee Candle, the holy mecca of candle shops, managed to build a pine tree scented empire worth nearly $2 billion selling $40 candles. [1]

And where there’s a huge market of women willing to pay outrageous prices for a simple product, you know there’s an MLM supplying it. Enter PartyLite.

PartyLite is the direct sales branch of Blyth, Inc., a decorative products manufacturer. In 2001, Blyth was the biggest candlemaker in the United States, which is pretty impressive. [2] But what about now?

Their revenue, as of 2012, was $1.179 billion. Massive.

PartyLite, their direct sales subsidiary, has been around forever in MLM years – since 1973. They opened shop in Massachusetts, inspired by an age-old Cape Cod candle recipe crafted by a school teacher in 1909. Direct Selling News ranked them #31 out of the top 100 revenue-generating MLMs in the entire world. [3]

Their new president, Martin Köhler, has decades of experience and has been with PartyLite for over 15 years now. Before being named president of PartyLite, he served as the president of their European branch for six years, where he did so well that the European market is now the company’s most important segment. [4]

All in all, the company is pretty huge. They’re doing sales now in 24 countries via a network of 45,000 sales consultants.[5]

That being said, would you give up your Friday night to go to a candle party where your friend Suzy tries for the third time this week to sell you her stash so she can get a commission? If that doesn’t sound exciting to you, there’s no way you’ll be able to convince other people to do it as a distributor.

While candles may be a popular product, the business model here is definitely outdated.

Products

PartyLite offers regular one-wick candles, three wick jar candles (their signature product), tealights, and pillar candles. All the candle essentials. They even sell GloLite candles, glowing candles that are “The World’s Brightest Candle”. I didn’t know that was a thing, but if it is, they seem to be the only company doing it.

They’ve got a line of everyday fragrances, such as Red Apple, Sunset Woods, and Black Currant. Of course they’ve also got a line of seasonal fragrances, like Mistletoe, Peppermint Snowflake, and…drumroll…Spiced Pumpkin.

The candles are actually surprisingly affordable. Most seem to be priced at about an average price for what they are, a little more than candles you might find at Walmart or Target, a little less than premium fragrance companies like Yankee Candle.

The signature 3-wick jars are $25. Unscented pillar candles range from $15 to $25. Tealights are $11 for a dozen.

There’s not much on their website to explain what sets their candles apart from the cheap ones, though. They claim to use “superior and exclusive wax” and the “finest fragrance ingredients”, but anyone can say that.

Apparently they do use food-grade paraffin wax and don’t add in any harmful ingredients. The wick is pure cotton so it won’t emit any toxic smoke. [6]

One thing PartyLite sells that makes them stand out is their huge “Flameless Frangrance” section. They sell Scent Plus Melts with ScentGlow Warmers as well as SmartScents Fragrance Sticks and room sprays.

Of course, beating out companies like Scentsy in the flameless fragrance category might be difficult in terms of brand recognition. Especially because Scentsy offers way more in terms of variety and is a little more affordable. Scentsy warmers range from $20-60, while the cheapest warmer offered by PartyLite is $50. [7] [8]

Opportunity

Most of their consultants start out by hosting a party for the rewards.

Party hosts get a combination of host credit and half-price items as long as they sell at least $200 worth of product. Host credit ranges from $50 for hosts who make $200 in sales to $250 for hosts who make $1,000+ in sales.

In order to become a consultant, you have to purchase the $99 starter kit. It includes a variety of products from 3-wick candles to tealights to warmers as well as samples of various fragrances, so even though it’s a little on the high end for a starter kit, it’s not a bad deal with all the product you get.

If you host a party first and make enough in sales ($350 minimum), you can even get your starter kit for free.

As for their actual compensation plan, they’re not very up-front with that, but that’s par for the course in MLM.

According to their website, as a part-time consultant you can make $100 per week just working for 2-3 hours. They base this order off one party a week, with average sales of $350, and one only online order per week of about $50. [9]

Of course, the figures are a little misleading. Sure, a party might only take a couple hours of your time to host, but they’re not taking into consideration the amount of time it will take you to promote your party, market your business, make connections, and do all of the work that leads up to building a strong client base.

Commission on sales is 25%, which is nothing impressive.

However, with bonuses of up to 50% on your direct recruits for their first month of sales, up to 7% commission on your downline, and 5-7% bonuses on personal sales over $2,300, the plan isn’t so bad for people who can sell a lot and recruit even more.

However, most can’t.

Recap

The product is definitely a popular one, and it seems to be well-liked. Most people don’t bother to build up a strong client base in MLM. They usually aren’t well-versed in sales and marketing, they’re selling a product that’s either not too special or downright fraudulent, and they’re given little to no sales training.

They’re super secretive about their compensation plan, but in the end, it’s all the same with these MLMs that still host parties. Here’s the thing…Most people don’t bother to build up a strong client base in MLM. They usually aren’t well-versed in sales and marketing, they’re selling a product that’s either not too special or downright fraudulent, and they’re given little to no sales training.

Most people don’t bother to build up a strong client base in MLM. New consultants usually aren’t well-versed in sales and marketing, have little to no experience, and they’re selling a product that’s either not too special or downright fraudulent (at least there’s nothing shady about candles, but I’m not jumping out of my seat to go buy them).

On top of that, new distributors are given little to no sales training.

So, they rely on friends and family to make a quick buck (usually they’re literally only making a few dollars off this technique). Pretty soon, that well dries up and then they’re both broke and friendless.

—

Maybe candles is totally your thing and you know a ton of people that would be interested. Great, give it a try and have fun with it. Just don’t plan on quitting your 9 to 5 job with it overnight.

But if you like automated ways to build passive income, there are better ways.

(and you can trash those old MLM habits, too)

from MLM Companies

Paycation – another travel membership scam?

Travel used to be something only rich people with yachts did, but now it’s almost impossible to get away from the travelholics and wanderlusters.

From luxury cruises to digital nomads to eco-tourism and travel bloggers, vloggers, and photographers, it’s starting to feel like everyone’s traveling the world.

Paycation hopped on the travel bandwagon and has done quite well with it. Does this mean I’m involved?

This video explains everything:

Make sense? Either way, here’s the full review on Paycation.

Overview

Starting in 2014, travel industry employment has been sitting at an all-time high. [1] There’s been a huge surge in travel for people of all ages – in 2012, young people alone spent a whopping $217 billion on tourism. [2]

So, it stands to reason that there’s ample opportunity to make money off the travel industry.

Paycation Travel aims to take advantage of that opportunity, direct selling style. They’re a “travel services” (travel club) MLM that hires on distributors as “Travel Consultants” and has partnered up with Xstream Travel, a travel agency out of Dallas, TX. Xstream Travel has been in business for over 12 years, so that’s a big plus.

Paycation has been around for two years operating out of Texas, and they’ve got an A- rating with the Better Business Bureau. [3]

Now, they’ve only been in business for a few years, but they’re doing less than $1 million in revenue a year. [4] That’s insanely low. Can you really expect to get rich off a company that can’t even hit 7-figures?

On top of that, they appear to just be a rebranding attempt for Texas-based travel membership MLM TraVerus Travel, founded by David Manning in 2006, who is now the CEO of Paycation.

In addition to David Manning, whose experience mostly lies in recycling MLMs, their president Mark Campese has over 20 years of experience in direct sales. He’s got a pretty well-established reputation in the industry, having served as a national sales trainer for years training tens of thousands of MLM newbies. [5]

Products

Paycation is another travel booking portal that offers travel discounts. You can book anything from entire vacation packages to hotels to rental cars to cruises.

Some of their most popular destinations include Los Angeles, Jamaica, Hawaii, Paris, Cancun, New York, and Chicago. They’ve got a heavy focus on travel within the U.S. but plenty of international destinations as well.

So, you’re selling a membership rather than a tangible product.

The problem with these MLMs is that, all too often, their booking systems don’t actually come up with cheaper prices than free alternatives such as Kayak and Google.

Also, although you can’t earn at high levels, even their lowest level membership ($40 to start and $29.99 per month thereafter) includes an affiliate program that allows you to earn some commission. So, there’s no real line between customer and distributor either.

No tangible product, no line between customer and distributors…sounds an awful lot like a pyramid scam.

Opportunity

Like I said, there’s no real line between buying their product and buying into their business opportunity.

They offer a few levels for joining their opportunity.

1. Independent Associate: For $40, you become an Independent Associate, and for $29.95 thereafter, you’re a member of their travel club. You get commission on both personal and team member sales as well as a personalized website and back office.

2. Referral Travel Consultant: For $99.95 to start and $59.95 every month thereafter, you become eligible for tax benefits and receive your own travel booking portal in addition to your own personalized website and back office. You get 65% commission on travel booked through your own portal and 20% on travel that is referred back to the corporate department.

3. Certified Travel Consultant: If you’re already a Referral Travel Consultant, for an extra $149.95, you can take a certification exam and become certified if you pass it. Paycation, through their partnership with Xstream, offers extensive training to their distributors to make sure they pass their certification exams. Commissions on travel booked directly through you bump up to 75% for Certified Travel Consultants, which is pretty high. [6]

They also offer coded bonuses, matching bonuses, a residual 4 by 7 matrix plan, business builder bonuses, lifestyle bonuses, and diamond team bonuses. Oh, and a car bonus…of course. [7]

However, you can’t receive certification with Paycation until you’ve earned $5,000 in commissions in your first year. This may sound like a pretty humble salary requirement, but if you take a look at the income disclosure for pretty much any MLM, almost no one is making that much.

Paycation doesn’t provide any income disclosure on their website, so even with a pretty high commission rate, it’s impossible to know if anyone is actually making money with them. Given the annual revenue for the entire company is still in the 6-figure range, the answer is probably no.

Recap

So, they do offer extensive training, which is pretty rare in MLM. They even offer certification!

Paycation could be a good opportunity for people who want to get experience working in the travel industry, but it’s not free – at nearly $150 just to take the exam, plus monthly fees of about $60, you’re paying a lot in the hopes that you’ll make some money one day.

At a commission rate of up to 75%, you’d think there would be ample opportunity to make good money. However, no one’s using Paycation as a travel booking service…when 75% of the cost goes toward the travel agent, you can bet the sticker price is being marked up quite a bit.

No, people who join Paycation are almost unequivocally joining for the business opportunity, meaning that your profits rely 100% on your ability to recruit other people.

What happens when the bottom of the pyramid can no longer recruit en masse? Well, it falls out.

They aren’t making any money, so they stop paying their memberships. That means the people above them lose their income, and so on, until the entire company crumbles. We see it all the time in MLM.

—

I’m not a Paycation hater, as I’ve shown throughout the review. But it’s still selling hype and the opportunity of getting rich and traveling the world.

Could you make money with it? It might be possible, but you won’t get rich overnight.

If you like automated ways to build passive income, there are better ways.

(and you can trash those old MLM habits, too)

from MLM Companies

Is the TecAdemics internet marketing college just a scam?

6-figure bloggers, paid Instagrammers, and internet marketing whiz-kids… These guys are like the unicorns of the internet world.

We hear about them, but they don’t seem real.

Can you really get rich sitting around in your pajamas eating cheese puffs and browsing the web? Not exactly.

Making money online requires actual work, believe it or not. But a group of successful internet entrepreneurs collaborated to come up with an internet marketing course that teaches the basic skill sets of an internet business.

Does this mean I’m involved?

This video explains everything:

Make sense? Either way, here’s the full review on TecAdemics.

Overview

Internet marketing is a skill like any other – you have to learn it.

But it’s not something that traditional schools tend to fit in between lessons on the history of the Civil War and essays deconstructing the poetry of Walt Whitman. Part of the problem is that internet marketing is changing by the MINUTE, so it’s hard for traditional institutions to keep up.

So, how do you learn to make money online?

Enter TecAdemics, or, the “Internet Marketing College”.

Launched just earlier this year (in August, to be exact), this internet marketing training and affiliate program claims to teach you how to become the next internet millionaire for anywhere from $100-$10,000 or more, depending on how serious you are. They’ve already got over 60,000 members. [1]

TecAdemics was started by Chris Record, and the man definitely has a record when it comes to internet marketing and MLM.

He was a top earner for Empower Network, and he was so successful that he went on to become a public figure in the industry and start up his own companies. The dude has over 40,000 loyal followers on Facebook. [2]

He’s got a pretty inspiring story, too. He’s not one of those internet millionaires who started out 50 Gs to invest.

He actually started out with quite the opposite: a negative bank account, a 485 credit score, and an eviction notice. [3]

Instead of giving up, he made a last ditch effort to make bank online. And necessity is the mother of invention…

A year later, and he had banked $485,432.55 in commissions and was making over 6-figures in a month. [4]

The guy knows his stuff, for sure.

Products

Much of the education and training is offered by Chris Record himself, and they’ve got a variety of programs.

Their products use a proprietary technique for continuing education that they call the Systematic Path Process (SPP). According to their website…

“Our proprietary Systematic Path Process (SPP)™ is the gateway to a complete accelerated learning solution for our students. The three career paths within the SPP family send the TecAdemics student along very specific, personal, income-focused paths that end with achieving goal-oriented results. Each path deploys an additional tactical curriculum designed to empower students with a significant advantage over other individuals seeking similar opportunities.” [5]

To be honest, sounds like a bunch of buzzwords and corporate jargon but it’s really not clear what exactly makes their educational products superior. Can we just cut to the chase – where’s the make 7-figured while chilling on the beach path?

Digging a little deeper, you can start to get an idea of what their educational programs offer.

Their very, very basic membership (to become an affiliate) is free, but of course you don’t get much out of it. They’ve got four other products that range from $100/month to $25,000.

• The Entrepreneur Club (TEC) is cheapest paid membership, and it costs $100 per month. You get new content on a weekly basis as well as access to a big community of online entrepreneurs.
• IMPACTseries is their internet marketing core training. It’s at the intermediate level and is led by Chris Record himself, designed to teach you how you can follow in his path. You get 4 full-day lessons live streamed straight to your computer (one per month, 6 hours each). Pretty high sticker price, but it does cover pretty much every internet marketing basic you can think of: affiliate marketing, list building, social media marketing, Shopify e-commerce, Facebook advertising, search engine optimization, online branding, sales funnels, working with outsources, and more… [6]
• TECweeks is their live in-person classroom education program, and it’s about as close to an actual university experience you’ll get in the field of internet marketing…including the tuition. It’s $10,000. However, in total, it’s 120 hours of class time. You get 25 days out of the year of structured classroom learning from the best in the game, and each purchase is good for two people.
• ECOMincubator is their most advanced (and spendy) program. Incubators are huge in the tech world, but they haven’t quite reached internet marketing so much as they’ve reached computer programming, so Chris Record wanted to start his own. It’s $25,000 to join (good for two people), and you have to apply (not everyone is accepted). But that means that you’re rubbing shoulders with and learning from the best internet marketers in the country, and you get your own designated mentor.

Opportunity

Presumably, if the program does its job, you’ll be making a bunch of money from your online marketing ventures.

However, this is an MLM, so naturally, there’s a big focus on the affiliate program.

The compensation plan is a two-tiered affiliate program, but it’s structured a little differently.

Commission boils down to 20-40%. If you can sell the high-end training programs, like TECweeks, that’s a lot of money… $2,000-$4,000 a sale.

Finding people who are willing to shell out $10k for an online learning program that’s been around for less than a year is the hard part.

You only make 20% on your first two sales, because 20% goes to your sponsor. After that, you make 40%, except every 5^th sale, in which you make 20% and your sponsor gets 20%. [7]

It’s tough to give up half your commission on every 5^th sale, and 20% is well below industry average. However, that means that if you can recruit a lot of strong sales people, you’re sittin’ pretty just making money off your downline.

Once you hit $100,000, your earnings double. That’s a HUGE bonus.

The problem, of course, is that almost no one will actually hit that 6-figure mark. But the compensation plan is ballin’ for those who can get in ground level and really build it big.

Recap

I haven’t used the product personally, but when it’s coming from someone like Chris Record, it’s safe to assume the coursework is top-notch.

The “Internet Marketing College” he’s creating is a pretty genius and fills a huge gap in continuing education that’s got a lot of demand.

If you can afford to drop $10k+ and are super motivated, going to the live education programs and applying for the incubator is probably a game changer.

But that’s a lot of money to drop. And while the affiliate program is structured favorably, building up a huge network of people willing to buy into these programs is an insane amount of work.

—

If you are set on the MLM route, this would be a great one to join. You can feel a little better promoting a company that actually teaches a skill set, rather than selling an opportunity to get rich.

That being said, it’s still an MLM and they have a history of falling off the grid after a few years of hype. Not saying TecAdemics won’t last, but they’ll probably have to face some serious challenges.

If you like automated ways to build passive income, there are better ways.

(and you can trash those old MLM habits, too)

from MLM Companies

Can you really get rich quick using ClickFunnels?

You know the old 80/20 rule? The idea that 80% of your success comes from only 20% of your efforts?

Basically, most of your work is a waste of time. This is especially true in the internet world, where affiliate marketers and bloggers and start-ups are more common than teenage girls at a Justin Beiber concert, and even more basic…almost none of them are making a decent living.

Hacking the 80/20 rule isn’t so easy.

There’s one internet marketing genius who knows how to make nearly everything his entrepreneurial hand touches turn to bitcoins: Russell Brunson, the guy who started ClickFunnels. It’s not an MLM per say, but it is all about making money online.

Does this mean I’m involved?

This video explains everything:

Make sense? Either way, here’s the full review on ClickFunnels.

Overview

If you’ve ever worked in digital marketing, you probably know who Russel Brunson is. He’s one of a handful of people who have revolutionized internet marketing as of late.

Dude has endorsements from Richard Branson and his company name slapped right on the side of one of Branson’s planes. [1]

Pretty badass, but do his products exist to help you get rich, or to help you help him get more rich?

Before ClickFunnels, Brunson wrote Dotcomsecrets, a book on internet marketing that was a total game changer and sold over 26,000 as an Amazon bestseller. [2] Overall, people found his advice super useful. The book has hundreds of reviews, almost all 5-stars.

His latest endeavor, a sales funnel software company called ClickFunnels, is blowing up. It already has over 12k users and has done over $63 million in sales. [3]

Huffington Post called it one of 15 best post-launch tools to grow your start-up. [4] Entreprenuer Magazine named it one of 9 business tools for working smarter instead of harder. [5]

Basically, Brunson has been brilliant at making money online for a while, but he was spending way too much time making sales funnels. He createdClickFunnels to solve that problem.

It seems to be getting ‘er done.

The program has been recommended on Forbes by an entrepreneur who scored 25,000 subscribers in 30 days using a landing page he created with ClickFunnels in only 15 minutes. [6]

Not only did he score a massive amount of subscribers, but his conversion rate is even more impressive…

Throughout that 30 days, he managed to get 185,000 people to his landing page. 25,000 converted. That’s a 13.5% conversion rate. [7]

The average conversion rate for landing pages? 2.35%. No joke. [8]

So, not only does he have 25,000 subscribers that he can now monetize, but he has a landing page that can keep bringing conversions in at almost six times the rate of your average landing page.

Product

Simply put, ClickFunnels is a sales funnel software. In exchange for a monthly payment, the software saves your business time and money.

According to their website, you can save over $1,000 per month using this software by not having to purchase web hosting, landing page software, designers, programmers, etc. It’s a bit of an overestimate, but with everything it includes, it probably does save you some money.

The basic membership costs $97/month and includes the following:

• Website Hosting
• Landing Page Software
• Email Autoresponder Software
• Split Testing Software
• 20 Sales Funnels
• 100 Pages
• 20k Visitors

The premium membership costs $297/month and includes all of the above, plus:

• Unlimited Funnels
• Unlimited Domains
• Unlimited Pages
• Unlimited Traffic
• Backpack, an affiliate tracking software that helps you figure out how much to pay your referral partners
• Actionetics, a custom smart action funnel software that includes a custom autoresponder, custom follow up sequences via email, text message, and more.

Either way, they offer a 14-day free trial period, so you can find out for yourself whether or not the product is worth it. [9]

The software is secure. You don’t have to install anything, and you never have to pay for updates.

There are also no contracts – the subscription fee is a month to month fee, so you can cancel at any time. You will lose all your data if you cancel, but you can download a csv file of all your contacts and members, so you won’t lose their info.

Pros

The interface for their landing pages is a thing of beauty, as you can see from browsing their own website. Super simple, really engaging. It’s easy to see why their landing pages convert so well.

It’s got drag-and-drop functions, so it’s pretty easy to use even if you’re a non-techie.

Even though the templates are simple, they’ve got enough customizability to cover pretty much any basic need. You’ve got a lot of different funnels at your disposal, first of all: membership funnels, best seller book funnels, launch funnels, webinar funnels, physical product funnels, brick and mortar store funnel, and the network marketing funnel.

You can also include webinar registrations, opt-in forms, videos, and integrate the software with your current mailing and checkout systems. Clickfunnels integrates with Mailchimp, Salesforce, ConvertKit, Stripe, ClickBank, JVZoo, and more. [10]

This makes the software good for both beginners, who don’t need to know a single line of code to build professional funnels and landing pages, and more advanced internet marketers, who have better things to do than spend hours upon hours building sales funnels.

Cons

ClickFunnels software may save you time and increase your effectiveness, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to do all the work for you.

The truth of the matter is that you can have the most beautiful landing page in the world with an insane conversion rate but it doesn’t mean a thing if you can’t drive traffic. A website with a 100% conversion rate and 0 visitors gets you, well, nothing.

Driving traffic is the real meat and potatoes of internet marketing. Having solid landing pages and high conversion rates is only secondary.

Remember the success story above? The guy with 25,000 subscribers? Well, he had to get 185,000 people to visit his landing page first.

Nothing passive about that income.

On top of that, even after you get the traffic and the conversions, you still have to have either a solid product or service to sell, or a means of consistently monetizing your subscribers, if you want to make your profit sustainable.

It’s also a risky bet. Even though the data you host with them is yours, if you choose to cancel your membership or they go out of business, you’re essentially screwed.

Recap

ClickFunnels is a great tool if you specifically need a more effective sales funnel for a business you’ve already spent a good amount of time growing.

You’re going to be working long days no matter how perfect your sales funnel, and if you don’t already have extensive knowledge in internet marketing, the rest of your business will suffer.

If you’re more or less starting from scratch and looking to get rich quick, this is not your answer.

—

I’m not a ClickFunnels hater at all. In fact, there are a lot of great things about this company. But as far as money making opportunities go, it’s just not sustainable.

If you like automated ways to build passive income, there are better ways.

(and you can trash those old MLM habits, too)

from MLM Companies

Why Perfectly Posh may be sliding downhill

Put essential oils, naturally-based ingredients, adorably packaged soaps, and an animal cruelty-free mission in a blender and what do you get?

Either a really gross smoothie, or a beauty and self-care company that’s perfectly primed to become a girl’s next best friend…

Of course, it comes with a heaping spoonful of network marketing. Does this mean I’m involved?

This video explains everything:

Make sense? Either way, here’s the full review on Perfectly Posh.

Overview

Ann Dalton is the 5’1 powerhouse who created Perfectly Posh back in 2011. Within 5 months, they already had consultants in all 50 states.

By 2014 they were already doing $50 million a year in sales. [1]

She actually started out with MLM-giant Scentsy, where she was granted exclusive rights to create their marketing materials.

This background is a big reason for Perfectly Posh’s success. So many cosmetics MLMs don’t know how to keep up with marketing and design and, as a result, their products are seen as grandma’s makeup. Perfectly Posh’s branding and package design are very trendy and appealing.

Not only are their sales killing it, but the buzz is there. They’ve already got around 45,000 consultants…a number that’s been growing so fast, the company can hardly keep up with demand.

Naturally, they’re also really big on empowering women to be ambitious entrepreneurs who bring home the bacon.

 “The company was started with the firm belief that we all need pampering experiences to take care of ourselves. When we women realize this, we’re unstoppable. It’s critical we take a little time to rejuvenate, so we can spend the rest of our time giving back to those we love in the world around us.” [2]

A littleee hyperbolic. Do most women like a good bubble bath and a lavender foot scrub? Of course. Are those things going to make them unstoppable? Uh, no.

Lots of MLMs, especially in the beauty product niche, focus heavily on recruiting women because the stay-at-home-moms looking for part-time work-from-home opportunities are known to be one of the segments most likely to jump at an offer like Perfectly Posh’s.

These MLMs package their recruitment as empowering women, but some people consider it exploitative and manipulative, especially given the fact that 9 out of 10 of these women will basically never make their money back.

Their profile on Glassdoor, a website where users can review employers, suggests the empowerment message might be smoke and mirrors. They’ve only got a 2.4/5 rating, and one user even claims,

“She [the CEO] is one of the most evil, rude, arrogant, and downright untrustworthy people you will meet. I am yet to talk to someone in my short time here that has an ounce of respect for her. She refers to the consultants as “drunk, fat, idiots that are clueless.” [3]

Ouch.

Products

Their products are actually pretty well-reviewed (by customers who actually receive their orders on time).

Beauty and bath products are all made from naturally-based ingredients, and they’ve even got a line of vegan products.

• Hands + Feet is their line of hand creams, moisturizers, foot balm and foot scrubs, and so on. They come in fun flavors like Castaway Coconut and Black Cherry Attack. Hand cream goes for $9-15 while their foot scrubs go for around $20. A little pricey.
• Face + Lips is their line of face masks, facial moisturizers, face washes, lip scrubs, lip balm, and shaving products. Cuban Cool lime mint lip scrub and As Good As Gold moisturizing skin stick are some bestsellers. Moisturizing skin sticks go for $12-14 while face masks go for $22.
• Body is their line of body products that include soaps, body scrubs, body wash, and body butter in flavors like Easy Peasy (lemon) and Gender Bender (a gender neutral scent). Soap bars go for $9 which is pretty spendy for a bar of soap.
• Hair products include shampoo, conditioner, split end treatments, hair oils, and hair masks ranging from $14 to $23.
• Bath products include bubble bath, bath oil, and bath salts. They’ve got everything from Bravocado to Calmy Chamomile to Bubble Up, and they sell 6 of them for $22.

They’ve got products on Amazon, and they mostly have great reviews.

One of the most popular items, the BFF Exfoliating Daily Facewash, has 4.5 stars and 23 customer reviews. [4]

Opportunity

It costs $99 to join and get your starter kit, which isn’t cheap, but it’s pretty standard for newer MLMs. [5]

The kit does come with 14 of their best selling products ranging from body butter to scrubs to hand cream and “bath honey”.

New consultants get some decent training materials and access to their Prep Academy, which is filled with marketing materials and training videos. It includes a structured training program for your first 30 days, and you get points for completing trainings that can go toward free product.

There are other ways to earn points for free product, such as rank advancements and attendance at events.

No one ever said no to free stuff, but what about cold, hard cash?

Consultants get paid commissions weekly. This is convenient, but they pay out on a company-branded Visa card which means you get charged a fee for withdrawing your paycheck. Kind of annoying.

Personal commission starts at 20% for “Protégé” consultants and ranges all the way up to 31% for “Platinum Premier” consultants. If you can get up to 30% personal commission, that’s almost in-line with the industry average…but still a little below.

Downline commission doesn’t start until you’ve hit the third rank level, and at that point you’re earning 1-2% on your first three levels. When you get to higher ranks, you’re getting 2-6% on up to 8 levels deep. Not bad.

However, to get up to those higher Premier levels where you’re making even an acceptable commission rate, you need to consistently sell $500 per month, have a team that sells $6,000 per month, and a company that sells $20,000 per month.

Those might not sound like huge numbers, but when you’re selling bars of soap through network marketing, trust me…they are.

Recap

So the compensation plan is nothing impressive.

They’ve got good products, but if money is the motive, I don’t see many people getting rich off selling bubble bath.

The biggest clue that this MLM really isn’t doing so hot, though, is the fact that they have an F rating with the Better Business Bureau. [6]

That’s pretty bad. I’ve seen plenty of shady MLMs still manage to pull off an A- or a B.

Can they redeem themselves from that epic failure?

—

If you really enjoy the products, this might not be a bad company to give a try. Just don’t expect it to replace your 9 to 5 job anytime soon.

But if you like automated ways to build passive income, there are better ways.

(and you can trash those old MLM habits, too)

from MLM Companies