Is Telecom Plus just another utilities scam?

There’s something kinda scammy sounding about door-to-door phone salesmen.

But that’s how Telecom Plus started out in the UK back in 1996, and they’re still around, although they look way different now.

Does this mean I’m involved?

This video explains everything:

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

Overview

Originally they sold a product called the “Smart Box”, which is a box that plugs into your phone socket and then reroutes your calls through alternate networks so that you get them at a cheaper rate than you would through British Telecom.

Pretty smart.

Nowadays they’ve got a range of services from mobile to broadband to gas and electricity, even to their own pre-paid MasterCard.

And they’re rollin’ in the dough from all these products.

Total revenue in 2015 was £729.2 million. [1]

A lot of this is thanks to their leader, Charles Wigoder. Dude’s a serious UK business mogul and telecommunications entrepreneur. After single-handedly bringing Peoples Phone to the top, he moved onto Telecom Plus to take over shortly after they were founded.

He made Telecom Plus go public and got them listed on the London Stock Exchange, and then turned them into a full on network marketing company under the name of The Utility Warehouse, using an already established network of agents around the UK to start promoting their services on the ground.

Since then, Telecom Plus has gained over 500,000 customers, all through their team of 37,000 distributors. [2]

He was kind of a godsend for this company, and in 2001 that was recognized when he won the Communications category for Ernst & Young’s ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’. In 2009, Telecom Plus took the award for ‘Company of the Year’ at Quoted Company Awards.

They also ranked number 16 on the list of top 100 MLMs in the world. Damn, dude. [3]

That being said, they’re had a slight downturn in revenue since their big peak in 2013. But that’s normal, definitely nothing they can’t recover from.

It’s worth noting that Telecom Plus has a 20% share of Opus Energy, one of the biggest energy companies in the UK, because recent reports are suggesting that Opus Energy might be sold. [4]

However, Telecom Plus has stated pretty firmly that they have no plans to acquire Opus Energy.

Interesting, but anyway…enough with the financial deets, onto the product and compensation.

Products

The Utility Warehouse, their marketing arm, sells a handful of utility and telecommunications services…

• Landline telephone service
• Mobile phone service
• Broadband
• Gas and electricity

They were the most recommended bundle provider in 2015 according to Moneywise’s Home Finance Awards.

Phone & Broadband

They still guarantee savings on your landline calls, but who really makes landline calls anymore?

You also get unlimited downloads and a free wireless router.

Home phone service starts at £17.35. You get free evening and weekend calls to other UK landlines and free anytime calls to other Utility Warehouse customers.

They’ve also been rated Moneywise’s Most Trusted Broadband Provider. They offer…

• Standard broadband – up to 16 Mbps – £9 per month on top of landline fee
• Ultra Fibre broadband – up to 38 Mbps – £14.99 per month on top of landline fee
• Ultra + Fibre broadband – up to 76 Mbps – £19.99 per month on top of landline fee

Contracts are 18 months.

Mobile

Their mobile contracts start at £8 per month, which is pretty crazy, but you don’t get much for that.

However, your price is guaranteed not to rise during your contract period. And you can switch to a different price plan at any time, even if your contract isn’t up.

Plans are…

• 100 MB data and 250 minutes is £8 per month
• 1 GB data and 500 minutes is £11 per month
• 2 GB data and 1,000 minutes is £14 per month
• 3 GB data and 1,500 minutes is £17 per month
• 4-6 GB data and unlimited minutes is £22 per month

All plans have unlimited texts.

They sell mobile phones as well, and you can get them on a monthly repayment plan.

Energy

They’ve won both Best Customer Service and Best Value for Money for gas & electricity from Moneywise.

That’s because they guarantee to beat the cheapest variable tariffs from the ‘big 6’ energy companies.

They’ve also got a handful of bundles that pair multiple services for savings.

• Gold Energy saves up to £379 a year for pairing phone & broadband + energy
• Gold Talk saves up to £398 a year for pairing phone & broadband + mobile
• Double Gold saves up to £682 a year for pairing phone & broadband + energy + mobile

Opportunity

It’s pretty hard to find any solid info on their compensation plan on their website without signing up.

It costs £100 to sign up, which is a little steep, but there’s a 90-day starter bonus of £100 if you get three qualifying customers within your first 90 days.

They offer TBB bonuses of £50 as a starter bonus and £100 if you can get 50 customers in your first 12 months.

Distributors also get a matching CGB bonus on the first three customers one of their direct recruits gets face-to-face during their first 90 days that could add up to over £100 extra.

They’ve recently increased their personal CVC rates…

• Landline customers – CVC rate of 6%
• Mobile customers – CVC rate of 5%
• Broadband customers – CVC rate of 4%
• Energy customers – CVC rate of 1-2.5%

If you can really move up in rank, you get a higher commission rate. Which you’re gonna need, cuz to be honest this commission rate isn’t that impressive. [5]

Your downline is paid down to 8-14 levels depending on your rank, which is pretty deep, but downline CVC isn’t high either. It ranges from 8-13 pence per eligible service they’re customers use. Pretty unusual to pay a fixed amount rather than a percentage.

They’ve even got maximum monthly potential earnings, so they cap how much you can earn at anywhere from £2,000 to £83,333 per month, depending on your rank. Chances are you won’t make that much anyway.

Recap

Their services are obviously a good deal for customers – they’ve won more awards than an over-achieving high school athlete.

But their commission plan is odd, confusing, and unclear. The parts that are laid out aren’t looking too good.

—

I’m not a Telecom Plus hater at all. But there are certainly better opportunities out there if you are trying to generate some side income.

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 Team National members aren’t making money

Remember those coupon books people used to shell out $20 for in the 90s?

Paying for discounts is kinda like eating more to lose weight, but hey, people seem to like it.

And Team National is one of the leading membership discount MLMs in the world. They’ve been around since 1997, and by ’99 they were already doing $8 million in sales…which skyrocketed to $70 million by 2004.

Does this mean I’m involved?

This video explains everything:

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

Overview

In 2015, the company reached a grand slam total of $548 million in sales. Pretty impressive. They’ve shown consistent and sustainable growth over a long period of time, which is important (and rare) in MLM. [1]

Dick Loehr is their founder, and a serious serial entrepreneur who has started and run literally dozens of successful companies.

He actually started his career as a race car driver, which is badass. He went on to own and run a series of successful car dealerships, including one that became one of the largest in Kalamazoo, MI, employing hundreds and generating millions for the auto industry.

He then went on to own and run 9 restaurants in South Florida. [2]

Finally, he developed Team National and, with his years of experience, helped it rise to the top. They’re now ranked 36 on Direct Selling News’s list of top 100 MLMs of 2016. [3]

They’ve even partnered up with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is pretty legit considering how often the government likes to crack down on MLM.

Even their Glassdoor ratings are positive, which is rare for any company. They’ve got 4.5 out of 5 stars, and 100% of employees who rated them would recommend them to a friend.

Although, of course they’d recommend them to a friend, because then they’d get paid…

Ha, anyway, here’s some info on their products and compensation.

Products

So, one major fault in this company is their lack of transparency. You actually can’t get much of any information on their products and services without speaking directly to a Consultant – I guess they really want to sell it to you live.

There’s literally nothing on their website about their products and services other than this tiny paragraph:

“Our product is a membership savings program. Our members use what they want, when they want. It is vast in its savings and of course, is never out of style. Saving money is not a fad. Individuals, families and businesses are always looking for ways to save money.”

 It’s all about their business opportunity.

They sell discount memberships, that much is obvious.

These memberships span a huge variety of industries, too, from financial services to rental cars and travel to furniture to communication services. They’ve got a standard and a premium membership.

Just what these memberships entail, in terms of both price and savings, is nowhere to be found. My guess is that means they’re not the greatest – they’re clearly placing all their value on the business opportunity and none on their product.

Opportunity

They work on a binary compensation plan with left and right legs.

You have to lock down two sales to qualify for bonuses, and you have to get two sales every 12 months to remain qualified. That’s not bad compared to monthly minimums.

A standard membership sale is worth 1 points and a premium membership is worth 3.

If you do stay bonus qualified, you get $500 every time you hit 5 points in a pay point on both your left and right leg. When you hit 10 and 10, you get an additional $1,000 bonus.

If you build a team, you’re known as your team’s “host”, and you get a “hosting bonus” of $1,000 when one of your direct recruits reaches a 10 and 10 paypoint.

There are a handful of other bonuses.

Then there’s, of course, compensation through your own sales. You make these sales through the Big N Marketplace, and to participate, you must have your own company website, which will cost you ($7/month).

Basically the Big N Marketplace is a collection of stores where your customers can buy all sorts of things at a discount. But if they buy it under your domain, you get commission ranging from 0-35%.

Wait…0-35%?

Yeah…a big, vague range. The commission you get on any given purchase depends on the store you’re buying it from. But you’ll know, at least, that you’re making anywhere from what’s basically average (35%) to absolutely nothing. Cool.

Recap

So, the company knows how to grow and stick around.

But their product is super vague and the company can’t even state its really value.

And their compensation plan is way too confusing and vague. It’s really hard to get any kind of idea of what kind of money you’d actually be making…which probably means not much.

Based on their income earnings disclosure for 2015, it is exactly that. 82% are making less than $225 (most probably made nothing).

However, over .2% are Platinum levels and making, on average, around $70,000, and .1% are Double Platinum and making, on average, about $235,000. That’s actually pretty good for MLM, believe it or not.

—

As I’ve shown throughout this review, far from a Team National hater. But it’s still MLM, and MLMs are known for getting hot and then falling off the grid a few years later.

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

Take Shape For Life, just another “miracle” diet MLM?

Eat less, exercise more. Come on people, this weight loss thing isn’t rocket science. Or is it?

Take Shape For Life, with its “roots in scientific rigor”, claims that weight loss can actually be a very scientific thing, and they’ve got some medical and corporate backing.

Does this mean I’m involved?

This video explains everything:

Make sense? Either way, here’s the full review on Take Shape For Life.

Overview

First of all, they’re a subsidiary of Medifast, a brand that’s been recommended by over 20,000 doctors since 1980. [1]

They were founded by the perfect duo – Bradley MacDonald (who has since passed), Chairman of the Board of Directors for Medifast and big business expert, and Dr. Wayne Scott Andersen, a major critical care physician.

Their Medifast products are backed by doctors and clinical studies, while the healthy lifestyle program is created by Dr. Andersen. They’ve also got a personal component thrown in there in the form of their distributors, or “Health Coaches”.

So, they’ve got some science and research to back them up. Although, there’s not a shred of evidence that suggests their supplements and shakes work any better than any other brand.

In 1992, Medifast did get themselves tangled up in a lawsuit regarding their weight loss claims (saying people were losing 5 pounds a week), and the Federal Trade Commission ended up ruling against them.

However, that was a good while ago, and they seem to have shaped up.

Medifast, a publicly traded company, just announced their 2016 third quarter earnings at over $6 million, which is up almost $1 million from last year. Revenue increased by 4.1% year-over-year.

Their Take Shape for Life branch specifically is doing even better, up 13% in year-over-year revenue at a whopping $56.5 million in one-quarter. [2]

However, both the franchised Medifast Weight Control Centers (they ended up closing down and selling most of these) and the Wholesale business saw decreasing revenue this year, and gross profits only increased 6%. But hey, that’s something. [3]

But what about their direct selling branch? And that’s great that the company is making money, but are their “Health Coaches”?

Products

Take Shake for Life sells all kinds of diet foods, shakes, bars, and smoothies galore through their website, and they’ve got a few different lines of product.

• OPTAVIA “Fuelings” are diet food products that have bold flavors and specialty ingredients from around the world, and come in 30-day kits with samplings. They sound pretty tasty to be honest – they’ve got a chia bliss smoothie, an aged cheddar chipotle mac and cheese, and a cinnamon cream cheese swirl cake, to name a few.
• Optimal Weight and Optimal Health Meal Replacement products include bars, shakes, smoothies, and drinks on the light end and hearty choices, soups, breakfasts, and desserts on the heavier end.
• Lean & Green Meals are healthy meals, such as chicken and rice with vegetables or beef stew, that include a lean protein and a vegetable. They come pre-packaged in boxes of six servings.
• Snacks include crisps, popcorn, and crackers.
• Flavor Infusers are nutritional flavor packets for water, in everything from Raspberry Acai to Mixed Berry. They are free of artificial flavors and colors have have no preservatives, and they provide additional B vitamins.
• Supplements include various herbal supplements for digestive health, heart health, and melatonin.

Their individual products aren’t cheap but they aren’t terribly priced. A 7-serving box of their chocolate peanut butter shake is $18.95. A 6-serving box of chicken cacciatore is $29.70. At $4.95 a serving, it’s still way cheaper (and healthier) than eating out.

But their real money makers are their Optimal Health Programs, weight loss programs and kits that get you to buy bulk amounts of their food and snacks on a regular basis, along with a “free” Health Coach…

• The Optimal Weight 5&1 Plan is for people looking to drop significant amounts of weight, and consists of 5 Optimal Weight Meal Replacements (for example, a soup, a meal, a bar, a smoothie, and a dessert) and 1 Lean & Green Meal each day. Meal replacements are consumed once every 2-3 hours and the Lean & Green Meal is for whenever you feel like you need it.
• The Optimal Health 3&3 Plan is for people who have already achieved their weight loss goals and want to make sure they’re maintained. The program includes 3 Optimal Health Meal Replacements (for example, one bar, one shake, and one smoothie), and then you prepare 3 balanced meals yourself each day.

The meals and snacks can be vegetarian friendly, they are kosher, many are gluten-free, and they contain no artificial flavors, colors, or sweeteners.

A big problem with weight loss is lack of support and motivation, so it’s awesome that that’s also built into the program, really sets them apart from other weight loss and nutrition MLMs. When you buy into one of their programs, your distributor becomes your Health Coach and you get to join a community of other people on the program. [4]

The program also includes Dr. A’s Habits of a Healthy System, which really helps you make a lifestyle out of healthy eating. [5]

I like that these are clearly not starvation diets, and they’re focused on helping you lose weight in a healthy way rather than all at once. The average weight loss for clients who follow the program is 20 pounds. [6]

However, this stuff ain’t cheap.

It costs $300+ for a 30-day BeSlim kit, and that includes only a sampling of the shakes, bars, and meals, you would eat throughout the month.

• French Vanilla Shake
• Dutch Chocolate Shake
• Peanut Butter Crunch Bar
• Chocolate Mint Crunch Bar
• Cinnamon & Brown Sugar Cereal Crunch
• Original Pancakes
• Garlic Mashed Potatoes
• Parmesan Cheese Puffs
• Chocolate Pudding
• Strawberry Shake
• Orange Cream Shake
• Peanut Butter Chocolate Chewy Bar
• Caramel Crunch Bar
• Brownie Soft Bake
• Maple & Brown Sugar Oatmeal
• Hearty Vegetarian Sloppy Joe
• Cinnamon Pretzel Sticks
• FREE TSFL Blender Bottle*
• 5 FREE Client Choices*

Considering that the 5&1 weight loss program requires you to consume 6 products a day, this kit isn’t enough to provide even half your consumption for the month.

But, depending on how much you normally spend on food each month, this program might be worth the expense.

Opportunity

Their compensation plan is very different, and not fully clear either.

Rather than giving their Health Coaches a wholesale discount and allowing them to make retail profit, Health Coaches and regular customers pay the same exact amount for products. In fact, new customers just order product directly from the company.

Health Coaches, then, don’t get discounts on personal orders either.

Health Coaches also aren’t compensated for recruiting new distributors. [7]

On top of all that, if you want to become a Health Coach, you have to buy a Health Coach Business Kit (training and marketing materials) for $199. [8]

So wait…how the heck do you make any money?

Well, compensation is paid off as a percentage of the retail dollar amount of commissionable goods in an order by one of their customers.

You get commission from your clients because they actually have to pay for your coaching and support in addition to buying their food products.

There are also bonuses for team growth and leadership, just no direct commission for recruitment. [9]

What’s more, there are no long-term rank advancements. Your pay is based only on your current monthly performance.

A little weird, but hey, I kind of like the straight forwardness…more like a real business opportunity.

Recap

So their compensation plan is a little more honest and a little less pyramid-y than your typically MLM.

And their weight loss program is healthier and more effective than a lot of weight loss programs.

That’s all great, but does that mean you’ll be making any money?

You might get some good side cash if you build a strong client-base, but you’re definitely not getting rich.

—

Look, not a Take Shape For Life hater by any means. If you believe in the products and want to give it a shot, just make sure you have a plan how you’ll get customers.

But if it’s the income opportunity you are chasing, there are better ways out there.

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

from MLM Companies

The rise and fall of Silpada Designs

These guys started out way back in 1997, which is light years ago in MLM terms, and were so successful they were eventually bought out by MLM mega-giants from Avon in 2010 for a whopping $650 million. [1]

However, the daughters of the company’s original founders decided to buy back their family business from Avon in 2013, for only $85 million (huge devaluation – probably a red flag) to become their own independent company. [2]

Does this mean I was involved?

This video explains everything:

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

Overview

Silpada Designs was hot for a while – they continued their success after breaking off, expanding their direct sales markets in 2015 and adding additional products to reach men and children.

They’ve even got an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau and a pretty good rating from their employees on Indeed as well, snagging 4.4 out of 5 stars. [3]

They claim their representatives make good money, too. Supposedly their home parties average $1,000 in sales, which is over twice the industry average.

Basically, the company wanted to empower women around the world to be entrepreneurs through home business opportunities selling cute, fashionable jewelry that they’d wear themselves anyway.

Sounds pretty good, right?

Silpada Representatives thought so too, excited by the prospect of getting to make a living throwing parties and talking with their friends about jewelry.

But the excitement for this newly independent business was short-lived, as they decided to shut down just in May of 2016. Richline Group acquired the company – what that means for them is unclear, but the direct selling model is out the window (along with all their hopeful distributors).

Products

Silpada Designs produces and sells sterling silver, fashionable jewelry.

Their website is currently down, as they are transitioning to new ownership, so their products are likely to change quite a bit as well. Although, it does say that “While a few things have shifted, we’re committed to delivering the same jewelry you know and love.”

We’ll see.

Before they shut down, their jewelry was quality. It was made of .925 sterling silver, and their designs were classic but fashionable.

They also came out with a new line called K & R Collection that was actually pretty trendy, though overpriced. They also had stuff for women and men.

Women’s jewelry:

• Bracelets
• Earrings
• Necklaces
• Rings
• Toe rings
• Watches

Men’s jewelry:

• Bracelets
• Necklaces
• Rings
• Watches

Children’s jewelry:

• Bracelets
• Earrings
• Necklaces

The jewelry was sold primarily sold through home parties, which the company trademarked as “Fun Ladies’ Night Out Playing Dress-Up with Jewelry”. While I can see that maybe still appealing to middle-aged women and older, I don’t about the younger crowd. Most would probably laugh at an invitation to a dress-up party.

Opportunity

A lot of Silpada Representatives were convinced they’d make great money with relative ease.

Start-up costs were high for a jewelry MLM, ranging from $199 to $799. However, if you could sell the product it came with quickly, the investment paid for itself. That’s the hard part.

Silpada recruiters claiming that their parties sold an average of $1,000 in product, netting the representative $300, and only taking a few hours to throw. Thus, if you hold 4 parties a week, you’re only working 12-16 hours and making $1,200. Not a bad side gig. [4]

Of course, the math is questionable, and there’s a lot more than goes into throwing 4 parties a week that make those kinds of sales. Rarely did representatives even come close.

However, a 30% commission rate is honestly not bad. It’s on par with other successful MLM institutions like Mary Kay.

If you host 30 parties a month, given their average sales, that’s $6,750 in monthly income. Pretty great.

But who hosts 30 parties a month? You better have a big network of cousins and Facebook friends if you want to even come close to that number.

Of course, this is MLM, so the real money was in recruitment.

In addition to downline commission, there were also start-up bonuses ($250 worth of free jewelry for every new recruit in their first 100 days). There were also no minimum monthly sales requirements.

Recap

So, they had a good run, and for a while they were bought out by one of the most successful MLMs in the world. Their compensation plan was pretty good, too.

Silpada Designs made a name for themselves in the world of jewelry direct sales for sure. But now that name is gone.

They just weren’t able to keep up with the evolving market or support that kind of growth on a direct sales model. Richline Group purchased the company and plans to run it as a regular ecommerce business, meaning that distributors are totally left out of the picture. [5]

It’s a good lesson for network marketers – their job is never certain. This happens all the time with new MLMs, but it can happen even to older, more established MLMs that seem to be doing well.

—

I’m not a Silpada hater by any means. But they followed the same downward spiral that many MLMs typically fall down.

The MLM industry just isn’t what it used to be folks.

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

Stampin’ Up continues to thrive with unique comp plan

This MLM couldn’t have a more cutesy, wholesome story even if it were written by Disney.

Stampin’ Up! was founded by a team of two sisters, LaVonne Crosby and Shelli Gardner. Two women who loved to stamp, scrapbook, and craft, and wanted to build a home-business out of it back in 1988 in Riverton, Utah.

Typical mommy MLM, right? They’ve actually done quite well, and haven’t shown signs of slowing up anytime soon. Does this mean I’m involved?

This video explains everything:

Make sense? Either way, here’s the full review on Stampin’ Up. Enjoy.

Overview

Stampin’ Up! was founded by two sisters, LaVonne Crosby and Shelli Gardner, but the story is pretty interesting.

Gardner and her husband had been saving up money to buy their first home, but they decided to take a big risk and use that savings to invest in the sisters’ new rubber stamp business. They were filling order out of their living room, but it all turned out to be worth it.

By the late 90s they were fully established and bringing in some solid revenue. In 1997 they decided to take the next step and manufacture their own rubber stamps.

They’ve got two large (40,000 square foot and 300,000 square foot) facilities, of course, in Utah. They’ve also got some religious and charitable underpinnings – their founders announced last year that they’d be setting to serve on a full-time mission trip in Hawaii (with their paper craft supplies in tow). [1]

Crafting is all the rage, especially with websites like Pinterest blowing up the DIY trend. Shelli Gardner has her own craftspiration site herself and gives her distributors hundreds of ideas for fun projects they can teach to potential customers. [2]

Their distributors are called “Demonstrators” and instead of having to apply makeup to a group of 12 pre-teens, they get to hold crafting workshops where they teach potential customers how to make fun projects.

So, it’s a cute, popular idea, and the company is far from shady, but can you actually make any money selling rubber stamps?

Products

Imagine your Aunt Kathy’s attic, the one who loves to scrapbook, brings homemade crafts to every family reunion, and always sends you handmade Christmas cards that look like they took her an entire year. Boxes and boxes of all kinds of craft supplies, knick knacks, ribbons…that’s the Stampin’ Up! catalog.

Their products are based around rubber stamps, obviously, but they have all kinds of paper craft materials and accessories, from holiday card kits to Halloween candy baskets to decorative paper ornaments. Some of their product categories include…

• Accents and embellishments
• Adhesives
• Craft kits
• Coloring tools
• Ink
• Decorative paper
• Cutting devices
• Punch boards
• Stamps

Their products are trendy, and I could definitely see a lot of people getting into the projects in their catalog and the craft classes their Demonstrators teach, but in the end, it’s really no different from going to a local craft store and picking up your craft supplies.

Retail is usually more convenient and cheaper than buying through direct sales, so if you don’t have a typical MLM gimmick to set your product apart, it can be a struggle to maintain any decent sales numbers.

Opportunity

They’ve got a new compensation plan that just launched in October of last year, and it’s interesting for sure. [3]

You get a starter kit with several hundreds of dollars worth of product to begin, and you can also get your own personal website, but you do have to pay a monthly fee for that. Demonstrators also get a monthly magazine filled with training and tips as well as all kinds of project ideas.

Demonstrators make profit on personal sales through retail commission, which is 20%. Not great, but pretty standard. You also get a nice volume rebate on sales over $400 a month, and that rebate can reach up to 40% of your monthly personal sales.

Basically, with the rebate, commission on personal sales looks more like this:

• $0-399.99 in sales gets you 20% commission
• $400-699.99 in sales gets you 25%
• $700-999.99 gets you 27%
• $1,000-1,499.99 gets you 30%
• $1,500-2499.99 gets you 34%
• $2,500-3,499.99 gets you 36%
• $3,500-4,999.99 gets you 38%
• $5,000 and over in sales gets you 40%

So, basically, if you sell in the thousands on a monthly basis, you can actually get a really good commission rate. But who can sell thousands of dollars worth of craft paper and stamps every month?

Of course, they’ve got downline overrides, although their website doesn’t say what they are. In fact, all it says is “ask your demonstrator for more information.” But you do have to sell at least $300 a month in personal volume to qualify for downline overrides, which is a lot. Especially when you’re selling $8 stamps.

Recap

So, it’s a fun opportunity, especially if you’re big into crafting.

And you might be able to make a little bit of side money doing it, which is a nice perk if stamping and paper crafts are something you do with your spare time already.

The company has been around for a long time (almost 30 years now) and they’re definitely well established. They’ve got over 50,000 Demonstrators in the U.S. and Canada alone, and they also operate in Australia, New Zealand, France, the UK, and Deutschland.

Their annual sales are over $200 million. Clearly they’ve got some cash rolling in.

But it’s not really a way to bring in the big bucks as a Demonstrator. There are no big ticket items to make big retail profits from, and their compensation plan is iffy at best when it comes to profiting off your downline.

—

If you’re all about the products, probably wouldn’t hurt to give it a shot. Just don’t expect to get rich from it.

But it’s still MLM, and MLMs are known for getting hot and then falling off the grid a few years later.

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