Former Amway IBO Testimony?

I was approached to join Amway in January 2003. At the time all the talk of ‘financial freedom’, ‘sacking my boss’ and ‘throwing away my alarm clock’ was just what i wanted to hear. The man who showed me the business plan referred to the business as ‘Y2K’ and made no mention of Amway. I went home with my head full of dreams about fancy cars, yachts, private jets and all the material things in life. I signed up the next day and within a couple of weeks had signed up most of my family. The Monday night meetings became a meeting point for my family and friends; I signed them all up!

For the next three years, i effectively worked two jobs. During the day i worked my usual job as a real estate agent and then at nights I went to meetings, cold called potential prospects and showed the plan to potential clients. I dropped introductional tapes, books and then cd’s all over the city. I bought products that I still havent used just to make up my monthly quota of points. When i was getting close to the 21% bonus level for the first time, i was strongly encouraged by my upline to buy an air filtering machine, using approximately $2,000 of money that i didnt really have, just to hit this target.

This pattern continued for three years and i really didnt advance in the business. Slowly my family and downline drifted out of the business, as success eluded them. My wife got sick and tired of showing the plan and going to endless meetings, all for little result. It put a serious strain on our marriage. When i started to falter, my upline would arrange a ‘dream session’ and i would go hard again for another three months or so. Finally, i missed a Monday night meeting. There was an outcry the next day, with all of my upline ringing me to try and remotivate me. By then, in about April 2006, I had had enough.

During my time in ‘the business’ (as it is referred to) i spent at least $10,000 on mostly worthless junk. I accumulated thousands of tapes, cd’s, motivational books and attended hundreds of meetings, seminars and dream nights. I also showed the plan to hundreds of prospective clients. The largest monthly cheque i ever received was about $160, most were a lot smaller than that. I never made a profit. Every month i spent more than i earned.

Five years after i left the business and all of my downline and a lot of my upline have left Amway. Some diehards are still going and good luck to them. God knows how they keep going.

Looking back, I was totally sold on the idea of being a multi-millionaire and having all of the material things in life. I was convinced that Amway was going to provide that. I believed the stories of fantastic wealth derived from short periods in the business, but never directly saw any evidence of it. The most successful couple that we saw have now been in the business for over 18 years and are still not diamonds. I am told that they are still out showing the plan and going to meetings after nearly two decades since first joining. They must have the strenth of Hercules and the patience of Job. Good luck to them.

Since leaving the business I have re-built most of the relationships that were damaged by my over zealous recruiting attempts. I now enjoy just having one job and being able to go home at night and just watch tv on the couch or relax with friends. No meetings to attend, no book of the month to read, no plans to show and no downline to worry about and try to keep motivated. One thing i do have though is a whole garage full of old cleaning products……

Amway Myth - IBOs Sign Up Just To Buy Products?

One of the myths perpetuated by IBOFightback aka David Steadson is that a lot of IBOs only sign up with Amway and they exclusively buy Amway products with no intention of building the business. Therefore, the poor results of Amway business owners are actually much better because as IBOFB seemingly claims ad nauseum, that these folks are a success because all they want is the ability to buy products. IBOfightback recently mentioned this on another blog. Of course that makes me question IBOFB's truthfulness when in the past, he said he was making efforts to build his business again. Secondly, it makes me wonder why he has decided to self proclaim himself as Amway's savior when he in fact is only involved as a customer.

How would anyone actually know why someone signed up for Amway? If most sign up and "do nothing" as steadson claims, what about the rest? Even if you were to analyze the business opportunity based on "business building" IBOs, the rate of success is a fraction of 1%, using platinum as the target. The Amway compensation plan is designed that way. In the
6-4-2 plan, which is commonly used at open meeting or at home board plans, shows a group of 79 IBOs, all serious enough to move 100 PV. Well, there's 1 platinum in the bunch and lost of lower level IBOs. I know there aren't any real groups organized like the 6-4-2, but if these IBOs were all on the tools system (functions, cds, etc), then most of these IBOs would lose money. The platinum would likely be the only one with a net profit if these were all "serious" and "dedicated" IBOs. Let's qualify that serious and dedicated is someone who attends all functions and meetings, included major functions, is on standing order, voicemail, book of the month, and invests in other related training materials.

I know there are some people who are IBOs who stopped building the business but remain as customers. But there folks are likely a small percentage of the IBO sales force. This can be confirmed by the attrition rate that Amway has. While nobody can know an exact figure, simple math and common sense would indicate that someone who can get similar products for a fraction of the price would likely abandon their Amway loyalties in favor of WalMart. If you can't see that, you still have soap in your eyes.

Amway Is Growing - You Heard Joecool Say It!

Our friend Shaun over at WWDB Expeditions Of Truth posted a new article about Amway growth: http://expeditionoftruths.com/2011/11/08/updated-amway-statsfed-presented/

Some of the details:

Figured I’d post a few slides shown by Amway at our recent FED conference. There are some naysayers out there saying business is slowing down, or business isn’t growing in North America, however here are some stats from the horses mouth as it were showing otherwise.

■New IBO Applications +12%
■PV per Engaged IBOs +8% (I’ll assume engaged = active)
■New IBO PV +7%
■$50 Fast Track +30% (Fast Track program is now a full time program and has expanded)
■First year renewal rates were +2%
■Highest qualification growth rate for the US since 2003

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Joecool's commentary: Okay, so I am no longer of the opinion that North America Amway is shrinking. What I find a bit odd is that Amway stopped reporting North American sales seperately from Global sales (Because Amway was shrinking in North America???) But what do these figures mean?

Does it mean that today, IBOs register and do something? Or do most people still sign up with the vast majority "doing nothing"? Are IBOs more profitable? Not necessarily. I read recently that the "average IBO income" increased, but Amway did not clearly delineate how they arrived at the number. Maybe they just discounted more "inactive" types of IBOs in their calculation? Maybe they actually paid out more bonuses? However with their compensation plan remaining the same, I would venture a guess that the rate of IBOs going platinum is still a fraction of 1% which makes Amway at best, a questionable business venture. Maybe the Amway sales increase is simply from their significantly raised prices on products and shipping?

So Amway is growing. It's great for Amway and the DeVos and Van Andel families. How does that translate for IBOs? Are you making more than $10 a month? Have you sold products for a profit? Have you made net profits or are you reinvesting all your bonus and more to attend functions and buy tools? Amway might be growing but that doesn't do anything to suggest that IBOs as a whole are better off.