Amway has been around for over 50 years and I personally worked as one of their ABO, Amway Business Owners, for a few years. Amway is a Multi-Level Marketing company, MLM, which supplies mostly exclusively branded products which you can buy directly as a customer or you can set up your own business and sell them on. relies on recruiting members to sell their products. In my review, Amway Business or Scam-way Business, I will share the pros and cons of Amway and with my own personal insight into if this is a business venture that can bring you extra income each month or is it a scam.
Company Name: Amway
Type of Business: Multi-Level Marketing, MLM
Founders: Jay Van Andel and Rich DeVos
Two Ways of Distribution: Amway Business Owner Or you can be a Customer.
Would I Recommend: Yes, it is still a great business model just make sure you get the right support.
3/5 STARS
Background
Amway was developed to be a way to create an additional income for families to top up their finances. This helps families to create a better life for themselves. Every family struggles no matter how much they earn as everyone lives to their means. After all, you can’t plan for the unexpected.
Jay Van Andel and Rich DeVos saw this as an opportunity. So they created a business model that you can easily run from home. This is no ‘get rich quick scheme’, you do have to work hard to succeed. This is a great sign of a legit business in my opinion. Amway supplies exclusive products that you can only get by being involved with them as an Amway Business Owner or by buying from them.
They realised to make the business successful, these products couldn’t just be every day normal products that you could just buy anywhere. The products would need to be all high-quality products that work really well. This set the standard for all their products. They decided by selecting high-quality products that deliver fantastic results, they would create a demand. That’s why they focus on training you to deliver demonstrations of their products. Over the years this product range has increased and now they have their own make-up range called Artistry and their own Nutritional supplements called Nutrilite.
As these products are of high quality you are having to pay more for them. It’s not like buying some bathroom cleaner for £1 from the local shop, you could be paying three times that for these products. The idea behind promoting them is that you are growing your own business with every sale. So it’s in your best interest to use them yourself so others see them in your house and this will help you sell more. You become ambassadors of your own products, so by using them and promoting the products, you are driving the performance of your own business.
Initial Thoughts
I was first introduced to Amway when I was working as a salesman and the guy I was pitching to asked before he left ‘Have I ever looked for a way to make extra money’. My answer was obviously ‘yes’, who hasn’t? He gave me his business card and asked me if I was interested in listening to a business presentation with no obligation. This I later learned is what they train their ABOs to do to look for new potential candidates.
I have always been open-minded to listen and then make up my own opinion of things in life. So I attended the meeting a week later, they had hired a room in a local pub restaurant and I was taken into a room with a big whiteboard at the front and lines of chairs with people sitting waiting. I was then introduced to an old guy at the front who was the guy that would be presenting to us. He seemed nice and just told me to keep an open mind at what he was about to show me and then make sure I ask as many questions as I like at the end.
He then went through the presentation which involved talking about how McDonald’s franchise started out and the results after all these years. This was their way of showing the way the tier system worked in Amway. They then start by picking someone in the group to say their name. They then put you at the top of your name. They then start asking you the names of people you think would be interested in earning more money. Then, then draw more circles under you with their names in and then more circles under your friends. They then ask you who they know that might be interested.
The result is a way of showing you how your business would grow and that the more your recruits sell the total adds to your total. The overall result is then taken into account. The more sales you create a month the percentage of a commission you make. The initial commission barrier was 3% on a turnover of £200 if I remember right.
I immediately started seeing the guy next to me was above me and the guy at the front was above all these guys. So it was in everyone’s interest that you succeeded.
The Next follow up
After the meeting, the sponsor’s role is to let you go away and think about it and give you a call in a couple of days. This is where they start to work what they call ‘your list’. the sponsor came to my house and we took a piece of paper he asked me to write down the names of everyone I know that might be interested and also the names of other people I know. The goal then is to start contacting each person asking them if they are interested in looking at a way of making extra money. If they agree, the sponsor and I go to their house and show them ‘the plan’. The plan is a smaller version of the presentation I went to.
Sign Up Time
In the meantime, they then get you signed up while they start working on your list. The sign-up cost me £25 but then they asked me how serious I was because as part of the sign up you get to buy a package of products at a discount to help you get started. They keep telling you that the most serious always buy the top package as it gives them the most products to start demoing and selling. They want you to get started using the products yourself so that you become an advocate of the products and then they are easier to sell.
The top package was £200, so as I was really eager and wanted to make a go of this I went for this top package. My sponsor was very excited as his business now just turned over an extra £200 that month. I received my package and immediately started seeing what they were like.
They spent an afternoon talking through the best ways to demo the products so that people can see how great they are and will then purchase them from you, this made perfect sense to me as I was a salesman. Suddenly I found myself demoing products to my Mum and aunties in the hope I would start turning over products.
The Lists
All I kept hearing was about lists and have we exhausted them. They did get a bit frustrated with me as I was a little cautious about who I was putting on my list as I thought they would judge me. They kept saying if they aren’t interested then it’s up to them. This does make sense, even in sales you don’t judge everyone as you don’t know if they will or won’t. They then kept working on my list and my contacts lists.
They say the most successful people are the ones that exhaust their list fairly quickly and hopefully find more people through you who also can work through their list. This you keep doing and keep this momentum going. It concerned me a few times as I overheard them saying to each other:
“You need to work the lists quickly until you have exhausted your list this way if they lose interest you have a contact through them you can carry on working with.”
This I kind of understood but at the same time, it was great to hear. It just sounded like they were churning through candidates to push down hard ‘to get some depth’, as they kept referring to it.
Support
With any company, success is achieved through support and coaching from others that have also been successful. The level of your success is based on the level and quality of this support. This is especially important in Amway because of the style of the business. Multi Level Marketing is mainly based on the recruitment of new members. That new member then recruits their own members and this then creates a tier system. The more an SBO makes the more their sponsor makes and their sponsors. It creates a combined total and everyone receives a commission based on their over business total. This in itself is a great business model as you are encouraging others to sell more products and it’s in your best interest to support them to succeed, the more you support and grow the more you increase your overall business total.
This is where it can go wrong and there is a danger that if the support isn’t right you end up losing out of your money and sitting with products that you spent a lot for. With any new business, it takes a lot of motivation and determination to succeed. Amway is a definite example of this and if you want to give it a try, be ready to be questioned by others and make sure you have the right support in place.
The second you feel you’re not being supported go up to your sponsor’s sponsor. As it’s in their interest to help you too. I say this because sometimes people get into these businesses for the wrong reasons and will drive them in an unacceptable way. So it’s fine they showed you the business, you can keep building your business, you just don’t have to work with them. I say this out of personal experience because it wasn’t long before I noticed my sponsor wasn’t showing the right behaviours to the point of me leaving the business. One day I might go back but don’t let it get that far for you.
Conclusion
Amway as a business is definitely not a get-rich scheme, you really have to work extremely hard to make it work. Be ready to put a lot of hours in and keep the momentum going to create your income. This is a very well-thought-out business and with the right leadership and support you can make a lot of money. But with most MLM companies some make a lot more than others. It will take a long time to create a substantial income and you will have to spend most of your evening doing this. The products are extremely good and the price comes with them. There are some products I would go back to buying as a customer, they were honestly that good.
My Final Verdict
Amway isn’t a SCAM! – This is a Legitimate Business but be careful
The business itself isn’t a scam and hasn’t been made for that purpose. Like any business, it’s the people that get involved that can end up feeling like they’ve been scammed by not being supported. If you like the idea of creating a business from home it’s a good one to try. You make your money by buying their products at wholesale price and then selling them at full price, then you keep the difference.
Hi, I’m Graham, I’m the creator and founder of grahamhodsdon.com. If you had any experience with Amway I would love to hear about it, was your experience an Amway Business or Scam-way Business so please share in the comments below.