To be left broke and humiliated after an mlm

[Huniliated]

I didn’t think I’d be rich but I am cringing at my Facebook ‘memories’ and pretty sure everyone was laughing at me behind my back.

Is Neals Yard Mlm? Every other person on instagram seems to be selling it

Quite telling that many of the people who have positive MLM stories seemed to use the products. I used to work in a shop about a hundred years ago- I loved it at the time, but I wasn’t paid in stock and I didn’t put my earnings back in the till.

Avon absolutely is MLM. It wasn't in the past but it is now. More info here: theopportunityscout.com/avon-review

Bodyshop, Tupperware, Ann Summers, ALL of the 'home selling' companies are. No home selling scheme is feasible now with online shopping being so ubiquitous, so MLM (selling the products to the poor idiots who think they can resell them) is how these brands make money.

My sister has joined one that's a scam mlm version of my actual job that I'm qualified for and work hard at

I have a few friends who’ve been sucked into these schemes.
I have one doing slimming coffee, one doing neals yard, one doing thermamix, one doing something called Essen perfume which I assume is mlm, one doing BS@H and one doing younique. They are all mums who are trying to get extra cash because either they are sahm or single parents.
I scroll past their posts but I always feel bad for them.

Let's be really clear here - if the scheme is selling stuff and also trying to recruit other people to sell the same stuff, whether it's Younique or Neal's Yard or Ann Summers or Avon or anything else, it is 100% without a doubt MLM. It's a scam and the people involved are victims, scammers, or both.

@SoyDora Not specifically the selling part, the training and development that I received improved my self confidence and feeling of self worth after a tough time in my personal life.
Yes, I recruited a few people and they also made money are are still in the business.
It might not have been for me in the longer term but it served its purpose at the time and I had many happy customers who are still buying the products as am I.

The podcast series about MLM recommended earlier called "The Dream" is great! I am listening to it now, episode 3 :) I recommend it!

I absolutely agree with the posters who believe that MLMs should be made illegal.

They are disgusting and target vulnerable people who are desperate for money and who cannot afford to lose it.

There are MLM elements to many abusive cults and also they can operate as money laundering businesses as an aspect of "layering".

OP don't feel humiliated, you are a wiser person today than you were when you started your MLM business and although £300 is a lot of money many people lose far more as well as losing friends and family.

Also I have always been highly skeptical about Body Shop, partly because of Anita Roddick's love of various nasty cults and charlatans. She was especially keen on the appalling Andrew Cohen and his sinister EnlightenNext cult.

Many life coaches are just MLM operators who offer to train you as a life coach for the one off special offer price of £££

Horrible

@ NatNoo

What product / service was your MLM business selling?

Any thoughts on FM World ?

Any thoughts on FM World ?

The VERY first thing they mention on their website isn’t the product- it’s BECOME A DISTRIBUTOR.

It’s an MLM. You will lose money. You will look like a tit at best or a manipulative scammer at worst. Your friends and family will pity you and possibly cut you off depending on how far down the rabbit hole you go.

Jesus Christ this isn’t rocket science. IF IT INVOLVES SELLING STUFF THAT COULD EASILY BE BOUGHT DIRECTLY ONLINE IT IS MLM.

I’ve got two new Tropics bots on my feed, surely they must know by now that it’s crap?! Some one asked yesterday how much the body scrub was, it’s £24 (hun), that’s serious skincare house prices?!

Avon is BOTH an MLM and a company that’s been going for years! Those aren’t mutually exclusive...

I've just seen a post on my fb.
"Due to my company I've managed to save up and BUY my house within 7 months" it's posts like that, that make me very tempted to join up

"I'm due £480 tomorrow from my FRIPAY, love my lil company. Thinking about ordering myself a Gucci belt, should I?"
It sounds tempting! How horrifying

Its all lies, g

I have 2 fb friends that are well qualified and have medical jobs but one was doing jamberry and the other was/is doing some weightloss shit. (She doesnt actually say outright what it is just posts "success story" before and after pics - message her for info ) And there are always people posting on our local community fb page that are obviously trying to recruit to mlms. A friend of my DH recently told him about some easy betting investment that was guaranteed to make money. DH said no way, if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. The friend persuaded other family to "invest" and now they have lost over 10k between them.

My dh has signed up for Usborne despite my protestations. Luckily, he has sold his initial investment as he frequents craft fayres with his own, self published, kids books so we haven't lost anything. However, I am a bit frustrated with him to be honest. I don't mean to be mean, but I warned my dh that it was MLM and he didn't listen. So, I backed off and decided to let him make his own mistakes. When he signed up he suddenly became quite overwhelmed with the activity within the groups and flatly refused to do any of the social media marketing. I then posted the Elle Beau blog to my facebook as an 'interesting read', knowing full well that curiosity would get the better of him and he would read it. I think he is starting to realise his mistake. He is lucky not to have lost money, but it would have served him right for not listening when I warned him! I would divorce him if he spammed our friends and family via social media though!

I had a friend who is a solicitor by day start the juice plus nonsense. I tried to talk her out of it and she actually fell out with me
6 months later and she had jacked it in and wanted to be friends again. She claimed she still had her business “ticking over” but I’m pretty sure she lost money.

4 years previously she had lost 4 stone through hard work and determination. It took her a year. She was using her “before” photos as if the loss was due to using juice plus. It absolutely wasn’t. She hadn’t lost anything in juice plus and had nothing to lose! It was a total lie!

I confess that I did Usborne briefly. I was on maternity leave from being a supply teacher which is not the best if jobs either at the moment. Usborne books have a good rep so never thought of it as a scam. I did get people buying books for a short while but then they stopped. I tried going to fairs etc but often only broke even with the price of a table. I also want prepared to do all the recruiting of other people. I gave it up. Probably did lose a bit. My kids ended up with a few more books for their collection.

I have a friend though that seemed to work her way through several. She tried recruiting me on them all. I did buy a few nail wraps, some aloe products etc. I have bought from friends who do Avon. It’s the fact that some of these products are well established and that you can buy them in real shops that get people hooked.

A girl I knew at school is involved in one. She’s constantly posting at being a “boss girl”. She’s also studying business at university. I don’t get it but I can see how you can get reeled in - her posts sound very positive but it’s all such a scam

I hate MLM's. Everything about them. I will not support friends who get involved.

I don’t think of Avon as MLM. I’m pretty savvy about these sorts of things and decided 5 years ago to give it a try to bring in some extra cash.

You don’t buy anything up front - no paying for orders before you get the stock either

The cost of joining is £16 (not paid upfront) and that gives you everything you need for 2 campaigns to get going - and if you don’t place an order you don’t have to pay the £16. Someone said about the books but I think Avon don’t give them for free because of how many people sign up and then don’t bother or don’t carry on. You don’t even need to buy the books anymore!

No pressure to recruit. Even as a sales leader I’m not pushed to recruit (because I won’t do that anyway - if people want to join I’ll help them but I’m not pushing to recruit)

The earnings from downlines stops at 3 levels - so not one of these that the further down you are there’s no real way to actually earn and someone else is getting all the money for your work!

It has territory so it isn’t recruiting people to all sell in the exact same area

The products themselves are cheap, good quality and not overpriced crap like some of the stuff you see!

I don’t get told I have to do multiple social media posts, try to recruit constantly etc. It’s my own business and I choose to promote however I want - which I basically don’t do! I put a post out when I started saying I was doing Avon and that if anyone wanted a book just give me a shout. I set up a separate page (not a group where these people add everyone with out oermission and then tag them multiple times a day) where people could choose to like it if interested. I post on there maybe half a dozen times a year!

Anyway- I just wanted to set the record straight as it’s most definitely NOT like things like Forever Living, Younique, etc. There are the odd individual sales leader who acts like it is (they often used to do those other things) but that’s absolutely not how it is supposed to be!

Oh also, I recently set up a closed group on Facebook for local sufferers of a medical condition that I have. Within days I had a Forever Living Rep contact me to tell me how she could help me and all our members with this amazing product she sold. I saw red. Playing on ill people is wrong.