How much do people make from the MLM schemes?

[StunnerNotReally]

My facebook suddenly has loads of women doing these.
Body shop and Tropic and the perfume one.

The Arbonne White Mercedes got me. Apparently you sign a lease and pay for it each month - so not really a perk if you’re paying for it yourself.

A friend of mine did pampered chef and made enough to be able to stay home with her DC when they were small. She worked bloody long hours though doing shows at night and doing all the accounts etc.

She did enjoy it but wen PC pulled out of the country she was at a stage where she wanted to go back to work per se.

She was targeted by pretty much every other MLM going because she had been fairly successful as a PC consultant, but having done it once she says that part of her life has passed.

I have a friend who does herballife and I have no idea whether he makes money but he’s changed his life and lost a huge amount of (necessary) weight in the process.

I’ve managed to get myself blocked by two friends selling juice plus though. I consider that an achievement since usually it’s the other way around.

I think those that make money off it have to be very motivated, very good at sales and really believe in what they are selling. Also a hard skin is necessary because it sure gets tiring for the people that you’re constantly targeting - and they eventually snap.

There will be a teeny tiny proportion of people that do well from it and I would guess that they are very internet savvy with high followers on social media, able to do video logs etc...

More lucrative is affiliate sales and marketing. Plus you don’t market your friends and family and don’t deal with any customers. I have two friends that do weight loss products and fitness and they make tens of thousands per month. They did have to invest several thousand into courses to learn how to market via Facebook, how to do click funnels and lost money for several months before they started to make money. They persevered with it when the majority quit.

I know two people who do it, yet both still have full time jobs.

An ex colleague of mine does body shop - and she's made fuck all so far.

One of DH's relatives does DM world and something else - I join her groups to keep the peace then immediately mute them I'm afraid she has three people who comment on her stuff but I don't think she makes any money.

I find it funny on our local selling page how there are about 20 local 'agents' for the same MLM... The only way they'd make money is if they all had one street assigned to them, and sold to every single person on it...

I have a parent from DD’s school constantly trying to sell me Usborne books. We get posts in our class WhatsApp and invites to ‘parties’. She sent me a personal Facebook message and I just ignored it. I feel really sorry for her for being dragged in but if she keeps approaching me, I will snap eventually and tell her exactly what I think.

Someone on my FB does something called FM World. Her posts are all insanely positive promotions of her team and her lovely ladies and you go girl and how much cash everyone is making.

It's very, very strange.

I did Kleeneze for a while when my first DC was very young. I did a couple of days a week delivering and collecting catalogues and delivering people's orders. I think my average earnings were about £400 - £500 per month.

It wasn't loads but it helped pay the bills. I think you make the most money if you recruit a team of sellers yourself. I wasn't really into that as I just wanted some extra cash and flexible hours. I also got pretty fit and lost the pregnancy weight by doing lots of walking when delivering catalogues.

I'm not even sure if Kleeneze is still going now. At least with Kleeneze the products were actually ok and they offered a really wide range of goods. These make up and perfume sellers all seem to have the same stuff and a fairly limited customer base

I used to do Body Shop. Made quite a bit of money tbh. 2 or 3 parties a week. One midweek and then Friday and Saturdays. Truth is it stopped me going out drinking so I saved money there too!

I buy from a friend who sells limelife. I like the mascara and eyeliner pen. I have bought from temple spa a fair bit due to parties. The stuff I’ve tried has been lovely. I have lots of skincare waiting to start but using up current stuff. I like the eye therapist massager and the quietude spray is just divine.

Both these women are intelligent and most be making money. Neither are pushy. I see it more as a shop from home. They must make money from it.

Shit like Herbalife or coffee weight loss really really fucks me off though. The messages from Unknowns. Hi Hun you’d love our new product are constant and Illiterate. Plus no one calls me hun.

My DMil has an Avon lady who just sells. She does unusually well because it's a big village, but not enough to sustain two sellers, and her clients have been with her for years.

She makes about £250-300 per edition of catalogue (as local gossip has it)

With Avon, you know what you're getting, and it's cheap, and most of it good. You do make more if you recruit some other sellers, but there isn't the same pressure, and it's not weird/cult-like, turning reps into bots

It’s the ‘share your small business’ threads that I like. They’re always MLMs. And why is it they’re always an ‘independent consultant’.

Talented Ladies' Club and Elle Beau Blog has all the info.

If you haven't time to read, 99% of participants make nothing, or break even.

They are booming at the moment by sucking in women who are worried about losing their jobs, or who have already lost their job, and are being told they can make a fortune.

The ones that do Arbonne look as though they are doing ok but in reality have high earning husbands to fund the glossy lifestyle.

My FB bot is someone I was at school with and does Body Shop. She is also in a professional medicine-related occupation which has not been shut down since March. But yeah, it's the flogging shower gel and lip gloss which pays for her son's football classes and her daughter's swimming.

@Lindy2 - Kleeneze is still definitely going DMIL buys our Christmas gifts from there every year!

I sold Avon for a bit. You had to sell around 80 quids worth of stuff before you qualified for a discount which made you twenty per cent commission. So you'd get to the figure and end up ordering the extra yourself so I never saw any physical commission. I just had a fuck ton of Avon products. I do like the products but I couldn't exactly feed my kids with a ton of Skin So Soft.
I do really like Avon make up and every now and then a new seller will pop up on my Facebook pages. I order once and they never reappear. I imagine they gave up, are disillusioned and surrounded by a job lot of skin so soft....

My DM has become a Norwex Bot. Quite pricey stuff but some of it is quite good. I gave tried to talk to her about MLMs but she doesn't want to know,

On the other hand, I love pampered chef and am gutted they pulled out of the UK. I have some fantastic kitchen stuff that I use all the time. I would never have joined it but I would have been happy to go the parties

Some of the bots I know have well paying proper jobs, well paid husbands etc they are not all financially vulnerable.

I just think some of them see no harm in being a dick and trying to make money from friends bu flogging them expensive crap.

The vast majority make nothing! It’s a shame about Tropic as I have heard lots of genuine praise for their products but on principle I couldn’t support an mlm.

The lies MLM bots tell, particularly about their finances, are staggering. Quite a few don’t want you to know they’re bankrupt, or their limited companies are being wound up because they’re insolvent, they have huge directors’ loans ... yet they still claim to be hugely successful so they can suck people in to their MLMs. It’s all smoke and mirrors.

www.talentedladiesclub.com/articles/the-lies-and-dark-secrets-top-forever-living-managers-are-hiding/

The car thing made me laugh out loud when I realised that you pay for it yourself. To drive around in a branded vehicle. You pay to advertise someone else's business. So, not only do you have your monthly goals to meet and exceed, but now you have a £500 car payment to find each month. That's some "bonus"!

The car plan’s a joke @BigGee - it’s a leased car which you have to pay for yourself. In some schemes MLM bots are encouraged to take out leases on expensive cars so they look like they’re earning lots of money to attract new recruits. Fake it ‘til you make it. Fur coat no knickers etc.

What about ‘independent travel agents’ who recruit other people and bang on about residual income? Is that an MLM?

I think those that make money off it have to be very motivated, very good at sales and really believe in what they are selling

The ones who make money, proper money, don't sell product. The ONLY way to make money in MLM is to recruit (sell the “opportunity”) and build a large downline. Selling product will only really bring small amounts of money and it’s not consistent and it’s often saturated - where I live every second post on the village website is an Avon seller and in my road there are 20 houses and three Body Shop sellers. Those who recently joined may think they’ve entered a viable product selling business because they have only just tapped into their social network. Therefore they will get initial purchases but that tends to tail off pretty quickly and that’s when the pressure to recruit starts to be felt. This business model requires replenishment at the bottom and a constant stream of recruits all paying their money and buying product (who is the real customer?). The MLM doesn’t care if two distributors live next door to each other, that’s two more customers for the MLM.

An upline doesn’t make money on what the downline sells to outside customers, they are rewarded on what the downline buys. So if you consider that then you can see the exploitative potential. So many distributors get caught in a purchasing trap to stay “active” to achieve targets and “promotions” (who gets a promotion if it’s supposed to be their own business?!). That situation of buying product to hit targets is known as “garage qualification”, in other words a distributor with a bedroom and garage full of their purchases - the MLM doesn’t give a flying fuck whether the distributor can sell it afterwards which is why you see so much product on eBay etc and why your friend who sells Younique gives everyone Younique EVERY Christmas and birthday.

As for success, or what looks like success. There is about 1% who are very successful in MLM. Often the ones held up as successful are not all they seem. Forever Living has its poster girls and boys who were part of the 1% and who received six figure sums for a couple of years. These people are still wheeled out to entice people and yet many are no longer receiving much income at all; many are barely trading, some are keeping up a front by living off large directors loans, one is bankrupt, another has just come out of a bankruptcy order. It’s an illusion but sadly, due to COVID employment instability it’s pulling in even more people and 99% will lose money. Take a look at the MLMs’ own Income Disclosures to see how many distributors make nothing (and it’s actually worse even that those IDs indicate)

Have a look at the BBC documentary The Secrets of the Multilevel Millionaires which is on iPlayer. It’s a massive scam.

@BSintolerant is right as usual ;)