To be confused about friend’s Maldives holiday

[Jacobijake]

A friend of mine had a ‘proper’ job but also sells FM cosmetics on the side. I know this is an MLM and so I’ve muted all her posts and she doesn’t try to sell to me so it doesn’t bother me and I don’t think about it.

However she’s recently (last week) been to the Maldives on a work trip which looked amazing, she said she didn’t have to pay for it it came through her ‘side hustle’ I guess I’m just wondering if that’s true? I always thought MLMs were a complete con and no one made money etc but I’ve seen the holiday pics and it’s a 5* resort! Also pictured are loads of other sellers of her particular thing (FM cosmetics).

To be clear I have no intention of buying products/joining/ and I genuinely think all MLMs prey on the vulnerable.

@Jessicalouisemellor

No stock holding. No targets. No minimum sales.

Are you telling your downlines this? And people you're trying to recruit?

Because it's a lie.

You are "obliged to buy products awarded with at least 103.26 points within 12 months" or joining and any distributors who don't "buy products to the total of at least 34.42 points in the calendar month lose the right to get a commission claimable by him / her the next month."

Minimum targets. Directly from YOUR company's policy for recruits.

As is the agreement that all distributors will "not misrepresent the amount of expenditure that an average distributor might incur in carrying on the business" which is EXACTLY what you've done by claiming there are no targets or minimum sales when there are.

But you knew you were talking rubbish which is why spouted hunspeak then flounced instead of actually engaging.

"MY Staff"
Says it all really

I really couldn't be bothered with the whole recruiting others crap, but I have done Kleeneze and Betterware (does that still exist) back in the day when it was pop a catalogue through the door, and actually made a reasonable amount of money from it. Certainly not enough to live on but enough to provide the family with lots of treats and extras, and all for not a lot of time and effort

Same thing babe, apart from my business pay me monthly. :)

Yeah no other businesses pay their staff monthly... oh wait 🙄

Good lord, that’s a load of drivel.

Sums it up nicely. Along with "UR just all JEALOUS, innit".

MLM should be illegal. It preys on the vulnerable, and the people who can least afford to lose money to those at the top of the pyramid. And yes, I do judge the people who are actively out there recruiting into the scam.

A decent level of spelling and grammar is clearly not a pre-requisite to sign up for MLM shite either.

Just saying.

[quote Squeezita]@SleepingBunnies21

From what I've read etc. (not exhaustive) Shannon Watts had no intention of leaving her husband; she was frustrated and hurt by his disengagement from her and their family (an affair occurred to her but she dismissed him as not capable of it/the type) and she was trying to recover their marriage.

She texted her friend saying she couldn’t afford the mortgage on her own on her salary and with 2 kids. It stands to reason that a mother would want to protect her children’s home/lifestyle.

I'm no fan of mum but I has v little to do with the murders.

People have said she was a vociferous social media poster about her family and he may have been irritated and turned off by it, but that's hardly a valid factor on murdering your wife, two young daughters and unborn child. He is a psychopath.. thas the sole reason for those murders.

I didn’t suggest MLM was the reason for her murder, just that her low pay from it may have been a factor in her staying with him.[/quote]
I hadnt seen that about the text yo get friend, but as I said I'd not read etc aboit it exhaustively.

Everything I'd read suggested she wanted to make her marriage work (though she did get know about his infidelity) and wasn't considering leaving.

I didn't think you suggested mlm was a factor, just pointed she could have been on a low salary (or no salary) abd unable to pay her mortgage alone for any number of reasons so I don't know why being an mlm seller/agent had any relevance to the case at all, I didn't know why it was raised in this thread.

You do have to pay into a pension pot though.

Does FM match your contribution like most companies do? Thought not.

If your self employed you again have no sickness policy’s, or anything like that, because you work for yourself. Your surely aware of that too aren’t you? Seems to me your describing a self employed person?

Do you think you're self employed? You're not. You're a sales rep who doesn't even earn a basic salary and has a LTD company that only saw £80K pre-tax profit last year. What would happen if FM went under overnight (like Jamberry, Mermaids etc)? You've lost everything.

No targets. No minimum sales. No payment to help others….. like I said before

Erm...the FM comp plan says differently.

@MrsMcCluskeysCat

Oops we activated a Hunbot

so excited to see a real live hun on this thread

My ex 'won ' a holiday once got being a super achiever once a few years back. We went to Monte Carlo. Flight and nice hotel was paid for and one meal out rest was on us. So I can believe it but he worked his ass off manipulating and belittling al the people below him
To get to the top. I had a nice free hol
But hence why he is an ex. There's always a
Catch

I wish the big corporate companies would go further with their flexible working for mums wishing to return to the workplace after children, I know many do, but they don't do nearly enough as far as I'm concerned, options such as term time, school hours work and so on, it would blow these fucking shite MLMs out of the water...

How do you think m&s, Debenhams, John Lewis’s , mac etc show there new products oh look they advertise it, IN FACT they pay to advertise it

Not quite. Most make up counters in dept stores are concessions. Brands not only pay for their own advertising, they also pay rent for their space within stores.

I was a Betterware rep until they went bust in 2018. Almost the only job I.could hold.Exercise did me good but money was lousy.

Betterware was great until the rise of Amazon and poundshops and then it became a hassly often expensive way to buy.

Saying that I do have a couple of betterware items that are in every day use, a little step stool and a box for my (biscuit) crackers.

@projuicehealth

MLMs are the least understood styles of business; hence all the rubbish about pyramid schemes It's true lots of people don't make any money but that's usually because they unrealistically expect to earn loads of money without doing any actual work! Do you all honestly believe that the CEO of Sainsburys, M & S, Amazon, in fact almost any company you wish to name doesn't benefit from the hard work those 'below' them do? Of course they do, what do you think pays their exorbitant salaries?

The MLM business model is least understood by the people who sign up believing they’re entering a product selling business. The people who really understand the business model consider it a scam and a recruitment device hiding behind a notion of product - how do those at the top make their money? Not selling product that’s for sure.

You’re right @projuicehealth lots of people don’t make money; in fact research shows that 99.6% of all sign ups to MLM make no money or lose money - can all those people just be lazy? If you compare the MLM business model to the way Sainsbury’s trades then it’s clear you have no idea what you’re talking about.

IThe MLM business model is least understood by the people who sign up believing they’re entering a product selling business. The people who really understand the business model consider it a scam and a recruitment device hiding behind a notion of product - how do those at the top make their money? Not selling product that’s for sure.

YouokHun - well I work with a MLM company, my daughter was the only person under me, it suited her for a while but she has now moved on to a more conventional job, however, she will continue to serve her regular customers.
So all the money I earn is from selling product. Frequently on 42% profit. No I'm not bothering friends and family all the time, and I don't do any social media stuff either, I have never held stock or been encouraged to buy anything but orders I receive or I want personally.
I think I understand the model pretty well. Was it easy to get where I am now; no I've worked blooming hard at it! But as a WASPI woman trying to get work as flexible as I want proved impossible, I was even refused by McDonalds for heavens sake, I wanted 2 evenings work, but because I wouldn't say I would work at any time they requested I was considered unsuitable!

The problem with mlm is that everyone is motivated to lie. Its like asking a car salesman if he thinks his opinions on the only type of car he is selling. They are often selling the business dream rather than the product, and even when it's the product they are promoting then it's a complete wild West

They don't follow the regulations and it leaves them free to tell you 100% this product is safe with skin conditions etc and make outrageous claims that other companies would be sued for. Theres zero sense of accountability when the claims are made by Jane on Facebook. Jane has a product to flog and isn't afraid of the same rules to try and sell it or recommend it in every situation

There's two mlm that pop up frequently for me scentsy and skin care ones, both have reps making completely incorrect claims.

Scentsy for example is non toxic so sellers always pop up on my specific type of small animal page, scentsy is categorically bad for my type of animal (as are all fragranced products) however sellers will swear blue that it completely is. However its often clear that they genuinely believe it is, because all they are told about their product comes from someone else in their living room higher up the chain. I've seen messaged trails (when people have been questioned on it) and it's full of sellers at each point of the market who clearly don't know what they are talking about reassuring others "it's totally fine babe. All natural hun x". Tina that's trying to sell it to me gets her information from Jane that profits from Tina selling the product, who gets her information from some other boss babe.

I also have a skin condition and the amount of mlm products that people are somehow able to sell as curing psoriasis, eczema etc or as totally safe is out standing. The last time I questioned it on a Facebook selling group (one of the ingredients was something that's clearly contraindicated for the condition that someone asked about). Someone in the upline got involved and clearly said they were , then said they weren't in the upline to try and pretend to be impartial

It's like asking that car sales man if he thinks this car is suitable for your family

Family members that are in mlm have been outright lied to by uplines. When things weren't working she was strongly encouraged that to spend more, invest more including paying for things like going on retreats where they'd tell her how to sell more.
Eventually when she'd got slightly higher she realised that she'd been lied to. The people who'd been telling her how much they'd made had been fudging things. For example they said they sold x amount this month but were making it look like profit but that was their down lines and theirs product sales not how much money they were taking away.
Any conversation about actually how few people were making anything close to minimum wage (and were being left in debt by starter packs, buying boosts or buying stock themselves to up figures) was dismissed as people not trying hard enough, "some people join just to buy the product for them selves' so it was impossible to get a grasp of how much money anyone was making

Ultimately she realised the whole model didn't work when she was encouraged to recruit like mad, then her area became overwhelmed by sellers all competing for the same market

When she left her upline told her it was all her fault, she should have tried harder, tried to get her to buy her own stock (because if she made a certain grade of seller then her life would be easier", tried to redistribute stock so the same sales were registered multiple times.

She made some money but nothing more than she'd of got doing a few hours a week in a shop, nothing close to a wage, instead she devoted so much time, lost friends (there just jealous babe x) and calls it the years she lost!

Watch some of her 'Multi Level Mondays' series :)

www.youtube.com/c/iilluminaughtii/playlists

Another deluded hunbot on the shill.
@blahblahMellor you own fuck all and you'll own even fucking less in 5 years time. Deluded fools like you bragging their way to large amounts of debt and even bankruptcies is a well trodden path, as is shilling yourselves as coaches.

No one makes any money from MLMs, apart from those at the very top. Watch LulaRich, it's eye opening.

The Dream is a very good podcast about MLMs.
I learnt a lot.

Another deluded hunbot on the shill

You have to wonder why they do it, especially on a thread full of people who realise very well how it works (or doesn't) - after all folk are hardly going to say"Wow, I never realised; where do I sign?"

Maybe it's all part of the self-delusion, and to prop it up they just can't resist shilling everywhere they can?

@Puzzledandpissedoff

Another deluded hunbot on the shill

You have to wonder why they do it, especially on a thread full of people who realise very well how it works (or doesn't) - after all folk are hardly going to say"Wow, I never realised; where do I sign?"

Maybe it's all part of the self-delusion, and to prop it up they just can't resist shilling everywhere they can?

It’s like a cult.

They end up believing it all. Even when they are ip to their eyeballs in debt.

[quote Starcaller]This is a great read about the fake world of MLMs

ellebeaublog.com/poonique/[/quote]
I’ve sat and read all of this. Can’t believe how many bits of those ‘kits’ had turned up as birthday & Christmas presents from my DS who often as a few MLM schemes on the go.