What Is Amway About? – my review

Hi, and welcome to my personal review on “What Is AMWAY About“.

I want you to know that I am not associated with Amway in any way. If you’re looking for an honest opinion on Amway, then you’ve come to the right place because I am about to share with you everything I learned about this company while I was an agent a few years back.

Congrats by the way for taking the time to research the product before purchasing it.

This is a great step in preventing yourself from getting burned by the many scams while you search for an honest program to make some extra money with.

In case, you didn’t know, Amway has been around the block for many years. Perhaps your parents or even your grandparents were involved in some way with Amway.

I know many folks used their products but never got involved as a rep.

Without further a due, what do ya say we get right into it? Sound good?

Awesome let’s do it…

The three most frequently asked questions about Amway are:

1. Is Amway a scam?
2. Is Amway an MLM scheme?
3. Is Amway worth getting involved in?

I will be covering those questions and a lot more below …

Let’s get started…

AMWAY

Owner: Richard DeVos and John Van Andel

Products: Household products & Health and Wellness through

Price: $69 to register + $99 for starter kit

Best For:   Anyone looking to have a simple business hobby

Recommend:  No, I can not recommend this program for anyone seriously interested in making money.

 

As I mentioned Amway’s been around for some time, it was founded in 1959 which is around the 60-year mark now since it was first created by the owners. That, in itself, is quite astonishing if you ask me, it’s one of the strongest and well-known companies out there.

In 2018 alone they brought in over 8.8 billion dollars according to Wikipedia.

They conduct business in more than a hundred countries and territories around the world. And no doubt Amway has been investigated in various countries and institutions such as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for alleged pyramid scheme practices.

What’s even more astonishing is the fact that the two owners had been friends since school-days and were business partners in various endeavours which included a hamburger stand, an air charter service, and a sailing business.

This may come as a shock to you but Amway is very closely tied to Politics. They gave millions of dollars away to the Republican party and Richard DeVos Son Dick DeVos served as Finance Chairman of the Republican National Committee and his wife Betsy DeVos served as chair of the Michigan Republican Party.

And on February 7, 2017, Betsy DeVos was confirmed by the Senate as the 11th Secretary of Education.

Betsy DeVos is also Trumps Big-Donor

Amway is also into religion and in fact, they operate “like a private political army” and are sometimes referred to as “The Cult of Free Enterprise” according to Wikipedia.

As you can easily see, they are not going anywhere anytime soon and will be around for many years to come.

 

Is Amway a pyramid scheme

In a 1979 ruling, the Federal Trade Commission found that Amway did not fit the definition of a pyramid scheme because:

1. distributors were not paid to recruit people
2. it did not require distributors to buy a large stock of un-moving inventory
3. distributors were required to maintain retail sales of 10 per month
4. the company and all distributors were required to accept returns of excess inventory from down level distributors.

The FTC did however find Amway “guilty of price-fixing and making exaggerated income claims” and were ordered to stop retail price-fixing and allocating customers among distributors and were no longer allowed to misrepresent profit potential.

According to an independent study done by consumer watchdog that between 990 – 1000 participants in MLMs that use Amway type pay plans, in fact, lose money.

And get this…

… The FTC required Amway to label its products with the message that 54% of Amway recruits make nothing and the rest earn on average $65 a month.

In 2010 Amway paid $56 million, $34 million in cash and $22 million in products to settle a class-action lawsuit.

There were plenty of lawsuits after in other countries to follow suit.

So is it a pyramid?

In my opinion, it is a pyramid, just because they get to hide behind the facts or twist the law in their favour does not take it away. The big problem with all these MLM companies is you don’t make the money they say you will.

Amway uses “multilevel marketing techniques (MLM)” to sell their products. Because:

1. you have to pay fees to be part of the business
2. and you earn a percentage of the fees paid by your recruits

which clearly makes Amway a pyramid scheme. How much clearer does one need?

The sad thing is that the company is still around today making billions off of other’s dreams. Why can’t they just restructure the program to pay more to the reps that are doing all the sales, perhaps they would avoid paying out all the money.

I call it greed but hey that’s just me right.

Amway Products

Their products are always changing with time which is a good thing because as a rep you want new products regularly.

It’s a mixed feeling for the products whether they work and are liked by the public. Of course, we had our favourite products that we used. I found most of their products to be a little on the expensive side however some you couldn’t get anywhere else.

Just like most of the products you see at Walmart etc you will find mixed feelings for the products which are normal.

 

I know a lot of women liked their cleaning products and enjoyed the products delivered to them. Today of course many of the products are shipped right to your door.

All their natural and green products which they started with back in the 60s were always a popular product for many because it keeps their family healthier and the products always made your home smell cleaner.

Amway Training

The first thing you do to get started with Amway is to Register at $69. Then you can buy their Starter Kit which costs another $99 bucks.

This is actually not a bad startup cost, when I first got started with Amway I paid $300 which included the registration and startup kit.

The kit is only bought once and contains everything you will need to start promoting Amway. The kit contains the following items:

• Quality brand products to sell as demo or retail (valued at $245)
• Training materials
• 10 catalogues that have product and business information

Also, you will receive in-classroom training and marketing support.

The kit never changed much from when they first got started. It’s simple and it works.

We used to have to pay the full price for the kit but today you get it for 1/3 the cost. And if you quit you still have the products which are higher value then returning the kit.

But now the big question is…

How To Make Money With Amway?

Amway has two different ways of making money:

1. Selling their products for a commission
   1. This would also include the products you use yourself.
   2. Any sales you make to your friends and family
2. Receiving bonuses from recruiting and building a team
   1. this includes any money earned from your team ordering products
   2. and any bonuses as in gifts or products

Before your rush out and sign up to become a rep there is something I want to make clear here. I mentioned it above but I feel I need to mention it again…

The potential for making money with Amway is very very low. Even if you have all the drive to make it work, you still won’t make money with it. The income is just too low to add up to any significant amount.

According to Amway’s Income Disclosure Statement for 2016 which contains the average gross monthly income for their active users states a total of $207 was earned by each IBO per month.

I don’t think I need to work out the calculation per hr but you are looking at around $0.90 per active user. This doesn’t even include those that had quit during the year.

Perhaps that’s the reason why there is a huge turn-over within the company.

Why do people do it then?

Well, the biggest reason is that they don’t know upfront what it’s all about. Amway always exaggerated their potential income claims. When folks decide to give a go, before long they become frustrated and quit.

Points You Should Know About Amway

There’s also a lot of hidden costs associated with running any business. If you go door to door then you will no doubt be spending money on fuel and vehicle expenses. To attend any of the events will also cost a fair amount of money as well. My first event was in the US which I had to travel from Canada to attend.

All the costs to attend these events like hotel, travel etc throughout the year you usually share with others to make it affordable to attend.

That is what you will find in these MLM’s, people tend to travel together and share the costs to help make it work.

Keep in mind this business, albeit still in operation today, was designed for door to door. Compare with the digital world of today it can’t hold up.

Perhaps that is one of the reasons why they have expanded to be able to order online now and bypass the chain.

I can’t say I blame them …

Because of the internet, I can build a highly profitable business without leaving the comfort of my home. I also don’t have to worry about dealing with any products. Yet I get a lot more leads per day than any Amway rep was able to get and all from the comforts of my home, providing me with a nice tidy monthly income.

I admit it took me many years to figure it out but hey, I am not complaining because I got there.

No one can compete against the internet especially now with a pandemic on our hands and everyone is forced to stay home. This forced all the local stores to shut down, leaving everyone home to… guess what?

Go shopping online with all that spare time they now have on their hands.

Since the pandemic started the increase in online sales has skyrocketed so much even Amazon had to restrict its sales. I have never seen such an increase in sales before and they say it’s not going away anytime soon.

People are getting even more comfortable shopping online.

Is Amway A Scam?

Well, first we have to ask simple questions like:

1. Do they have a real business established? – yes
2. Do they provide a product to sell for a profit? – yes, 450 of them to be precise
3. Can the reps make a profit from each sale? – yes, albeit it’s not very much
4. Can the reps make a monthly profit? – Thin line, yes they can but it’s too small to be considered a profit.
5. Are they an established company? yes they are
6. Do they have any lawsuits against them? Yes, they do and plenty of them including from the government.

Because you can’t make a living with Amway after they say you can, in my opinion, this makes it a scam.

Who Can Benefit From Amway

In my experience and from what I have learned from others I have never seen anyone profit from Amway except the owners themselves.

There are a small few like many of the MLM’s out there that get to profit but they have been in the business for 20+ years so yeah some can profit from it. However, the statics state that even those that are profiting don’t profit until they have spent a minimum of 10 years or more.

That is a lot of time to be running a business and not profiting from it. Especially such a low profit to begin with.

In my opinion, because the number is so small that do profit I have to say…

No new members profit from Amway today.

If you are reading this and have profited from Amway then I would love to hear from you, just add your comments below if you don’t mind.

Conclusion

Now for my conclusion on my review on “What Is Amway About“.

One good point I would like to make is that Amway has been a BBB accredited business since 1991 and has maintained a rating of A+.

All the complaints have been cleared up over time indicating that they do care and are trying to solve any issues that come up. It also indicates that their products, well, are pretty good as well – perhaps even better than many of the products you buy off the local shelf.

Is there room for Amway products in the market, I do believe so, especially the green products.

On the other hand, when it comes to running it as a business it’s a whole different matter.

Here are a few points I don’t like about Amway as a business:

1. First, it’s an MLM
2. It is a door to door salesperson job
3. The profit margin is very very low meaning it’s not profitable enough for a business
4. They are known for lawsuits against them (red flag)
5. The majority of the reps quit with in the first year

For the above reasons I CAN NOT Recommend “Amway“.

The biggest problem I have with Amway is that it does not teach you about online marketing which is sad because that is where it’s at these days and for a long time to come. If you are not online then you will lose money.

For the same amount of time that it takes you to discover that Amway is not profitable, let’s say in a year. In that length of time, you could have a higher profitable online business by just writing a simple blog about something you like to do.

In one year you will make more money than any Amway rep ever made in 5 years. And in 3 years online you will have made more money than the top rep in Amway.

If you are interested in learning more about online marketing check out my #1 recommendation here.

This is the program that’s been working for me for the past 3 years.