speaking of Amway/MLM

i have a friend who sells thirty-one products that does REALLY well.  but, she is a stay at home mom, all of her kids are school aged, and she spends A LOT of time on it.  she works it like it is a full-time job, it is not a "some cash on the side" for her.  she actually does a lot of recruiting/training of new sellers and manages a small team of them.  she has won several awards within the company.  she loves it as well and has made really good friends through meetings and conferences with thirty-one.

since it's regional - thirty-one makes purses/bags/totes/organizers in fun colors and prints and they are customizable.  super popular with church ladies, so it helps that she is a minister's wife.  the prices are decent, they run a lot of good specials, and the quality is very good.  so it is a product that is easy to sell.  as far as i can guess, they make their money off of the salesperson purchasing the seasonal sample packs - every 3 or 4 months they release a few new prints or designs and you have to buy a $99 kit to show at parties to continue to sell.  the salesperson gets a pretty big cut of the sales.

I was a distributor of Amway products for several years. I am not now.

I will first say that there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with the Amway business model/compensation plan or products. They work. Plain and simple. Their products are not always the cheapest, but compared on a quality basis, they're at the very least competitive.

Now the problem I do have is with the various organizations that use the Amway business model, and build another business around that -- what's been known in online circles as "Amway Motivation Organizations". There are many, usually with a very wealthy person at the top. These are the organizations that "teach you how to build a successful business", and become the absolute time-suck, brain-wash and money sink. Meetings, seminars, trips to weekend sessions... Sure, they're business expenses and are tax deductible. For some one who decides to make it a business with any of these organizations, one quickly finds them self doing nothing else, and battling sleep deprivation in the process.

Then the further problem is that the Amway name gets thrown into the same category as these organizations, and the good corporation's name gets tarnished as a cult, when the real culprit are the organizations.

Amway is a very good company with great products. Certainly, if you had a friend selling these products which you needed, and the price is right for you, by all means support them. Think long and hard, though, if you want to make it into a money-making opportunity for yourself.

My wife is with advo*care.  (astrik because BT keeps adding a script to change it...btw...why does BT change advo*care, but not Amway?!?!?  lol)  

The people who rely on it for income and desire to be rich from it are annoying.  Like the campus crusaders, any conversation that you have with them feeds back into a what their specific itinerary is.  You can see the dollar signs in their eyes in any conversation, even if it is "What way do you get to work".

...But...

I have no problem with their products (I use them myself), and I don't have any issues with their business models or most of their sales people.  My wife is a personal trainer and is selective about which products will actually benefit her clients.  Her clients are not "potential distribution channels", but rather somebody who can actually benefit from some products.