Today we are going to open the storybook and give you a little glimpse into my MLM history. Spoiler alert it turned me off completely. I am not a fan at all. Not because I think the people who do it are bad, but because of the corrupt system. Without diving into deep details I was part of an MLM before my consulting practice started taking off. I thought I could have a better reach if I leveraged the internet to grow my downline.
Long story short I was denied the "Fancy" rewards because at the time, this was not allowed. Also, I just remember some of the folks who literally told me during the recruiting process that they were simply trying to make ends meet and were hoping this would make them wealthy. The training we received was pure brain-washing now that I’ve had the opportunity to join high-level masterminds with other entrepreneurs who have built real companies.
The concept of an MLM is to grow your downline (people you recruit on your team) and coach them to build their own downlines. The more levels of downlines you create, the more money you make…theoretically. The amount of money you make from someone in your downline selling products is very small. It’s a numbers game if you want to make any bit of money.
The FTC has found that 99% of people who join MLMs lose money, which means that 1% profit. They also found that 95% of people quit within 10 years. Again, I don’t share this to talk down on anybody who is currently part of an MLM or have loved ones who are part of one, but here’s why I’m not a fan. The average failure rate of a small business is over 50% within the first 5 years. Perhaps this is why loved ones typically discourage more than encourage new ventures. I can promise you that the success rate of people who join MLMs is nowhere close to 50%. Every single person I’ve ever known to join a MLM has lost money and is no longer doing it. I found a strategy to make it work, but they changed the rules and started implementing the strategy themselves. So yes, I truly believe the success rate is probably less than 1%. This means that every 100 people you sign up…you know that 100 (MAYBE…maybe 99) will lose money and quit. People who don’t need money aren’t the ones who typically join MLM’s. Even the training revolves around targeting lower income folks who might likely be motivated to make impulsive decisions out of desperation to “get rich”. Knowing the stats, yet still leading people to probable failure is not the kind of action I endorse one bit.