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Has anyone here ever had even minimal success with XanGo, Melaleuca, Amway, Pampered Chef and so on? Several members of my family have been approached by a relative with a business "opportunity", but I'm reluctant to even go to the meeting because I've never personally spoken to anyone who's made more than a couple bucks, and never as much as they paid into the sca... er, business.
Just thought I'd seek some words of advice from the Tastefully Simple millionaires on the forum.
Amway I've heard of and what I know isn't good. It's a basic pyramid scheme even though they'll deny it. You come in at the base of pyramid and the only way to jump a level is to recruit more people. which is what your relative is now trying to do, of course. And you can make some serious money with it, if you are any good at selling, not so much the products, but the "business opportunity" because the only way to make much at it is to move up the levels. Since I've noticed them advertising on TV some I suspect recruiting hasn't been as brisk as they would like. My advice would be that if you're a good salesman, find a job doing that before investing the time and money it will take to become successful in one of these schemes.Quote:
Originally Posted by TJ347
I tried one of these before I formally retired on disability, it was in the financial business and I mainly did it to help a friend and because I initially believed the propaganda they fed me about how much they wanted to help people and how easy it was. It wasn't easy and required an enormous outlay of time, as well as a fairly substantial investment. Once I retired on disability I got out of it entirely, and my buddy followed a few weeks later.
DF, from the little research I just did on Wikipedia, Amway can't be called a pyramid scheme because pyramid schemes are illegal and Amway has a product. I do get your meaning, of course, but perhaps to be fair we should call it an "inopportune business opportunity". Or, as I like to call it, a goddamn scam.
Thanks for your feedback. I've decided that since I'm not interested in throwing away all my friendships in hopes of making easy money, I'm not even going to bother going to hear about this opportunity. After all, this is the third or fourth time this same cousin has approached me about a new "business" she got involved in.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TJ347
I had a friend and his wife nearly suck me into to the Amway deal. Because they were such good friends, I went with them to a meeting. It was actually weird and cultish...like a revivial . I couldn't blow outta there fast enough, but they stuck with it for 2 years. It almost cost us our friendship because I grew tired of the sales pitch. They poured 2 years of thier lives into it 7 days a week and eventually walked away with little or nothing to show for it. It always appeared to me the intent was not to sell the products, but to suck people in .
Is it ACN? I got approached by some acquaintances to get involved. I was curious and had nothing else to do so went to one of their meetings. They were more focused on signing up people to the 'family' than they were talking about the product offering. Seemed liked a common sense product - cheap home phone, wireless, etc for the masses. But after looking around found that similar offers are available from local providers. Also didn't help that they have a fetish for Trump and keep referring to the executive leadership as The Founders. I felt like I was going to join the Scientologists. I blew them off.Quote:
Originally Posted by TJ347
A Cult, Naturally. We have a winner.