Amway is not the Way (ctoc.co.uk/homeworking_work_from_home.htm)

Member Name: TheEar

Product:	ctoc.co.uk/homeworking_work_from_home.htm
Date:	03/05/02 (45 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Buy expensive products at slighly less than retail price.

Disadvantages: Multi-level marketting, Making rich people richer, Brainwashing - lose your friends

I was with Amway for around 18months, around 9 years ago.
During that time I was on low income, unemployed, and then in a different job (still on relatively low income).
I was pres-ganged by my 'upline' into buying motivational books and tapes. These tapes were mass-produced copies of old seminars by the Silvers/Golds etc (.e. the people making money already). These tapes cost around £30 per time (for 6/12 tapes), and then you were buying the 3-5 recommended books as well. In addition, every 3 months there was a corporate function which cost £120, where you went away for a short weekend to a htoel, and had intensive 'conferences' (brain washing). In addition to weekly motivational meetings, and 'social events'.

I got deeply into debt supporting my Amway habit. I also lost all of my University friends from doing this business. I also feel out with my family on a number of occasions.
Amway is huge. people have made huge amounts of money. However, it IS Multi Level marketing. If you're going to join a MLM scheme, you need to get in at ground floor level. Give Amway a wide berth (and all MLM schemes).
If you need to recruit people, who recruit people (and so on) as part of a business, then it is not a sustainable business.

Put your effort into buying trade magazines, buying wholeslae, and selling it on thorugh eBay, car Boot sales, or markets. It is hard work, but you'll not be ripping anyone off, or getting pressure from so called 'upline advisers'.

By the time I left Amway, I had over 150 tapes (at £3+ per tape), and 40 books (at around £12-15 per book). Oh, and £2400 debt, while earning under £10,000 per year.

I'm sure some people make money, but as is always the case, the people at the bottom of the chain make very little if anything.

Look at franchising - more reputable, and you get to keeps your friends even if they don't join your business.

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