Amway, the Poster Child for Multi-Level Marketing
You’ve maybe heard the name Amway before. This company offering work from home business opportunities was founded in 1959. In 2001 it changed its name in North America to Quixtar while maintaining the Amway name elsewhere. Over the years Amway in one form or another has offered people the opportunity of creating their own work from home business via distributorships. These distributorships are now referred to as Independent Business Owners (IBOs).
Amway offers a myriad of products. Some of these are:
- Cleaning products
- Personal care products
- Dietary supplements
- Basic food commodities
- Jewelry
- Cosmetics
Over the years Amway has been quite controversial because of its business model. While it is indeed a multi-level marketing set up, the courts ruled in 1979 that it does not constitute an illegal pyramid scheme. The reason for the court’s ruling is simple. Though a great many people will end up only really buying products for themselves and thus not earning any real income, those who pursue this work from home opportunity zealously can in fact make a considerable income. The problem is that the number of people who actually make any real income off of selling Amway or Quixtar products is minimal considering the overall number of IBOs involved.
Still if you are a people person and possess great charisma there really is a true work from home business opportunity offered here. Don’t expect an overnight miracle. If you are going to do this business, it will take time to grow it. What you need to do is to determine how you feel about the products themselves before investing as an IBO. If you are sold on the products, you may well sell others on them as well.