Anybody Can Do This?

Every "Open Meeting" I ever attended I heard this statement as a selling point. Anybody can do this. The fact is......No.....they can't. Are you kidding me!? Do you have any idea what it takes to build an Amway business? Well before you go to bed tonight with dreams of financial freedom, and fancy cars dancing through your head, consider these points.

The time commitment. I was always told that it was flexible, and you could build it around your existing schedule. Unless your thinking of missing an open meeting that is! That's right....every Tuesday for LIFE. Open meetings ran at least 2 hours, maybe more if the speaker droned on longer. No big deal you say? It's like having a sports commitment or something similar you say? Alright, did I mention the monthly seminars? That's one Saturday a month and is the better part of the afternoon and evening that day. Oh did I mention that you haven't shown this to one person yet! Now add in 15 showings or "plans" a month at an hour a piece (I've been to plans that were way longer than that). Did I mention you have to get back together with these people for follow through appointments? At least another 15 hours of work there. Plus all the driving time, extra meetings with your "Team", helping your new people get started, contacting sessions with your group, attending house meetings.....should I go on? Do the math. You think your going to rocket yourself to financial freedom with a couple hours a week do ya? Wake up! Truth is most people get involved at the chance to get their time back! Does this sound like getting your time back? Oh, and by the way.....this NEVER ENDS! Sorry...were you told you could just "Walk away" from your "business" when it got big enough? LIE! Can you imagine how fast your group would collapse if you said "you know....I think I've built this big enough...I'm going to live the big life now" and left! Who would they be able to point to as a "Success"? Oh no....your not going anywhere! It's like the Hotel California.... you can check out any time you like....but you can never leave!

The financial commitment. Seriously. If you build it like the "Leaders" tell you. The amount of money you will spend is astounding! Remember those weekly open meetings? $5 per meeting. Monthly Seminar $30-$35 per seminar. Products on hand....the sky is the limit, but you will for sure have something on hand for people to try. In Amway it was XS energy drinks at $2.50 a can and some protein bars! With Monavie it was $35 bottles of Juice! THEN there is all the promotional items. Audio CD's, books, pamphlets, etc. Also known as "Tools". This will be a future post on it own (I know you can hardly wait Tex). Let's just say that this will be your largest financial investment by far! Sound easy so far? Sound like "Anybody Can Do This"? Really? That single mom with two kids? That high school drop out working at McDonald's? That single income family living pay check to pay check? No chance. All the supporters will point to the very few that have made money, and their personal stories of success. Well after 6 years of building.... and people were still pointing to the same folks they were on day one as examples of success....clearly not "Anybody Can Do This"!!  

What About The Prices?

Sorry to all three of my readers out there! I was away for  a couple of weeks because of work. It did get me thinking though. I do travel from time to time because of my job, and get to see different parts of the country. While I'm away from home I always like to see the difference in product prices compared to what I pay at home. Is it cheaper, more expensive, or about the same? Just something I tend to do. Don't tell me you've never done the same!

Which brings me to the title of this post...."What About The Prices?". The question of doom during my Amway experience. It was a fair question, and in fact, one I had asked myself! However when I actually found out the price of the products I almost died! I was quickly subdued by my upline who went on to tell me "All business owners buy from them self", and "as your business gets bigger, you'll get a better discounted price". I hate to break the bad news to you, but even at a 25% discount (which I did achieve), overpriced is still overpriced! So how do you overcome this objection? I was taught to not even bring the catalogue along until the third or forth meeting! Yeah....that's being proud of your company! I was also taught that if they weren't interested in the business aspect, you could convert them to a customer. Good luck with that! The most common answer I got to that was "So...I would buy these products at twice the price of what I could get them from at Wal-Mart.....because......???" Ah.....because I'm a nice guy, and could use the money?! No....ok....I'll leave now. All you pro Amway people out there, I'm sure will say that I didn't educate them on the products enough, and that they save the environment....save the animals... and save the world! Whatever. I hate to tell you this but....John Q Citizen doesn't care! He wants to pay less and get more! I've never had someone tell me their life changed because they used Amway toilet paper!

So as much as your upline will tell you "It's not about the products" (anybody heard that one before?), then it begs the question.... what is it really about then?