05/10/2021
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Morning all! As we are heading into Christmas and our local selling groups are full of 'amazing opportunities' and 'make cash from home' posts, I thought it would be helpful to repost exactly why MLMs are trash and if you're struggling for money, you should bloody well avoid. A long read, but a good one!
What is an MLM? MLMs are business models that are almost pyramid-schemes but not quite (otherwise they'd be illegal) but rely on the person selling a product (which is difficult) to make money, but more importantly, rely on that person recruiting sales people under them to also sell. Money is made via other people's misfortune, basically.
Let me explain in full why weāre so anti-MLM, and why we think itās important to use our reach to spread the message. Remember: itās our personal opinion. Your experience may vary, of course. Iām deliberately not naming any MLM in this post because Iām not singling any particular one out.
Let me say one thing first: if youāre a seller, or a distributor, or whatever, then youāll probably be cross about this post. And thatās fine. You may be a success story, and you may believe your business is different. Thatās fine: you keep selling, making your money, and crack on. Weāre not suggesting that people canāt make a success through these schemes, because they absolutely can.
But most wonāt. Studies tend to pitch it at around 97% of people will lose money. But what is an MLM? Itās not a pyramid scheme, for one: theyāre illegal. But an MLM is where you are encouraged to recruit other sellers and youāll make money from the sales of product - and the recruitment they do - as well as selling a product yourself. Indeed, more often than not, the sales part becomes a tiny part of making revenue.
The recruitment role is often hidden at the start, or downplayed. Itās all about selling, except it isnāt. Youāll be encouraged to start recruiting, so that you can make money from their sales. Sounds great! But hereās the thing. Say you open a shop selling crisps. Plenty of customers around to buy crisps, and you get plenty of money. Would you then decide to encourage five people to set up shops in the same neighbourhood selling crisps?
Why not? Because the pool of people wanting to buy crisps is diluted. So your sales drop. And perhaps the five new crisp shops then recruit another two shops to sell. Then suddenly youāve got 15 shops selling in your area. You reckon thereās enough customers to buy those crisps? Nope.
And thatās where this business model falls down. The more sellers in your area, the harder it is to sell. Suddenly those big sales figures arenāt quite so achievable. And then what happens? Ah youāre not trying hard enough. Ah youāre not messaging enough friends and family. Ah youāre not posting enough to Facebook. Then when you realise whatās happening, out you go.
There are some good MLMs apparently, though Iām yet to see any. And the bit that sticks with us is that so often, these ājob opportunitiesā are coached in such terms to suggest that those most desperate for money, most struggling for work (perhaps kids at home, or redundancies) will find it easy to make money. Thatās why we call them parasitic - they take advantage. Itās all well and good to say āmine isnāt like thatā and perhaps thatās the case, but Iām yet to see it.
Ask yourself this: why on FB when you see these āamazing opportunitiesā advertised, do they so rarely name the company they āworkā for? Why is it always āIāll inbox you hunā and all that? Because it means they can claim what they want in their private messages.
Why, when these amazing opportunities or sales pitches are posted on FB, when you look at the likes and comments, theyāre nearly always liked and shared by other sellers from the same company? Is it to make the offer look attractive? Yep, and to drive up engagement so they appear more often. Seriously, take a moment next time when you spot one of these adverts and look at the profiles of people who like them: theyāre nearly always linked and members themselves.
Why is it that it is SO difficult to find out exactly how much money you can make? MLMs are supposed to post income disclosure statements, but theyāre so hard to find. Why is that? Why are costs so often hidden away?
And then this brings us to what happens when you challenge MLM posts. I see the same arguments normally levelled at us when comment:
āWhat happened to being kind?ā
Thereās nothing ākindā about supporting this type of business. If 97% or so people lose money, then that isnāt something to be proud of. That isnāt kind. Just because someone at the top is raking it in, just because they have a āgreat teamā, doesnāt mean itās a good thing. Itās a good thing for THAT person, but what of the fifty below them? What about the people at the bottom of the chain?
āYouāre misogynisticā
We get this one so much: we arenāt misogynistic in the slightest. It isnāt misogynistic to refuse to promote businesses which are known for taking advantage of vulnerable people. Not all of them do and not all of the sellers fall into this camp, but a hell of a lot do.
āItās none of your businessā
Well, thatās a fair one. Perhaps it isnāt. So I should explain a couple of things that drive our absolute vehemence towards these schemes. I used to work in debt relief: Iāve seen with my own eyes people suckered into various āmake lots of money selling XYZā schemes. Iāve seen people crying because theyāve got f**k all left, have worked bloody hard to try and make a thing of it, only to be told that it was their fault they failed. They didnāt play the system hard enough, They didnāt try. Itās scummy and repugnant and thatās what lies behind all of this for us. The other side of that coin: we get approached fairly often by companies wanting us to promote - who see the 500,000 followers and tell us we can make untold riches, and bloody quickly, if we sign up. To become ambassadors or diamond level super shiny fancy boss-bitches or whatever asinine title they give them. We arenāt talking small amounts either. But itās dishonest. We recommend products occasionally and do get a financial incentive for doing so, but weāre transparent about that and only recommend things we use ourselves. We donāt then tell you to start shilling Actifries for us and giving us a cut of your sales. Thereās the difference.
We will support small businesses until the sky falls in: weāre very big on that. Long time followers will know this - how many times have we posted asking people to promote their businesses for free? Hundreds, over the years, especially in our group. We do this exactly BECAUSE we know how hard it is. We set up twochubbycubs over eight years and itās a slog. But a real business, with sweat and tears, weāll back forever. So donāt level that at us.
Wrapping up now. If youāre reading this and getting in a huff, take a step back. This is our opinion. On our website. To our followers. If you believe your business is better, go out there and sell and recruit and live your best life. If youāre going to write to me and tell me that you hate us and we can stick our recipes up our arse, thatās fine too. We have always been clear in the fact that twochubbycubs is more than just a recipe blog, itās our little view on the world, and weāve always been entirely open and honest about the things that matter to us. I appreciate it may not be to your taste, but simply scroll on - weāve got some great recipes coming. What weāre not asking for is evidence that your MLM is somehow different. Because it wonāt be. Itās been proven time and time and time again. If you want to make a sales pitch, crack on and do it on your own page.
I think thatās it. Thatās why we are anti-MLM. Thatās why weāll post about it going forward.
For more reading into how MLMs work, take a look at:
My personal favourite, an ongoing blog by Elle, who was pulled into an MLM - who explains the various tricks that they use - if you read anything, read this - sheās an incredible writer
https://ellebeaublog.com/poonique/
More details about what an MLM is:
https://mlmtruth.org/
An excellent documentary by the BBC:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p076n2hg
Reddit - ANTIMLM - an amazing resource for MLM facts
https://www.reddit.com/r/antiMLM/
Cheers!
J&P
