Amway is the Pioneer for the MLM Industry

Although Amway has received bad press in recent years concerning certain distributors and management, no one can argue that the company paved the way for many of the successful companies that have come since its inception.

The Beginnings

Amway was launched in 1959 by Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel and for decades took the country by storm. There were some very intense legal battles regarding the legitimacy of the multilevel marketing concept but with their legal successes, they effectively created the MLM industry.

Now, they have grown into an international giant, with the Amway business opportunity available in many countries around the planet.

The Products

Due partly to their very large reach, the company has over 450 products in its product line and has a huge number of arrangements with other "non-MLM" companies to sell their product.

The only issue is that there has been some complaints about the price of the products as compared with their quality. Generally, the Amway brand products are of high quality, but they don't warrant their high price.

The Opportunity

Although the business opportunity has a very large line of products, we are not a big fan of the business structure as a whole.

First off, you are expected to wholesale and retail product. Although this can create good relationships between the distributor and the customer, it also means that every month, you as a distributor must go back to your customers and fulfill their orders. This is not efficient at all once you have a large customer base.

Second, the compensation plan is based on a stairstep breakaway plan. This more or less means that if you bring in someone who is very successful, once they reach a certain point, you will no longer earn commission from their group, because they "break away". Again, this is quite a disappointing feature.

Third, most sponsoring is done through local meetings and appointments. This is an out-dated practice and again does not allow for the same level of growth nationwide. we prefer businesses that have easy online enrollment.

Finally, it is very difficult to find information about the products and opportunity from their website. They are very vague and do not offer much specific information. You can see for your self at the Amway Home Page. In fact, I was unable to find any link to their compensation plan online. Most people interested in starting a business online are looking for easily accessible information. Since it has hard to find, people looking at Amway for the first time will be put off.

Final Impressions

Although you can still make very good money with Amway, in this day and age, we feel that there are many other network marketing opportunities out there that offer much better business systems, which in turn will give the average new representative more success.