We’ve all seen the Instagram and Facebook ads promising us easy work selling or representing a brand we’ve never heard of. Apparently though, the products are groundbreaking and amazing, even life changing. They promise us we can have our own “independent” business and make tons of money. Often times we are even direct messaged by a friend or someone we barely know, as they adamantly tell you about how amazing it is to work for their company. What is this all about? There are two options: a legitimate company using Multi-Level Marketing strategies (MLM), or a Pyramid Scheme. It can be hard to tell the difference between these two due to the fact they both use a model with multiple levels of salespeople and recruits.
Avon, Mary Kay, It Works, these are just a few names you might recognize from your Instagram or Facebook feeds. While it is possible to make money by working for these companies, they can be misleading in the way they recruit you, blurring the lines between pyramid schemes and MLM’s. The technical difference between the two lies in the main goal of the company: a pyramid scheme’s main goal is to recruit more and more people to work for them, while a company using MLM is looking to move more product. The lines often get blurred because legitimate companies using MLM recruit “independent business owners” at a steady rate using pushy tactics.
When people sign up for these types of programs to be an “Independent Business Owner” (IBO) they are force-fed canned phrases and social media posts. Their feeds and stories become littered with pushy sales ads. These IBO’s have to pay up front usually several hundred dollars to work for the company. One example of this is a company called IT Works! Global. I have had friends “work” for this company and complain about how bad their experience was. Everything from not being reimbursed for hundreds of dollars to paying just to get out of the program. All it took was a quick search on the Better Business Bureau to find that this company has a “pattern of complaints” and a “C” rating. Whether or not this company is purely a pyramid scheme or not, I think its concerning to see how many of these types of “great opportunities” are popping up online and convincing millennial to sign up for. My advice to anyone looking to get sales experience or even just make money on the side, is to avoid anything that looks like MLM or a pyramid scheme. At the very least search the BBB rating of the company before you dive in.
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