MUSINGS FROM THE MIND OF AMANDA

So first of all, I have to confess. I have personally been a part of several MLMs. All together, I probably lost several hundred dollars. Sounds crazy, but in a way, I was lucky. Some people lost thousands and thousands, some people lost their homes, family, friends…all kinds of stuff.

For clarity, my first MLM (I think) was a makeup one. The products were actually pretty good, if a little pricy. I loved the welcome kit, and the products that came in it, and everyone was so darn happy! Well, now I know it’s something called “toxic positivity ” and let me tell, it is real. I also did one for organizational things, and I think I sold maybe three things. But those products were good, too. Of course, they cost about 10 times what they should’ve, and I could’ve got them at a dollar store. Then the one that really cost me : costume jewelry.

I sold lots of that stuff, but I had tons of it, too. They were decent products. I still wear some of it, and so do my friends. The problem is, you have to buy more. You got fifty pieces and sold 20? Restock with that money. Now you’ve lost your profit and you have the thirty pieces you couldn’t sell plus a whole new box of it. I did the Facebook live shows. Might sell one piece every time, maybe two. I carried that stuff everywhere, just in case someone wanted to me. I sold it out of my suv sometimes. I’d meet people in all kinds of places…all for about $1.50 profit.

The problem is that you are supposed to recruit more, which floods the area. I don’t live in Houston, my town has only a few thousand people in it. Twenty “resellers” pretty well flood the market. Only one consultant was allowed at an event, so if someone signed up for a local festival before you, you weren’t allowed to do it. So, I lost interest. I spent hours hyping this crap, whining at my friends, organizing…and it was fun. For a minute. I finally boxed it up and let my membership lapse, as it will if you don’t buy enough stuff.

My husband and I figured a way to pay off the credit cards, and we were left with about three big boxes of costume jewelry, huge racks my husband customized for me, earring displays and all the accessories, like bags and cards and planners. I ended up giving it away when. I could and donating the rest to my sister, who owns a flower shop.

Why am I thinking about this? I watched a documentary on Lularoe, which I was never involved with. I can’t believe how much money some people made…until someone admitted they spent as much as they made to get new inventory. Some of these women even considered suicide when they weren’t able to sustain a “business.”

The bottom line is that you can make money, but you need to be the first seller in your area and you need to be very careful about your inventory. I’ve sworn off them permanently, as has my husband, who got us into the same stuff with a company that promised so many snacks a day and incredible weight loss. We eventually threw that stuff away. I’ll just keep working my 8-5 job and he’ll keep working his and we may not be rich, but we also won’t have a ton of crap we can’t sell. That’s good enough for me.