Tag Archives: average income

Part II – Do Diamonds make most of their money from selling tools?

Back in 2009 I wrote a post Let’s Talk About Tools Part I, beginning a conversation about an area that has been of some controversy in the Amway world – the promotion and sale of Business Support Materials or BSM. After a mere 5 year break I’m finally here to talk about Part II – Do Diamonds make most of their money from selling tools?

Just today I saw a claim from an MLM critic that (in 2004) “the best of the best (Diamonds) were earning $250k/yr, but only $60,000 from sales/downline sales.”

He was claiming that while Amway Diamonds and above were making more than $250,000/yr, only about $60,000 of that was from the sale of Amway products through their network – the rest from the sale of “tools” – books, CDs, and seminar tickets. It’s not an unusual claim. Amway critic “Joecool” regularly makes similar claims, and former IBO Scott Johnson (aka Tex) is absolutely obsessed with the idea, commenting about “Stop the Amway Tool Scam” on virtually any news article or website that mentions Amway.

So is there any truth to this claim? As I point out in Part I, successful Amway IBOs can and do earn money from (1) the production and resale of training products and  services to Amway organisations (2) the sale and distribution of tools through one’s own downline and (3) by selling their services as professional speakers.

So how much do they make?

Several years ago I and a number of other Amway bloggers were invited to participate in a panel discussion with Amway staff. One of the invitees was the tool-profit obsessed Scott Johnson, so I decided to see if I could get some hard data and information about how much Diamonds made from BSM sales. I emailed all the various “support organisations” I could find contact information for, including Britt WorldWide (BWW), eFinity, INA, Network 21, Yager Internet Services and others to see if they would share some information. Unfortunately only one of them was willing. For confidentiality reasons I won’t name them, but they’re a very significant and large group.

For this company, qualified Amway Platinums and above could earn a monthly volume rebate on the BSM purchased by their Amway organisation. CDs for example sold for a retail price of $7. However, just like with Amway, there was an increasing discount (paid as a rebate) for larger volumes, as follows –

Volume Rebate
 ($US)
0-499 0
500-999 0.50
1000-1999 0.75
2000-3999 1.00
4000-5999 1.20
6000-7999 1.40
8000-9999 1.60
10000-14999 1.80
15000-19999 2.00
20000-29999 2.20

A similar rebate scale works for tickets to seminars. For example, qualified Emeralds and above earned the following rebates on tickets to major Weekend Seminars –

Volume Rebate
($US)
0-49 0
50-149 5.00
150-249 10.00
250-499 15.00
500+ 20.00

The schedule works like the bonus brackets of Amway, so a Diamond earing at the “WES 250” bracket would most likely be “paying out” of their bonus to at least a couple of Emeralds. A Founders Platinum with a volume rebate of 75 cents might be paying out 50 or even 75 cents of that to another downline Platinum.

In addition this organisation pays speakers to present at major functions. Airfaires, hotels, and a per diem for expenses are paid, along with a speakers fee. This fee averages about $3250.

Now, just like with Amway, there are huge differences between organisations. A Diamond can have 6 platinums all in the US, or thousands of platinums spread around the world. So there can be huge differences in their Amway income, and huge differences in the volume of BSM materials they move through their organisation. But how does the BSM income compare to Amway income?

Well, in 2007 the average North American Emerald earned around $70,000 from Amway.

The average North American Emerald in this organisation in 2007 earned around $7,000 from BSM rebates and speakers fees combined.

The average Emerald had “system” or “tool” income of around 10% of their Amway income.

In 2007 the average North American Diamond earned around $155,000 from Amway.

The average North American Diamond in this organisation in 2007 earned around $23,000 from BSM rebates and speakers fees combined.

The average Diamond had “system” or “tool” income of around 15% of their Amway income.

Now, this data is now 7+ years old and it’s important to note a few things. First of all, different BSM companies calculate their rebate systems in different ways. I’m told for example that in the past some BSM companies paid their rebates not based on volume, but based on the pin level they had achieved. So someone who had qualified Diamond received the Diamond rebate level – even if their volumes had dropped and they were no longer qualifying as an Amway Diamond.

Different groups also have different numbers of CDs and meetings they encouraged their groups to attend. I’ve heard of groups that encouraged the members to buy as many as 10 CDs a week. Others are 4 or 5 a month. Obviously if you’re selling a lot more CDs then you’re making a lot more money from this income source. Similarly some speakers are far more in demand (or have far more personal desire) to be on the speaking circuit, and this earn more from that income source. There are also other differences in how the profits (if any) of the production companies are used and/or distributed.

So yes, some Diamonds, in some organisations may earn more from their BSM related activites than from Amway. But this is unusual, not the norm!

Furthermore, in 2007/2008 Amway implemented a whole new accreditation system for companies that supplied BSM to Amway IBOs. As part of this Amway required the companies to allow an independent marketing firm to study their compensation plans for fairness and Amway’s approval. Many changes had to be made – including moving from an “pin level” based rebate to a volume rebate. On top of that, Amway also drastically increased a range of bonuses. In 2007 the average Diamond earned around $155,000. In 2014 the figure is over $600,000.

In the past, cases of Amway Diamonds and above earning more from “tools” and “the system” than from Amway occurred but were not common. In 2014 it’s virtually non-existent.

No, in general Diamonds do not make more money from tools than from Amway.

Amway Average Incomes 2012

Amway North America has a new Business Opportunity Brochure (BOB) out and it has some new statistics on average incomes.

Average Highest
Q12 Platinum $55,042 $190,264
Founders Emerald $135,664 $838,533
Founders Diamond $590,928 $2,945,820

One interesting thing is that the percentage of all IBOs reaching these levels has also increased – Continue reading Amway Average Incomes 2012

Amway Europe Average Incomes

Amway Logo

Back in 2009 Amway Europe released some data on the average incomes achieved by Amway Business Owners (ABO) at various levels in Western Europe. I’ve now received some updated statistics, for the Amway financial year from September 2010 to August 2011.

Level Average/mth Average/yr Highest/yr
Founders Platinum/Ruby/Sapphire €2,712 €32,548 €102,963
Founders Emerald €7,059 €84,709 €165,822
Founders Diamond €13,916 €166,990 €226,892

This data includes ABOs from the following countries –

Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Holland, Portugal, Scandinavia (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden), Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Level 2009/2010 2010/2011 Change
Founders Platinum/Ruby/Sapphire €2,434 €2,712 +11.4%
Founders Emerald €4,668 €7,059 +51.2%
Founders Diamond €11,271 €13,916 +23.5%

All levels had a decent increase in income, especially Founders Emerald, however for European ABOs, there’s still concern when comparing to Amway North America incomes (using EUR-USD exchange rates as of September 1, 2010) –

Level Europe/yr
(2010)
North America/yr
(2010)
Founders Platinum $41,273 $51,437
Founders Emerald $107,415 $135,052
Founders Diamond  $211,752 $602,467

It appears the Founders Diamond discrepancy might be because in the US it includes Founders Diamond and above, thus including high achievers such as Founders Crown Ambassadors, whereas the European data seems not to. The discrepancy in Founders Platinum income is even worse than it appears though, as in Europe the statistics include Sapphires, whereas the US disclosure document states they’re excluded in the North American data. On top of this, Platinums and above generate more in sales than their North American equivalents, with 10000PV/mth required to qualify Platinum in Europe, and only 7500PV/mth in North America.

Why are North American Platinums and above getting paid more for lesser results than their European counterparts? I’ve no idea, but it may be one reason why some European markets like Amway Germany have been going backwards. Even so, these are still great incomes for a part-time business!

Updated Amway IBO average income statistics, plus an important clarification

For the last decade, whenever Amway has published income data for the Amway business they have also reported, based on a survey in 2000, an “average income” for “active IBOs” –

The average monthly gross income for “active” IBOs was $115.

Approximately 66% of all IBOs of record were found to be “active.”

“Active” means an IBO attempted to make a retail sale, or presented the Amway Independent Business Ownership Plan, or received bonus money, or attended a company or IBO meeting in the year 2000.

“Gross income” means the amount received from retail sales, minus the cost of goods sold, plus the amount of Performance Bonus retained. There may be significant business expenses, mostly discretionary, that may be greater in relation to income in the first years of operation.

Amway critics have often latched on to this “average income” and claimed (by falsely assuming all these IBOs are working hard and have business expenses) that virtually all IBOs are losing money and that it’s a poor business opportunity. In reality it’s a very poor and virtually meaningless statistic. There’s a reason why if you google “average income” you’ll be hard pressed to find it. What you’ll find instead is “median income”, which is altogether different statistic. “Average” only really works when you have a group that is homogenous, or members are similar to each other.  The group used by Amway is “active IBOs”, and as per their definition includes everyone from the handful of US Founders Crown Ambassadors who have been building their businesses for decades and earn millions, through to the 19yr old college student who joined a few months back and  asked their brother if they wanted to buy an XS – and the brother said “no”, and they never did anything again.

Clearly the statistic doesn’t tell us much at all! I can only surmise that Amway keeps publishing it at the behest of their lawyers, who want to keep on the good side of the FTC and ensure nobody can complain Amway gave them an overly optimistic view of their chances of making money with Amway.

So, we’re left with a lousy, misleading, statistic. At least now though, we’re not left with an old lousy, misleading statistic. Recent issues of Amway’s Achieve Magazine have been reporting new data, based on a survey from 2010 – Continue reading Updated Amway IBO average income statistics, plus an important clarification

Updated Amway North America average incomes

In the latest Amway Business Opportunity Brochure (BOB), Amway North America has finally released some up dated average bonus statistics for that market. The figures are from 2009.

Level Average/yr Highest/yr Percent
Gold $12,303 $57,308 0.18%
Founders Platinum $40,125 $966,290 0.26%
Founders Emerald $142,181 $673,334 0.02%
Founders Diamond and above $609,541 $2,739,829 0.01%

Unfortunately the misleading “average monthly gross income for active IBOs” figure from a 2000 survey was not updated.

A few things stand out. First is that North American Emerald’s and Diamonds are significantly better compensated than their Amway Europe counterparts. This was one of the complaints of former UK Diamonds Jerry and Mandy Scriven. Converted to USD using today’s rates – Continue reading Updated Amway North America average incomes

Amway Europe Average Incomes

UPDATED FIGURE HERE

Amway Europe has apparently finally calculated and released some average monthly income statistics for various levels of the business in Europe. These figures were for September 2007 to August 2008 and it’s of note that for 2009/10 (and perhaps ongoing) Amway has raised many bonuses 25%-100% for most platinums and above. Note: afaik they don’t include any profit from personal retailing nor additional incentives such as free trips.

  • Founders’ Platinum €2,434
  • Founders’ Emerald  €4,668
  • Founders’ Diamond €11,271

Not bad money for a part-time business! I’ve heard reports other Amway markets have started to report this kind of information as well. Amway North America has done it for years, though I haven’t seen updated statistics for a long time. If anyone has updated statistics for their market, I’d love to see them.