Tag: MLM

Amway has been in business for over 50 years. And just like many other companies that have been around for that long, they have had their fair share of legal issues. Of those legal battles they have had, most of them are about product liability or distributor disputes. However, not one of those legal battles has affected the tremendous growth that has occurred within Amway.

As an example, in 1997, Amway sued a polish film maker for libel. The film, Welcome to Life, purportedly defamed Amway, showing a misleading and libelous version of what muli-level marketing was all about. Amway Poland was able to obtain an injunction, preventing the film’s release, and subsequently Amway won the lawsuit.

Other relatively minor legal battles have involved some Amway distributors using copyrighted music on promotional tapes – these usually do not affect the company as a whole and most have been settled out of court. But another type of legal battle gets at the heart of what MLM is…

**Landmark decisions**

Is MLM, and Amway specifically, a pyramid scheme? In other words, is the business model illegal from the start? This is when the big time legal battles started. Losing a challenge on this subject would mean, not just fines, but a complete shutdown of operations – maybe even jail time.

Well, in 1977, Amway was subjected to just such a challenge. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) started investigating Amway for deceptive business practices and the charge was essentially one of operating a pyramid, or Ponzi, scheme.

The crux of the issue was this, was Amway trying to make money just from recruiting distributors or was the main business model to sell products. This is a serious charge in a serious venue – the FTC had the power to completely shut Amway down.

After over two years of investigating, the FTC ruled that the Amway business model was legit. They did criticize some of the business practices, and Amway changed some of its sales materials as a result. But the ruling was clear – there was nothing illegal about MLM and network marketing.

This one single decision by the FTC save the network marketing industry as a whole. With the validation of the FTC, network marketers could finally claim what they had always known – MLM isn’t a scam, or a deceptive business practice. Instead, it is a legitimate way to sell products and grow individual businesses.

Another win

Proctor and Gamble, Amway’s main competitor, brought suit in 1995, claiming that Amway had allowed its telephone messaging service (AmVox) to be knowingly used to harm P&G. The claim was that rumors that P&G was a Satanist organization had been spread over this service and that the company’s reputation had suffered damage because of this.

After almost a decade in the courts, and lawsuits in multiple States, the case was dismissed in 2003. P&G did win money against four individual Amway distributors in Utah in 2005, but the Amway Corporation remained untouched by the slander.

**Foreign legal battles**

While the legitimacy of the MLM model was proven in the US, occasionally, the same issue has been raised in other countries. Because Amway Global is actually global in scope, these are of interest.

2006 – India started action against Amway under their version of Ponzi scheme laws. While the case isn’t entirely settled, Amway still does business in India and has won against some of the injunctions placed upon it. The original case is still pending, but in the past four years, no grounds have been found to move forward.

2007 – British authorities brought an action against Amway for what were called, “objectionable practices.” The Department of Trade and Industry (the UK version of the FTC) has the power to shut down operations and this was a serious matter. In 2008, the investigation was complete and Amway was found to have violated no laws in Britain.

**A settled issue**

With the results in, the question of whether Amway is a pyramid scheme or not is settled. Challenges to the MLM business model have been mounted, not only in the US, but several other countries. In every major legal battle, Amway had won.

Network marketing remains a viable and completely legal way to do business. In the new millennium, with the rise of the Internet, it may in fact be one of the best ways to do business. Amway has proven their model over and over again – both in the courts and on the ground. If you wish to partner with Amway, rest assured there is no pyramid scheme, no Ponzi operation – just an exciting opportunity.

The History Of Prepaid Legal Services:

Prepaid Legal Services, Inc is a multilevel marketing company that sells legal membership plans. The plans provide for legal service benefits, including unlimited attorney consultation, letter writing, document preparation and review, will preparation, traffic violation defense, automobile-related criminal charges defense and a general trial defense. Basically, they allow customers to have access to legal representation and attornies for a FRACTION of what it would cost outside of the membership.

Founder, Harland Stonecipher, started Prepaid Legal in the early 70s after noticing an enourmous need in the market place. The flagship product is the Life Events Plan and currently there are more than 1.5 million members in North America. A couple of years ago, due to a demand in the market place, the ID Theft Protection feature was added to the membership. The power of Prepaid Legal’s concept is that it sells a very unique service that people from all walks of life can get value from. They really don’t have any real competitors in the traditional business or MLM arena.

Training And Leadership In Prepaid Legal Services, Inc.

Prepaid Legal Services is led by some of the most dynamic and documented leaders in the network marketing industry. Besides founder Harland Stonecipher, the corporate team contains many seasoned MLM veterans like Jeff Olson and co-CEOs Randy Harp and Mark Brown. On top of that, there are many seasoned veterans that sit on the Board of Directors. One example is current Board member, Stephen R. Hague, A 35-year veteran of the insurance industry, Hague has served as Chairman and CEO of several insurance companies. Hague replaced former Board member, John Addison, co-CEO of Primerica, when Addison resigned in 2003.

Prepaid Legal Services, Inc. mainly focuses on building a business using offline building methods like contacting your warm market and handing out company DVDs to sharp people you come across. This DVD-approach has caused a major surge in the company’s recruting numbers across the US and Canada. With that said, they have recently instituted online presentation, lead capture pages and webinars for reps that want to leverage the internet to build their business.

What Are The Pros And Cons Of Prepaid Legal Services, Inc.?

Prepaid Legal Services, Inc. has many benefits if you are searching for a home based business opportunity. Prepaid Legal leaders are great at teaching and promoting the funadamentals of building a network marketing business. The methods that are taught are simple yet effective, assuming you do not mind contacting people you know. Another attractive feature is, if you are uncomfortable at giving presentations, there are a ton of tools, resources and systems you can use to recruit people into your business. Another huge benefit that might catch your eye if you’re researching Prepaid Legal’s opportunity is that there’s a very generous income opportunity just from selling memberships. In short, the Prepaid Legal opportunity is great for the average person to join and make a profit in their first 30 days.

One disadvantage (if you want to call it that) that Prepaid Legal Services has is the potential for a rep to receive a chargeback. In other words, if a customer cancels their prepaid legal membership within it’s 1st year, the associate willl get a chargeback. Personally, I don’t really see this as a disadvantage because all businesses, traditional or MLM, have some sort of chargeback feature when commission is paid on a customer that cancels, ex. life insurance.

In closing, Prepaid Legal Services, Inc. is an established company that is marketing a service in a groundfloor industry. Besides having a valuable service and a rich comp plan, the fact that customers who have no interest in joining a network marketing business will still buy and hold onto the membership is a huge benefit you need to look at if you’re interested in building a customer base that’ll pay you on-going residual incoem for years to come.

If youre on this page youre most likely wondering if Stella and Dot is Scam or Legal. Well this review is for you. Just like you, thousands of people are wondering the same thing.

Stella and Dot Scam?

In this review I am going to explain to you why Stella and Dot is not a scam. To be quit honest with you, I dont know or no where such claims would stipulate from. They are a modern day home based business that was intended to help create wealth for todays business women.

They have an exceptional group of leaders. One of whom is Jessica Herrin, founder and mother of two. She is so well respected as an entrepreneur that even appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Leaders are imperative when it comes to determining if a company is a rip-off. Stella and Dot has some great leaders so I dont smell anything fishy there.

One of the most important factors in determining if a MLM company is a fraud or not is by looking at the products. Are they marketing at least one product? In the case of Stella and Dot, their product is what they call an irresistible jewelry line. Keeping their product in mind, there is no way they can be a scam.

Stella and Dot Scam Allegations

When searching on the internet youre going to find all kinds of articles stating that this company is illegal, or that company is one. And thats mainly because the person posting the article is not making any money in the industry and/or because they dont know how to make money in the network marketing industry. Now Im not saying that there arent any illegal businesses out there because there is. But the ones who are in the legal ones, like Stella and Dot, are having problems building their business simple because they dont know how to generate leads.

You have to understand the MLM business is a numbers game. The more people you show your opportunity too, the greater your success rate will be. The greater success you have, the more money you will make. This not only applies to Stella and Dot, but to all MLM companies.

Whether you are looking to get involved with Prepaid Legal or you are an associate of this company already, the key to creating passive wealth with them will depend on how you are marketing Prepaid Legal’s business opportunity and membership plans. It is no secret that you can generate tons of cash with them but how do you go about doing that?

A large amount Prepaid Legal uplines still encourage their downlines to use marketing methods that were the only way to go about fabricating a MLM opportunity before the internet was a factor. They have them start with their warm market, i.e. make a list of friends, family, co-workers, to try to form their business along with using the 3 foot rule. This is where you are supposed to speak to everyone within 3 feet of you about the Prepaid Legal services and opportunity. These strategies still work for certain types of folks but not for everybody (very few in fact) and this is why so many people in the industry struggle to get the results that they are truly looking for.

The best way to get your friends and family to come aboard is after they see you having success with what you are doing and the problem with approaching people in public is that they think they are going to have to approach strangers just like you are doing, and that is hardly appealing to anyone. So what else is there? You must have a continual flow of fresh leads to connect with each day in order to have a flourishing business. What I am about to show you is a system that I use to create fresh, quality leads and prospects every day that will help form your Prepaid Legal business opportunity over the internet.

To begin with, you have to understand marketing. Learning how to market successfully is crucial if you want to generate your own leads. Marketing isn’t making a list, using the 3 foot rule, holding meetings and cold calling. That is networking. Networking is essential as well but totally different from what I am speaking of. Marketing online is still a fairly new way to market but has grown to be an extremely successful way to sponsor new distributors and move memberships. When you gain the skill sets of marketing successfully, your Prepaid Legal prospects will be coming to you inquiring about what you have to offer in your business opportunity. Not the other way around.

Another struggle that the majority of network marketers have just starting out is having to dig into their own bank account to pay their monthly auto-ships or cover any marketing costs that they may have. This is one of the fastest ways to go broke in the industry. By plugging into this system, you automatically open up an additional 14-16 streams of income to offset these costs through affiiate programs, or some call it a funded proposal. By having a funded proposal you are able to build immediate cash flow while you are building your Prepaid Legal business.

Most folks looking to get into the business or are by now involved in Network Marketing don’t want to hear about another company, product or compensation plan. We all have them. People join people. What they want to know is if who they are partnering with is going to be able to show them how to get results. You want to promote YOU INC. By branding yourself and positioning yourself as an expert in your niche, your prospects will follow you regardless of what company you are with. They want to merge with somebody that can show them how to market successfully as well. Most entrepreneurs don’t get this concept. What if your MLM company folds and goes out of business? (it happens all the time) If you brand yourself properly your downline will follow you to your next business endeavor and you don’t have to start over from scratch all over again for the reason that they followed you, not your company. Your business is YOU, not your primary MLM company.

You will also be forming your own list. You may not have heard this before but the power is in YOUR list. The larger your list grows, the more revenue you generate. It is crucial that you build your own list and not a list for Prepaid Legal or any other company. You need a page where your visitors can opt-in and actually become a lead. Once they opt-in they are added to your e-mail list and you have an auto-responder that goes to work and begins to build a relationship with them and does the selling for you 24/7 on auto-pilot. Your leads are driven directly into YOUR sales funnel and you will begin to get automatic sign ups.

Your internet marketing system will have a web page but not your Prepaid Legal company replicated site that everybody else has. You are seperating yourself from your competition and all the other distributors in your MLM. If you’re not offering something else than what other Prepaid Legal distributors have to offer, why should someone want to join you? You will have a website that offers an excessive amount of value to your leads, prospects and team and can train them the online marketing skills in order for them to be lucrative as well. This web page will drive your prospects to where they will see your Prepaid Legal business. You are in basic terms offering value and leadership on the front end and selling your Prepaid Legal opportuntiy on the back end.

If you apply this process to your business, you will be generating endless leads and sponsoring numerous distributors into your downline every month.