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WWhen a Facebook friend spoke to Lindsay about a "great" business opportunity in January 2015, the Manchester-based NHS lab badistant was already fighting for money. She had spent the last two years caring for her elderly father and stress often made her miss shifts. Uncomfortable with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and having trouble paying household bills, Lindsay was instantly curious about her friend's offer.
"I had virtually no money coming in, and I was looking at everything, I was doing the math, and it was not enough," says Lindsay from the red brick terraced house where she lives alone with her dog, Freya. The Facebook friend – whom Lindsay has never met, but who was added to social media because they were both fans of musician Jean-Michel Jarre – told him that she could earn between £ 50 and £ 500 a month if she subscribed to a cosmetics sales business. called Younique.
"I thought that even if I earned £ 100 a month, it's something … I do not have much appetite, so my food costs only £ 20 a week, if I'm a little crazy , "says Lindsay. Although she is only 36 years old, she walks with a cane and has gray hair. Her illness – which is characterized by extreme fatigue and joint pain – means she has trouble staying at home. The paint is peeling off the walls and an old mattress is sitting in the hallway.
After receiving her monthly salary, Lindsay clicked on the link sent by her Facebook friend and registered to become a "Younique presenter". Founded in September 2012 by a team of American brothers and sisters, Younique is a direct sales company of beauty products. Presenters register via the website and buy products that they sell afterwards, which allows them to reduce their profits. Although there is no membership fee, members must regularly purchase shares to maintain presenter status. Lindsay paid £ 69 for a starter kit, then £ 125 to become a "yellow status" presenter. Younique has eight different statuses: whites, the lower ones, earn a commission of 20% on their sales, while yellows, the highest level, earn 25%.
This commission-based model is somewhat similar to Avon, the 133-year-old company that recruits "Avon ladies" to sell door-to-door beauty products. Yet unlike the Avon ladies, Younique's presenters buy and sell via social media – usually Facebook. "We are the first direct selling company to sell and sell almost exclusively via social media," reads Younique's website, adding that its founders, Derek Maxfield and Melanie Huscroft, had created the company to "raise "their members. "Derek and Melanie firmly believe that all women [the company targets women] must feel valued, intelligent and empowered through opportunities for personal growth and financial reward! Says the site. But during her three years as presenter of Younique, Lindsay lost about £ 3,000.
From 2015 to 2018, Lindsay spent £ 40 to £ 60 per month to maintain her yellow presenter status. Although she initially made sales to the hospital where she worked, Lindsay was fired from the NHS in the spring of 2015 due to missed periods due to stress. She has been caring for her parents since 2011 – her mother died of cancer in 2012, while her father had Parkinson's disease and had suffered three strokes before her death in 2018. Even though she had stopped to sell for Younique after losing her job, Lindsay wanted to stay her presenter status because she was considering going to university and hoped to be able to sell to other students. Meanwhile, Younique encouraged her to buy shares.
"They would send an e-mail saying," You are in danger of suspending your account, "she says." They were formulated to say, "Oh, just spend so much to stay active." Lindsay said stated that she had not noticed how much she was spending on stocks as she was slow "drip, drip" payments. "But then, you look at it all together." I could have save, I could have repaired the roof of the house. "In 2015, Lindsay attended a Younique training session in Glasgow where she was told not to" apologize "for her inability to sell "It was clear to me at that time, I had no exit clause for not selling." The unsold makeup is now in Lindsay's car, in her closets and in a large container. plastic in his living room.
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Younique is not just a direct selling company – like Avon, it's also a multi-level marketing system (MLM). Multilevel marketing is a business strategy in which revenues are generated through both product sales and the hiring of new distributors. A Younique presenter can make money selling makeup, but also persuading other women to join the company. Structurally, MLMs look like pyramid schemes – once someone registered under your name, you become his "godfather" and recoup some of his income. If they hire people below them, you also take a share of those profits: a handful of people at the top get rich from thousands down.
In the last five years, MLMs have become increasingly popular in Britain. The Direct Selling Association (DSA), the only recognized UK trade organization, estimates that about 400,000 people in the UK practice direct selling, although many do so on an occasional basis. Forever Living allows women to sell beverages, gels and beauty products made from aloe vera; Arbonne consultants sell skin care; Herbalife representatives flog slimming products; Juice Plus representatives sell diet drinks; Nu Skin offers creams. Haircare MLM Monat is currently recruiting "founders of the EU".
Social media means that MLM presenters are selling and recruiting around the world. On Facebook, upstream publications, such as a friend of Lindsay, promise "rocking" sales, "instant" pay and the ability to "run your own business".
"The main distinction between MLMs and pyramid schemes is that MLMs actually have a product," says Daryl Koehn, a professor of business ethics at DePaul University in Chicago. "In pyramid schemes, you simply sell the opportunity to make money." Still, Koehn says that even when MLMs have products, they become pyramid schemes if entry costs are high or if presenters make up stocks that they can not sell. .
In 2011, Jon M Taylor, an employee of the US Consumer Awareness Institute, wrote a short MLM e-book for the Federal Trade Commission. "After reading these chapters, the reader may wonder whether it is appropriate to characterize the MLM, with its inherent flaws, as" trade, "he wrote." Some who are familiar with the appalling statistics of MLM believe that it is more appropriate to describe virtually any MLM as a scam. "
In theory, no matter who can sign up for an MLM. According to Koehn, the model addresses in practice "people with fewer opportunities". Like Lindsay, many people who join MLMs have disabilities or poor health and are unable to work full time. Those who register have learned to target new mothers and single mothers. "We were encouraged to choose the mothers who stayed at home, the people who had just lost a job," says Rachel (fictitious name), former "owner" of Forever Living in the late forties. She was recruited to Forever Living in 2016 as a "new single mother very willing to try anything to make a living for my children," who were then seven years and nine years old.
Rachel's ancestry, a "trusted friend," told her to write a list of all the people she knew and to "profile" them, listing their aspirations and weaknesses. "You are encouraged to find out what they really want in life and use that to promise that [Forever Living] would meet their needs, "she says. She also received a recruiting script that included phrases such as "lifestyle change opportunity", "control your own destiny" and "earn more than £ 40,000 a year". She was told to avoid the word "job", in part because 9 jobs were being presented as negative by the company, and in part, she believes, because Forever Living did not offer the constant salary, paid vacation and sick pay that a traditional job would have.
The doubts took six months to realize that the praise she had received from her ancestry ("You're beautiful, you're perfect for this job") was just a standard script for all new recruits . Yet she stayed at Forever Living for almost two years.
"They said your business is a roller coaster, you just have to stay in place while it goes up and down," she says. "But in reality, she just dropped." Rachel's ascendants said her state of mind was to blame when things went bad – linking her to seminars and success stories and telling her that She had to attend online training sessions otherwise she would fail. "There was a lot of emotional blackmail," she says. "I would really feel guilty if I did not attend bi-monthly meetings." She says her godfather has encouraged her to "stay away" from people who criticize society, including her own family. "They said that if you do not work on your state of mind, your business will fail," she says.
"I was sucked. I believed everything they said. And I did not make money. Photo: Ilka & Franz / The Guardian
Rachel had joined the company just after the split of her husband and said that Forever Living provided him with a new world to live in. She participated in several Facebook groups where women competed to sell products, share tips, create scripts, and make friends. He was told to be "a product of the product" by purchasing Forever Living products for his personal use. "I put all my pbadion and all my time – oh my God, the amount of time," she says now. "I totally abandoned other things. And I did not make money.
After quitting, she was devastated by lost friendships. Many of her Forever Living colleagues have blocked her on social networks when she left the company. Her isolation meant that she was suffering from a "slight depression". She is also still struggling with the guilt of having hired a handful of women under her. "Since then, I apologized to everyone. Some of them are still trying to unload products that they hang out at home. I feel really horrible. But I also think that I can not remain guilty forever, because I have been sucked. I believed everything they said.
Rachel felt trapped: "They have you in this grip, this cultured hold," she says. "Worship" is a word that every woman I talk to about this piece refers to their time spent in an MLM. Many sell "training-in-mind" sessions to their presenters. "Never let anyone tell you that you will not succeed," reads a slide from a presentation that Rachel paid £ 30 for the broadcast. "The biggest return is to show them your success."
Fiona, a single mother of two from Merseyside, lost more than £ 1,000 selling Arbonne cosmetics in 2016. She says her godfather, a local woman she met while she was working as a teaching badistant in a school, forced her to "attack" new mothers in soft play areas; after convincing another single mother to join the group, she was asked to put pressure on her so that she would buy more products. "It did not seem right to me," she says. Fiona's top line also asked her to take a credit card to buy shares – she continues to repay her debt.
During her 10 months at Arbonne, she was encouraged to set the alarm for 6:40 to listen to a live motivational conversation given by an ascending line. "It's like brainwashing," she says, explaining that she's been invited, like Rachel, to become a "product of the product" by buying Arbonne for herself. "It's very easy to be trained, especially because at the time, as a single mother, I did not see many people."
Members are encouraged to influence others by boosting their success on social media. "There are a lot of lies," says Lindsay, "if you go to a nice place, post it with the following message:" Thanks to Younique, I'm staying here. Rachel says people in trouble would post pictures of cars, spas and prosecco to appear as if their business was booming. Fiona says that people were even encouraged to post photos of their children when they were home after school, adding captions such as, "I am so grateful to have a home-based business that allows me to continue working while taking care of my children. "
Despite social media scripts and numerous motivational sessions, Rachel says she's never received financial training or advice from Forever Living. It was only after she filed her second year tax return that she realized she had made no profit and decided to quit. "You do not know how to manage your finances because if they did, people would realize that they were not making money."
A British spokesman for Forever Living said by e-mail that the company provides financial training through an independent accounting firm on an intermittent basis throughout the year. "The Forever network was built over 40 years through collaboration, support and family values," they said.
"Forever does not tolerate any pressure, false description, lifestyle, business opportunity or promise of income levels, the company has clearly defined escalation procedures for dealing with such allegations." A policy manual of Online business lists banned activities for Forever members, and refers to the DSA's Dispute Resolution Service. The spokesman adds that it is forbidden for Forever's representatives to place orders until 75% of the previous stock has been sold. "This is done on what the company calls a" self- certification, "that is, the seller tells them that they have sold or used at least as much of that stock.
Asked about Fiona's experiences, an Arbonne spokesman based in Northampton said by email that their sales plan was "not a pyramid scheme; it is a legal and legal sales strategy. "Arbonne meets the highest standards of integrity and does not tolerate deceptive, unethical or illegal practices," said the spokesman. "Our Business Ethics Team (BEST) regularly conducts training sessions with Arbonne Independent Consultants, continuously monitors their business practices … and takes immediate action if suspicious activities occur." They add that any behavior unethical or inappropriate may be reported to BEST.Arbonne. com. Fiona says she was not informed about this reporting procedure.
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If Lindsay was at the bottom of the Younique pyramid, Lisa was at the top. The mother of three lives with her husband and children in a spacious townhouse house in a cul de sac near Halifax. A confident 36-year-old woman, she is immaculately neat, with long, elegant black hair and an elegant, minimalist make-up. She heard about Younique for the first time in 2014.
"As I have three children, I needed a job that suited them," she explains from her living room: professional portraits of children on the walls, a library filled with sports trophies and, on the felt bag table that her daughter recently made at school. Lisa joined Younique on the first day of her UK launch and earned more than £ 60,000 before resigning in 2018.
"It was quite strange because I had 38 people on my team right now," she explains, explaining that she had recruited 12 of these people and that the 26 others were people they had at their home. turn engaged. "We were all gathered the same day, but suddenly, I was responsible."
While Younique's white and yellow presenters earn only commissions on their sales, after hiring five women, members reach pink status. The Pink Status presenters earn 25% of their sales plus 3% commission on the sales made by the inferior women. By the time she left Younique, Lisa had reached the highest level, black status, and had over 3,000 people under her. She calculates that 95% of her money came from commissions on sales of other women.
"I have made a lot of money, a lot of money for me, and that meant I could stay home with my kids," she said, adding that "I have a lot of money for me. she had also felt a renewed confidence in her. "I went from being unable to take the phone to an unknown number to speak on stage in front of thousands of people." Lisa has frequently spoken at training sessions and conventions organized by Younique.
Yet, although Lisa thinks that Younique has changed her life, her perspective changed in 2018. Lisa said that during a month of Black Fridays in November, she realized that people felt compelled to buy actions they could not sell. "The leaders would always say that no one is forcing anyone to buy anything, but if you recruit women who have lost a circle of friends because they've had children or who have not been able to do it. They do not trust themselves, they will buy to be part of a group. "
Kirsty, a 27-year-old Londoner, tells me, "I was sucked in by Younique because the promise of" brotherhood "was so strong. As I suffer from bipolar disorder, I do not really make friends so easily, "she says on the phone. A Facebook friend told her that she would have access to a group discussion of 300 people supporting each other. "It was attractive," she told me. Yet Kirsty quickly found the cat in a "toxic" group. "A woman said that her husband told her to look for a regular job because they were losing money, but the group was weird, telling him that he was controlling and abusing," he said. it alleged. "It was also very boring: a girl did not make enough sales and made her uncomfortable in front of everyone."
Ironically, while women are often attracted to MLMs to make friends, they often find themselves with less than when they started. "One of the problems with MLM is that you are asked to target your friends and family," says economics professor Koehn. "People are trying to monetize social relations." Rachel lost her friendships because she "harbaded people every five minutes" to sign up for Forever Living. She was told that if someone said "no", she should write their name in a book titled "No For The Moment" and ask them again in a month. "Because I was encouraged to harbad people every five minutes to register, friendships disappeared."
But alliances within the company are also fragile – they often fall apart once women have resigned. "Some people have me immediately blocked," says Lisa of her decision to leave. "We talked every day and suddenly we can not be friends anymore." Rachel was particularly touched when she quit smoking. "That's what really got me in the end," she says. "I thought I made friends and when I left, I had no one left."
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While so many women feel exploited by MLMs, why have not these companies been held accountable? In the United States, Washington State Attorney General, Bob Ferguson, is currently suing LuML as a clothing MLM. He states that "LuLaRoe deceived consumers into believing that his pyramid scheme contained misleading claims." LulaRoe said in a statement that the claims were totally unfounded and that the company would vigorously fight against them. In July 2017, the Chinese government closed hundreds of multi-level marketing companies, which he called "commercial sects." Yet in the UK, no authority is currently investigating.
In 2017, Mumsnet decided not to allow MLM to advertise on the parent site. "We thought about it a lot because we know that flexible home-based opportunities are very popular," says founder Justine Roberts, "but many Mumsnet users have commented on what they see senseless marketing techniques and their effects on vulnerable groups. individuals, and we have come to the conclusion that business models based primarily on recruitment have too much potential to be farmers. "
Elsewhere online, hundreds of ordinary people are now campaigning against MLMs on social media. "I think the authorities are doing an absolutely awkward job in regulating MLM," said John Evans, 39, of Susbad, who heads the 11,000-member Facebook group, Lies Exposed. He was inspired to create the band after a friend tried to recruit him into an MLM. When Evans criticized the MLM model, his friend stopped talking to him.
"MLMs are extremely adept at manipulating people. There is a lot of psychology involved, "says Evans. "People who sign up are losing money, but they are not stupid. They are victims. Evans says he has seen countless horror stories during his five years spent managing his Facebook page. "Some people are putting thousands of dollars into these businesses and finding themselves in an unthinking cost-defeat, where they are constantly struggling, trying desperately to get out of this financial hole," he says.
Evans is particularly concerned when MLM representatives make false medical claims about products on social networks. A representative of Trading Standards explains that MLM becomes a problem for the organization if a company violates consumer protection regulations, for example by making misleading statements about products. In 2017, Trading Standards Cornwall closed the business of former Miss England finalist Charlotte Thomson, who sold Valentus slimming coffee, claiming that the product was not licensed for the UK market. Thomson said that she was "devastated" and stopped selling the product. To date, Trading Standards has not examined any MLMs at the national level.
Evans and others would like to see MLMs better regulated to ensure businesses are open and honest when recruiting presenters. A spokeswoman for Younique said Lindsay, Lisa and Kirsty's experiences "do not exactly reflect those of our hundreds of thousands of Younique presenters around the world, nor the values of our organization more fundamentally." The company says it does not allow presenters to make "abusive statements" about their revenues or their products, and has a team of compliance officers to make sure that all presenters respect the expectations of society.
"The presenters of Younique are not obliged to build inventories of products," they continue. "In addition, we aim to protect the financial security of our broadcasters by allowing unused products purchased during the previous fiscal year to be returned for a full refund if they wish to terminate their relationship with the company. "
Younique, Arbonne and Forever Living are all members of The Direct Selling Association (DSA). I submit to them the badertions in this article, including stories of victims falsely declaring their earnings and putting pressure on the purchase of their shares, and the DSA says they are investigating these charges. Susannah Schofield, general manager of the DSA, warned that people should "be wary of people who make wacky claims that direct selling is a chance to" get rich quickly "- anything that looks too good or Too good to be true is probably ". She adds that direct selling is an activity "based on effort". "And in all that you live, if it is valuable, you will have to work to succeed. Most people who work in direct sales know what to do and find that the extra hundred pounds a month they add to their family income is extremely helpful. There are not many ways to earn this kind of money at home, with great flexibility. "
Lisa now works for another MLM, but only sells products and refuses to recruit unless someone calls her directly and asks her questions about the company. "It's incredibly difficult to find a job after eight years at home and four years in network marketing," she says.
Lindsay works at McDonald's, although she struggles to work frequently. She lost her status as presenter Younique in July 2018 because she could no longer afford to buy other shares. She feels unable to sell back to the company the old shares that she has redeemed because they are scattered around her house. "I'm relieved to be out, but I'm sorry to see more people recruiting," she says. She is now selling handmade fabric cushions and lavender bags in the Etsy online market and she is currently applying for Personal Independence Payments.
"It really makes me mad at myself," says Lindsay, when I asked her about the money she lost. "I'm annoyed by the person who got involved, but I should have done more research. I've always thought that I was too smart for that sort of thing and I got so integrated. "
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