QUIXTAR....funny you mentioned that MLM...online

I was part of Quixtar for 3 yrs... Lets say I worked my behind off...plus spent thousands of dollars and hours... at this business..
The profit was not even close..to the work..

If you are willing to give up your entire life for
life.. you might make the big bucks.. personally I don't think its worth the time and money you end up spending..

The semminars...the tapes...the books.. to top it off the products which most are way to highly priced..
then you got to get members...to help your volume
then there is your downline to help you make your money..
So basically your making money of the people you sign up..

Sorry for all the negativity... but I have (was) been there for 3 long years..

dmcgill,

Yes...it's Amway and Multi-level marketing. You grow width for profit, not depth, and you have to recruit massive amounts of people and sign up "members" to purchase from websites. The philosphy of owning your own business, residual income and leverage are right on the money, however, the "business model" is old (created in the 50's). You will have to sponsor in your 2nd leg 12-15 people, spend $200-$400/monthly, $50 for voice-mail, books-tapes-seminar tickets BEFORE you make a penny. Walk slowly in this jungle my friend. I've met way too many people who've tried this and lost friends. Don't use up your only "can you evaluate this for me" technique.
AND yes, there is something now that is not mlm, which do provide residual income, leverage without having to recruit the masses - only 2. If you're interested, feel free to call me 586-610-6148. If not, good luck.

Hi,

I have joined up to a company called quixtar. They are located at www.quixtar.com I am looking for downlines but the main question is have you heard of them before. Some of my friends, (who signed me up) are making up to 10,000 per month now and really not working hard at all. I was thinking of doing my own store online.
Comments please
dmcgill[/quote]

It seems to me that certain people should be in this business. People who are veteran salespeople who are moderately succesful at producing volume and finding others who are talented in recruiting people or people who have a salesperson mentality.

My question is why do others succeed at this business while others fail. We can not just say they are lucky. It takes a certain type of person to succeed in this business and I think most people who are in that business really are not the right people.

I believe a those who are aggressive outgoing and don't take rejection personally are prime candiates. Those who are at the top must have had an eye for these types of people and recruited them in their first line.


"$50 for voice-mail, books-tapes-seminar tickets BEFORE you make a penny."

I won't spend jack until the IBo or whoever lays out the plan. If a veteran sales skilled force needs $400 training they can forget me being in the business.

DMC Gill,

It's Multi-level marketing and if you sign up the masses without having worries if the average person can "truly achieve" success, then do it. You will first need to sign up 12-15 people, then start creating tons of competition with 3,4,5,6,7 legs, all competing with one-another. MLM systems were created in 1950. It's 2004 - wake up. There are much better businesses to be involved in from the home, than quixstar/amway.

Mike
586-610-6148

And, we wonder why people fall for scams, such as the Nigerian 419?

Just read through the "get rich" hype, the special jargon, then stop a minute. I submit that only the most ruthless have a chance of winning at the pyramid game -- and what do you sacrifice?

I have to admit that it's become a fascinating research project as I've managed to steer clear of most of the MLM schemes during the past 20 years or so. I've been aware, but not in touch with them.

There are certainly enough anti-MLM sites to give one a thorough background in the topic--more than enough to do up a comprehensive article for my own forum's scam and fraud section.

__________________
LdyGuique

SCAM. Anyone who tells you they are making money is lying... Don't believe them, the only ones in this org. making money is QuixStar wholesaling for the sale of their products and the promoters of QuixStar, the dedicated speakers. They make money from the sale of self help books and CD's and "How to make a fortune Books" and crap like that.

DO NOT BUY INTO THE LIES. They prey on the desperate...

Dateline NBC aired it last week.

When people are looking to work at home, they are looking for some way to improve their lives. Whether it is financial freedom, improved health, secured future, family time, personal development, helping others, caring for the environment, you name it! Everyone is looking for something!

I joined Amway about 12 years ago....lost LOTS of money and made NONE! I was given many EMPTY promises and felt like my future had been ripped away from me. Obviously the future looked bleak with the idea of having to work for someone else 50+ more years - CAN'T IMAGINE!

10 years ago, by fate, I became involved with another company. I began my membership soley to use the products....they are that WONDERFUL! They are safer and healthier than the retail brands, and I don't sell, stock or deliver products! I am able to stay home and raise my children because I get a paycheck each and every month, simply for referring other customers and helping them to open an account. The company takes it from there. My family is better today because of a simple shopping decision I made 10 years ago. Imagine that!

My point...I believe there are better things out there than Amway/Quickstar. Every business is not right for everyone...but I can tell you this...whatever company you are looking at, if you don't LOVE their products and find value in simply being a customer first and foremost...you will have a difficult time building a business no matter what company it is! Do your research...you just need to find what is right for you and your family!

__________________
Holly
Stayin' Home and Lovin' It!
www.Luv-n-Protect.com

No matter what name they go under it is still AMway in one form or another. THere are people I know who have done well with it. My husband and I joined many years ago, and stayed in just so we could order the product at our cost. We finally got out about 4 years ago. There were just too many meetings and functions. You really have to get involved and yes, it is def. similar to a cult in that your regular non amway friends seem to get put on the back burner and your new friends occupy most of your time. I would say use caution in deciding. Make sure you are being pressured. That was the biggest turn off people telling me I had to go to the meetings everyweek, listen to the motovational tapes and so on and so forth. There are some positive things about the company. They do try and build up your self esteem, their products are great and they have been around for a long time. So to each their own.

sounds like a pyramid of some sort..........i am going to the website to take a look. someone just called me fom this company...........

What I think is funny is: after the number whoop down that was given to actually -see- how much would be needed for 10k a month from his friends.. there has not been -one- other comment from the person needing help other than:

1. There are two sides to a story (typical amway-cult response)
2. Disassociation with the topic and run (another typical response)

He prob isnt in Amway.. but it just looked weird.

Here's a link to the Dateline story about Quixtar mentioned by lcafazzo:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4375477/

__________________
Geotrust SSL Certificates
http://sslcheap.com

Notice the date of the original post? Nearly a year ago - wow. I have been wooed by Quixtar too - by a friend and her fiance, and by some random guy that found me on Monster.com.

I've tried my hand at MLM and found it not worth my time. It's basically a business but you really need to know sales and sales marketing, and you really need to have been a sales manager to be able to do this kind of business, especially if you want to do well. I'm not of that of that particular cut.

What bothers me about Quixtar is that it does require so much of your time. When I was being recruited I was working in mortgage sales and they kept asking me if I could make it to this meeting or that rally. I went to one - I didnt need the stupid pitch, I needed to know how their business plan worked. Never got a straight answer (this was from the random guy, not my friend), but what I hear I did not like. I hoped that MLM had gotten more sophisticated and improved, but it was still the same. Anyway, I never went back to another meeting - I couldnt go to some 2 hour meeting after working a 10 hour day and finally get home at midnight - all for what?

It's clear that this is not a business opportunity, but really a free-lance job but you pay THEM. The business setup, for you to really make money, is for you to act as a sales manager. You need to recruit people as motivated as you, help them recruit people as motivated as you, and basically nurse and mother your downline. You are working pretty darn hard - but all following the company's system. It's setup like a franchise, except, it's not duplicable like a real franchise. Like several posters have said before - the real successful ones have been doing this for at least 10 years. I'm sorry, but if I bought a franchise or some other company and I'm not seeing any success in my first 10 years, it's no business opportunity!

Another thing that bugs me is that they've packaged this with Christian faith. My friend is a Christian and she was skeptical about the whole thing until she saw how they incorporated worship etc into it. I thought, cool, sounds great. I've not seen it myself, but I dont really know. But the bottomline is, being a Christian company is great but how do you maintain quality control? After all, Quixtar is MLM and it is too democratized, to heterogenous to maintain quality control. Not to mention the nature of MLM - ergo the focus on the promises of riches and material success, instead of service and product quality, in my opinion, runs counter to Christian values. We believe you can judge a Christian by the fruit he or she bears. An apple tree should bear apples, not bananas. Likewise, a business opportunity should be judged by the fruit it bears - does the opportunity make sense, is it duplicable, is it sustainable, can you do the marketing efforts, how much freedom do you have to grow the business, any limits, etc. If it doesn't answer in a positive way for you all of those questions and more, then the opportunity is not right.

That;s just my humble opinion. I'd like to hear from the original poster if after nearly a year he has had any success.

It's a scam, there are always some people who make money in these schemes, and that's how they sell it, but I've known people who've been involved in it, and it's a scam... it was even on dateline one night... I'd be very careful...

__________________
www.deepsix.ca
www.deepsixwebhosting.ca

Sorry, Amway is a straight-out scam. I spent 2 1/2 years heavily involved. We followed every step - had no non-Amway friends, told people when they asked if the "International Network Marketing" opportunity I was pitching was Amway that, "Amway is one of the 5,000 companies we represent," went to all the national meetings, bought the tapes and books, and got high enough (Pearl for anyone who knows the levels) to be brought into a meeting where I was taught that the "real money" is made in speaking fees, tapes and books. I asked how much a Diamond actually makes in Amway commissions and was told it averaged $20,000 per year, but the other stuff usually averages in the $100k+ range. It's a scam.

When I quit, because I could no longer tell people it was anything but a scam after my insider knowledge, I was excommunicated. My Amway "family" actually screamed at me and told me never to talk to anyone in their group again - and even threatened to sue me if I did. Bizarre. The anger was amazing.

It was a long while before I stopped thinking about every person I met as a potential paycheck. My mentality was fully embedded with a desire to recruit everyone, so normal conversations were very difficult without trying to work in "the business."

Quixstar is just Amway's attempt at renaming itself because so many Amway distributors have destroyed their name with their cult-like practices.

By the way, I used to show people photocopies of checks for $5,000 and more per month. What I didn't say was that I had to pay out to my downline out of that money, and my take was more like $500, of which my expenses were much much higher. It's amazing how quickly I got worked into lying and cheating because I was taught it was for the people's own good. Odds are very very small that your friends are making $10,000 a month, or even any profit at all.

__________________
Chuck Lasker
Consultant
http://www.doubleplus.com
cal@doubleplus.com

I'm gonna have to disagree with you Siren. I've been in Corporate sales for 10 years,self employed with my own computer company for 3 years, and I've seen many scams, was involved with Amway, got burned by the NSA water filter scam. I've look throughly at the business plan and business model of Quixstar and had my friend who's a high ranking business lawyer look at it, and it's completely above board. In fact they're constantly audited, and theres watchdogs who keep a constant eye on these types of enterprises.

And I have actaully met people who've only been in it for 5 years and are doing extremely well and swear by it. I've met lawyers, doctors, professors etc... why would any these professionals leave their professions to do this? I suggest you look at it again and give it a chance, nothing happens overnight and they're not selling that concept. yes, youmight have to sit on the bench while your teammates are on the field, but everyone has their turn at the bench,by this analogy, I mean you might have to watch others pulling away in their Benz's and Porche's while you get into your tempo, but they've paid their dues and stuck to it, and if you do the same someday it will be you leaving in yor benz looking at someone getting in their tempo, it's a part of life, it's how things work my friend.

Attitude is everything!!!

Best of luck in your future Endeavours

Mike

It's not the company that's the problem, although they do allow their distributors to continue with their cultish, dishonest practices. The problem is the leaders who preach a certain Amway-way. The company is being watched and regulated, sure, but the distributors have created a scam. Solid research into these friends of yours would find that their money, if they're really making any, is being made from speaking fees and books and tapes and meetings. It is well known that Amway does not make a profit in the US - it's all Asia now for them. In Asia, though, they actually use the name Amway. Not here - you're hard pressed to get an Amway distributor to admit it's Amway until the day you're signing your papers.

__________________
Chuck Lasker
Consultant
http://www.doubleplus.com
cal@doubleplus.com

I am a member /owner of quixtar. It's a great business. You aren't selling things to people. You are telling others how to make money through the internet. It's a profitable business and a legitmate one as well. I love the program; the fact that my grandparents had 6 children and put them all through the college of their choice & didn't have to take out one student loan is fabulous! He was working as a school principal / teacher through-out the time period & my grandmother wasn't working outside of the home at all. That is a great defeat, having an eduction for your children & not going into debt to do so.

thanks everyone for the previous posts they were a big help.... I was approached by someone about this.... it started off with the usual, what can I do for you want can I get for you...yada yada yada... while I was listening all I could think of was amway... what blew my mind what who approached me about this... this was a doctor who should be pulling down easy 6 figures in his profession. why the hell would he be mixed up in this... my next call is to him to cancel the meeting number two.....the one where he decides whether I am good enough for this.. I spent an hour reading every post here.... you have saved me a ton of time...and probably even more money....thanks...unaslob

MLM's, and Amway in particular, are predicated on one simple plan:
You have to create a captive market.
Outside of the group that you build with veiled promises of success (read greed), you will find little results.

Another principle ignored with MLM's is the base objective of getting something for nothing (or in their words, multipying your results through other people's efforts.)

Without those two pillars, MLM is dead.