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Is Isagenix a Pyramid Scheme? My Take On It

isagenixIsagenix offers what can potentially be a very lucrative business opportunity. But is this too good to be true?… Is Isagenix a pyramid scheme type scam that is going to be a waste of your time? Or is this place finally the work from home opportunity that you have been waiting on?

I know there is a lot of controversy surrounding this business particularly due to the recruitment aspect of it. The question of it possibly being a pyramid scheme or not is a logical one to ask. And this is exactly what I want to address here in this post. I’ll be going over how this business opportunity works, how it could possibly be a pyramid scheme, and more.

Isagenix Overview

Isagenix is a mlm company that sells health products dealing with sports nutrition, weight loss, healthy aging, and energy. Their products are good quality from what I see and hear. That is good but this is not what I am interested in here. I am interested in the business opportunity.

Isagenix does all of its marketing and sales by direct sales. Anyone can join this business as an independent distributor and make money selling their products directly. The pyramid scheme side of it all is how distributors can also make money by recruiting other distributors into the business.

How This Place Could Be a Pyramid Scheme

Just because distributors can make money by recruiting others into the business does not mean this is a pyramid scheme necessarily. It depends on how much the company relies on recruitment for revenue.

For this to be a legitimate mlm and not a pyramid scheme Isagenix must put adequate focus on product sales to the general public for revenue and not be overly focused on recruitment.

One good way to tell this is by looking at the compensation plan.

The Comp Plan

One of the best ways to see if a business focuses too much on recruitment is to look at the comp plan. Here you can see where they put their focus and what they push their distributors to do.

As a direct seller, you will be able to purchase Isagenix products at low costs and then sell them at markups, keeping the difference. You will also be able to get people to buy products through your Isagenix website and earn money that way. This is what you call direct sales.

You can also earn money from recruiting others into the business, which is where the term “pyramid scheme” comes into play.

There are 5 ranks within the compensation plan…

  • ASSOCIATE
  • CONSULTANT
  • MANAGER
  • DIRECTOR
  • EXECUTIVE

In order to move up the ranks to consultant you can do so just by selling products on your own. But once you want to move up again to Manager, you will have to recruit 2 new associates into the business. Then after that the number of people you have to recruit becomes more and more.

They use a binary structure, so when you recruit people in they will go to a right and left side, as shown here…

Pyramid Scheme? Why I Say “No”

Honestly I have reviewed dozens and dozens of mlm’s over the years, some legitimate and others not so much. Isagenix is definitely ranked on the more legitimate side of things. While they do place some focus on recruitment and it is necessary to move up to the top rank, they don’t push you to recruit an insane amount.

For example: to move up to the highest rank of Executive you only need to recruit 10 other people into the business. This isn’t a very difficult number to achieve by any means.

Also, you do need to continually sell products on your own to remain active. You must keep a 100 PV (personal volume) of sales to stay active at any rank.

Also, according to Isagenix, in 2015 only about 5.2% of all their members were participating in the business opportunity. That means that 94.8% of people were strictly customers buying from them. I know this is an old statistic but the business hasn’t changed much.

Conclusion – Good Business Opportunity or Not?

The more focused a mlm is on recruitment and the more they favor it, the harder it is for the average person to make money. The more it is like a pyramid scheme, the harder it is. This is because there is more incentive to recruit and those at the top are making more money from those at the bottom.

With most mlm’s only a very small percentage of people make good money. These are the people at the top that are earning commissions from a massive downline beneath them.

Although I would consider Isagenix to be less “pyramid scheme-like” than most…. the facts don’t lie. I was able to find an income disclosure from 2015 (old I know) that shows how little most people make in this business…

As you can see 85% made less well less than $2,000 per year on average. I have seen worse from other mlm’s (Organo Gold & Immunotec for example) but this still isn’t good.

While I don’t consider Isagenix a pyramid scheme I don’t particularly care for mlm’s too much just because most people fail with them. They have a lot of potential for people to make money, but most people just won’t… that is the reality of it.

Questions, comments, concerns? Leave them below in the comment section and I’ll get back to you soon 🙂

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