Nature’s Sunshine has what could potentially be a very profitable business opportunity that anyone can join. But is this legit? Or is Nature’s Sunshine a scam that is just going to leave you disappointed and with less money than when you started?

I know there are a lot of questions about the legitimacy of this company so I decided to write this review to clear a few things up. If you are looking to get into this business then you definitely should know what I’m going to tell you first, which includes things that people in this business won’t tell you.

Nature’s Sunshine Overview

Nature’s Sunshine is a mlm health and wellness company. They sell all sorts of health products and focus on the health of 11 of the systems in your body. Their products are, as you can imagine, natural and from what I have read and seen they are good quality.

So if you are looking at taking the products then go right ahead. But the products aren’t what I am reviewing here. Here I want to focus on the business opportunity that is offered.

Nature’s Sunshine uses a direct sales business model to market and sell their products. Anyone can join in as an independent distributor and can make money selling. Additionally distributors can also make money by recruiting new distributors into the business because this is a mlm (multi-level marketing) business.

Cost of Joining

The cost to join is $40 per year but if you buy $40 of products then you don’t have to pay any additional fees. This is pretty cheap and you are going to be buying products if you want to be a distributor so you could pretty much say that there is no cost of joining.

How You Make Money

There are 2 different compensation plans that you can participate in.  There is the Legacy Plan, which is recruitment based, and then there is the Classic Plan, which is direct sales based.

The Legacy Plan

This plan is more for those that are into network marketing and like to recruit. This plan is all about recruitment and building a team. While you do have to make personal product sales to be an active member of this plan, it is overly focused on recruitment. There is not much room to make good money on direct sales here because the commissions that you can earn is capped at 20%. The real money is in recruitment.

Moving up the ranks, which is necessary if you want to earn as much as possible, is all about increasing your team’s sales volume. The way to do this is of course by recruiting in more distributors. The higher in the ranks you go the more people beneath you there are and the further down you can earn money. This is all about earning money from the efforts of those in your downline which is built from recruitment.

There are a lot of moving parts in this plan but basically all you need to know is that it is recruitment focused.

The Classic Plan

The classic plan is more about actually selling Nature’s Sunshine products and doesn’t focus so much on recruitment. Here you will be rewarded more for direct sales and the more you sell the higher commissions per sale you can earn.

Unlike the Legacy comp plan you will be able to earn up to 30% commissions on direct sales.

You will still be able to recruit other distributors into the business here and earn money from the sales that they make, its just that this plan is a bit more focused on direct sales rather than recruitment.

The Reality Of This Business

When it comes to MLM’s like this that are largely focused on recruitment as a means of earning money… very few people succeed. Because in order to succeed you have to make money off of people below you. And there will always be many more people at the bottom struggling than at the top reaping all the rewards.

Even with the Classic comp plan that is more focused on direct sales, it is still not easy to make money.

I was able to find an official income disclosure from 2014 for Nature’s Sunshine. I know this is old but the company is the same as it was back then and it proves my point on how difficult this really is.

As you can see below over 92% of all active distributors made far less than $300 per month on average…. These statistics speak for themselves.

And this is the same sad story with pretty much all mlm’s. I just reviewed Mannatech and LifeVantage the other day and the large majority of people make little money with them too.

Conclusion On Nature’s Sunshine

Nature’s Sunshine is not a scam. The products sold here are high quality and the business opportunity here is legitimate. But you have to be realistic.. statistics don’t lie. The bottom line here is that very few people make good money and that is due to the very mlm pyramid-like structure of the compensation plans.

Some people make very good money here. So if you think you have what it takes then go for it. Just know what you are getting yourself into.