So, you’ve been approached by an Arbonne Independent Consultant who has suggested that you join their team and start selling Arbonne fizz sticks, beauty products and nutritional supplements.
It sounds like a great opportunity, right?
Get discounted Arbonne products, recommend them to your family and friends and receive commissions when they buy something – who wouldn’t want some extra cash, especially the kind of ‘passive income’ that Arbonne offers?
However, you want to know more before you take the plunge.
It costs $50 just to sign up as an Arbonne Consultant, and that’s without factoring in the annual renewal fee, as well as any Arbonne products that you buy in order to promote them on social media.
So then, can you really make money with Arbonne?
More to the point, how much can you make selling Arbonne?
Let’s find out.
Can You Make Money Selling Arbonne? A Look at Arbonne’s Income Disclosure Statement
What is Arbonne?
Arbonne International was founded in Norway in 1975, and by 1980 its international headquarters had been set up in Irvine, California.
Arbonne sells cruelty-free health and wellness products, and since 2018 it has been owned by worldwide health and beauty brand, Yves Rocher.
Arbonne claim that all of their products are vegan and use the best quality ingredients that money can buy (this is why they are so expensive!).
Rather than selling their products in stores like a regular company, Arbonne’s products are sold online and in person through their distributors, or ‘Independent Consultants.’
Arbonne Consultants will purchase Arbonne products themselves (at a discounted price) and make social media posts and videos where they use the products and talk about how great they are, encouraging their followers to buy the products through their personalised links.
In addition to this, Arbonne distributors can earn money by signing other people up to become distributors, because Arbonne is an MLM company.
While they don’t get paid directly for recruiting people, they do get bonuses and promotions for ‘building a team,’ and they also earn commissions from every sale that people in their downline make.
Pyramid Scheme Allegations
MLM companies like Arbonne frequently come under fire for functioning like illegal pyramid schemes.
I actually provided a more in-depth analysis of Arbonne as a company and found that they do indeed resemble a pyramid scheme in many ways, including the fact that Arbonne Consultants are the company’s biggest customers, and there is a huge focus on ‘growing a team’ rather than selling products.
However, that’s not what this article is about.
This article is about whether you can actually make money selling Arbonne, and how much you can expect to earn if you sign up as an Arbonne Independent Consultant.
How Do You Make Money with Arbonne?
I took a look at the Arbonne SuccessPlan to see the various ways in which you can make money with Arbonne. The main ways that you can make money with Arbonne are as follows:
- Selling Arbonne products to clients and receiving commission (35% for regular clients and 15% for preferred clients)
- Additional income as a result of how much your team sells
- ‘Achiever Awards’ are awards given when you and your team make sales. There are different Achiever Awards at each level within the company
- Vice President Success Award – a special bonus paid to Vice Presidents based on their team’s earnings
Can You Really Make Money with Arbonne?
While there are several ways to make money with Arbonne, it isn’t actually as easy as you might think to make a decent income with them.
The vast majority of people in Arbonne are not actually making a liveable income, or even an amount that could be seen as a ‘side hustle’ kind of income.
To see how much money people are making with Arbonne, I checked out their Income Disclosure Statement (IDS) from 2020. This is a document which outlines exactly how much money people in the company are earning, according to where they rank in the business.
The numbers show us that:
- 56% of Consultants earned a median average of $108
- 33% earned a median average of $1769
- 8% earned a median of $12,037
- 2% earned a median of $58,719
- 1% earned a median of $173,677
Unfortunately, these numbers show us that 97% of people in Arbonne earned less than $12,000 in the entire year.
Only the top 3% earned what could be considered a ‘good’ wage, with the Regional Vice Presidents (2%) making around $59,000 annually and the National Vice Presidents (1%) making $173,677 on average.
Another thing to take into account is that these numbers don’t represent profit because they do not factor in any expenses that the Consultant incurs when running their Arbonne business.
These expenses include:
- $49 signup fee
- $29 renewal fee
- Arbonne products
- Samples, promotional materials etc.
- Electric/WiFi/phone bill
- Other equipment used to promote Arbonne (ring lights, webcams etc.)
All of these expenses must be subtracted from the $108 that most Arbonne Consultants are earning in order to get a clear picture of what they actually make. When we do this, it is clear that 56% of people in Arbonne are likely losing money – sure, the signup fee is ‘only’ $49, but have you ever seen somebody working in Arbonne that has never brought a product?
Didn’t think so.
Can You Make Money with Arbonne? Final Thoughts
The numbers on Arbonne’s Income Disclosure statement don’t lie, but they are not surprising either – no matter which network marketing company you look at, the average earnings of participants are always the same.
This is because, on average, 99.6% of people in MLM companies lose money or make no money due to the way that the business model is structured.
If you read the income disclosure statements for other MLM companies like Isagenix, Monat or Color Street you will see very similar figures.
This is why Not Your Boss Babe does NOT recommend joining Arbonne, or any MLM company.
I hope that you found this article useful! If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments section below and I will get back to you!
XOXO
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