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I know a bunch of ladies who did LuLa Roe. It's not that they are more prone to falling for the business side of it, it's that they were attracted to the compa

I know a bunch of ladies who did LuLa Roe. It's not that they are more prone to falling for the business side of it, it's that they were attracted to the company for reasons besides the money they could make. All of them were extremely happy LulaRoe customers BEFORE they became sales people. I think if an MLM targeted the people on hacker news with a product that could make a solid side income through Programming meet-ups, mechanical keyboards, or video games, it would get a lot of us. Even if 2/3's of the people who attempted to make money the same way lost money on the MLM.

Digory 8y ago
I remember this being part of the pitch of Avon -- you're already buying laundry soap, why not build a business? Of course, at the bottom of the pyramid, you'd buy overpriced soap to keep up your minimums.
- astura 8y ago
  Avon is an interesting case because they started out as a legitimate direct sales company, not an MLM. I'm not sure when they turned into an MLM. Avon's business model made much more sense back before we had mega retailers and the internet.
finaliteration 8y ago
My wife unfortunately got involved with LulaRoe. She was a stay-at-home mom for a little while and wanted to help out the family by bringing in some extra income while still keeping the flexibility of being able to stay at home with our child. She loved their clothing and had a few friends who were also starting up selling so she felt some sense of community with them. They also sold her hard on the idea that the market was just starting up and she could get in on the "ground floor" and make a good amount of money if things went well. She'd spent pretty much her entire work life in food service and cafes and she always wanted to run her own business and have that level of independence so that she could "break away" from the service industry. The reality was she ended up losing a lot of money, working 60-70 hours some week just to keep up with customer requests (most of which was returns and asking if she had a specific print in a specific size), and eventually burnt out with how difficult it was and how much back-and-forth the company was giving her (they had a policy where you could return product, then they totally changed the policy, then they changed it back, then changed it again). They also required that she kept up with inventory purchasing quotas, and if she didn't buy enough inventory within a certain amount of time she was cut off from selling at all and she wouldn't have access to their resources or sales systems. She's not unintelligent and did realize the risks involved. She was just wanting to help out our family and build something for herself, and that's where I think a lot of these companies come in to feed on that desire for independence and flexibility. It was a difficult lesson for her to learn and really demoralizing. She now runs her own cafe and is doing quite well at it, so I don't think it was her lack of business acumen that kept her from being successful.

Digory 8y ago

I remember this being part of the pitch of Avon -- you're already buying laundry soap, why not build a business? Of course, at the bottom of the pyramid, you'd buy overpriced soap to keep up your minimums.

astura 8y ago
Avon is an interesting case because they started out as a legitimate direct sales company, not an MLM. I'm not sure when they turned into an MLM. Avon's business model made much more sense back before we had mega retailers and the internet.

finaliteration 8y ago

My wife unfortunately got involved with LulaRoe. She was a stay-at-home mom for a little while and wanted to help out the family by bringing in some extra income while still keeping the flexibility of being able to stay at home with our child. She loved their clothing and had a few friends who were also starting up selling so she felt some sense of community with them. They also sold her hard on the idea that the market was just starting up and she could get in on the "ground floor" and make a good amount of money if things went well. She'd spent pretty much her entire work life in food service and cafes and she always wanted to run her own business and have that level of independence so that she could "break away" from the service industry. The reality was she ended up losing a lot of money, working 60-70 hours some week just to keep up with customer requests (most of which was returns and asking if she had a specific print in a specific size), and eventually burnt out with how difficult it was and how much back-and-forth the company was giving her (they had a policy where you could return product, then they totally changed the policy, then they changed it back, then changed it again). They also required that she kept up with inventory purchasing quotas, and if she didn't buy enough inventory within a certain amount of time she was cut off from selling at all and she wouldn't have access to their resources or sales systems. She's not unintelligent and did realize the risks involved. She was just wanting to help out our family and build something for herself, and that's where I think a lot of these companies come in to feed on that desire for independence and flexibility. It was a difficult lesson for her to learn and really demoralizing. She now runs her own cafe and is doing quite well at it, so I don't think it was her lack of business acumen that kept her from being successful.