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Helping a friend...or not.

May 11th, 2012 at 04:25 am

I have a good friend who is trying to upstart a business. This is one of those sales businesses where you sell and recruit other sellers (like Amway)..only this business is vitamins and other products. The more you sell and the more other sellers you recruit, the more you make.

She signs people up for vitamins that arrive in 3 month supply shipments, but the buyer pays by the month...so for $40 each month, I would get a 3 month supply every quarter. It is set up on auto pay/auto ship. I L*O*A*T*H*E these types of tactics. She is also selling a tower garden ($400) and then the buyer orders the supplies through her (supplier)...for a crazy cost. She is such a believer and cant understand why anyone wouldnt jump at the opportunity to buy and sell these things...

I love my friend...but I refuse to get sucked into these kind of sales tactics. Unfortunately, she fully believes in this product, so each time we meet...it ends up being a sales talk. bleh.

I would much rather just give my friend money. But she wont take it. But I refuse to buy overprised vitamins that will net her a fraction of the cost and lock me into a long commitment.

Bottom line, I wont sign up. But knowing how important her "business" is to her does not make it any easier...

And I know, no matter what I say...I will hurt her feelings because she honestly believes in her product.

Sigh...

I still dont know if I am getting to go to Seattle. The hub will hopefully find out tomorrow. I would love to go..and meet our SA buddies there.




Posted in general thoughts, 2012 | 7 Comments »

7 Responses to “Helping a friend...or not.”

  1. CB in the City Says:
    May 11th, 2012 at 12:52 pm 1336740742
    1336740742

    I've always heard that the real business of these "companies" is recruiting true believers to sell. Looks like they scored with her!

  2. LuckyRobin Says:
    May 11th, 2012 at 01:58 pm 1336744698
    1336744698

    I had to get quite blunt with a friend of mine in this situation when she wouldn't stop. I finally asked her what was more important, our friendship or her incessant need to try to sell me things and disrespect my choice not to buy something I couldn't afford and didn't want. She chose the friendship, but I wasn't so sure there for a while that she would. These sorts can be so hard to deal with.

  3. PNW Mom Says:
    May 11th, 2012 at 03:09 pm 1336748945
    1336748945

    Same thing happened to me....we had a couple with kids our age and were great friends with them....they got involved with Quixstar (sp)? kind of like Amway...they dumped us and everybody else they were friends with who didn't want to get involved in their "business"....good for you for standing up for yourself!

  4. Petunia 100 Says:
    May 11th, 2012 at 03:57 pm 1336751843
    1336751843

    Quixtar is Amway.

    I loathe these sales pitches, too. Be firm with your friend.

    Hope you get to go to Seattle!

  5. baselle Says:
    May 11th, 2012 at 07:22 pm 1336764172
    1336764172

    Friends don't let friends do MLM. I think you have to be firm and keep saying no.

  6. wowitsawonderfullife Says:
    May 11th, 2012 at 11:01 pm 1336777261
    1336777261

    Yup, same with me. I had two people badgering me contantly. I finally said No, I'm not interested. Time spent doing some things can't be spent doing other things. It hurt one friendship badly.

  7. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    May 12th, 2012 at 02:03 pm 1336831380
    1336831380

    My dad got into something very similar a few years ago ... there was no telling him that the business model didn't make any sense. So, I just let it go (rather than getting him mad at me for not "believing in him.") He no longer is involved with it.

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