Purium is a company that was founded by Dave Sandoval in 1993 that sells health and wellness products through the multi-level marketing (MLM) business model.
They primarily operate within the US and Canada and boast a global revenue of over $45 million every year. Apparently, they are offering people the best, fastest, and healthiest weight loss program on the planet and an equally amazing opportunity.
The Business Opportunity
The opportunity is marketed as a way for you to gain financial freedom while getting into shape with their products, in particular, the ’10 day transformation’.
This is pretty much a 10-day detox with special supplements and will set you back around $290 or less than that with the gift card discount.
Essentially the whole system works off a gift card system where you give people a $50 gift card and when they redeem that for the 10 day transformation, you get paid $50. They can purchase pretty much anything they want with this gift card from what I understand and you get more commissions the more they buy.
The Purium Compensation Plan
I have reviewed quite a few MLM companies since starting this website and I have to say this particular compensation plan was pretty confusing. I say this for two main reasons…
Firstly, knowing what you need to do to get started and in particular how much EXACTLY it is going to cost you to start making money is rather difficult. The website itself does give you a nice overview and seems to make it all sounds so simple, but a lot of information is lacking in my opinion.
Secondly, I managed to find the compensation plan and it provides a very short and basic explanation which doesn’t help people fill in the gaps so to speak. It focuses more on telling you how great everything is instead of laying out the facts. Anyway, I did my homework and I’ll break it down for you below.
Ways You Can Earn
Retail Commissions: You can make money by selling people the products themselves through your website or in person, up to 30% in fact.
Referring People: Like all MLMs you can make money referring people into your downline. The amount of money you make depends on what level you are at. There are 18 levels of rank within this company. The good thing about this company is that apparently, you can earn commissions from your downline infinite levels deep.
Various Bonuses: These guys are pretty set on the bonus side of things. You can make weekly bonus commissions on signing people up into either a gold, platinum or launch pack. There are also 4 other types of bonuses you can earn.
Getting Qualified
To get qualified as a ‘member’ you need to purchase a starter kit for $75/ or $25 after your discount. It only comes with 5 gift cards though and essentially this is the only way you make money, by giving these gift cards away. So this starter membership cost is not going to cut it.
You will be paying much more than $25 to really get started with this I can assure you, I will break this down shortly. To upgrade to the ‘associate’ level (very basic level) you need to have an auto-ship in place of about $65 per month to achieve your 50PV. This PV is just the points associated with each commissionable product.
Maintaining Your Status
To remain an Associate, you just need to continue getting your auto-ship or have customers buying $65 worth of product off you each month.
First Year Cost Estimate
I do this to help people understand the real costs involved in being in business during the first year. I believe it is always good to know what you are really up for before entering a business, any business for that matter.
Platinum Starter Kit= $25 after discount is the cheapest option, however… for anyone serious about building this business you will be needing to buy at least the 50 gift card ‘Platinum Enrolment pack’ for $549. Apparently, this is their most popular pack for newbies.
Replicated website system called ‘DREAMS’= $149 per year
Required Auto-Ship= $780 per year if you are not making this much in personal sales.
Gift Cards= In order to give people this wonderful free $50 gift card, you must actually BUY GIFT CARDS yourself! To me this really wasn’t explained clearly when navigating their promotional material, it was not clear that you would actually be having to buy these gift cards.
Without the gift cards, you WON’T be in business, plain and simple. You get some with your welcome pack depending on which one you choose but here is the cost after they run out…
Personally, I would be choosing the $249 gift card pack based on the initial 50 I got with the Platinum pack. So for the first year, I would now have 250 gift cards. This is the bare minimum you would need in my opinion.
Other Costs= This would include conventions, seminars, additional training, products and indirect costs associated with running a business.
My Total First Year Cost Estimate= $1727 +
This is a pretty far stretch from thinking you can jump on board and start earning real money with the basic $75 starter kit. Now of course this is not indicative of everyone’s costs, but based on what I would expect to pay if I was serious about building this business. The other point worth noting is that the auto-ship cost is only necessary if you are not making enough sales, so this could be drastically reduced. Also the cost of the gift cards could be offset by sales, essentially this is just the cost of doing business with Purium.
About The Earnings Potential
One of the things I liked about this company is how they display the average rep earnings on their website. It does not take into account their expenses though and as you will see in this picture, it is going to take a lot of time and hustling to reach a reasonable income level.
What I Liked
- Products seem reasonably good, the 10 day transformation I think could be very popular with consumers
- They display their typical earnings chart, this is a massive plus in my opinion and shows credibility
- They don’t have many complaints
- The idea of the gift card is kind of cool, but be aware you are paying for this
- They pay reps frequently
What I Didn’t Like
- I do not like auto-shipping requirements
- They make it sound way too easy, like as if if you can hand someone a gift card your going to be very successful
- They’ve changed their name from Organic By Nature to Purium which may be worth checking into
- The details within the compensation plan are too basic and leave out important details in my opinion
- The warm market approach is not the most ideal way to build a business
Building Your Business
Unfortunately, you are primarily taught how to offer these products through a warm market approach. What this really means is that you will be shown how to hustle everyone you know and everyone they know to try to sell products and bring them into your business.
Now I am not saying this is always a bad thing if the product or business is legit, but it really isn’t a great way to build a decent income in my opinion. Sooner or later those prospects dry up, then you are left with tons of you purchased just to stay active. This is why it’s very important to only join a company whose products you really love and want to use yourself.
Final Thoughts
The Purium products seem pretty good based on my research and I do like how they disclose the average earnings of their distributors.
However, I also think that relying on friends and family is a bad idea since most of them won’t want a bar of it, and it’s not very scalable unless you become a full-time hustler.
Personally, I think there are better ways to start a business, but provided you love the products, this might be a good opportunity to consider.
I was in the Purium business for a year, it was difficult to find people interested. The shakes do not taste so well. I went to an event and was late as my car broke down, so finally getting there from venice beach to Newport Beach and there were two chairs left so i sat in one and David Sandoval comes up and says i had to move because the speakers were sitting there and there should be a seat up front somewhere. I was in shock. I got up and he sat down and never even offered to help me find a seat so for the next hour i stood up, and watched how not one person sat in those seats…and David Sandoval saw me standing through out the event. I never got an apology by him and i finally after months, got a refund for that event which are expensive and a long drive in my broken car to get there, hoping to make the money they said would happen but it cost me a few thousand dollars by the end of it….not worth your time and money!
I’ve been using the products for a few months now and they are good quality products. I am an associate although I’ve had difficulty using the cards because no one wants to pay the prices for the products. For me it’s ok because I can afford them and I think with nutritional products you get what you pay for. I’ve done 2 of the 10 day programmes, athlete and detox. Had success with both and I plan to do another one soon because they just give your body a rest from grains, dairy etc which is always helpful. For me I’ve had no success with the business side which is not through lack of trying but ultimately it doesn’t matter because I will continue to use the products and I’m glad I found them.
I just did the 10 day transformation. I LOVED IT. I only lost 5.2 lbs but the results were awesome…mental clarity…energy. I love it. I’m sold…and I hate MLMs 😉
It is a totally legit company. I found them when studying weight loss and looking for hi end protein products.
What would you suggest as other ways to start a business?
Depends on what you are trying to achieve really? There are many ways to create a successful online business, it depends what fits you best.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t get into Purium, by all means go for it if you like it. But I personally do recommend building yourself a website and getting some internet marketing skills under your belt. It will absolutely make a lot of difference to your longterm success. I recommend a program called Wealthy Affiliate simply because it works, it’s very ethical and it’s a very cost effective way to build an online business and develop a website. It can help you if you want to start from scratch or to help you build a website to promote something like Purium.
Again, there are many options, but hopefully this helps! Cheers
Just a quick note Tim, reading this reminds me of Herbal Life, which is quit similar to this. A lot of promises and every turn you make seems to cost you more and more to get close to the so called “ToP”. It is a shame that we have to waste money on learning these schemes.
Thanks for sharing this
Kim
I have heard of Herbal Life but I haven’t yet done a review. I can imagine it would be very similar.
That’s the thing about mlm, you keep on spending and spending and keep on getting filled with hype by the leaders and seminars… but how much money are MOST people really making? Not much can assure you.
Glad I could help, thanks Kim.
Hello there Tim , I was looking for information on this company.It sounds like a pretty legitimate opportunity however as you mention the compensation plan is complicated.
But that is the normal with MLMs.
You did a good job in calculating the average annual costs , it is very important for someone to have a plan.But I think that the price of $1700 for the first year might turn as a boomerang for the majority of participants.
If you can’t promote well you will end up quitting soon.And I am not impressed with their training that is focused on family and friends.There are way better options online.
But what about their products and the quality?…What the people who used them have to say?..
Honest review and a nice read.
Hi Tasos,
The cost is very high in reality and in my opinion it is a little deceptive how they go on and on about just giving away free gift cards, but fail to make you aware about the cost of giving these away! At least they very much down play this, I had to search through the product list to find it as it was not mentioned the cost of this anywhere else.
I did some digging about complaints and the only complaints are under their old name Organic By Nature. It seems they had a handful of complaints about people not receiving a refund mainly. This does make me question their commitment to their 60 day money back guarantee.
That said there is only a small number of complaints so hard to know.
As far as the products themselves go, there’s mixed results for this. Some people like them some people don’t. I can’t really speculate too much on this.
Thanks for dropping by man.
I really appreciate your review. I found it very informative and interesting to read. This sounds like a rather complicated opportunity…honestly my head was spinning reading through all of the info. That is not a good sign when looking to start a business opportunity. I like how your broke down monthly earning potential. Thank you for all of the details!
Glad you found it useful 🙂 MLM compensation plans are ridiculously annoying in my opinon. They are the most complicated and elaborate set-up’s it is no wonder why so many refer to them as ‘schemes’. I try and break things down as much as possible so the average person (like me) can just read through and get an overall understanding in what is involved.
Hi Tim, you did not say if the gift cards given to me would have been paid for by me from the starter kit or it is downright free and does not constitute a loss of money on my side.
By the way, I have learnt a lot about how to get ranked in Google.
Hello,
So depending on which starter kit you buy you will get some included gift cards. With the cheapest option $75/ $25 with the discount, you get 5 included gift cards.
With the Platinum kit you are getting 50 gift cards included with that kit for $549. Hope this answers your question and I’m glad you’ve learnt about getting ranked in Google, cheers!