Welcome to our Herbalife MLM Review!
There has been some buzz about this company so we decided to investigate what it was all about…
Some say it’s a scam while others Herbalife reviews are saying legit so what is it?
The good news is we are going to walk you through the company, products and compensation plan so you can make the right decision.
Let’s dig in this Herbalife review…
Herbalife MLM Review (2019): Everything You Need to Know About Herbalife
Not the Regular Herb
Herbalife is a gigantic MLM company that sells nutritional supplements, weight-loss, and beauty products.
But people often think the company sells weed.
Even though the company’s logo looks suspiciously like the top half of marijuana leaf, Herbalife has nothing to do with the industry.
However, they make billions of dollars in sales annually.
It was $4.9 billion in 2018 alone.
Now the question is:
Are you missing out on something by not signing up with this company?
Let’s find out in this Herbalife MLM Review.
Herbalife Company Overview
The network marketing company is based in Los Angeles, CA.
Like many companies, they’re lawfully incorporated offshore in the Cayman Islands, a tax haven.
Herbalife ships billions of dollars worth of nutritional supplements to their hundreds of thousands of independent distributors globally.
You must have seen Herbalife advertising.
The slogan reads: Lose Weight Now, Ask Me How!
In spite of facing accusations of being a pyramid scheme, Herbalife has managed to sell almost $5 billion worth of products yearly.
Herbalife distributes to over 90 countries. The company made the Forbes Best 500 Midsize Employers list in 2019.
They officially sponsor soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo and the LA Galaxy major league soccer team.
The company also does philanthropic work. Its Herbalife Nutrition Foundation provides healthy nutrition to children in need.
The company raised another $1.8 million in March of 2018, for charity.
Herbalife is one of the giants of the MLM industry.
Their success story is a fascinating one.
Herbalife History
The company was founded in 1980 by Mark Hughes, a 24-year-old man. He started selling weight loss shakes out of his car in LA.
Mark’s salesmanship skills were congenital. Previously, he had sold everything from raffle tickets to exercise equipment.
He was also involved in multi-level marketing and was a top-earner for a small MLM company called Seyforth Laboratories.
After the companies he was involved in went out of business, Hughes ultimately decided to move out on his own and Herbalife was launched.
Herbalife was structured as a direct-selling (MLM) company. It made exaggerated claims about their products from the start.
Herbalife had expanded its operation to Canada by 1982. It was already receiving complaints from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about unverified product claims.
Herbalife modified some of their formulas to appease the FDA, and were opening for business in the UK by 1984.
The year 1985 was a big year for the company.
In spite of emerging as the fastest-growing companies in the US, the controversial MLM company faced the wrath from doctors, nutritionists, as well as state and federal agencies.
Mark appeared in many places to talk about and defend his company. He was even seen in Merv Griffin T.V. show.
He even testified at a US Senate hearing.
Amidst all these, Herbalife continued its dramatic rise.
In the year 1986, it went public on the NASDAQ. By the late 90’s, Herbalife was in multiple countries and almost every continent.
Mark, however, wasn’t too happy with how his company was being treated by Wall Street.
The last couple years of Mark’s life, was spend in unsuccessfully attempting to take his company private again by buying up shares which he thought were being undervalued.
It incurred both physical and emotional stress for Hughes, leading to a drinking problem and smoking up to eight cigars a day.
In 2000, Mark Hughes sadly died at the age of 44. His death was due to an accidental overdose of antidepressants and alcohol.
In 2002, Herbalife was ultimately acquired by private equity firms which took the company private again to improve its products and internal operations.
Herbalife went public again in 2004. It was on the NYSE where it is flourishing till date.
But, it hasn’t been all blue skies and green lights over the years.
After a decade, Herbalife came under its most grave investigation by the FTC in 2014.
It was alleged of being an illegal pyramid scheme and causing the stock price to free fall. Even hedge fund managers got in the action; placing trades that would bring money if and when the company was shut down.
But other Wall Street big wheels like Carl Icahn started buying up shares seeing the MLM’s stock price dropping in hopes that Herbalife would carry on.
The play all ended in 2016. The FTC agreed to a $200 million settlement against Herbalife for deceptive and unlawful acts.
It was an expensive slap on the wrist for the infamous network marketing company.
The FTC used the money to send checks to roughly 350,000 former distributors who supposedly lost money running Herbalife businesses.
For Herbalife, it was as a victory as it escaped being officially labeled as a pyramid scheme.
Thus, consumer confidence in the company bounced back. Their stock priced soared high making records, along with their product sales.
Are Herbalife Products Safe and Healthy?
The company has five categories of products.
The flagship “Core Products”: Formula 1, 2, and 3. They are the new versions of the original formulas.
The company also offers vitamins, weight-loss solutions, and energy and fitness products.
They have also recently added skin and hair care products to their catalog.
So how good are the products?
Herbalife has its fans and haters like all MLMs.
However, the reviews on Amazon.com are mostly positive.
Maybe their Formula 1 Healthy Meal Nutritional Shake contains an equal amount of protein and sugar per serving but they do redeem themselves a little with Herbalife’s Protein Drink Mix. It only contains about a gram of sugar per serving.
The Formula 2 Multivitamin Complex contains 21 essential micronutrients, including antioxidant Vitamins A (as beta-carotene), C and E.
It seems like Herbalife products are fine as long as you use them in moderation.
Supplements are not supposed to be a replacement for poor nutritional habits.
Some Herbalife distributors do make extraordinary and sometimes deceptive product claims.
But the company has rules. Making such claims is strictly prohibited and grounds for immediate termination.
Why Herbalife MLM Works?
It has a success story
It has been there for four decades despite congressional controversy, countless lawsuits, and even a Wall Street bigwigs betting against their stock in hopes of destroying them.
Making billions of dollars in sales annually is a good indicator that the compny isn’t going away any time soon.
It offers one-year refund policy for new distributors
If Distributorship is canceled for any reason, you get a full refund if you can return all unopened products that were purchased in the previous 12 months.
This has got to be one of the main reasons why the company has managed to become so popular. It is risk-free.
The company also has a 30-day refund policy for regular customers if they want to return unused products.
High-visibility athletic sponsorships
Herbalife spends millions of dollars to sponsor Portuguese soccer stars, Olympic athletes, and even LA’s entire soccer team.
Almost everyone knows these famous athletes associated with the Herbalife brand. Your job as a distributor is a lot easier.
Charity is always nice
You have to give some credit to the MLM giant for spreading a little goodwill internationally.
And some charity is always better than no charity at all, regardless of the company’s motives.
Herbalife MLM Review – Why Herbalife is Bad?
It has a history of litigation and controversy
It has survived decades of lawsuits. They allegedly lied about their products and there were pyramid scheme accusations too and everything in between.
However, Herbalife has somehow managed to stay in business.
Several bad press and complaints
Though it is nothing new for a popular network marketing company, when you have major networks like ABC and HBO doing investigation pieces on your company, and many customers complaining about your products, it makes it a lot harder to build your home business.
Herbalife MLM Review – Compensation Plan
Like all other mlm, the more products you sell and the more people you recruit, the more money you make.
You’ll usually pay around $60 to join and start as a Distributor in the mlm company. You will get a 25% discount on products compared to retail.
So if you spend $150 on products, you can supposedly sell them for $200, and make a profit of $50.
They also offer a “Volume Points” for every Herbalife product you buy.
The more points you build up in any given month, the larger the discount you’ll receive.
When you can sell (or buy) 500 Volume Points of product per month, you become a Senior Consultant. You will then qualify for a downline, earning you 10% on sales of the distributors in your downline.
You’ll most likely need to become at least a Supervisor with 4,000 Volume Points over 2 consecutive months before earning a decent monthly income.
Herbalife MLM Review – Is Herbalife a scam?
When the company made a $200 million settlement with the FTC, they did not officially label it a “pyramid scheme“.
They just labelled it as a company that is engaged with deceptive and unlawful acts.
So Herbalife MLM Review can’t say Herbalife is a “scam”. There are some of their distributors who earn six-figure passive incomes and they obviously sell billions of dollars worth of products annually.
But if you look at Herbalife’s income disclosure statement, 50% of all the MM’s distributors make zero dollars. The vast majority of the other 50% make between $140 – $315 monthly.
But surely, the few who do make it big with Herbalife certainly seem to love this company.
You never know, it just might be a good fit for you as well.
But do remember that there are other options out there if you want to work for yourself.
Either way, hopefully, you found what you are looking for in this Herbalife MLM Review.
Aaron and Shara What Do You Suggest?
That being said, if you have never marketed online or offline before, finding people could be very difficult for you. We know when we first started trying to make money online, we failed miserably and we had no idea how to recruit. That is why, we first started out by learning how to become a good marketers, but in this business you don't have to be a good marketer at all!
This is the business where we learned how to make money online WITHOUT being great marketers
If you don’t want to be in a business that requires you to host home parties or call all your friends and recruit your family to buy your stuff no worries. We have the perfect business for you where you don’t have to recruit, you don’t have to own any product if you don't want to and oh did we mention it’s ONLY $3 to start!!!
You will learn step by step on how to build a profitable business online WITHOUT having to market or recruit anyone else! You will also get a one on one adviser to help you every step of the way. Anyways, we hope you enjoyed the Review. Please comment below if you are part of this company as our readers would love to know how you are doing. Also, if there are any products or companies out there you want us to review please let us know!
poker tournament included says
Thanks for all your efforts that you have put in this. Very
interesting info.
Aaron and Shara says
Thank you so much for kind words, and glad you enjoyed the review!
Bianca says
Who don’t want to stay healthy? I was a regular customer of Herbalife. My distributor asked me once “Why don’t you become a distributor?” Till that time I had not thought about this scheme. But listening to her, I decided to venture into the unchanted territory.
But before joining the MLM company, I researched on my part too. There are many Herbalife reviews out there. These reviews helped me to decide on faster and I have not been disappointed since then.
Earnings are not at par but can be termed as side income. Also, the products are quite famous in the market, so selling the product did not feel a taxing task.
However, if you want to join the company, do your own research instead of your distributor’s claims.
Aaron and Shara says
Very wise words :)!