What’s the Real Deal With Ameriplan?

Most mlm company reviews include pretty standard information: how long the company’s been in business, the founders, etc… Let’s be serious, though-you can find all of that information just by going to the company’s website. This will be one of those Ameriplan reviews that answers the difficult questions, though.

So let’s start with the obvious elephant in the room-did Ameriplan REALLY just terminate 900+ distributors?!?!?!? In my mind, that recent announcement trumps any other available information about this company.  From my understanding, this announcement was just sent out to those reps on Valentine’s Day, and not a lot of information is available yet.  But for me, this raises some serious questions about the viability of this opportunity long term.  What you can be certain of is that more Ameriplan reviews will be popping up as more info becomes available.

Ameriplan Review-Things That Make You Go Hmmm…

Why did Ameriplan terminate these distributors? According to the information I’ve received so far, they’d changed their terms of service to allow them to terminate IBO’s(Independent Business Owners) WITHOUT notice or explanation. It seems very telling that when I went to the corporate website, I was able to find the following quote from the company’s founders, “In AmeriPlan, a full 80 percent of revenues come from members – people who have joined the program purely for the benefits of the program, not to sell the program. They are end users – in other words, customers. Theoretically, if all 55,000 of our brokers quit tomorrow, our revenues would go down 20 percent – but our profits would go through the ceiling because we wouldn’t be paying commissions.” It’s too early to tell whether that is the reason those distributors were terminated, or if this is the writing on the wall to mark the death of another network marketing opportunity. But for me, seeing something like this on the corporate website would have been a definite red flag for me in considering an opportunity.

Why has Ameriplan not issued a statement to their entire distributor force? I spoke with an IBO that I know in that business, and she had no idea that something like this was going on! I was associated with one of the largest network marketing company’s in the world that rhymes with CAMWAY a few years ago, and they came up against a situation where several hundred distributors were terminated. The DAY that this took place, the company issued a statement to the entire distributor force informing them of the company’s position on the terminations? Why? Because a company that truly cares about and values their distributor force would, out of common courtesy at the MINIMUM, issue a statement letting their reps, whose incomes is directly linked to many of those terminated, know what the situation is BEFORE they heard it on the street.

Is the Ameriplan business opportunity going away? Well this is the million dollar question, isn’t it? I honestly can’t give you an answer to that one, because there just aren’t enough facts available yet to make any type of educated guess. But, what this does present is an opportunity for me to have a heart to heart with ANY network marketer who happens across this article. Listen, I know you love your network marketing company. I know that you bleed the colors of the company, and I know their product and/or service has absolutely changed your life. Mine too, and I’m sure the same holds true for every MLMer who reads this Ameriplan review.

What is also being reported is that the terminated distributors are being threatened that they cannot join another network marketing/direct selling company for two years from the date that they get terminated.  I would really love to hear from some Ameriplan IBO’s on this one, anonymously or not.  If this is true, I’m fairly certain that this would spell the end of the network marketing side of Ameriplan.  Personally, I think it’s reasonable that a company’s TOS include language that a rep not build a competing business simultaneously, or at the least to expect that you will not promote products and services for another company at the same table/event/website that you promote theirs at.  But how well would it go over if your boss at your job walked in tomorrow, and told you that not only are you about to be fired, but you also can’t go back to work for two years?

Is Ameriplan a good business to be a part of?  At this point, it’s just too early to tell.  There are several businesses I’ve done my due diligence on, and even though I’m not a part of them, I would feel 100% comfortable giving them my full recommendation.  but based on the information contained in this Ameriplan review, I’d be hard pressed to give this opportunity any type of look without getting all of the questions above answered.

Outside of just Ameriplan, here’s some great advice that will help you when you’re doing your due diligence to select a company, or you’re doing research about your current opportunity, to make sure that it is the best fit for you.  You are an independent contractor with your company, and they are free to terminate your IC agreement whenever they see fit. Most companies will never terminate their distributor agreements, will treat their distributors fairly, and other than sending out your commission and bonus checks, you won’t even know that the corporate office exists. When you recognize symptoms or signs that your company may be going the way of the dinosaur, don’t be an ostrich, and keep your head in the sand. Here’s 5 key things that you can do to mitigate your risk of ending up in this situation.

1. Before you join a new business opportunity, take a moment to read the company’s terms and conditions-If you get terminated for violating the TOS it’s your own fault, and I got won’t have any sympathy for you if you get bounced for this.
2. Ask yourself this simple question-If I wasn’t going to get paid to promote this product, would I really be this excited about it?
3. Determine your monetary goals-If you’re looking to replace your job income, figure out the specific number you need to replace in order to replace it, and then look at the company’s comp plan, and figure out how much you would have to grow your business in order to hit those numbers.  What you see JUST might surprise you.
4. Promote the value of your team and leadership FIRST-people will join you in business because they know, like and trust you, not just because your products and/or services are awesome.  There’s nearly 5,000 companies in network marketing, and they pretty much all have great products.  Bring attention to what you do/your team does that is unique in the marketplace.
5. Learn how to get your new reps started right-Learning how to do this right will not only help you to build a large organization, it’s the secret to building a walkaway income.  If the people you bring on will not duplicate your work ethic and are unable to duplicate your results, you will just be trading in one job for another.

<h2>Final Thoughts on This Ameriplan Review</h2>

In 13 years of being a corporate recruiter, I learned this:  when you go against your gut level intuition, you get it wrong 99.9% of the time.  every single time that I hired someone I had a bad feeling about, I ended up regretting it.  The same goes for selecting a job, and the same goes for selecting a business opportunity as well.  The things swirling around Ameriplan right now are giving me the feeling I used to get when I had a candidate on the phone who was swearing to me that they were an identical fit for a job, even though none of their background or experience remotely resembles the skill set my client is looking for.  But you have to make decisions for yourself, and I hope the information I’ve provided you today will go  a long way towards helping you decide if this business is right for you or not.

I’m excited to hear from some current and former Ameriplan IBO’s as to whether this review is on track or not, so leave me a comment below, and let me know what you think.

And, if you’re interested in working with me directly, you can take a look at the company that meets all five of the above criteria for me by clicking here.

Jamie

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

Tagged with: Ameriplan • ameriplan review • ameriplan reviews • mlm company reviews

Filed under: MLM Company Reviews

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!