Since they opened their doors in 2005, I’ve been contacted numerous times about the Monavie business. I get contacted about Network Marketing opportunities about 4-6 times daily, but I guess that’s just a by-product of being such a sharp, successful guy. And modest:) Anyway, between being contacted about the business, and so many people asking me what I knew about it, I decided it was time to do an independent review of the Monavie business opportunity, and figure out whether it is a scam or not.

Let’s make sure that we’re all starting from the same launching pad by defining what a scam is. Oftentimes, I’ve heard people refer to a business as a “scam,” quickly followed by “but not in a derogatory way, you know what I mean, right?” I might, but clearly the dictionary does not. A scam is “a confidence game or other fraudulent scheme, especially for making a quick profit, swindle.” I was unable to find a positive or neutral definition, so I’ll assume there isn’t one. According to their website, “Monavie develops and markets scientifically formulated, premium quality nutritional products, specifically for person-to-person distribution.” Based upon the above definition, plus Monavie’s definition of their business, I feel confident we can answer the scam question with a no, and move on to evaluate the business.

From a business standpoint, Monavie is certainly profitable, topping $1 billion in sales early in 2008. They inked a partnership with the Boston Red Sox last year, and have positioned themselves in a place where they are discussed in the same breath as industry giants such as Amway and Avon. One factor tat you should always evaluate is whether a company is having proven success, which Monavie clearly is.

The Monavie products all contain the Acai berry, which is thought to assist the body with such things as increased performance, endurance and concentration. In addition to their drink products, they’ve recently added an energy drink, Monavie Emv. All of their products are reviewed by the Monavie Scientific Advisory Board, which is made up of some of the brightest minds the US scientific community has to offer. Positioned as a leader in the booming health & wellness industry, the opportunity to make money in Monavie is certainly real. This is evidenced by the fact that they currently have 34 people making more than $1 million per year, with 30-50 additional distributors making a strong 6 figure income from Monavie.

On the other hand, there are more than 90,000 distributors in Monavie currently making less than $170 per month. As with most network marketing companies, Monavie does not provide any type of training to their distributors on marketing or retail sales. They rely upon your upline sponsor to provide you with the training and guidance necessary to grow your business successfully. Most training programs I’ve seen in network marketing focus on changing your mindset from an employee to a business owner mentality, and on the traditional techniques of building a warm list and cold prospecting. While these techniques have been responsible for most of the largest network marketing businesses ever built, they were mostly done before the internet. Before you make the decision to join the team who has contacted you, I would find out what methods they are using to build their business teams, and make sure that they are compatible with how you would like to build your business.

According to the Monavie Income Disclosure Statement, the higher up the compensation plan you make it, the more hours you work weekly in your business. For example, Royal Black Diamond Executives, who are at the top of the comp plan, work 40+ hours per week. While the income that a Black Diamond can make is stellar, many people get into network marketing because of the time freedom it can afford. Again, if there is no business system in place to help grow your business, 100% of the responsibility for your business team falls upon you. This is a possible explanation for why the work hours grow was the team sizes grow in Monavie.

The Monavie opportunity appears to be a good one, and certainly not a scam. But, if you join and do what the 90,000 are doing and not the 3,000, you will end up with a $170 per month business. My recommendation is to find a system that will help you educate yourself about networking and marketing, and provide you with a system to help you grow your business. If you’re interested in learning about what I use in my own business for this, sign up for my newsletter on the right.