Is Arbonne Legit? My Arbonne International Review

A few years ago, I was investigating some options. I was tired of working in the corporate sector while being to be a mum to my little boys. I wanted things to be different. I didn’t really have much clue about what I could do, all I knew was that I wanted change. I certainly didn’t think I had the technical skills to do anything in the online world, so I was at a loss.

One night I went along to an Arbonne information session. It was run by a friend and one of her colleagues. Both are wildly successful with Arbonne, and both of them had their new white Mercedes parked out the front. Everyone who was attending the information session who walked past the cars gave each other a knowing look and a smile.

My friend is gorgeous. She is a bit older than me, but looks younger. She is friendly, funny and stunning. She is one of those people that’s just great to be around. The conversation flows easily, she is honest, and is an all round cool person. I’m not like her …. I’m a bit socially awkward, I often don’t know what to say, and I’m really introverted.

I always like to be around people who are happy to talk, which means I can listen and be a smaller part of the conversation. I don’t like to be the centre of attention.

This information session was four or five years ago. My kids were younger and I wanted to be at home with them. I wanted to be the mum I’d always to be – at home with my kids and not worried about work. I remember back then I used to get very stressed if the kids got sick because it meant that I had to call in and say that I couldn’t come to work because I needed to look after my kids. I don’t know why it stressed me so much, but it did. I think it was because I didn’t like to look unprofessional, or not committed to my job. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have worried – everyone knew I had an excellent work ethic and would never just take a day off.

So I knew that my friend was going great guns with Arbonne. I knew that she was making significant money, and not only that – she absolutely LOVED it, and she was at home with her kids. I really wanted that. And so, when she mentioned that she was holding a session, I jumped at the chance. After all, I was already using the products which I loved. I didn’t need to learn much about them because I already used them and could attest to their quality. So off I went.

The event was at a function room in an up-market hotel, and most of the people there were women like me. They’d heard about Arbonne and some had used the products. We all had one thing in common though – we all wanted an opportunity to change our lives, and we all thought that Arbonne might be it.

My friend was amazing. She was at the front of the room with her colleague, and they were tag teaming beautifully. Both had started out as newbies and worked their way up to amazing positions within the company. For them, it looked easy. I’m sure it wasn’t, but they certainly made it look easy. At one point an even more senior person joined in and talked about the lavish gifts they had been provided over the years. We were all listening eagerly.

Let’s get into my review of Arbonne International.

My Arbonne International Review

My Arbonne International review will take you through the following sections:

• What is Arbonne?
• How much money can you make selling Arbonne?
• How Arbonne works
• Is Arbonne legit?
• My recommended way of making money online

What is Arbonne?

Some basic info:

• Website: https://www.arbonne.com
• Brought to you by: Petter Morck
• Founded in: Norway, 1975
• Recommended: Only for those who love the MLM model

Arbonne sell what I consider to be mostly great products. The make up is beautiful, as is the skin care range. They also sell a range of nutrition products which in my view are ordinary and I wouldn’t feel right selling the nutritional line. However, lots of people love the entire range, so good for them 🙂

How Arbonne Works

Arbonne is a multi-level marketing (MLM) company. In most MLMs, there are two main ways you can earn money:

1. By selling a product, and
2. By receiving commissions from the sales of your downline (i.e. people you recruit into your network)

What this means is you need to able to sell products to people. If you REALLY want to be successful in a MLM company, you want to be recruiting new distributors who are also selling a lot of products. In the latter scenario, as well as selling products, you need to be able to sell the ‘lifestyle opportunity’ as well.

With Arbonne, there are basically four ways that you can earn as an Independent Consultant.

1. Client Commissions – these are the profits paid to you on personal product sales to Clients (35% of Recommended Retail Price, or RRP) and Preferred Clients (15% of RRP)
2. Overrides are commissions paid to you on the product sales volume of your team (i.e. when you recruit others and they sell products)
3. Mercedes-Benz Cash Bonus is available to Vice Presidents based on their team’s product sales volume
4. Cash Bonuses are available at each level based on personal and/or team product sales

You can read the full compensation plan here.

How Much Money Can You Make Selling Arbonne?

To get a better appreciation of what you might expect if you become an Arbonne Independent Consultant, below are average earnings of consultants in Australia and the UK in 2018. The pattern is similar across other countries.

Average Earnings of Arbonne Independent Consultants – Australia 2018

As you can see, the average annual earnings of an Independent Consultant is $908 (or $17.46 per week). This figure does not take into account sign up costs, and the cost of purchasing any products that you need to know about it in order to effectively sell them. The Independent Consultants make up 65% of all consultants. Whilst District Managers make significantly more, it’s still only $4,228 on average per year. That’s still only $81 per week. Almost a quarter of consultants fall into this category.

Area Managers, a small percentage making up 6.5% of all consultants, still only average $20,686 per year.

This means that over 90% of all consultants make an average of significantly less than $4k per year. It is only the very top tier, 0.6% of consultants, that make great money. This group – the National Vice Presidents – average $199K per year.

Average Earnings of Arbonne Independent Consultants – UK 2018

Everything follows a very similar pattern in the OK, with average annual earnings of an Independent Consultant being 503 pounds. Not much, is it? Hardly Seems worth it, really.

Is Arbonne legit?

Yes, Arbonne is absolutely legit. Their products are delightful to use (from my perspective), and from an Independent Consultant perspective, they pay what they say they will. For some, Arbonne is a very lucrative and life changing business. I can attest to that as I have watched a friend of mine go from strength to strength in this company, and she genuinely loves what she’s doing. She made it to National Vice President, and is still going strong at it years later. She goes to the annual conference every year and loves catching up with her peers from around the world.

Arbonne have an A+ rating with the BBB:

For those who do well with Arbonne, they are loving life and reaping the rewards. However, as you saw in the earnings, it is a VERY small proportion who fall into this category. However, not everything is always as it seems.

In my view, the only reason to join any MLM is if you are already buying their products, and are happy enough to recommend them to others (make that MANY others). The only way you are going to make money with Arbonne is if you sell a heck of a lot of products. If you’re not looking for a sales job, then Arbonne is not for you. If you don’t feel comfortable pushing Arbonne all day every day, then you won’t be a success. If you’re not into selling things to people you run into the street or in your every day activities, then Arbonne won’t work for you. You will need to be prepared to push it hard. If not, then it just won’t be profitable for you. You’ll end up falling into the 65% category of independent consultants who average less about $900 per year.

I don’t know about you, but $900 per year is hardly worth the effort. I’d rather make some decent money, where I’m not directly selling stuff – especially not to my family and friends.

There is an excellent way to make money online

If you don’t want to hassle your family and friends with products that they don’t want or need, there is a much better to start a new career from home.

My preferred way to make money from home is via the affiliate marketing model:

The basic premise is that you:

1. Choose an interest
2. Build a website
3. Attract visitors to your website
4. Earn revenue when they make purchases from your site (via affiliate links)

Once you have built your own niche website and learnt how to attract visitors (using free methods), you can repeat this with as many of your own websites as you like. Think of the potential right there!

The platform is perfect for ANYBODY who wants to find a way to earn money online. You don’t need experience, and you don’t need to be technical. You will be taught everything you need to know.

My preferred platform allows people to sign up for free to have a look around and see if it’s for them. You even get two free websites, and the first ten modules of training for free.

What you see is what you get. Nothing hidden, and nothing over promised. I personally use this platform and it is a genuine way to learn how to make money online the right way, using legitimate techniques and methods.