Is Optavia a scam? A pyramid scheme maybe? Many people have been asking these questions about this health and wellness MLM company, so what’s the real truth here? Can members make great money and get healthy in the process? Is Optavia worth it or not?
Let’s take a look and find out….
Company Name: Optavia
Founder: Medifast
Price To Join: $199+
My Rating: 4.5/10
~ Optavia Reviews ~
Intro
Health and wellness MLM businesses seem to be taking the world by storm. They are literally everywhere today. It’s gotta be the most saturated niche in the network marketing realm by far.
I kept seeing people asking questions about this one, so I decided to take a look at it.
I love that you’re here reading my review, as it means you do your research before joining anything. That’s always a good idea, and one of the reasons I write so many reviews of make money products on my website.
This site is all about helping people find legitimate ways to make money while avoiding money making scams and dodgy deals in the process.
Let’s see how Optavia rates.
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What Is Optavia?
Founded in 2002 by Dr. Wayne S. Andersen & Bradley T. Macdonald, Optavia was previously known as “Take Shape for Life” until a recent name change. It’s yet another multi level marketing company involved in the ever-popular and over-saturated health and wellness niche.
Maybe someone recently approached you, either trying to sell you Optavia products or recruit you into the business. Now you’re wondering if you should give it a try or not.
Well, this review is for you.
Optavia sells things like healthy snacks, supplements and foods that are designed to help people be healthy and maintain an ideal weight. However, in an effort to be different to their competition, Optavia also offers nutrition coaching to assist you in achieving your fitness and weight loss goals.
If you have your heart set on getting into a MLM opportunity like Optavia, then having your own website will really help with credibility, sales and recruiting. It’s actually really easy to build a website. Just follow the free training at Wealthy Affiliate.
Optavia does offer members a replica website, but it’ll be useless for gaining organic search engine traffic, and you need that.
Optavia Products
This review is more focused on the business opportunity attached to Optavia, and whether you can make money as a distributor, but we’ll briefly take a look at the product range to have an idea of what’s on offer.
As I mentioned earlier, along with selling nutritious food and supplements, Optavia focuses a lot of attention on coaching people to improved health and fitness. You are not just purchasing products here, but a weight loss or health plan. There are several varieties and the prices vary.
When you sign on, you offer up some information about yourself, which also includes your weight loss and fitness goals. Your information is then used to determine the best plan for your needs.
Optavia prices are expensive, which is to be expected of a company operating under the MLM umbrella, all due to the nature of the compensation plan.
Within each plan are foods and supplements, such as:
- Ready made meals
- Shakes
- Nutrition bars
- Healthy drinks
- Books
- And more…
The Optavia Compensation Plan
As with any MLM business, there are 2 main ways you can earn money if you join as a distributor:
- Retail sales of Optavia products
- Recruiting people into the business (and into your downline)
You must first purchase one of the Starter Kits before you are eligible to get involved in the business. This allows you to become what they label a “Health Coach”. That’s actually the name they give to distributors at entry level.
Starter Kits are information only. They don’t come with any products, so you need to purchase some of those too to get started.
The kit contains business materials which allows you to effectively introduce other people to the Optavia business. Product kits are different and purchased separately.
When you buy a Starter Kit it gives you 12 months membership, plus access to a replica website which mirrors the official Optavia site (useless for SEO and Google rankings).
The only true way to stand a chance of making decent money with MLM is to be really active in recruiting. Not just anybody, but new members who are equally as enthusiastic about the products and the business as you are.
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Let’s now take a look at the various ranks you can achieve as an Optavia IBO:
- Health Coach
- Senior Coach
- Manager
- Assistant Director
- Director
- Executive Director
- Regional Director
- National Director
- Global Director
- Presidential Director
Click here to check out the official Optavia compensation plan PDF.
The MLM Business Opportunity
There is a very good reason why so many businesses and companies today adopt the MLM method of running their operations.
There are so many advantages for them to do things this way.
At the same time, many of the benefits and advantages are stripped away from those that “work” for the company. Unless you achieve very high ranks in Optavia (or any of the other multitudes of MLM schemes out there), you really will have a hard time of it.
Let’s take a look at the benefits for Optavia that become liabilities for the distributors.
Optavia doesn’t have to pay any wages, holiday pay, or anything of that nature to its distributors. Everyone works on commissions and the promise of bonuses when certain targets are reached.
It’s the army of distributors that do all the selling, advertising, promotion of the business, and create business growth through recruitment.
Optavia both makes loads of cash and saves stacks of money in the process.
You never really own your own business when you join a network marketing company, despite the sales pitch that insists that you do. You are nothing more than a sales rep for the company, except you are generally forced to buy the company’s products to remain eligible to earn, and you don’t get paid a retainer.
Generally, the main customer base of most MLM companies is their own workforce, their distributors.
I know a lot of people love MLM because everything is basically set up and ready to roll, but the deal, in reality, is a very unfair one, with all benefits slanted in favour of the company and the people at the very top.
Is Optavia An Illegal Pyramid Scheme?
I don’t consider Optavia to be an illegal pyramid scheme, as the company does have real products.
To be considered on the wrong side of the law, Optavia would have to rely solely and completely on recruitment for anyone to make money.
What I Like
- You get a website (replica)
- Optavia has been around since 2002
- Some of the meal plans and health plans are actually quite good
What I Don’t Like and Red Flags
- The website they give you won’t rank very well in search engines and get organic traffic because it’s all duplicate content
- Health and wellness is the most over-saturated MLM business there is
- It’s a really tough ask to make decent money as a distributor, as the products are expensive and you have to purchase these expensive products yourself as well
- 95% of people fail to make a profit with MLM
- As is typical, the products are way over-priced
- Recruitment is the only way to get ahead in MLM
How Much Does Optavia Cost?
The absolute minimum to join and be eligible as a distributor is $199, which gets you a business Starter Kit. As mentioned earlier, this makes you eligible to earn for the next 12 months, after which there is an annual renewal fee.
Along with the business kit, you’ll also need some products for yourself, and to sell or demonstrate to others. These product kits cost over $200 each, so it’s quite costly just to get started in the Optavia business.
Is Optavia a Scam Or Legit?
I don’t believe Optavia is a scam in any way. Lots of people are very quick to label anything MLM as an illegal pyramid operation, but that’s not necessarily the case.
I personally don’t favour MLM because of the disadvantages to the distributors, but that doesn’t make something a scam.
Optavia is a legit business, and it’s really up to the individual to decide if the deal is worth it to them.
Selling over-priced products in a super-saturated niche is not something I’d like to get involved in myself, but everyone’s different.
If you are seriously looking for a great way to make money, especially on the internet, then there are some great options. For me, MLM is not the best way to make money online or offline.
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Darren Burton
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