Is Take Shape For Life a scam MLM opportunity or not? Can you make money by jumping aboard this MLM company that operates in the highly competitive niche of health and wellness?
Let’s take a look and find out….
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Company Name: Take Shape For Life
Founder: Medifast
Price To Join: $199+
My Rating: 4.5/10
~ Take Shape For Life Reviews ~
What Is Take Shape For Life?
Established in 2002 by the Medifast organisation, Take Shape For Life is yet another MLM company involved in the super saturated health and wellness niche. The company has recently changed its name to Optavia, but as most people are more familiar with the Take Shape For Life name, I’ll mostly use that throughout this review.
Perhaps you’ve been approached by a Take Shape For Life distributor trying to sell you products or introduce you to the business opportunity and you’re wondering if it’s worth getting involved. Well, this review is for you.
While this company is mainly focused on selling healthy snacks, food and supplements, they also differentiate themselves from the competition by offering nutrition coaching to help you achieve your weight loss and fitness goals.
While it’s possible to make money with MLM, it’s one of the hardest roads you could take to earn a decent income.
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Take Shape For Life Products
We’ll take a very quick look at some of the products on offer at Take Shape For Life, but this review is more about the business opportunity and whether you can make money by joining this network marketing company.
The products are a combination of healthy foods, nutrition plans and coaching to point you in the right direction. Basically what you buy when you purchase TSFL products is either a weight loss plan or a health plan. These plans come in a number of different varieties at different price points.
You input some information about your age, weight, goals and so on and Take Shape For Life work out which plan is best for your needs.
As with all products in the niche, and particularly in MLM, the prices are rather expensive. An example is this: The Select Optimal Kit with the Habits of Health System (5&1 Plan®) costs $426.15 at retail.
Some of the foods that are included in the plans are things like:
- Shakes
- Bars
- Health drinks
- Ready made meals
- Books
- And more…
The Take Shape For Life Compensation Plan
This is pretty typical MLM in compensation structure. Generally there are two main ways to earn here:
- Direct selling
- Recruitment
To get involved in the business side you will first need to purchase one of the Starter Kits to be eligible to become a “Health Coach”. That’s what they called their first level distributors. The Starter Kit doesn’t come with any product. You’ll need to buy some of that too. What it does come with is business materials so you can introduce others to the business. In order to sell product, you’ll have to purchase a product kit. You do get 12 months access to your own website when you buy a Starter Kit.
To really have a chance of earning decent money, it’s imperative that you recruit lots of enthusiastic people into your downline. Only then can you move up the ranks, earn bigger commissions from your recruits and get some of those bonuses.
Here are the various ranks available to achieve at Take Shape For Life (Optavia):
- Health Coach
- Senior Coach
- Manager
- Assistant Director
- Director
- Executive Director
- Regional Director
- National Director
- Global Director
- Presidential Director
The Take Shape For Life compensation plan has been redeveloped into a brand new PDF distributed by Optavia, and you can read it here.
The MLM Business Opportunity
MLM is adopted by so many companies because of all the distinct advantages it offers the company and those at the very top. On the flipside, many benefits and advantages are stripped from distributors and those not already established high up in the business.
Some examples include the fact that the company doesn’t have to pay wages or a retainer to its army of workers, just commissions and bonuses after sales targets are reached. The distributors do all the buying and selling, promoting and recruiting, saving the company stacks of cash in the process.
You also don’t own a business when you join MLM. You pay a fee for the right to be a sales rep for companies like this one. Generally MLM companies make all their sales by forcing their workforce to purchase the majority of the product.
It’s really a pretty terrible deal for distributors, which always makes me wonder why MLM is so popular.
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Is Take Shape For Life An Illegal Pyramid Scheme?
It’s not an illegal pyramid scheme, as the company has loads of products to sell. To be illegal they would have to have no products and rely solely on recruitment to make money.
What I Like
- You get your own website
- The company has been around since 2002
- The meal and health plans actually look quite good
What I Don’t Like
- The health and wellness niche is highly competitive and saturated
- Making money with any MLM venture is a tough ask, let alone another one in this niche
- The products are very expensive
- It’s expensive just to join and try it out
- Almost all people fail at MLM because of the need to constantly recruit to make any real money
- In 2015, more than a quarter of Take Shape For Life distributors made zero money
How Much Does Take Shape For Life Cost?
You will be up for $199 for a Starter Kit, which gives you business materials as well as a website for 12 months. Then there is a renewal fee every year. You will also need some product, and the kits cost over $200 at a minimum. So quite expensive just to get on board and give it a whirl.
Is Take Shape For Life a Scam?
It’s not a scam. Many people are quick to label MLM ventures as scams because of the pyramid nature of their compensation, and the way everyone works for no pay and is often forced to buy products every month or so.
I don’t really like the MLM business model for reasons I’ve outlined in this review, but that doesn’t mean Take Shape For Life is not a legitimate business. It is.
It’s not something I’d be interested in getting involved in, following the unfair MLM compensation plan, selling over-priced products in a super saturated and highly competitive niche, and constantly trying to recruit others.
If your goal is to make decent money without killing yourself or sending yourself nuts in the process, then there are better ways.
Forget MLM – Try Affiliate Marketing Instead
Affiliate marketing is a much easier alternative to multi level marketing if the main goal is to make some decent money. You can do it all from the comfort of home online, you don’t need to pay joining fees and you don’t have to recruit anyone.
Affiliate marketing is simply promoting other companies’ products online and getting paid commissions when someone buys something. You also don’t need to buy any of the products you promote.
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Darren Burton
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