Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Is Synergy Worldwide worth the hype or just a scam?

Who sells miracle weight loss pills and financial freedom out of their headquarters in Utah?

Every MLM ever, of course!

Introducing Synergy Worldwide. (queue the theme music)

They’ve been around for a while – since 1999. They’re based in Pleasant Grove, Utah, and run by Founder Dan Higginson and President Dan Norman. [1]

Does this mean I’m involved?

This video explains everything:


Make sense? Either way, here’s the full review on Synergy Worldwide which I stand by 100%.

Overview

Dan #1, Founder Dan, is a big figure in personal growth and corporate management. He was a team leader for the Covey Leadership Center and a consultant throughout the Americas and Asia. He’s also got a knack for philanthropy, and sits on the Board of Chancellors for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. [2]

Dan #2, President Dan, is a network marketing vet and has opened over two dozen business centers throughout Asia, Europe, and Latin America. He’s been key to making Synergy Worldwide, well, worldwide. [3]

And they are pretty worldwide. They’ve got operations in Australia, Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Norway, the Philippines, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, the United Kingdom, Vietnam…to name a few.

All in all, they’re in over 28 countries around the world now.

Synergy Worldwide is actually a subsidiary of Nature’s Sunshine Products, so they’ve got some heavy backing. They joined forces back in 2000, meaning that Synergy had only been in business for one year before they caught the attention of this major player in herbal health. [4]

Nature’s Sunshine Products are a publicly-traded industry leader that’s been around since 1972. [5]

They just announced their third quarter financial results for 2016, and they’re sittin’ pretty on a net sales revenue of $85.4 million, up 7.4% year-over-year.

This has put Synergy at a massive growth rate of 12.7%. A lot of that is driven by their Asia Pacific branch, which is responsible for a 19.7% growth rate. [6]

They did, however, see a $1 million decline in sales in parts of Latin America. Luckily, between sales in their newer Hong Kong branch (hitting $3.7 million) and favorable foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations in Asia, their loss was more than offset. [7]

Nature’s Sunshine just announced a new Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Joseph Baty, after the retirement of their former CFO. He has a pretty great record running the finances of other major companies like Schiff Nutrition. [8]

He was even named CFO of the Year in 2012 by Utah Business magazine.

So, maybe he can keep their ship sailing.

But, if there’s one thing we know about MLM, it’s that they can tank at any moment. Record sales don’t necessarily mean that the company won’t tank two years later.

Products

Their products are nothing new – typical health, wellness, and weight loss products.

Their main product line is their “Elite Health” line, which includes…

  • Proargi-9+, an L-Arginine supplement and their flagship product, which enhances a number of systems in the human body.
  • Heart Health, a pack of supplements that promotes cardiovascular health.
  • Core Nutrition, strengthening and detoxifying formulas.
  • Weight Management, proteins, amino acids, cleansing herbs, and time-released energy that helps you grow lean muscle while losing weight.
  • Fitness, an L-Arginine based pack that boosts energy and nutrition while improving workout recovery.
  • Personal Care, a cosmetics line for skincare that uses Elemence and TriAction formulas that “nourish, cleanse and beautify”.

Many of them rely on the health benefits of L-Arginine, which has some studies backing it up, but there are also studies showing that there are some negative side effects to L-Arginine. [9]

Basically, Arginine is definitely good for:

  • Wound healing
  • Helping kidneys remove waste
  • Maintaining immune and hormone function
  • Dilates and relaxes the arteries
  • Potential heart benefits

But, “a study in 2006 showed that arginine was not helpful — and may have been harmful — for treating heart attacks in combination with standard treatment.” [10]

It can also worsen breathing in people with asthma and interact poorly with medications that lower blood pressure or treat erectile disfunction.

Synergy claims, however, that their products are the “highest-quality supplements in the world”. Hmmm.

Their l-arginine supplements claim to provide 5g of elemental l-arginine per serving…which is actually way too much. [11]

Health experts recommend up to 1,200 mg per day of l-arginine in the form of supplements. So, this product is over four times that recommended value. [12]

Opportunity

Of course, it’s no easy task trying to figure out the specifics of getting involved with any MLM.

They’ll make lots of fluffy, unicorn and rainbow type generic promises when it comes to becoming a distributor about financial freedom and living out your dreams and spending more time with family, but when you actually need to know the nitty gritty about how much it costs to join and how much you can make, it gets messy.

I appreciate Synergy Worldwide’s upfront language when talking about their business opportunity. No grandiose promises – they jump straight into discussing the compensation plan.

“A business opportunity is only as good as the compensation plan that drives it. It’s a fact: A company with a solid foundation and high-quality products can only succeed by delivering a long-term business opportunity that’s lucrative, aggressive, and rewarding. [13]

True. But what do their rewards look like?

Well, to start, a 55% payout based on the success of your “business partners” (recruits).

A Mega-Match bonus which pays out a 100% dollar-for-dollar match on basic commission earnings of your personally sponsored team members. No limits.

That’s pretty impressive.

You get retail profit off your personal sales, and there’s a suggested 30% markup in retail price. That’s pretty good for this industry, and it’s paid out weekly.

There’s also a Fast-Start Bonus, and an Elite Rebate that are paid out weekly.

You’ve also got monthly payouts…

  • Basic Commission, which is 10% of your weak leg volume through all levels
  • Mega-Match Commission, 100% of basic commission earned by your personally sponsored downline
  • Leadership Bonuses, which is a percentage of your strong leg volume based on weak leg volume
  • Global Share Bonus when you hit 400,000 CV in your weak leg volume. [14]

Recap

So, the product isn’t complete hogwash, but it is a dime a dozen. There’s not a single thing to make it stand out.

But the compensation plan is stellar, at least in comparison to most nutrition MLMs, and they’re backed by a stable, profitable herbal nutrition giant.

That being said, we’ve seen lots of similar companies tank and shut down their network marketing arm while maintaining their product line, basically continuing to profit off customers that their loyal distributors recruited while their distributors are left in the dust.

And, they might have a good compensation plan if you’re able to sell and recruit, but is that really all that easy to do when you don’t have a killer product to back?

Look, not a Synergy Worldwide hater. But it’s still MLM, and MLMs are known for getting hot and then falling off the grid a few years later.

If you like automated ways to build passive income, there are better ways.

(and you can trash those old MLM habits, too)


via http://mlmcompanies.org/synergy-worldwide/

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