Hey!
Did you come across Optavia and wondering if it's a good home business opportunity or a scam?
If you have questions about this company and want to know things like company information, price to join, compensation, pros, cons and more this article is perfect you.
I'll provide you with answers to all those questions and by the time you're done reading you'll know whether Optavia is legit or not.
Ready?
Optavia Summary
Product: Optavia
Price to join: $199 to several hundred more for products
Rating: 30/100
Do I recommend? No!
Summary: Optavia is a MLM company that's in the weight loss and food niche.
I DON'T recommend anyone joining Optavia for many reasons and the main ones being low success rate and expensive start up costs.
Better opportunity: If you want to see how I learned to make over $100,000 online as a broke beginner, click below:
What Is Optavia
Optavia is a company that sells various weight loss and food products. Here's a frequently asked questions about this company:
1) When was Optavia started? Optavia is a rebrand of a company called Take Shape For Life which was started in the early 2000's. The switch was in 2017 and the products are pretty much the same - nothing really changed with the company besides the name.
2) Is there a parent company? Yes. The parent company is called Medifast which was started in the 1980's.
3) How do I make money with Optavia? Optavia is a MLM and you'll be making money with them through commission structures that are similar with most MLM's (mainly recruitment but you can also make money by selling the products to customers directly).
4) How many distributors work for Optavia? A distributor would be what you are if you wanted to make money with Optavia. There's nearly 20,000 people that are currently distributors.
5) Are there any lawsuits against this company: Lawsuits are very common with MLM's - it's just something about these companies (and large companies in general) that attract lawsuits. There's nothing too bad in Optavia or Medifast's past, however
Is Optavia A Pyramid Scheme?
So you're probably wondering if this company is a pyramid scheme..
Here's the thing: Most people think all MLM's are pyramid schemes but that isn't necessarily true. Some definitely are complete pyramid schemes while others have elements of a pyramid scheme.
Look below at this picture:
This is what part of the commissions structure at Optavia looks like. The reason it looks like this is because you earn commissions on people you recruit into the system when they make a sale.
If a recruit gets someone into the system you get a piece of their sales as well and on it goes.
When your income relies on recruitment you're in a pyramid scheme - that's the literal definition.
The only reason Optavia isn't an outright pyramid scheme is because you can make money without recruitment and just sell products directly to customers to earn a commission.
To make any real money with Optavia and other MLM's you need to recruit, though - anyone who has success with a MLM will tell you this.
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What Is The Success Rate With Optavia?
Because the main source of your income with Optavia relies on recruitment and the commission structure looks a like pyramid, there ends up being a few winners and a lot of losers.
You see this every single time with MLM's. There's a handful of people that make over $100,000 (usually like .25%) and the majority just lose money.
If you want to see Optavia's income disclosure which shows how much distributors make with this company, click here.
If you clicked on that link you would see this chart:
As you can see the single biggest group is the group that either lost money or didn't make any at all (29.79%).
That's not good but in my opinion it gets worst.
The average income for an American is around $48,000 and the median income is around $30,000
Only 1.33% make more than an average American salary and only 2.82% make more than the median American salary.
Look at the months it took to get to that level too. Of the people that make more than $30,000 it took on average 73 months (a little over 6 years).
That's a lot of work and a lot of time to have a 2.82% chance to make an average salary.
90% of the coaches at Optavia make less than $500 per month and it takes YEARS to get to that level
These numbers should scare away any sane person. MLM's are money pits and it's incredibly difficult to succeed because of the way the system is set up.
There's much better and easier ways to make money.
How Much To Join Optavia?
While MLM's aren't the biggest investments on earth and are certainly cheaper than starting a brick and mortar business, Optavia is pretty expensive to get started with.
It's actually more pricier than most of the MLM's I review.
There's 3 costs you'll have to factor in if you're thinking about joining Optavia which are:
Health Coach Business Kit ($199)
This is the kit you get when you sign up and it teaches you how to sell the products in Optavia. This training isn't really anything special and it's more just a start up cost to keep people trying to get personal discounts.
Yearly Business Renewal ($99)
Every year you have to spend $99 to renew your business. You don't get anything with this besides the pleasure of selling Optavia products. There's over 20,000 "coaches" working for Optavia and if they get $99 from everyone each year that's an extra $2,000,000.
Monthly Orders
Every month you need to order one of the product packs to qualify for the commissions you've earned.
The difference between Optavia and most MLM's is the cost of the products. Most MLM's may offer month long supplies and different product packs but usually offer individual products that are less than $100.
You won't find that at Optavia. Look at their product packs below:
You'll have to order one of those every month! Those costs really add up and after a year you may spend $5,000 and not make any money!
Remember less htan 10% make $5,000 or more in a year with Optavia and it takes years to get to that level.
What Is Optavia's Compensation Plan?
MLM's always have complicated compensation plans and Optavia is no different.
It's almost like you need a calculus degree to understand everything. There's different figures, charts and difficult language to understand.
In all the compensation plan is 20 pages long and you can read it here.
Here's a video that explains everything:
There's only a few things you need to know about the compensation plan, however, and that is:
Retail Sales
This is the aspect that makes Optavia technically not a pyramid scheme. You can buy the 30 day meal plans and then sell them at retail price.
This isn't the best way to make money, though.
Recruitment
This is how you'll be making the majority of money. Below is how it looks:
As you can see commissions are flowing upwards toward the top. The amount you get depends on the overall sales volume of your entire team and your rank.
Building your downline and recruitment is how you'll be making your money and is what you should focus on if you're getting involved with Optavia.
Smaller Bonuses
There's smaller bonuses you can earn as well. It's not important to know every single one of them when you're starting out but you can earn extra cash when you sign people up, find customers that get autoship options and things like that.
What Products Does Optavia Offer?
It's important to know what products you're going to be selling if you decide to join Optavia.
Here's the different categories and products you'll be selling:
Optimal Weight
This section is probably their most popular and there's 3 different packs you can choose to sell (you can see them below):
As you can see the packs are very expensive.
Optimal Health
There's only one product pack in this section and it costs over $300 (you can see below):
Purposeful Hydration
In this section you'll find different drink mixes and this by far is the section with the cheapest products (see them below):
Weight Loss Is A Tough Market
Here's the thing: Weight loss is a massive market and people spend billions on weight loss products.
HOWEVER, most people already have their favorite brands and there's so much competition.
Optavia is not cheap either. Why would someone buy a $400 product kit from you when they can go to the store and buy products for 1/10th of that.
The answer is most people won't. There's a reason why so few people get success with Optavia.
Very few people are going to want to spend such a high price for these kinds of products.
What I Like About Optavia
I definitely don't recommend this company for you but there's still a few things that I like including:
1) Well known parent company: Medifast is a well known dieting company so you can probably guess the products that Optavia offers are pretty good (nothing overly special, though).
2) 30 day refund: This is a good thing and won't leave a bitter taste in your customer's mouth if they spend $400 and don't like what they get.
What I Don't Like About Optavia
There's definitely more that I don't like about this company and the main things I don't like are:
1) Products are too expensive: Selling $400 meal kits is not going to be an easy task. Most people just don't have that kind of money to spend on meal replacements. Plus it means you have to pay more when you buy products to sell.
2) Success rate is low: It's extremely unlikely that you'll find success with this company and less than 1% make an average American salary. Why work so hard when you can just get a normal job and make more?
3) Income relies on recruitment: You can technically make money without recruiting but it'll be hard. Anyone that makes serious money with Optavia does so by recruiting and building their downlines.
Is Optavia A Scam?
I don't think Optavia is a scam - it's just a bad business opportunity.
A scam is a company that deceives you in some way or steals your money. There's none of that.
You pay to join and you get products to sell. It's up to you to sell them and recruit people.
It's not going to be easy to make money with Optavia. Most people make crumbs or just straight up lose money.
Here's A Better Way To Make Money
Hopefully by now I've talked you out of joining Optavia - the success rate is just too low and it's way too expensive to get started.
However, there's still plenty of ways to make money from home and online.
I started making money online as a complete beginner and have made over 6 figures since.
To see how, click below:
Your information is completely false. Do your research.
Please point to the false information.
As a coach, you do not have to purchase the products to sell to clients. Instead, if they choose to purchase it is directly from the manufacturer and the coach earns a commission from that. So the only cost involved in selling these products is your initial sign up fee and the annual fee afterwards. This is a great program. I lost 30 pounds in 10 weeks. No other program has given me results while teaching me how to eat healthy as well. In addition, my first month of being a coach I earned enough to pay for my program costs. So for any of you who are reading this, please speak to the person who has invited you to the program. It has changed my health and overall finances for the better.