How does making money while throwing scented parties sound like to you? Scentsy Inc produces and creates fragrances and candles. Aside from these, the company also markets travel tins, room sprays, soap, shower gels, shower creams, warmers, perfumes, and body lotions.
Company Overview
Scentsy Inc is based in Idaho, United States, and has over a hundred thousand independent consultants. They showcase and share Scentsy’s scent system with customers through home parties. These independent consultants practice the same marketing system in other countries like Canada, Germany, UK, Ireland, Mexico, and even Guam.
Scentsy scent system is sold and offered as the safer option for candles. It includes scented bars with over 80 fragrances as well as a lightbulb-powered warmer. Aside from the aforementioned products, Scentsy sells hanging air fresheners and hand soap. And as a cute come-on to customers, Scentsy offers stuffed animals with pockets as scent packs — they call it Buddies.
The Story of Orville Thompson, Scentsy CEO
Kara Egan and Colette Gunnell are the sister-in-law team that founded Scentsy in Salt Lake City. In 2004, Orville Thompson, an entrepreneur, took a liking to the wick-less candle company. A couple of months later, he and his wife Heidi Thompson acquired the company from the sisters-in-law.
The husband and wife team and new owners of Scentsy moved the headquarters to Idaho. The Thompsons relaunched the company and employed the multi-level marketing model.
The company has expanded its market to the United Kingdom and Germany. It had more than 150,000 active independent consultants. In 2017, Scentsy reported annual sales of a whopping $450 million. This put them as number 44 on the Direct Selling News list. Scentsy also made it to the top direct
selling companies in the world. Forbes Magazine listed the company as America’s 100 Most Promising Companies. Three years ago, it was listed on America’s Best Midsize Employers.
Is Scentsy MLM legit?
Okay, the answer to that is a flat Yes. As mentioned earlier, Scentsy has used the multi-level marketing business model. Scentsy products are marketed solely through their independent consultants. CEO Thompson disclosed that they chose a direct selling model for their wickless candles and other products since these are all experiential products. The best way to show and market these products to a potential customer is through house parties. Some have tried arousing interest among their friends through Facebook and Instagram posts. The Scentsy distributing system enabled the sellers to sell a huge line of products. More than it was possible to sell in a retail store with very restricted space.
Some of the sellers also share about Scentsy on their social media accounts. The most popular ones are on Facebook and Instagram. Sure, you can always get at least one customer from social marketing.
The Scentsy Mission
Scentsy encapsulates their mission:
“To bring value to the world by providing an industry-leading, family-friendly business opportunity selling creative, artistic, high-quality products that Warm the Heart, Enliven the Senses and Inspire the Soul.”
How much commission does a Scentsy consultant make?
Getting Started as a Scentsy Consultant is relatively fuss-free. All you need to do is go to their website or a consultant trying to expand their team. Write down basic pertinent data and information, and buy their $99.
New sellers must have Starter Kits. Acquiring one is a requirement for those who wish to sell Scentsy products. One starter kit includes more than 80 scent testers, a wax warmer, some product samples, perhaps a wax bar, and a whole lot of brochures and other business tools. It also comes with an “exclusive gift.” On top of all these items, the Starter Kit includes three months of access to a personal website. This will enable the new seller to market and sell the products online. After three months, a $10-dollar fee is required for the sellers to acquire access or sell the Scentsy products online.
It’s definitely not rocket science. It is not similar to all other direct selling opportunities or companies out there.
Compensation Structure
The compensation structure is very typical of a multi-level marketing company. Since Scentsy is one, it’s not surprising that it’s a little bit complicated.
To start, the Scenty consultants are compensated based on their rank. The rank is immediately linked to the number of points they earn. Scentsy’s website says the current value equation is 1 point for every one dollar a consultant sells.
All sellers begin as “Escential,” and as soon as they reach 1,000 points, equivalent to $1,000 in sales, they are readily promoted to “Certified Consultants.” As Escential, they get paid 20% commission on their PRV or personal retail volume. Okay, MLM compensation jargon. Don’t worry; it’s still comprehensible from here. Once they become Certified, they can earn an extra 5% in commission — that brings them to a total of 25% of their PRV or personal retail volume.
Things will get a little bit more complicated here on. However, in general, suffice it to say that Certified Consultants have the opportunity to become Lead Consultants when they get to sign up and recruit new sellers under their wing successfully. People at this level are expected to make 500 PRV points a month, and their network of sellers is expected to make 1,000 a month. From there, the Certified Consultant will receive an extra 2% bonus. Hence, the more products they sell, the more points people can generate for their PRV.
As their sellers start to hone active seller groups, they move on to become Lead and SuperConsultants. This allows people to receive and earn more money through several sales and various award bonuses, including their growing team’s sales.
Scentsy Check: Is it a Pyramid Scheme?
Chances are, this question bothers you whether Scentsy is a pyramid scheme or not. It’s a valid concern. So hang in there. There is no need to worry. Scentsy MLM business is pretty robust. You need not fear that the term MLM is attached to it — don’t let the naysayers convince you that it is a scam. However, you need to be aware that pyramid schemes pretend to be legit Multi-Level Marketing.
And Scentsy MLM is not one of them.
Let’s define a pyramid scheme. In the strict sense of the term, a pyramid scheme is a business model that recruits and signs up members with promises of hefty payouts. It also promises to perform a service to register others into the scheme, and there is no single real product or service. The major purpose is to separate you from your money.
Scentsy is not like that. It has a real and authentic product line. It is their mission to help people attain their dreams through financial freedom. And as far as income is concerned, the company posted revenues of $468 million in 2017. As well as $456 million in revenue in 2016. This put Scentsy on the 42nd rank on the Global 100 list, among other things.
Scentsy Reviews
Their BBB rating was not available. However, if you read the reviews, you will find most of them were raving positive ones.
However, some found fault on Scentsy. One customer criticized the company for its massive recruitment and hiring among the spouses of the American military. The spouses are likely recruits because of the nomadic lifestyle of military families. Constant moving means no steady employment.
Based on a military article, it takes sellers more than four years to make an annual income that is only equal to three and half hours of minimum wage of work per week. That sounds way too impractical. A blogger calculated that a representative needs to sell over 600 Scentsy products a month to get paid the equivalent of an 8-hour a day minimum wage work.
Perhaps you might have heard it somewhere, a huge percentage — as high as 99% of members could not get paid an income equivalent to a full-timer. In the direct selling industry, the company was stereotyped regarding the rhetoric it uses.
Scentsy Review: Pros and Cons
Now, let’s look into the Scentsy review and then look at this company’s pros and cons.
First of all, the review shows that if you would like to join, some signs tell you it’s safe. And the one that tops the list is — a good MLM company must have a low start-up fee and low maintenance cost.
The company should have affordable yet good quality products. It must have a generous compensation plan, and it must not require you to carry an inventory. One last important thing is to if it has a system similar to an affiliate.
Now let’s check out the pros and cons of Scentsy. One of the good things about this company is it gives support to its members and team. A good number of MLMs are pretty bad when it comes to supporting. In this kind of business opportunity, a strong support group is necessary.
Scentsy also comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. That’s a pretty good sign. If you don’t like their products, you can return your order, and they give you your money back.
Scentsy is also a member of DSA or the Direct Selling Association. That’s a huge sign that it not a scam or a straight-on pyramid scheme. The Direct Selling Association checks on various direct selling or network marketing companies. DSA makes sure that they are legitimate and not doing anything against the law.
One of the bad things about Scentsy is — it is not natural. However, it does not receive a lot of complaints on that. As we know, going natural is the way to go in this day and age. Secondly, Scentsy products are very pricey. Another disadvantage is you don’t get to own the business. Finally, there’s this rankle that bugs a would-be Scentsy seller — is it a pyramid scheme in disguise?
We have already tackled that question earlier. We should put lay that to rest. However, if you want to know if it has a high success rate, the answer to that is No, not really. If you’re asking if Scentsy sellers can market their products and earn a commission for doing so — the answer is Yes. But if you want to know if it’s possible to work from home full time by simply feeling the products. The answer is No. Remember the blog about military families? That’s actually very factual, and the complaints do make a lot of sense.
Success in Scentsy
Success is hard to come by in this company. This is very common in any MLM program that you get into. These are hard facts. A multitude of studies have shown that a huge percentage of representatives, in fact, lose money through these kinds of programs —Scentsy included. People don’t make money. People don’t even break even. To earn, people need to buy their products as well.
Needless to say, not all network marketing companies are the same. Based on Scentsy’s previous income disclosures, the company falls into the average existing MLM stats. That’s not a bad thing.
Scentsy Product Review
Most companies have a distinct selling point when they market their products. Scentsy is just like your average MLM.
They have quite a number of good-smelling household products. Their flagship items are the wax melts and wax warmers — these have stood out compared to other candles because they don’t emit carcinogenic elements, and two — they are not fire-hazards. Scentsy warmers are safe and fill your house with many fragrances — scents that range from wood to bread to fruity.
They also have a whole spectrum of other smelling-good products. For personal care, they have the bath bomb product, body wash, hand cream, hand soap, wax bars, lotion, body cream. For laundry, they have the scented softener, the washer whiff, and the dryer disk. They have the freshener, cleaning spray product, kitchen soap, room spray, diffuser, car bars, and even essential oils in various scents for cleaning and other accessories.
Conclusion: Should You Join Scentsy?
If you cut through all the noise, you are left with two important things to remember here before you make a decision.
In Scentsy MLM, a consultant can get paid for doing two things. One is to sell their products. Two is to share the business opportunity, recruit and sign up more people to join as a consultant.
You were probably told that recruiting people is not what gives you income. Technically, it is true because you actually earn through “bonuses” for sales that your “downline” or recruits make.
So if you want to know some hard facts — it is this — You can ONLY make good earnings from Scentsy by signing up people as your consultant or downline. Then and only then can you make a decent income. That’s a lot of hard work, which certainly entails many sacrifices and, yes, a lot of spending money.
Are you willing to go through that painstaking process? The choice is yours.