Ever since I joined this industry, no matter what company I work with and no matter what product I'm selling, I constantly hear, "Is this one of those Pyramid schemes?".  Now, with political correctness and the politeness, most people substitute "schemes" with "things" so as not to be offensive, but I know what they are getting at..SO...I want to clear your mind of the Pyramid debate once and for all.



First Let's look at a couple official definitions:



Wikipedia - A pyramid scheme is a non-sustainable business model that involves promising participants payment or services, primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, rather than supplying any real investment or sale of products or services to the public.[1][2]



Merriam-Webster.com - ​: a usually illegal operation in which participants pay to join and profit mainly from payments made by subsequent participants.



​There are two main points you can take from these references that sum up what a "Pyramid Scheme" is...



1.  Illegal

2.  Make money solely off the recruitment of people, not a product or service.



Another name given to Pyramid Schemes are "Ponzi Schemes"



Merriam-Webster - : an investment swindle in which some early investors are paid off with money put up by later ones in order to encourage more and bigger risks



​Simply put, it's people paying a fee, in order that they can earn money off recruiting other people who then pay a fee and so it goes on and on.



Back to point one...any company that falls into these definitions is by law, illegal.  So...one of the first steps when doing your homework is to find out if money is made off the distributorship fee and second, I always look at what companies back the opportunity because no reputable company would back an illegal method of marketing. 



I always like to point out to people who bring up the pyramid argument that there is a very legal pyramid scheme on the market and it's called ANY JOB!  Let me illustrate this if you don't believe me!



​