Hey there sea changers, and welcome back to my series of MLM reviews. Today we are going to have a look into a company with an eclectic array of products with my Total Life Changes MLM Review. This is an interesting one as there is a good number of products across a couple of different areas including Body and Beauty, CBD, Tea and Coffee, Supplements and Essential Oils. Some say this is a good thing as it gives a number of option to sell from whilst others tend to avoid programs that don’t allow laser focus on a particular niche. So with that in mind, what is the Total Life Changes MLM program all about? Let’s have a look and find out…

Note: I am not a member of the Total Life Changes MLM Program (and hence make no commissions from any of the links included within this post). The reason for this is that I prefer to write these posts based on what a newbie would be seeing if they were interested in joining – that way I feel I can make a better judgement on what it is that these companies are offering within their programs.

What is MLM?

Multi-level marketing (MLM) programs are the traditional mainstay of the ‘party plan’ world of products such as Avon, Mary Kay, Amway and Tupperware. It is also quite prevalent within the supplements, CBD, essential oils and beauty product lines that are offered within this program – mainly due to the fact that much of the sales and marketing is now being managed online avoiding the need to run parties and hassle friends and family – some still do this, but there are now alternatives as well.

The ‘multi level’ aspects of MLM come from its hierarchical nature in which you make commissions based not only on those that you sell to, but also the sales of those whom you ‘sign’ into membership arrangements as well.

In short, the process works as follows:

1. You join the program, either via referral from another person (known as your up line) or directly through their website.
2. You promote the products of the company via parties, workshops or online.
3. As you make sales, you offer incentives to your customers to sign up as a member of the program (there are different names for this but they all mean the same thing).
4. That new member is then placed ‘underneath’ you in a hierarchical arrangement (known as your down line).
5. You, and a number of levels of your up line, then gain extra commissions for everything they sell as well.
6. If they manage to refer their customers into memberships, they also become a member of your down line allowing you to make up line commissions as well.

The number of levels of your up and down lines will vary depending on the program you have joined. Commission rates will also change as your down line grows or contracts and many will also offer other incentives such as total company sales percentages and/or access to membership prizes as your own business grows.

Who are Total Life Changes?

Information within the website in regards to this company is quite light on in that all I can find is Total Life Changers (TLC) is based in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. I quick search on YouTube however identified the founder as a couple of guys by the name of Jack and john (I couldn’t clearly hear their last names) who started the company in 1999 with the plan to “change lives around the world”.

At that time, they started with one product called Nutra Burst which has now expanded to the full array of products listed below and sold with a mission to “provide products and a community that you’ll feel”.

What do they Sell?

Ok, so I mentioned above that their product range is a little eclectic (in much the same vein as companies such as Vida Divina) however on further inspection I would say that they are probably more of a health supplements company with some other ‘stuff’ added on. Their category/product lists are as follows:

• Dietary Supplements & Capsules
• Multi Vitamins – Capsules and Liquid
• Weight loss supplements
• CBD Oil drops and creams
• IASO Tea and Coffee – plain and infused
• Face and hand creams
• Soaps and toothpaste
• Essential Oils

MLM Program outline

The Total Life Changes MLM program calls their members ‘Life Changers’ who are part of what appears to be a fairly straight forward and standard program with base commissions and a few bonuses thrown in for good measure. Their compensation plan, whilst not available on the main pages of their website (that I could see), was found via a simple online search so let’s check out the basics below…

Base Commission rate: 50% of the product’s QV on all products sold.

Down line commission rates: 10 – 25% of downline sales (these are capped based on rank)

Minimum monthly spend to qualify for commissions:

To qualify for commissions, Life Changers (LCs) must be ‘Active’ via the generation of at least 40QV or more (dependent upon rank) worth of sales on the monthly anniversary of their last order – this can be made of personal or customer orders.

Payment terms: Weekly and Monthly

Application required?: Yes, Application form on website.

Purchase requirements to join: Yes

New LCs are required to purchase either a Standard or Digital Starter Kit for $49.99 as well as a product purchase at time of sign up. Products costs range from around $50 for a single product up to over $1000 for a kit.

Marketing materials provided: Business Starter kits, Training, Back Office

As is common with MLM programs, commissions and rankings are determined by the total Personal Qulaifying Volume (QV) that LCs and their down line generate in a calendar month. Most MLM programs manage it this way in that commissions are paid on the points assigned to a product rather than the entire sales total. Based on the information within the compensation plan, TLC appears to calculate its QV allocations at around 70 – 80% of the USD sales price (this varies from product to product). So, using the example found within the compensation plan, if a product retails for $49.95 which gives it a 40 QV rating then the commission is calculated on $40 worth of the sale. If the commission rate then for a product is 50% it will generate a $20.00 commission payment (i.e. 50% of the $40 commissionable amount).

In the case of TLC, some downline commissions are calculated on the Commissional Volume (CV) and not the QV. CV points are calculated at around 15 – 20% or the total sales volume.

How can I get paid?

The TLC MLM program promotes 5 ways in which LCs can make money when they promote and sell their products. Most of these are actually quite standard for a modern MLM program with a few interesting differences around down line commission calculations and payments.

Let’s run through them all now…

1. Retail Bonus

Retail Bonuses are the base commissions earned by the LCs for products sold at retail prices. The base rate is 50% of the product QV and these are generated from sales made via personal networking or online marketing.

LCs must be ‘Active’ (i.e. generate 40 QV in sales every 28 – 31 days) to qualify for Retail Bonus Commissions.

2. Fast Start Bonus

Fast Start Bonus arrangements are common to many MLM programs in that they are designed to reward those that can introduce new members to the program. In this case, Sponsors of personally referred new LCs will receive a 50% commission (on the QV allocation) on the first order of the new LC.

LCs must be ‘Active’ (i.e. generate 40 QV in sales every 28 – 31 days) to qualify for the Fast Start Bonus.

3. Binary Pay

Binary Pay is TLC’s version of downline commission payments that LCs can earn as they start to build their teams. As each LC builds their down line, new members are added to legs (another common MLM Practice) with commissions paid on the sales within those legs, regardless of whether the down line member has been personally recruited, or added via another member.

In the case of the TLC program, LCs can be paid a commission of 10 – 25% based on their lesser leg’s CV volume which are capped dependent upon rank. And example is as per below:

To qualify for Binary Pay, each sponsor must be Active and maintain two Active LCs – one on each leg.

4. Matching Bonus

The Matching Bonus is a bonus payment based on the Binary Pay commissions earned by those within the LCs down line that they have personally sponsored. With this payment, LCs earn a 50% match on the binary pay of their personally sponsored Life Changers.

A further 10-50% can also be paid on the binary pay of the LCs that are personally sponsored by those that have generated the Mathching Bonus above (i.e. the personally sponsored LCs of the initial LC)… ummmm I think that makes sense.

The below table outlines the Binary Pay and Matching Bonus Scales as described above:

To qualify for thew Matching Bonus, each sponsor must be Active and maintain a rank of Director or higher.

Note: Combined Binary and Match pay are capped at 60% of a LC’s lesser team volume per week

5. Life Changer Bonus

The Life Changer Bonus is another common payment type for those who reach the upper ranks to assist them with the daily costs of running their business. In this case, a $1500 monthly payment is made to LC’s who are Active and achieve the rank of National Marketing Director or higher for a minimum of three (3) of the weekly bonus periods committed, where the weekly bonus period end date falls within their monthly qualification period.

Ranking structure

Most MLM programs use ranking structures on which to base commission payments and other bonuses upon. Rank progression is usually determined by both the number of members within a Sponsor’s down line, and the total sales made per month. Ranks can rise and fall based on the ability (or dis-ability) to reach the required member and sales targets.

Ranks within the TLC MLM Program are named as follows:

What is good about it?

So, after a good look around the site and looking at all the options I could find, I do like the following:

• Commission rates for entry level sales are good.
• Most bonus options appear to focus on a good balance of sales and recruitment.

What is no so good about it?

There are also some things to be aware of including:

• Commissions and some bonuses are capped.
• Product purchase required at time of sign up.

How much can you make?

I was unable to locate projected income figures on the TLC website backed up by a disclaimer within the compensation plan that average income has not been established at this point.

Based on the information above however, it can be assumed that as with most MLM programs, the percentage of members making the upper rank levels – and hence earning a living – is usually very low.

My final thoughts

Look, MLM is not an easy platform to make money in and if I am being honest, there is not much here to make me think that this program contains anything to give it a boost amongst any other. I guess the real red flag for me here, and one that may even make this one a little more difficult to reach lifestyle sustaining income is that commissions for their main downline binary and matching are capped. This does mean that for those that can manage to make good sales there is the chance that commissions could be lost. To me, this may make looking elsewhere worthwhile.

The joining process is quite simple however immediate financial requirements are evident. Although once you have joined, there are not the usual financial pressures of needing to make minimum personal purchases in order to qualify for commissions as long as you can make them within your down line. Although to be honest, I think if you are going to succeed in any MLM program, you will need to be intricately aware of the products you are promoting – meaning I think some purchases may be necessary – especially if customer purchases alone are not enough to generate ‘Active’ status or maintain rank.

There are some negative reviews in terms of product use as well as some complaints about the MLM program itself in terms of refunds and non-payment of commissions – although it was not really anything that is uncommon in regards to MLM programs. I could not however see any record of any legal issues for the company.

Conclusion

So there you have it, my honest review and appraisal of the Total Life Changes MLM program. I hope it has been of assistance but as usual, if you have any questions or experience with this program please do not hesitate to reach out by commenting below – especially if any of my information is inaccurate.

Are there any other programs you have been looking at but want to know more about? If so, please comment below and I will do my best to get some details for you.

Do you want further assistance with any of the above or need help to build your own online business?

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Until next time

Have fun

Paul

Note: If you make a purchase from this page, there is a very good chance that I make a commission from it – these commissions do not increase your sale price.