Asea was founded in 2007 and is based in Pleasant Grove Utah. They produce a line of nutritional supplements which aid in ‘redox signalling molecules’. According to the Asea website, redox molecules ‘optimize cellular function and overall health and wellness’.

Rather than using traditional sales avenues, Asea has chosen to sell their supplements through an international MLM network of ‘associates’. Here at The Finance Guy, we think it’s pretty tough to make money with MLM. Having said that we won’t let it stop us from doing a full review of the Asea business opportunity.

What Is The Asea Opportunity

To find out more we looked at the official Asea Opportunity page. They start off by telling us how excited we should be about the redox thing, (which you probably haven’t heard of before now). They say ‘Being involved with ASEA—the only company with a redox supplement—can impact more than just your health; it can impact your financial future’. Now that sound exciting! Only problem is that it could be a negative impact on your financial future.

They go on to tell us a bunch of stuff which really doesn’t matter very much. Statistics about college graduate earnings and how ‘70% of people who start their own business, do so because they want to be their own boss’.

The Asea opportunity page carries on with more hype, but not much content. For example we see that this is an opportunity to create ‘income your way’. Forget the regular paycheck, Asea is a great way to ‘put your residual income plan into place’.

They boast about their retention rates which by their numbers are between 45% and 60%. In other words Asea is proud that around half their associates quit every year. We can’t dispute their claim that this is an above average result for the MLM industry.

Asea goes on to tell us that now is the time if you become an associate, ‘you can own your own thriving business’. No matter who you are, or what you’re looking for, ‘ASEA offers you the chance to achieve your personal and financial goals,’.

It was all a bit vague, so we decided to have a look at this video of the Asea opportunity:

The video starts off with some disturbing claims that ‘it is often found that 7 out of 10 households are financially stressed and would love an additional income’. We then hear that the Asea redox signalling technology is the start of the next big wave. This is your opportunity to jump on early! We then find out that Asea is the only one making these products with ‘life changing benefits’. They claim this is a formula for ‘a tremendous financial opportunity’.

The video claims that ‘a pharmaceutical company’, made a multi-million dollar offer for the business, with the condition that everyone stop using the product. Rather than take the money, Asea decided to keep the ‘life changing benefits’ available through network marketing. It could be true but this sounds like it could be this is a made up story about Asea

We hear some familiar claims about MLM, including;
- work from home
- be your own boss
- work for yourself, not by yourself
- get training from people in your upline
- the potential to earn unlimited income

We’ve heard all the standard lines about the benefits of MLM. In the past they’ve proven to be nothing more than hype, but maybe Asea is different. The video goes on for a few more minutes about the power of residual income. It then reminds us again that Asea has unique products that nobody has heard of yet. It then finishes off with an explanation of how to join Asea

While the video definitely showed us that someone is very excited, it didn’t give us much real information. We still don’t know why the products are good for us or what it is that they do. While we know there is an opportunity to join the MLM as an Asea Associate, we don’t know how the business works.

How Do You Make Money As An Asea Associate

To find out how associates make money, we looked at the Asea compensation page. This explains all the ways that we can make money from the Asea business opportunity. This was a little light on detail, so we also looked at a full copy of the Asea Compensation Plan. We’ll go through each of the 8 ways to earn with Asea:

1. Retail Sales
If you can find retail customers, you can earn commission by selling them Asea products. This can either be done in person, or through a link to your Asea webpage. If sales are made online, then the Commissionable Volume (CV), is automatically added to your lesser leg. This will make more sense as we go along.

2. Preferred Customer Bonus
If your customers sign up for autoship, they can buy Asea products at the wholesale prices. You still get $25 every time they buy a case of product. To qualify for this bonus you must purchase 100 PV worth of Asea per month. This personal volume will ensure that you are an ‘active’ Asea Associate

3. Fast Start Bonus
When you personally sponsor a new Asea Associate into your downline, and they buy product as part of their sign up process, you can earn a fast start bonus. This bonus is not just paid to you, people on 2 levels in your upline can also earn fast start bonuses from your recruits. The Asea fast start bonuses available, are shown in the image below:

As we can see, the amount of fast start bonus you can earn from Asea depends on how much the new recruit spends on their starter pack. Put simply you can earn US $20 for every case they buy. The fun doesn’t end there though. If someone in your first or second level downline earns a fast start, then so will you (but it will be a smaller amount). If you are a new recruit, it’s important to remember that 3 levels of your upline earn commission from your Asea enrollement pack. So ask yourself this. When they try to encourage you to buy big on your first purchase is it good for you or is it good for them?

4. Director Bonus
If you reach the rank of ‘director’, within 2 weeks of joining Asea, they’ll pay you $50. To us this seems a bit nonsensical. All we really see that Asea is trying to rush new recruits to into growing their downlines.

5. Team Commissions
Asea uses what’s known in MLM as ‘binary downline’. To earn downline commission in these systems, you need to be active and qualified. By balanced we mean you get paid based on the volume in your ‘weaker leg’. To understand how this works we’ll start with this image of a binary MLM system:

You Asea downline will look something like this, (but please don’t call it a pyramid). As we can see your recruits will be split into 2 legs, left and right. To earn a team commission from Asea, you will need to have at least 300 worth of Group Voume (GV) on each leg. The amount you get paid will be 10% of the GV in your lesser leg. In other words the most team commission you can earn with Asea is 5%.

To be qualified, you need to personally spend 100 PV per month on Asea products. To be qualified for team commission, you need to have at least one associate in each leg who is also active and spending 100 worth of volume.

Given that you get paid on the weekly volume of your ‘lesser leg’, you may wonder what happens to the left over volume on your strong leg. Well not to worry because it is carried over as long as you remain active. It is possible to accumulate more volume than you can use in your strong leg. This is why it is very important to remain balanced in a binary compensation plan.

The problem we have with binary compensation, is that it allows the company to keep the benefits if you happen to recruit a superstar performer in one leg but not the other.

6. Executive Momentum Bonus
If you reach one of the Asea ‘Executive’ranks you might qualify for this bonus. You have to be ranked at least Bronze or higher in the Asea MLM then you can share in this monthly pool. The bonus is calculated on 2% of all Asea volume. The amount you get will depend on your rank and your group volume for that month. For us the problem is that this bonus is included in the price paid by Asea associates.

Auto ad place in header

7. Check Match
As the name suggests, you can earn a matching bonus on any commission earned by associates in your downline. This is paid on up to 7 levels in your downline. The amount of check matching bonus you can earn depends on your rank and on how many associates you have in your downline. Each time you personally sponsor someone, they become a new ‘leg’ in your downline. The more legs you have the more check matching you can earn.

8. Diamond Pool
If you reach one of the ‘Diamond’ ranks with Asea, then you can earn a share of this bonus. Asea pays out 3% of their global volume as a diamond bonus. The amount you can earn depends on your rank, and the volume you have generated in your Asea downline.

How Do You Get Promoted With Asea

LIke all MLMs, to advance through the ranks with Asea you need to grow your volume and recruit associates. The different ranks and their qualification criteria are shown in the image below:

Are Asea Associates Making Money

To find out how much associates are making, we looked at the 2019 Asea Income Disclosure Statement. This document shows how much commission was paid to associates at various ranks in Asea. The information they provided, is shown in the image below:

The first thing we notice is that they have only shown the earnings for those who made past the associate rank. This represents 13.68% of all active Asea associates. In other words 86.32% of all active Asea associates never achieved any advancement. Furthermore the majority of associates are not included in this income disclosure.

If we look at the average monthly earnings, we notice that at the rank of ‘silver’, associates start to earn close to a full time income. Having said that only 0.2% of associates make it to this rank or higher. In other words 99.80% of active Asea associates earn less than a full time income.

Why Is It So Difficult To Make Money With Asea

The problem with the Asea opportunity is not unique to them. It’s difficult to make money with any MLM system. The reason for this is because network marketing is designed to sell products and make money for the corporation. As an Asea associate, you’re their customer, not a company shareholder.

No matter what anyone tells, you the Asea opportunity is a sales job. To be successful you need to be good at finding customers and making sales. Simply sharing the opportunity won’t make you any money unless someone in the downline is buying product.

Is Asea An Illegal Pyramid Scam

Even though MLMs closely resemble pyramid schemes, they are not illegal. The reason dates back to the 1979 case of Amway vs the FTC. After 4 years in court Amway was found to be offering a business opportunity, rather than a pyramid scam. The technicalities came down to wording in their paperwork. One example requires consultants to make retail sales.

The Amway ruling effectively opened the doors for all other MLMs to operate within the law. However we should remember that being legal doesn’t make it ethical. Would you feel comfortable recruiting for a business opportunity if less than 1 in 500 associates earned a full time income? That’s what you’d need to do to build a downline with Asea.

As always, we’d love to hear what you think in the comments section below, especially if you an share your experiences with Asea

Are you wondering if you can make money in an MLM? Check our our list of mlm reviews before you join. If you find one that’s not on the list, let us know and we’ll do our best to write a review