Jeunesse recently won the 2017 Direct Selling News Growth Award. We decided this was a good reason to write a streetonomic review of Jeunesse, to find out if you can make money with them.

Since launching in 2009 from Florida, the company has expanded at an impressive rate. In 2016, Jeunesse made over $1.4 Billion worth of sales in more than 120 markets around the world. The products are sold through an international network marketing system.

Jeunesse produces a range of anti-aging and skin care cosmetics, as well as nutritional and weight loss supplements. People join Jeunesse to share the products and take advantage of their unique business opportunity, which allegedly can give you a life of 'time, freedom and financial security'.

We believe that you can't make money with MLM, but let's find out if Jeunesse is any different.

How do You Make Money With Jeunesse

We found a video explaining how you earn with Jeunesse. They describe the process of 'social selling', which allows you to become wealthy if you 'share your personal review, and let your friends come to you'. The emphasis is on recruiting because when you start building a team 'your earning potential opens up'. We've heard similar claims from other MLMs, and we believe making money in network marketing is more difficult than just talking to your friends.

The video went on to explain that there are 6 ways to earn with Jeunesse. To find out more about how you can earn money, we looked at the full compensation plan, or as they call it, The Juenesse business opportunity.

This document explains that the 'key to your success' is in sharing these products which are 'incredibly powerful and in demand'. It goes on to explain that through sharing Juenesse products, you can choose to earn a little extra each month, or generate a full-time income..

The purpose of this review is to find out if you can make money with what Jeunesse calls ' one of the most competitive compensation plans in the industry'. We will look at each of the 6 ways to earn and find out if they are really unique, or just another MLM:

1. Retail Profit
Like all network marketing companies, members can sell Jeunesse products in the retail market. The website claims that members can make between 20% and 45% retail profit. Why is there such a large variance? This comes down to the type of customer you are selling to.

If you sell products at full retail price, you can make the full 45% commission. If the customer is a 'preferred customer' and is buying their product on 'autoship', then they'll pay 20% less. If they are just a preferred customer (not on autoship) they'll pay 10% less. These discounts come out of your profit, Jeunesse still makes their full wholesale profit.

Preferred customers require less work because they can order product online and you still get paid commission. Autoship customers get their products sent out each month without having to manually place orders. You will earn less money per order from these customers, but it is a lot less work!

2. First Order Bonus
This is exactly what it sounds like! If you sign up a new customer, you can earn a bonus commission on their first order. The more they order, the more you earn. This is shown in the table below:

Based on 2017 Juenesse retail package prices and 2015 FOB compensation paid

If you become a Jeunesse customer, then the member who signed you up will want you to spend as much as possible on your first order.

3. Team Commission
Jeunesse claims to offer a 'unique' compensation plan, which is the 'most competitive in the industry', but to us it appears that the Jeunesse team bonus is very similar to the Isagenix You Share, They Share model.

The information provided by Jeunesse is inconclusive, but we believe that their MLM is a binary system, which means that you will have a left team and a right team. To qualify for team commission, you and your team need to accumulate 'Commissionable Volume' (CV).

Each Jeunesse product is assigned a CV value. If you personally purchase 100 CV in a month, and have one person from your left team and one from your right team do the same, then you will 'activate' your eligibility for team commission. Based on a U.S Jeunesse price list we estimate that 100 CV of product would cost around US $140

Every time you accumulate a total of 900 CV points (with up to 600 from one team and 300 from the other), you will earn U.S $35 in commission. This bonus can be earned up to 750 times per week, which would result in a team commission of $26,260. Our understanding of this is shown in the diagram below:

Jeunesse will pay team commission on the CV generated up to 7 levels deep. Once your friends start telling their friends, your team commission has the potential to become quite substantial. That is assuming that you can build a team full of people who keep buying Jeunesse product

4. Leadership Matching Bonus
Once you reach the rank of 'Jade Executive' you will get a monthly bonus which is equal to 20% of any commission earned by everyone you have personally enrolled in Jeunesse. As you climb up the ranks, this bonus grows because you can earn it on more levels.

Once you reach the rank of 'double diamond director', you can earn the maximum bonus paid up to 7 levels. This means that your matching bonus will be calculated on people you sponsor, as well as those they sponsor.

We found a copy of the Jeunesse ranks chart, which appears to have been uploaded by an existing member. This explains what is required to qualify for each rank in the Jeunesse heirarchy. The full leadership matching bonus, paid to 7 levels, is shown below:

5. Customer Acquisition Incentive
Some people will join Jeunesse just to buy the product at a discount. If you can sponsor 5 customers and they all make a purchase in the same month, you will earn a 5% bonus on whatever they buy. If you have 10 customers then you can earn the maximum 10% customer acquisition incentive.

We like this incentive because it encourages members to find customers. Not everyone will want to join the business, and many of them will not purchase much product (specially if they're not earning a lot from it). Any salesperson will tell you that you can't make money without customers

6. Diamond Bonus Pool
To qualify for this, you must reach the rank of 'Diamond Director' or higher, and have 10 sponsored customers making purchases each month. You will then qualify to earn shares in the diamond bonus pool. Every quarter Jeunesse will pay out 3% of CV to the diamond pool, which will be divided equally by the number of shares.

Earning shares is an area where Jeunesse could have provided more detail. We believe that you can earn more diamond pool shares if people you sponsor reach high enough ranks, and if your entire team buys enough product. You will also get extra shares for hitting these targets in more than one consecutive month during each quarter.

Are People Making Money With Jeunesse

We managed to find a copy of the U.S 2014 Juenuesse Income Disclosure Statement. We were not able to find a more recent copy, which we see as a red flag. If people were doing well with Jeunesse, then they'd proudly display the results.

We found that in 2014 in the U.S, most Jeunesse distributors did not earn much commission. We created the table below using the data from their disclosure:

Our calculations found that in the U.S in 2014, 98.88% of Jeunesse distributors earned less than $5,000 in commission. The 'competitive' Jeunesse rewards plan paid them less than $100 per week!

Like all all MLMs, there are some people making good money from Jeunesse. We found that 0.23% of all U.S distributors earned over $50,000 in commissions in 2014. That's means that only 1 in every 435 Jeunesse distributors earned a full time income

Why is it Difficult to Make Money With Jeunesse

Here at The Finance Guy, we believe that mulit-level marketing is a business model which simply does not make money for members. There's no question that it works for the companies, after all Jeunesse reached over $1.4 Billion in sales in 2016.

People who sign up for the 'business opportunity', are really signing up to become customers. The 'wholesale price' they pay is heavily inflated in order to fund the incentive program, which as we saw, is only lucrative to 0.23% of all members.

We are not alone in our point of view. In his free e-book 'Multi-Level Marketing Unmasked', Jon Taylor found that 99.7% of people will lose money if they join network marketing. He describes mlm as an 'unfair and deceptive practice'. The main problems Dr Taylor found with the MLM business model are that it relies on endless recruitment, and most of the rewards for sales are paid to the upline.

Is Jeunesse an Illegal Pyramid Scam

Even though they closely resemble pyramid schemes, network marketing companies are legal as long as they are promoting a product or service. Legal does not mean that they are ethical. Offering people the hope of financial freedom in exchange for buying your products is not a tactic all of us would employ

Legal problems often arise with how members promote MLMs. There have been many instances of complaints against distributors who have exaggerated the benefits of the products or have made false promises about the potential income.

Jeunesse has not been immune to these problems. In January 2017, Jeunesse was hit with their second class action law suit in less than 12 months. Both complaints filed with the FTC allege that top distributors engaged in racketeering of pyramid scheme. They raise questions over the health and income claims made in the marketing material.

An investigation by Truth In Advertising, identified several areas of concern with Jeunesse. Some of the issues they raised related to 'inappropriate health claims', 'confusing compensation plan', and 'incredible income claims'. They urge consumers to take be careful when dealing with Jeunesse distributors.

Should You Join Jeunesse

The only reason you should join Jeunesse, is if you are already using the product and believe you are getting benefit from it without the business opportunity. Signing up could give you access to cheaper product, but as Truth in Advertising points out, Jeunesse products are often available on sites like Amazon, at prices which are significantly below the wholesale price.

If you think you have the skills to build a profitable network marketing business, then we suggest you consider other options too. It is more likely than not, that you can apply the same skills to build an even more profitable business for yourself which doesn't require you to constantly recruit people, most of which will never see a profit.

As always, we'd love to hear your feedback in the comments section below, especially if you can share your own experiences with Jeunesse

For more posts like this, look at our list of mlm reviews.