Zurvita is a Texas based supplement company which started in 2008. Rather than using traditional methods they use a network of independent consultants to promote the range of Zurvita products.

Here at The Finance Guy, we think that you can’t make money with MLM, but we’ll be happy to be proved wrong. In this full review of Zurvita, we’ll find out if they offer a money making opportunity or if they’re just another MLM money trap.

What is the Zurvita Opportunity

According to the official Zurvita opportunity page, they have created an opportunity that can help anyone. All you need to do is share Zurvita product with others, and you can create additional income. This page has an embedded video, which suggest you participate in the ‘team all star program’. They claim that by following the all star method, you can expect to earn $2,300 in your first 60 days with Zurvita.

The video alludes that their ‘secret to success’, is a combination of their product, their company, and an app for your mobile phone. They describe this as ‘one of the greatest money making opportunities in history’. They even claim that the app ‘does all the prospecting, presenting and selling for you’. We have seen the app, but to us, Zurvita sounds too good to be true.

We then learn a little bit about the products. They can help a wide range of issues which we all suffer, with their ‘all in one wellness drink’. Thanks to their blend of super foods, all you have to do, is feel the benefits of Zurvita and share the results with others. Allegedly after that, ‘how much you earn is up to you’.

While this all sounds very exciting, it didn’t give us much information, so we kept looking. We found another official page about sharing Zurvita. Here we learn that Zurvita provides all the tools needed to achieve your dreams.

Again we are told that if you become a Zurvita independent consultant, they’ll give you all the tools you need to succeed. These include a copy of their website, and access to their mobile app. While it’s nice to hear all these claims about how great the system is, we still don’t know how it works.

How do you Make Money With Zurvita

We found a copy of the Zurvita compensation plan, which explains how consultants earn commission. The first thing we notice is that Zurvita claims to offer a generous plan which is ‘far superior to others’. We’ve heard similar plans from most MLMs we’ve reviewed, and so far they’ve all turned out to be much the same.

The document goes on to explain the different ways to earn with Zurvita, we’ll explain them all in deatail, we even watched a video they made explaining the Zurvita opportunity

The video starts off telling us that the average annual household income in the US is $55,775, which just isn’t enough. It then infers that you can generate this sort of income in your first year with Zurvita.

Again they mention the all star start. All you need to do is follow their system and you’ll be on the path to riches. It’s as simple as finding a few customers, and recruiting just 2 friends to join up as Zurvita consultants. Then of course have them do the same so the system ‘duplicates’. If you can recruit 2 consultants and find 5 customers in your first 30 days, you can earn some sort of cash bonus. This is shown in the image below:

This overly simplified explanation is common to most MLMs. They like to give the impression, that making money is as easy as telling a few friends to join. Then the process ‘duplicates’. Duplication is MLM speak for ‘your friends recruit their friends’. In theory, as this process continues, your team will grow exponentially. We believe that in reality building a team with Zurvita is much more difficult.

The video goes on to describe some of the different ways you can make money with the Zurvita compensation plan. We decided to read the document ourselves and explain them below:

Personal Sales
You can earn up to 20% commission from sales you make to retail customers. If you sign on preferred customers, they will get a discount in exchange for signing up for monthly orders. Zurvita will pay you a commission of 20% based on the BV points value of their orders. Hopefully this will make more sense as we go along.

There is also a customer acquisition bonus. When you sign a preferred customer Zurvita may pay you between $30 and $50, depending on which products they buy with their first order.

Monthly Sales
This is very similar to personal sales, except this is the 20% commission you can earn from any Zurvita consultants you personally sponsor. These are known as your ‘front line’.

You can also earn a one off ‘Builders Bonus’ of between $50 and $100 for each consultant you sponsor. The amount you earn will depend on which starters pack they buy. There are several options for becoming a consultant. All of them come with replicated Zurvita website as well as access to their app and other support tools.

As you build your Zurvita business, and sponsor new consultants, you will start to build your downline. Each consultant you personally sponsor on your front line, will be a ‘leg’. Anyone sponsored by them, (or under them), will be in your downline levels. This is illustrated in the diagram below:

All Star Bonuses
In your first 30 days as a new Zurvita consultant, you will have the chance to qualify for the customer and the team all star bonuses. The customer bonus is earned when you enrol 5 preferred customers. You can earn $250 for the customer bonus.

The team all star bonus is $800. To earn this you need to recruit at least 2 new consultants, and have them order a combined total of at least 3,000 TBV (Team Bonus Volume). We find this interesting because it looks like an incentive to ask new consultants to overspend.

Team Bonus
Every time you accumulate 3,000 TBV in your downlilne, you could earn a $400 team bonus. To qualify you need to ensure that no more than 50% of your volume comes from one leg. You can earn more than one team bonus in any given month, all you have to do is generate the TBV.

You can increase your team bonuses to $600, if you buy or lease an approved car, and let Zurvita put their advertising on it.

Overrides
Overrides are what MLM like to call your ‘residual income’. Depending on your rank in Zurvita, you can earn commission on up to 8 levels in your downline. We made the table below to show what overrides can be earned at each rank.

You can increase your team bonuses to $600, if you buy or lease an approved car, and let Zurvita put their advertising on it.

As we can see, once you reach the rank of ‘Zurvita Presedential Director’, you can earn a 5% override on 8 levels in your downline. While this is all good for those who reach these ranks, for the rest it’s not. All these commissions are included in the price paid by consultants. If you are a ‘Business Consultant’, then 40% of what you pay to Zurvita, goes to your upline as commission.

Infinity Overrides
The commission doesn’t end at 8 levels. Once you reach the level of Presidential Director, you can earn an additional commission form level 9 down through your entire downline. The infinity override cancels out if someone else in your downline reaches same rank as you. The infinity bonuses paid by Zurvita at each rank, is shown below:.

Once again, these bonuses are included in the price charged by Zurvita to consultants. This means that in total 44.75% of what consultants pay to Zurvita goes to their upline as commission.

On top of all these commissions, you can also earn one of bonuses for achieving promotions in Zurvita. Once you reach the rank of Premier Consultant, you can earn a $500 bonus. This bonus increases for every rank you achieve after this level.

With all these generous commissions, it certainly looks possible to make money from Zurvita. All you need to do is share the products, share the opportunity, and work your way up the system.

Are Zurvita Consultants Making Money

To find out if Zurvita consultants are making money, we first looked at page 24 of the compensation plan. This was a copy of their income disclosure from August 2014 to July 2015. During this period, it appears most consultants didn’t make much money.

That might have been a bad year, so we also found a copy of the 2016 Zurvita Income Disclosure. This showed all commissions paid to consultants in 2016. We didn’t like the way they presented the data, so instead we used it to create the table below:

The video we shared suggests that you can make $55,775 in your first year with Zurvita. However when we look at the results from 2016, only 0.38% earned at this level or above. In other words, 99.62% of Zurvita Consultants earn less than a full time income.

It’s important to remember that there is a different between income and profit. The figures shown in the table above, do not include any expenses. Remember you will incur some costs in running your Zurvita consultant business. If we were to include all expenses, we believe we’d find that most Zurvita consultants are losing money.

Why is it Difficult to Make Money With Zurvita

We believe that the problem is not unique to Zurvita. The problem is with MLM as a business model. In his book, Multi-level Marketing Unmasked, Jon Taylor found that 99.7% of people who join any MLM, end up losing money. Despite what you hear in the sales pitches, it is highly unlikely that you will make money from any network marketing company.

MLM is a way for companies to sell products without employing a sales force and without having to spend money on traditional advertising and promotions. Instead they build a network of loyal believers who are willing to pay unusually high prices for the added hopes and dreams of financial freedom.

The compensation plan may look appealing, but it makes the products more expensive. Even at their wholesale prices, there is a 44.75% price loading on Zurvita products. This is just to pay commissions to your upline. This is before Zurvita covers their own costs of production or includes a profit margin.

The only way to make money with Zurvita, is if you make a lot of sales. Any salesperson will tell you that the best way to make sales, is with a good quality product.

While we didn’t try any ourselves, we did read a Zurvita product review. Which found that the products are not FDA approved. There is no evidence that they provide any benefits. Some ingredients in Zurvita can cause harmful side effects.

The only way to make money with Zurvita, is if you make a lot of sales. Any salesperson will tell you that the best way to make sales, is with a good quality product.

Is Zurvita 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. If you knew that less than 1% of people had a chance of generating a real income, would you feel comfortable recruiting new consultants?

Another issue, is that even though these rules may be in the paperwork, they are difficult to enforce. For example, several people in MLMs have said that they have cupboards full of product. This is because of the minimum monthly purchases they need to make to remain active in the system. Even though stockpiling is against the rules, there is no way for the company to monitor it.

We don’t believe that Zurvita consultants are trying to scam new recruits. It’s more likely that they themselves believe the promotional hype. They think that if they keep sharing, they’ll one day be wealthy Sadly, most will never achieve any real results, as the chances of success with Zurvita are less than 1/200

Should You Join Zurvita

The only reason you should join any MLM, is if you are already a customer, and you believe in the products. If you are happy paying full retail price for Zurvita products without any commissions, then you might be able to sell them to others.

If you are looking for an opportunity to earn extra money, then we suggest you look at all your options before deciding to join Zurvita. If you have the incredible sales skills it takes to make money with Zurvita, it’s quite likely that you could use those skill to make even more money in a regular sales job.

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

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