She lies about how much money she’s made because to tell the truth would be “negative” and she is convinced she will be an Eagle making the big bucks…someday. So, she figures, it’s OK to fib about things now–or to bring prospects over to her big, fancy house and give them the impression her Send Out Cards income contributes to having it when in fact, the house is rented and her husband’s income pays all the bills. Or that it’s OK to pester the shit out of everyone she knows putting the hard sell on because she’s “not trying to sell them something, I’m just trying to share how to enrich their lives by responding to promptings!” Or to join a church when she’s never attended one in her entire life before–not out of some deep sense of religious conviction–but because it’s a good way to recruit people into Send Out Cards.

In reality, she has been doing it for five years, and is still only a senior manager. She makes now about $2,000 per year, but spends thousands more attending Send Out Cards events all over the country, the cost to remain in Send Out Cards with the autoship, photo store purchases, gift accounts trying to get people to sign up, motivational books, DVDs, magazines, and now the cost of the “certified training program”. Her Scedule C has shown a loss for all 5 years. I have warned her the IRS may consider Send Out Cards a “hobby” and disallow her deductions, making her owe back taxes plus penalties and interest, as has occurred with other MLM people, but she doesn’t care of course–she is 100% sure eventually she’ll make the big bucks and the expenses will be worth it.

I don’t buy products from companies–even if the product is awesome–who tell people they can be financially free if they just work hard, when their income disclosure shows that’s not the case. And when my friend fails to make millions, like the 130,000 others who have joined Send Out Cards since it started, she’s going to think it’s because she didn’t work hard enough, not because the system is rigged against her success. Selling false hope isn’t illegal, but it sure is crappy, unethical, and slimy.

Theresa

People who have been in Send Out Cards an average of 18 months (Senior Managers) made a median of $3,000 and Managers made $563, so let’s run some numbers and see what a reasonable take home for those 18 months of work might be for a hypothetical Senior Manager.

Our hypothetical Senior Manager in the 18 months since he joined made a median of $563 when he was a manager for a year, and a median of $1500 for the 6 months at Senior Manager for a grand total of $2,063 in income. Now for the deductions over those 18 months

1. Cost to join: $465
2. $31 autoship for 18 months $558
3. Yearly renewal fee $59
4. Two trips to the national convention and/or recruiting mastery event $2,000
6. Gift account purchases, photo store purchases, Send Out Cards motivational books, magazines, and DVD purchases let’s say $500

Total expenses for 18 months: $3,582

Net income since joining Send Out Cards: $ – 1,519 for an average of 12 hours per work a week for let’s say 73 weeks of work = 876 hours of work to be in a hole by more than $1,000. By contrast, a minimum wage job employee would have brought in $6,351 for the same hours of work.

Wow! What an amazing system! Financial Freedom here you come!