Having a home-based business is a desirable opportunity for many, and with good reason – for beginners, you get to have more control over your schedule as you can customize the hours that you work to meet the various needs of your life. However, with so many different opportunities available, it can be hard to find one that suits you best, especially with so many scams being debunked. This review takes a look at Organo Coffee, one such opportunity, to determine if it is worth a try. So let’s dive in and answer the question: Is Organo coffee a scam?
WHAT IS IT?
Organo Coffee, otherwise known as Organo Gold, is a multi-level marketing company that was founded in British Columbia by 2008 by Bernie Chua. The main ingredient in most of the products produced by the company is Ganoderma lucidum, which is a mushroom that has been used in the Chinese culture to treat various ailments for thousands of years. Some of its supposed benefits include immune system boost, anti-inflammatory properties, and blood pressure regulation, among others.
Chua joined forces with Shane Morand who took over the distribution aspect of the business. After its initial launch, the company encountered some issues as they could not keep up with the demand for their products, which meant that many customers failed to receive what they ordered. As a result, the brand was relaunched in 2010 when Chua brought in Holten Buggs to serve as the VP of sales to mitigate the issues they were facing. Ever since then, Organo Gold has been functioning, despite being subjected to some controversies along the way.
WHAT PRODUCTS DOES THE COMPANY OFFER?
The products offered are broken down into the following categories:
BEVERAGES
The products offered here include:
- Black coffee
This is a regular black coffee that contains organic Ganoderma lucidum. There are 30 bags in a box for the cost of $27.
- King of coffee
This is organic coffee that is blended from supposedly the finest organic beans and Ganoderma. There are 25 bags in a box that is sold at $46.50
- Café latte
This is blended with sugar, cream, and a bit of Ganoderma. There are 20 bags per box, one of which costs $27.
- Café mocha
This is coffee that contains a cocoa flavor, with 15 bags in a box that costs $31.50.
- Café supreme
This is a creamy and sweetened coffee that contains Ginseng as well as Ganoderma. For $34.50, you get 20 bags.
- Hot cocoa
This is a rich blend of rich cocoa and Ganoderma that is caffeine-free. For a box that contains 15 bags, you have to part with $31.50.
- Green tea
This is an organic green tea that is combined with Ganoderma. A box contains 25 bags and costs $33.
- Red tea
The Organo red tea is an aromatic tea that blends cordyceps and Ganoderma. There are 25 bags in a box that costs $33.
- Black ice
This is an iced tea drink that is enhanced with Amazonian Guarana and Ganoderma. There are 20 bags in a box that costs $39.
BODY MANAGEMENT
This is a range of supplements that include spore powder, grape seed oil, Mycelium, and Ganoderma lucidum.
PERSONAL CARE
There are two products sold in this category, namely the Organo Smile toothpaste and Premium G3 beauty soap.
SKINCARE
The skincare range comprises of a variety of products such as a jojoba anti-aging serum, bee venom anti-aging mask, and retinol anti-aging moisturizer.
As a preferred customer, you get 25% off on the retail price of all products sold by the company.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO BECOME PART OF THE BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY?
Just like with many other MLMs, you have to part with some of your hard-earned cash to be part of the business opportunity.
STARTER PACK – THE BUSINESS ENTRY KIT
To get started as an independent distributor, you are required to pay $49.95 for the starter package. This allows you access to a replicated website that you can use to promote the products as well as your Organo Gold back office. You will also receive resources that are intended to help you grow your business, including brochures and applications, coffee samples, a distributor binder, and access to wholesale purchases. Access to the back office is free only for a year, after which you will have to pay extra fees on top of the $49.95.
BRONZE PACK
This pack will cost you $150, and by buying it, you qualify to earn 10% commissions as per the compensation plan. You also need to maintain an auto-ship of $50 per month.
SILVER PACK
The next package level is silver, costing $450. When you buy the silver pack, you qualify to receive up to 15% commissions according to the compensation plan. You are required to pay $100 per month to maintain an auto-ship.
GOLD PACK
The gold pack will cost you a steep $1300 which will qualify you to receive up to 20% in commissions as per the compensation plan. You also have to pay 100 per month for your auto-ship.
It is worth noting that an auto-ship means that you have to buy a given number of Organo Gold products every month that will then be shipped to you automatically. You have the option to either use the products yourself or sell them to other people to earn profits.
THE COMPENSATION PLAN
Organo Gold has a binary compensation plan that encourages you to recruit sellers, build two teams, and sell products. Since it is an MLM business, you are required to recruit people that will become part of your downline, then train them to recruit people who will sell under them. The higher the activity in your downline, the higher the passive income you make.
According to the compensation plan, there are seven ways you can make money with the company:
Retail Profit (paid weekly/daily)
As a distributor for Organo Gold, when you successfully sell a product to customers through your personalized website or in person, you will receive the difference between the selling price and the wholesale price. Products that are ordered from the website are sold at the suggested retail price. You get to earn up to 50% profit.
Fast Track Bonus (paid weekly)
Every time that a distributor you enroll opts to build their own business and you help them to sell any one of the promotional product packs, you are eligible for a fast track bonus of $20-$150. There is no limit on the number of packs that you can sell.
Dual Team Bonus
The dual team results from a dynamic structure that allows you to receive compensation for managing to generate sales volume within your placement tree and consequently getting your downline to do the same. You get to make earnings on all the sales of the distributors that you, your downline, and your downline place in the placement tree.
Placement trees are made up of the right team and left team, either of which can be the pay leg (lesser leg) or power leg (strong leg) on a commissionable period. You can earn up to 20% on the pay leg’s sale volume.
Grow your dual team by developing two distributors that are personally sponsored on each team and help each to generate a minimum of 50 personal qualifying volume (PQV). To remain qualified for this bonus, you have to maintain the PQV requirements.
Unilevel Bonus (paid monthly)
Grow a sold customer and distributor base and consequently earn bonuses each month from orders on products or re-orders that are generated in your business down to nine levels deep. You are required to maintain status if you want to be eligible to earn this bonus.
Unilevel Matching Bonus (paid monthly)
You get to receive up to 20% of the unilevel bonus that your personally sponsored distributors earn. Additionally, you also receive up to 10% unilevel matching bonuses on a maximum of three additional levels.
Generational Leadership Bonus (paid monthly)
When you attain the level of sapphire or higher and bring in new sapphires (and above) in your business, you will receive payments down to as many as four generations of the rank and above. A generation starts when someone that achieves the sapphire rank or higher is within any leg of your enrolment tree and terminates with, but doesn’t include, the next qualified sapphire or higher.
Global Pool (this is earned monthly and paid quarterly)
Those who attain the ruby rank and above will receive 3% of the worldwide unilevel commissionable volume (CV) earned by Organo Gold. The global pool pays in direct proportion to your sales contribution to the cumulative unilevel CV.
Below are the ranks and what you are required to achieve and maintain them:
- Representative
This is the entry-level that you achieve when you buy the Organo Gold business kit.
- Marketing associate
To achieve this rank, you are required to generate a minimum of 200 PQV in sales. Alternatively, you can generate 50 PV as well as helping two of the people you recruit to sell a builder pack within a month.
- Supervisor
You can either generate 500 PQV in sales or generate 50 PQV and at the same time help three of the people you enroll as distributors sell a builder pack within a month.
- Consultant
You are required to generate 1000 PQV in sales or achieve the alternative requirement of helping five of the people you recruited to each sell a builder pack within a month.
- Sapphire
To achieve the sapphire rank, you have to generate a minimum of 100 PQV every month. You also have to accumulate a total of 14,000 group qualifying volume (GQV) every month from the sales made in your unilevel organization, with a maximum of 40% of the GQV coming directly from one unilevel leg. Another requirement is that you have to help at least four of the people you recruit to qualify as consultants or a higher rank every month.
- Ruby
You have to generate a minimum of 200 PQV, build up at least 40,000 GQV a month from sales with a maximum of 40% of the GQV coming from one unilevel leg, and help at least four of those you recruit to qualify as consultants or a higher rank every month.
- Emerald
You are required to generate a minimum of 200 PQV each month, accumulate at least 80,000 GQV every month from sales with a maximum of 40% of the GQV being brought in from one unilevel leg, and help at least eight of those you recruit to achieve the consultant rank or higher every month.
- Diamond
You have to come up with at least 200 PQV every month, generate a minimum of 200,000 GQV a month from sales with a maximum of 40% GQV being brought in by one unilevel leg, and help at least ten of those you recruit become consultants or higher.
- Blue Diamond
Attain this rank by generating 200 PQV per month, accumulating a minimum of 500,000 GQV a month from your unilevel team with a maximum of 30% coming from one unilevel leg, help at least ten of those you recruit become consultants or achieve a higher rank, and generate dual team commissionable volume (CV) of a minimum of 100,000 on both dual team legs every month.
- Black Diamond
You have to make a minimum of 200 sales per month, accumulate a minimum of 1,000,000 GQV a month from your unilevel team with a maximum of 30% coming from one unilevel leg, help at least ten of the distributors you recruit become consultants or above, and generate at least 200,000 CV a month.
- Crown Diamond
You have to generate a minimum of 200 PQV a month, accumulate at least 2,000,000 GQV a month from your unilevel team with a maximum of 30% coming from one unilevel leg, help at least ten of those you recruit become consultants and above and generate a minimum of 400,000 CV per month.
- Crown Ambassador
You are required to come up with at least 200 PQV a month, accumulate a minimum of 5,000,000 GQV a month from your unilevel team with a maximum of 30% coming from one unilevel leg, help ten of the people you recruit achieve the consultant rank or higher, and generate a minimum of 1,000,000 CV per month.
PROS
- Despite the low-income potential, Organo Gold provides an income disclosure statement, something that many MLMs avoid doing.
- Organo Gold sponsors OG Cares Foundation, a charitable organization meant to support children by providing them with a variety of opportunities.
CONS
The earning potential of working with the company is very low. For instance, almost 90% of all active distributors make less than $600 in a year.- You have to keep recruiting family, friends, and anyone else you can convince to join if you want to maintain your earnings.
- There have been issues raised by customers regarding the quality of the products containing Ganoderma (a majority of their bestsellers), with many of them experiencing health problems especially when they consumed the products for an extended period.
- You have to be constantly active, whether it is purchasing and consuming or selling the products, or helping those you recruit to meet their sales requirement.
The earning potential of working with the company is very low. For instance, almost 90% of all active distributors make less than $600 in a year.VERDICT
Despite being a genuine company, there is very little chance that you will make money with Organo Gold due to its MLM model. This is because it is structured in a way that allows only those at the very top of the model to make a considerable amount of money, while everyone else will always struggle.
WHAT IS BETTER THAN ORGANO COFFEE?
If you are looking for a proven way to make money from the comfort of your own home I highly recommend Affiliate Marketing. It is a model that has created financial freedom for countless people around the world. You don’t need to harass your family or friends and force them into buying products they don’t want. Affiliate marketing is a model that rewards you for successfully recommending products that you believe in.
It is the model that I use to create financial freedom and security for my family. It requires hard work and is by no means a get-rich-quick scheme. All you need is a little knowledge and the willingness to put in the work.
I can help you with the knowledge part 🙂
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I hope you take advantage of this opportunity. I did many years ago and never looked back!
To your success,
Mike Aha