Monat Global, a multi-level marketing company that sells hair care and skin care products, claims to have helped thousands of lives through its legit business opportunity. But is Monat a pyramid scheme? Is it legit or a scam? Let’s find out in this Monat review.
Multi-level marketing companies, or MLM, otherwise known as networking companies have always been there as far as I can remember.
Many of us have heard, even purchased, products from Tupperware, Forever Living, Mary Kay, Herbalife, and Avon. These are legit companies that were able to build a solid and credible reputation in the MLM world.
But not every MLM company is legit. Other MLM companies insist that they offer a legit business opportunity, but their members only end up losing money down the road. So when I heard about another MLM company called Monat Global, the curiosity got the better of me and started digging into it.
I wanted to learn everything I can about Monat global. Is it indeed a network marketing company, or is it another pyramid scheme you need to be wary of? How does Monat operate, how does it make money, and how do you earn money from it? If you want to know, then read the rest of this Monat review!
But First, a Quick Disclaimer
Table of Contents
I am not a member or an affiliate of Monat. I aim to make This Mama Blogs a site where women can explore legit options in making money from home. In line with this goal, I write reviews about opportunities, jobs, and companies. This review has been written with information available on the internet. Any conclusion drawn in this post is my personal opinion and entirely my own.
MLM vs Pyramid Scheme
There seems to be a blurry line between what an MLM company and a pyramid scheme. But let me tell you this, in the eyes of law, one of these business models is illegal, and the other is not.
So let’s first try to understand what multi-level marketing is. According to Investopedia, an MLM company uses a direct marketing approach wherein existing distributors entice other people to join the company through their network. So when you recruit others to join the company, you become the upline and them, your downline.
In most MLM companies, members are ranked or tiered into a specific system. Typically, you’ll earn a percentage of your downlines’ sales, and your downlines earn a percentage of their downlines’ sales, and it goes on and on. Meaning, if you are on the top of the ladder, you stand to make the most money.
MLM companies are legal, but they break the law when they become pyramid schemes. A pyramid scheme is when the recruiter promises that you’ll get rich quickly when you join the company. Also, there’s a heavier emphasis on recruiting new members instead of selling the products.
Supposedly, you should be making money if you’re actively involved in legit multi-level marketing companies, and you lose money in pyramid schemes (because in the end, they always turn out to be scams).
Right now, we are going to discuss Monat Global, a company that both encourages the recruitment of new members (also known as market partners) and in selling products. Is Monat a pyramid scheme or a legit MLM company?
What is Monat Global?
Monat Global is a brand that markets hair care, skin care, and wellness products. It claims that the products are naturally based, safe and dermatologist-approved.
Some of its most popular products include hair shampoo, leave-in cream, and hair mask; men’s pomade and styling clay, facial cleansers, serums, and many others.
Monat is actually a shortened word for “modern nature.” It is founded by a man named Luis Urdaneta in 2014 and is currently headquartered in Florida.
Monat Global claims that all these products would make you look healthier, more beautiful, and younger. And to ensure that these products reach as many people as possible, the company hires market partners.
As a market partner, you take in the role of a Monat rep or salesperson. You promote Monat products online and entice people to buy from you.
But just like in a true network marketing fashion, the money really lies in recruiting people into the company. The more people who join Monat under you, the more money you make.
What Does Monat Offer?
Monat Global says that it offers an amazing opportunity that helps you build a global business through the help of a supportive community of market partners.
When you join Monat, you become part of this billion dollars industry that more than just sells a product, but also makes a positive impact in the lives of others.
Monat did manage to build an image in the skin care and hair care industry, thanks to its market partners who relentlessly work in promoting its products online.
Being a Monat market partner doesn’t sound that bad (at least initially, I think). Like other MLM companies, Monat places a heavy emphasis on having a supported community to help you grow your own business.
You’ll hop in coaching calls on Zoom, you become your own boss when you’re selling products, and you’d have a lot of motivational and inspirational talks from market partners who have already climbed up the ladder. You might also be assigned to a market mentor to help you optimize your earning potential in Monat.
Monat will certainly make you believe that you are running a legitimate business and you can make money online from your home, even anywhere in the world!
How Do You Make Money From Monat?
Monat Global’s business model is multi-level marketing, and there are two ways to make money from your Monat business. First, you sell actual products, and second, you invite others to join Monat as you downline.
How Much Does It Cost to Join Monat?
Let me just say here right away that you won’t be joining Monat for free. If you want to make money, you must first spend money.
How much does it cost to join Monat, then?
Well, every new market partner has to shell out $49 as an annual sign-up fee. But it doesn’t end there. You also need to purchase a product pack to use yourself or sell to others. The starter kit costs $99, the business product pack is $299, the success product pack is $399 and the overachiever product pack is $699.
Monat claims that when you purchase at least the $299 product pack, you enjoy a 40% in discount. So when you exactly sell these products to people, you’ve already made a profit.
Let’s just say that you opted for the business product pack of $299, and you spend another $49 for the signup fee, then that would cost you $348 to join Monat, which isn’t exactly cheap by the way.
Selling Monat products
Monat has actual products to sell, and they mostly consist of hair care and skin care products. Monat’s main selling point is that all its products are safe, vegan, and cruelty-free.
As a market partner, you won’t be holding inventory of the physical products. What you have to do instead is to promote these products online. The vast majority of Monat market partners use their own social media accounts to advertise Monat products to their friends and social circles.
But there are a couple of downsides in selling Monat products. First, Monat hair care products are expensive. The damaged hair repair shampoo, for instance, cost $42. And even if your customers like Monat’s hair products, a bottle would last a few months, so they won’t always make a repurchase.
Inviting Others to Join Monat
Apart from selling Monat products, you are also supposed to make money by getting others to join Monat. Many Monat market partners first sell the products to their customers. And if a customer is happy, the market partner would entice her into joining Monat so she can get exclusive discounts.
But like many MLM companies, those who join under you should also sell Monat products and encourage more people to join Monat. Each time you add more people to your downline and your downline sells, you make money online.
So it often makes sense to just invite as many people as you can because it is the faster route in making money with Monat.
As long as your downlines hustle hard enough to sell Monat products and recruit, you could pretty much think you’re earning passive income.
How Much Money Can You Make from Monat?
Now let’s talk about numbers. How much money can you make from Monat Global?
You can see below Monat’s Income Disclosure Statement as of 2020. This statement ranks both active and inactive partners.
Source: Monat Global
According to Monat, the average annual income of Monat market partners as of 2020 (regardless of rank) is $876.
When you first join Monat, you are assigned the rank of a market partner (the lowest in the tier). According to the income disclosure statement, Monat market partners are composed of 92.26% of the entire Monat community. They make as much as $12,913 in annual gross income and make around $161 in annual earnings.
Now, if you manage to climb up the ladder, you make more money. If you want to live a lucrative lifestyle, then you should at least attain the level of a managing market mentor, and earn around $68,583 in median annual gross earnings. Unfortunately, managing market mentors are only 0.08% of the entire Monat community.
If you make it to the top level, you would become a senior executive director and make more than 800K per year.
But the truth is, most members don’t even make it beyond their market partner rank. Many of the Monat reviews I have encountered by former market partners quit the company even before they make it to the next tier.
So if you stay as a market partner and made an average of $160 per year, then you lose money because you spent almost $350 to enroll.
Is Monat a Pyramid Scheme?
Is Monat a pyramid scheme or a legit network marketing company? That is the question.
Monat seemingly took the multi-level marketing world by storm when it was first starting out that everybody thought that it is a legit business opportunity.
Let us remember this: It is legal business practice if the company runs a direct sales business model. But based on the hundreds of complaints coming from consumers to market partners, it got all of us questioning: is Monat a pyramid scheme?
Where do we draw the line between a legitimate business opportunity and a pyramid scheme?
The thing is, although Monat claims that it is a legit multi-level marketing company by paper, its business model shares a lot of features with pyramid schemes:
1. It is more focused on recruiting more people into the company than selling actual Monat products. The payout for enrolling more market partners under you is far greater than the profit you’d make selling products.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, by legal definition, a legally operating multi level marketing company should incentivize you for the sales of the products without you having to recruit more members.
2. You lose money, instead of earning it. If you were to join Monat, you need to invest at least a couple of hundred bucks to get your business rolling. But because it is hard to sell Monat’s products due to its cost, you end up not recouping your initial investment, let alone make any profit. Instead, Monat will push you to recruit more members so you can climb up the ladder.
Monat Class Action Lawsuit
Apart from Monat being dubbed as an MLM scheme, you should also take the class action lawsuit against Monat as a redflag. After all, would you want to sell products that have gotten a lot of complaints?
The lawsuit revolves around complaints of consumers who experienced severe reactions after using Monat’s hair care products, which include hair loss, damage, thinning, scalp irritation, chemical burns, and more.
Additionally, customers who signed up as VIPs to take advantage of the 15% discount, continued to have their credit cards charged even when they didn’t make a new purchase.
In the end, Monat came to an agreement with the attorney general that it will no longer advertise that their products can decrease hair loss as well as falsely utilize before-and-after images in their advertisements.
Monat Reviews From Market Partners
If you were seriously considering making money from Monat as a market partner, I suggest going over numerous reviews online first.
A lot of Monat’s former market partners have expressed their negative experiences with the company online, and I’ve taken the liberty of showing some of them to you here.
This user started a thread on Reddit to expose her experiences as one of the Monat reps. Here, she illustrated how market partners like her were deluded into the Monat lifestyle because selling the products and making enough money from them was almost next to impossible.
She also pointed out that the people in the top positions no longer had to recruit new members because the ones at the bottom are doing it, therefore calling Monat a pyramid scheme.
This former market partner also expressed how she felt harassed by her uplines if she didn’t meet her quota. So much for Monat calling itself a supportive community.
Overall, Monat Global may have cleverly masked itself as a legal multi-level marketing company, but these reviews show that Monat is one of those pyramid schemes out there looking to milk money from people.
Related:
12 Minute Affiliate Review: A Big Scam? (Must Read!)
Website ATM Review: Make $500 a Day? Scam Exposed!
AOJ Online Jobs Review 2021: What You Need To Know
Monat Review Frequently Asked Questions
Is Monat a pyramid scheme?
Although Monat calls itself a multi-level marketing company, the way it operates is familiar to pyramid schemes.
Do you really make money with Monat?
Yes, you do make earn with money Monat as long as you can sell their hair and skin care products and get more people to join.
How much does a Monat seller make?
According to Monat’s compensation plan as of 2020, the typical earnings of market partners regardless of the rank is $876 per year.
What is the catch with Monat?
There’s a lot of catch with Monat. First, it forces you to recruit a lot of people to make money.
Second, the class lawsuit tells us that Monat’s products aren’t as safe as they claim.
Finally, the vast majority of its former market partners have come out in the open regarding their negative experiences with the company.
Conclusion
Sure, Monat is a network marketing company, but its image and reputation have been heavily tainted (by its own doing). If you want to make more money, you’d have to shamelessly plug the products and recruit people. But not everyone can or is willing to do it.
I believe you can be a business owner without associating yourself with a company like Monat. There are so many ways to sell online that can guarantee a real income. You can sell products you personally made or sourced, or even offer your services at a price. You get to be your own boss and earn money on your own terms.
And if you’re looking for a passive income opportunity, there are better options out there without having to involve yourself with MLM schemes or pyramid schemes.
So if you have the $350 to invest in Monat, why not spend it on a course or training to learn a new skill or enhance your existing ones? This way, you won’t have to be at the mercy of the people above you and have the power to call the shots in your own business.
Looking for More Ways to Make Money from Home?
Check out:
How to Sell on Amazon for Beginners with Retail Arbitrage in 2022
How to Start a Blog and Make Money in 2022
How to Become a Bookkeeper With No Experience
