What Is Nu Skin Enterprises About? [Legit Biz Opportunity Or Scam?]

Between you and me, I have a great impression of Nu Skin products, but that is not why we are here. Today, the purpose is to see if there is a legit business opportunity or a scam lurking behind the question: what is Nu Skin Enterprises About?

Researching business opportunities is something I spend a lot of time doing, fortunately, this is something I enjoy too. Most of all though, I appreciate your time to visit my site too – so thank you, and welcome!

Nu Skin Review … brought to you by Late Bloomer

Here is a description about Nu Skin taken from Wikipedia

“Nu Skin Enterprises is an American multilevel marketing company that develops and sells personal care products and dietary supplements under its Nu Skin and Pharmanex brands.[4] Nu Skin was founded in 1984 in Provo, Utah.[5] The company originated in the United States and began its first foreign operation in Canada in 1990. One year later, the company began operations in Asia with the opening of Hong Kong.[6] In 1996, the company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The company markets its products in 54 markets through a network of approximately 1.2 million independent distributors.[7]“

So far so good. Nu Skin has been around since the 1980s and their products are available in 54 markets, they must be doing something right. Not only that, 1.2 million independent distributors cannot all be wrong .., or can they?

Wikipedia also goes on to speak about some skirmishes with the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) in the 1990s. This was due to unsubstantiated claims made about their products. These skirmishes cost Nu Skin in excess of USD2,000,000 (yeah, that is millions we are talking about).

In 2014 they also found themselves in trouble with China for operating as a pyramid scheme, this time to the tune of USD47,000,000. Plus another USD750,000 for bribing a Chinese official.

Some heads must have rolled!

That is not all there is to Nu Skin Enterprises, fortunately. Forbes also acknowledged Nu Skin as one of the top 100 most trustworthy companies in 2010.

Some interesting facts to keep us on our toes as we get into the details of whether there is a business opportunity worth getting excited about (or not) with Nu Skin.

Before we go there, I have a #1 Recommendation if you are interested in

Before we continue, it’s important to understand what Nu Skin is an MLM (multi-level marketing company). If you need an understanding of what that means, please have a look at this article “What Is Online or Affiliate Marketing vs What Is An MLM or Multi-Level Marketing Company.

Overview – Nu Skin At A Glance:

Name	Nu Skin
Website	www.nuskin.com
Price	See detailed pricing within this review
Founded By	Blake Roney, Steve Lund, Sandie Tillotson, Nedra Roney
Founded	1984
Chairman CEO	Steven J. Lund Rich N Wood
Overall Product Rank Overall Business Opportunity Rank	8 out of 10 5 out of 10

The Good & The Bad

The Good:

Pro #1 Having personally used the Galvanic Spa and partnered products, I do believe the products are exceptional

Pro #2 Nu Skin has a great social responsibility program (I am always a sucker when it comes to feeding the hungry)

Pro #3 The products are consumables which means that a loyal customer will order over and over

Pro #4 Nu Skins have won awards for their at-home beauty device and their weightloss systems (according to Euromonitor)

The Bad:

Con #1 As with literally every other MLM I have reviewed, one needs to be an actuary to understand their compensation plan

Con #2 In order to earn a commission, you need to hit a minimum target first

Con #3 A very small percentage of distributors actually generate a life-changing income from Nu Skin

Con #4 Nu Skin has a shady past as can be seen on the FTC Website

Con #5 Nu Skins products are available for purchase via online outlets which means their distributors are competing against large, well-known online stores such as Takealot

Who is Nu Skin For?

The Nu Skin business opportunity is positioned for people looking to create a life of financial and time freedom. The distributors get to work at their own pace in the time that works for themselves.

This would suit people from all different walks of life: from young people looking to create an income whilst studying to stay home mums and dads, even mature folk looking to subsidize their retirement.

As I said earlier, I do believe the Nu Skin products are particularly good, so from a sales perspective that is a strong positive. However, when it comes to actual earning potential, my concern is that your time would be better spent elsewhere.

Nu Skins Tools & Training

Most recently I have seen a lot of activity on social media with demonstrations of the Nu Skin products being conducted. In my opinion, this is a great way to showcase and sell products. Social proof is an awesome way to share the advantages of products.

Having seen the activity personally, I cannot help but think that their marketing training is very good. A quick search on YouTube landed on this Zoom call training dated 20 August 2020. Have a look-see

Let’s delve into the Nu Skin system itself and see what they offer in terms of tools and training. Nu Skin offers a very simple Road Map to Success, as you can see from the screenshot below:

This is definitely the way to set yourself up for success in business. The Dream that they start out with is all about your mindset, creating a vision of how you want your life to looks. The process that follows, goal setting, believing it is possible, and then taking action are essential steps to success.

The Nu Skin product training is also extensive, they go into fine detail with each of their products, ensuring that their distributors have sound knowledge to share with potential customers and downlines.

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Regular and ongoing training is given via Zoom meetings and at events. Note that tickets are sold for the events, and a distributor for Nu Skin you would need to allocate a budget to attend the training events. That is money out of your pocket – keep an eye on this space, there are more expenses to come.

How Much Does It Cost To Become A Nu Skin Distributor?

Technically, you do not pay anything to become a distributor. However, you will need something to show in order to promote the products, right?

Product Brochures are available at £1 per brochure. This cost will be for your account as a Nu Skin Brand Affiliate (distributor).

Fast Start Kit

Allow me to introduce you to the Nu Skin Fast Start Kits … as you can see, the recommendation is to purchase a kit to “Start Your Business The Right Way”. These look pricey to me, very pricey!

Notice that I am sharing links from Nu Skin in the USA, Hong Kong, South Africa, and also the UK. The pricing of kits and sign up as a Brand Affiliate depends on which part of the world you live in.

Looking at the packages below, one would sign up and purchase one of these kits. There is another option, stay with me, we shall cover that next.

Monthly ADR

As can be seen below, another option is to create a Monthly Automatic Delivery Rewards. This means you have an order on automatic renewal (this is not unlike Mannatech).

By signing for an ADR you benefit from 5% off the ADR Pricing, half-price shipping rates, earn $20 to $30 back, access to exclusive promotions and you can manage your order online.

Great sales incentives, but the pricing is still pretty steep. As you can see, the lowest value is £154.33 – that’s not inexpensive! Another big caveat with an ADR – you have to give 14 days written notice should you decide to cancel it.

This would be your monthly order for just one product (AgeLOC Face & Body), not for an entire kit to showcase with potential customers.

Sign Up Options With Nu Skin

You do not need to become a distributor/brand affiliate to enjoy the products as a customer. You have the option to sign up as a Customer only and “shop from over 1000 incredible products & enjoy exclusive perks”. This is great for us if we only want to use the products.

From a distributor/brand affiliate’s perspective, this is not ideal because it means that the potential customers may already be signed up with Nu Skin, therefore, earning potential is eroded.

Nu Skin Business Start-Up Kits

Then there is the option of purchasing a Business Start-Up Kit, which offers “diverse combinations of different product lines and categories”.

This is where I believe it would be best to start.

However, the pricing leaves a lot to be desired. it also explains the flurry of activity I am seeing in social media – these brand affiliates are looking to make their money back before benefiting financially from their new business venture!

The prices below are in South African Rand and these amounts are huge for the average South African to outlay

And here is a quick comparison for the Business Start-Up Kits in the UK, paying on the British Pound (ouch!):

How Do You Earn Money As A Nu Skin Brand Ambassador?

This is a very good and interesting question too. As mentioned in the Cons above, the compensation plan is complex. I am not sure that I am the right person to explain how to make money this way, please bear with me as I find the easiest way to explain.

Before we get into that, there is something I’d like to draw your attention to as a member of the DSA (Direct Selling Association) Nu Skin is bound to their rules and regulations. Here is one which is sidestepped in the cost to join: “The law governing Multi-Level Marketing does not allow an investment of more than £200 in the first seven days”.

As I said, this is “side-stepped” in the Nu Skin do not make it a policy for distributors to buy a kit but it is encouraged with incentives. . Not to mention that having a kit for demonstration and sales purposes is the best way to sell any product.

Okay, let’s look at how to make money with Nu Skin:

1. As a Nu Skin Brand Ambassador, you are required to meet and maintain a set sales volume to be eligible to earn your commission. In other words, you either have an ADR to the sales volume level or you sell products to that level.   This sounds more like an employee relationship than a business opportunity to me.  Earning commission from the first $ makes sense to me when it comes to MLM.  Here is a copy of the Nu Skin 2019 Brand Affiliate Compensation:

It is well worth noting that the Active Brand Affiliate Monthly Average Sales Compensation (or commission) was $31 per month before expenses

Granted, there are Executive Brand Directors receiving US19,286 per month, and the numbers do start growing substantially from Senior Brand Partner upwards. However, the starting point is Active Brand Affiliate. the journey from Active Brand Affiliate to even the Brand Partner level (just before Senior Brand Partner) is long and complex.

Introducing Velocity by Nu Skin

The marketing team at Nu Skin has done an outstanding job. I love the word “Velocity” it creates expectations and excitement for me. The copy promoting the opportunity has also been written extremely well,

“Welcome to Velocity by Nu Skin® —a performance pay program that offers flexible options to fit your lifestyle, gives fast rewards that keep you motivated, and empowers you to build your fulfilling future your way.”

The imagery and colours are also great, have a look:

Let’s go through the blocks above.

Share

• Earn commission by selling product directly to consumers and earn the Retail Mark Up
• Sell products through the personal offer system and earn a Retail Bonus

Here is the video to cover this level in more detail:

Build

• Build a group of customers and brand affiliates
• You can earn weekly building bonuses on the sales of your group

There are blocks that you can build and progress higher in the chain of commission earners. It’s hurting my brain to try to explain this all to you (yeah, already), so here is the video covering this section:

Qualification

As you can see from this screenshot, the first step to climbing the ladder with Nu Skin is to submit a Letter Of Intent online.

Clearly certain criteria need to be in place first.

If we look at this image, you are in the center surrounded by Retail Customers, Members, Brand Affiliates, and Qualifying Brand Representatives.

These are multi-levels deep (hence the multi-level marketing).

What this tells me is that recruiting and building your team is the only way to reach the levels where one would generate exceptional earning potential.

Building blocks of 4 are introduced at this point.

There are monthly minimums (2 building blocks) and there is a 3-month layout of how you can expect this to play out.

Note, this is within 6 consecutive months

If life has taught me anything it is that achieving steady growth and flow over 6 months takes absolute consistency. For some reason, we humans are challenged with consistency. Maybe this is because life happens … a challenging year at school; a wedding; the birth of a new baby … normal life events can throw us off our game.

For me, this is a very tall order already and would explain why so few individuals make it up the ranks within Nu Skin.

Step 3 is where you would complete the qualification and become a Brand Representative.

the monthly maintenance of this is 4 building blocks.

Notice that you can lose members of your team if they move up the ladder more quickly than you do – this is a big set back.

Secondly, should you not maintain the level, you are not given $200 and sent back to Go, rather you are sent right the way back to the Letter of Intent once again.

As I mentioned at the outset, the compensation plan is complex, so too is the route to the top. You are welcome to check it out for yourself on the Nu Skin website.

LEAD

This is where you start to generate decent money, the process is pretty complex and convoluted, so here is the video from the Nu Skin website giving an abbreviated overview – enjoy:

Here is a handy downloadable PDF which details everything you need to know Nu Skin Sales Performance Plan

What does It Take To Qualify As An Executive With New Skin?

The short answer to the above question is this A LOT! Like I said, my head hurts from trying to figure out all the different levels and blocks and, and. Perhaps you find it easier than I do.

Overview – Nu Skin At A Glance:

Name	Nu Skin
Website	www.nuskin.com
Price	See detailed pricing within this review
Founded By	Blake Roney, Steve Lund, Sandie Tillotson, Nedra Roney
Founded	1984
Chairman CEO	Steven J. Lund Rich N Wood
Overall Product Rank Overall Business Opportunity Rank	8 out of 10 5 out of 10

My Final Opinion of Nu Skin

I truly believe that the quality of the Nu Skin products is extremely high – not just because they have won awards but also because I have used their products and loved them.

The people I know selling this product certainly have an awesome product to promote!

From a business perspective, however, multi-level marketing is not the best choice in my opinion. There are too many variables, for example, unless you recruit teams under you, your growth is stunted. The extremely high turnover of entry-level participants and recruits makes the recruitment side of your business very tricky.

Something to always keep in mind is this – even as an Executive with an MLM, it is never your business. You do not own your business.

I have heard it said that Robert Kiyosaki supports MLM and believes this is a great business model to follow in order to generate money. What is not often said is that he was speaking from the perspective of owning an MLM business, not hustling and grinding your way up from entry-level to executive.

My final verdict?  Nu Skin Enterprises is not a Scam but I would also not recommend this business model as one to create a sustainable and life-changing income.

It seems that most, if not all, MLM’s skate very close to the edge when it comes to whether they are pyramid schemes or not.  The FTC is very clear about how members of MLM’s should generate the majority of their income, one of them is not by recruiting downlines.  And yet, all MLM’s train their distributors and ambassadors to build a team in order to climb the ladder.

Looking For An Awesome Way To Make Money?

So, are you looking for a way to create and income and financial security?  How about you build your own business around a hobby or interest you are passionate about?  Without recruiting a team, without even having to own a product or brand?  My Number One Recommendation is where I suggest you start.

Blessings!