Multi Level Marketing BEWAREEEEEE

The holidays are just around the corner and you know what that means? It means that majority of students will be out looking for jobs during the hols. But before you get attracted to the ads on Gumtree or JobStreet offering highass salary, read this post for a while. It'll only take you 10 mins and it will save you a whole lot of trouble.

I will now explain what Multi Level Marketing (MLM) is in a nutshell. Basically it is those kind of network marketing jobs that require no skill, no certs, no education and a lot a lot a lot a lot... A LOT of support from family and friends. Did I mention a lot? yeah.

And there is always a hierarchy in those kind of businesses. To climb up the hierarchy, you either need to hit a certain amount of $$ earned for the company OR accumulate a certain amount of points by doing sales.

This is what differs MLM companies from other normal companies. Instead of being promoted based on effort, hard work and experience, you can basically just buy your way up in MLMs. And the people in MLM companies will ALWAYS try to lure you in by telling you that the higher up the hierarchy you are, the more you'll earn, and they make a big deal out of this. ( I mean, which fucking company doesn't do that? wtf. )

Now, I'm not saying that MLM is evil. There are giant successful companies like Amway and Bel'Air and people do become rich from it.. But thats 1 in a few hundred thousands and at what price?

I used to be in a MLM company .. lets just name it ABC. It is located very near town but NOT the one a Chinatown. How I came to know about the company was that, I was looking for a part time job during the holidays. Then, this random guy that I did not know came to PM me on Facebook.

 Lets name this person guy A. He told me that his company was hiring and it was free lance. He did not mention anything about the pay, only that it pays very well. So I went down to the company for an 'interview'. The interview was basically held at the showroom and guy A just kept telling me about the products sold in the company. (magnetic beds, beauty lotions etc. )

Im sure most of you have sat through talks like this. Usually it ends up with the person asking you to buy the product to try and to sell to your friends. So I was ready to say NO to the dude. But, he told me 'You do not have to invest any money. You can just start immediately and don't need to fork out a single cent'. So I was impressed. I didn't think it was MLM company because they told me they were direct sales (bullshit lol).

So I will now tell you the procedures that you have to go through after the interview. ( I worked with the company for 4 months and I was the 'executive' )  after the interview, they will ask you to come down to the company again for a 3 hours product training. (Don't worry they won't ask you to buy the product during the training. Not yet)

After the training, they will make you list down this 'Market Listing' where you basically write down ALL the contacts in your phone, their age and their numbers on a list and pass it to them. Right after that, they will do a family tree where they get to know ALL about your family members. How many auntie/uncles you have, their age, their health status, their FINANCIAL INCOME and what type of housing they stayed in.

 After you have listed all that down, they will IMMEDIATELY tell you to call your closest family members (can be your parents/grandparents/uncle/aunty) to arrange for a sales appointment ASAP.

They will tell you that the purpose of this sales appointment is to give you exposure and not to sell them the products. Quote : " Your parents feed and support you. Do you think we would want to force your parents to buy?" (yeah thats what they always say btw. )

But the truth of the matter is, unless your family is in some kind of financial crisis or your parents are really against sales, they will most probably buy the product from you.

 Now the prices of these 'magnetic beds' aren't cheap. The lowest cost $200 (without your commission, with commission its like $250) and it can go up to $3,300. After your first sales appointment, they will make you go for 3 to 4 more appointments in the same week.

And of course they will target your relatives next, followed by your close friends' parents, some adults you know. basically people with spending power and people you can get an appointment with.

When you have dried out your contacts, they will make you go do street surveys (you can usually find them scattered around at Somerset, Orchard and Dhoby) to look out for potential people to join your 'team'. This is because , like all MLM companies, you will actually EARN from your 'downlines'. So if someone under you makes a sales, you will earn a portion of it.

If I go through everything that happened to me in the company, this post will take a year to write. So these are what I have noticed and things I want you to know before you get lured in by them.

1. They mark up the price of the products A LOT. If the original price is $800, they will sell it to your family members at $3000.

2. The products they sell are not scientifically proven. They do provide a lot of 'proof' that it works but if scientists (who have obviously conducted these tests) say that its not proven, THEN IT IS NOT PROVEN.

3. They will make you go through a lot of brain washing session. They call these 'coffee sessions'. You basically get to talk to the CEO or the top management and they will tell you about how successful they are and how this business was better than everything else. They will make you want to be a business man/woman whether you like it or not, making you feel stupid if you had any other dreams.

And adding to this point, the top management have been in this business for MANY years. They claim that you will earn at least $3-$4k a month when you first start out and obviously earn MUCH more when you're higher up. But the top management themselves doesn't seem so rich or well off. They're always tight on budget and even the 'most successful' person there drives a second-hand car. Not to mention the ex CEO is bankrupt.

4. They will always talk bad about other competitor companies.

5. Remember the 'Market Listing'? Yeah they will use the lists by the people that left the company to call their friends and tell them to join the company. The conversation usually goes like this "Hi I just received your number from job search. My company has an opening . would you be interested to work?" And they do this without consent from the owner of the contact list.

6. They will have sudden 'promotions' and discounts. Just out of the blue. No prior warning or announcements. Like, there was this day A LOT of young people came down for a meeting, on the same day, they suddenly announced a ONE DAY ONLY discount on a product and they slashed off $140 from the actual sales price. You can't tell me that's not serious bullshit.

7. Oh and you know how I said that you don't actually have to BUY the product right? Well they have this habit of just forcing you to get the product and in the end, you just feel so bad that you'll buy it. Let me explain what happened. So one of the seniors from the company came to meet me for a sales appointment that day and she brought along a big product from the company. I did not know she was bringing it and I don't know why she brought it for. So at the end of the appointment, she told me that she brought it for me because she 'sincerely' want me to use it. I told her no. Because there was no way my mother can afford it. It cost like 2.8k wth. Then she started saying how I can slowly pay the company back and complaining how she had brought the whole product straight from office and how tiring it was. (She travels around in a car btw) . So in the end, she made me feel so bad and uncomfortable that I ended up getting the product.

8. They are liars. They will never let you say the true purpose of approaching someone. For example, if you're calling in to fix an appointment, they will make you say things like 'to share knowledge with you, not obliged to buy, it is not sales, just for your benefit, just want to let you know etc etc etc. ' IF you cannot honestly tell the customer that you are doing sales, then how honest can your business be? if it is SOOOOO good like they say it is, why not be proud of it and just tell them that they want to do sales?

9. They will FORCE you to bring your friends in and do everything they did to you , to your friends. And they do all this with the power of money. They will get students like us, who really need and want money, to risk everything for it. I almost ruined my friendship with SO MANY people because of this business but thank goodness I left before things got really bad.

10. I did earn about $1k/ month ONCE. that just happened ONCE btw. But to earn that 1k, I had to do a lot of shit and even my mom got involved in working for it. In the end, I brought in about $60k worth of sales for the company but I ended up with like.. $1.5k at most. Now lets calculate. I go to work everyday and sit there from 11 am to 11 pm doing shit for them and training the new sales agents, so thats 12 hours a work. And I work EVERYDAY. Even on weekends. 7 days a week.

Simple maths : $1500/ 31 (days) / 12 hours = $4/hour. That is literally what macs pay you. Earn a lot my ass.

I could actually go on all day about this but all that up there ^ should suffice for now.

oh and last important thing,

if you are on gumtree, jobstreet, etc etc and you're finding a job and you come across something like this :  Hiring freelance/ flexible timing/ work any time you want

         High salary. $400-$500 / week 

          Assist manager in doing sales, handling of store

THAT IS MOST PROBABLY A MLM COMPANY. 

Just be careful.

If they don't pay you hourly for your work, if you are just basing your salary off commissions, then I rather you stick to low pay job with a fixed income. Don't listen to what they say about 'smart workers'. A smart worker will work for a job with fix salary because it is reliable. Not something based off commission where if you can't find sales, you're literally screwed.

Any questions, just leave a comment.

Love yo faces.

The Cold Hard Truth

I'm sure all of you reading this are aware of Steph Koh and how she is in media's spotlight for saying that she is not proud to be a Singaporean. Then followed up by the video of her stating that Singaporeans are not creative. And I agree with Steph 100%.

I was discussing this with my boyfriend yesterday. The adults in Singapore are so caught up in the mindset that academic excellence only road to take for their children. From the moment we are placed into primary school, we have been competing with other children our age to be the top in terms of academic. I have always gotten straight As for my art and craft but that was nothing to be proud of when you put it beside a child who got A for Mathematics.

And why is this so? Why is memorizing and regurgitating what you have studied BETTER than using your brain to create something fresh and new?

IF you have realized, all our education system ever tested us on from Kindergarten, Primary school, Secondary and for those who chose to go to JCs, is the importance of memorizing. The better your memory is, the better you'll score and the 'smarter' you'll be.

Then why is creating an art piece not considered smart? Logically, you're using more brain power to actually come up with something original and creative while the other kid is just sitting there, memorizing his life away. This is why many Singaporeans are not creative. Their parents have planted the idea that memorizing is far more important than creating.  

People fail to see things this way. That is why they will never appreciate art for what it is. How many hours of passion goes behind it and how many failures it had before it got to that stage. And because of this lack of appreciation, Singapore will never flourish in the Arts. Which is sad for me and the rest of my friends who decided to choose the unorthodox path. The 'risky' path of the Arts. Because we can be the most creative people in the world but there is nothing we can do to survive in Singapore, simply because the creativity is just so boxed up by the incapability of the general public to appreciate it.

They tell us to think out of the box. So you think out of the box and create a unique idea. But then the idea gets shut down because it is something the public is not used to or it is too taboo for them.

I have an extremely strong passion for the arts but do you know what all the adults in the entertainment industry tell me? 'If you have the talent, if you have the passion and you want to do Arts, you have to leave Singapore.'

It is sad that the country I'm living in has come to this extent where Arts can't even flourish in it.

Hair Extension: Vain Beauty Review

Hi! So this is gonna be the very first virgin post on my blog :) and it is going to be about, HURRR EXTENSIONSSSS!!

Now, I'm not talking about the clip in kinds. What I am going to review on is about braided hair extensions. ( I got mine done at Vain Beauty at Far East Plaza Singapore. They've also recently opened up a store in Jurong Point )

If you've ever walked around Far East Plaza, you'll find many of such hair extension stores just scattered everywhere!! And they are always having promotions.. 100 free 150 strands. This means, if you buy 100 strands worth of extensions, you get a free 150 strands.

SO, I have been contemplating on getting hair extensions for a very very very very long time, ever since I went to cut my hair really short.. (like Miley short) .

This was how my hair used to be.

And I cut it to this length.

(ikr.. regret)

So ever since then, I have been itching to get my long hair back.

I did try those fashion wigs but there's no way I can wear those everyday in Singapore because the weather would just KILL me. Plus I'm too lazy to maintain the wig so it ended up like dead grass by the end of 2 months.

Anyway, I got my extensions on impulse.. I was just walking around Far East one day, waiting for my friend so we could have lunch together.. And I was looking around at the extensions, feeling how the hair quality was and all that.. when the hair dresser came out and asked me if I wanted to have extensions. So I told her I was just looking around and she said "Oh so come inside and look. We got more variety inside."

Okay.(TIP NO.1 : When the sales girl bring you inside the shop, JUST STOP RIGHT THERE AND SAY NO. Especially if you haven't decided on it and is extremely bad at rejecting people (like me) .

So I went in and took a seat. And the girl just came up to me and started matching my hair color to the extensions! Firstly, I didn't think they can find anything that matches my hair because it was dyed a dark purple but somehow, miraculously, they managed to find the exact shade of purple.

Then I decided.. What the hell. They have the exact shade, I'm already in the shop, sitting on the seat. Might as well do the extensions right? I mean its $100 and I calculated that I would be receiving 250 strands of hair which seems like A LOT to me.

(this was how my hair looked like before I did my extensions)

So the lady started working on my hair.. Okay. Firstly, she was a PRC and my Chinese is totally ridiculously horrible. But I told her that I don't mind having the layered hair look. I even showed her a picture as a reference. And my mother used to be a hair stylist so I kinda have a tad bit knowledge on where hair should go. LOGICALLY, they should start braiding the extensions from the bottom up so that there's no weird empty hole at the bottom of your head.

BUT NOOOOO. The lady started braiding them RIGHT SMACK at the centre of my head. Plus you guys are all assuming that one braid = one strand of hair right? (because that's what I thought) . Nope. They actually have to put 5 to 6 strands of hair together for one small braid. Just imagine how tiny ONE strand is then.. So by the time they came around the entire circumference of my head, the lady was like "Oh that was 250 strands" .. I'm like 'WHAT? ARE YOU FREAKING SERIOUS?' I looked like a girl going through some kind of hair issue because I only had hair in the middle of my head and it was extremely thin..

So the lady told me that I had to add in more strands of hair.. Another 250 would do the trick.. I was like.. what the heck. I mean I already spent a $100 on this crap .. Might as well spend another $100 just to make sure  I don't look like a freak when I walk out. So I said okay.

Now here comes another issue. You see my hair was layered so it's pretty thick at the top. It was only the bottom part of my head that looks thin and empty because of the added hair extensions. So anybody with a brain would know that you have to put the extensions at the bottom to cover up the hole. Guess what the genius did? She started braiding the new set of hair extensions ABOVE the current braided ones. I immediately told her 'OMG I DON'T WANT IT THERE. IT'S GOING TO LOOK EMPTY' and she said 'don't worry It'll look fine" or at least I think that's what she said.. but at the end of the new bunch of braids, MY HAIR STILL LOOKED WEIRD. BECAUSE. THERE. WAS. A . GIGANTIC. EFFING. HOLE. AT THE BOTTOM OF MY HEAD.

(TIP NO. 2 : Be SUPER FIRM with your instructions. You're paying precious $$ for this. IF they mess it up, there's no way they were going to untie each braid. so be SUPER SUPER SUPER CLEAR. Plus it always help to have a Chinese friend with you. :P)

And now the lady tells me "Your hair looks weird now" (well duh.) "you should add in more hair" now by this time I was ridiculously PISSED OFF with her.. But what else can I do? (I told you I'm bad at rejecting people) I told her another $50 worth and this time I said "PUT IT AT THE BOTTOM" and finally, she listened to me and started braiding the bottom.. and FINALLY AT LONG LAST, my hair actually looked normal.

So anyway, to sum it all up , I spent a total of $250 on these hair extensions that will last me like 6 months.

Was it worth it?

I guess. I really like my hair now.

So, PICS.