Kleeneze and Betterware have both been around for many years now, and beyond the products they promote, is an offering of self employment by making money posting catalogues, but does it work?
What does the product offer?
To make money with Betterware, or Kleeneze distributors are required to post a number of catalogues through doors. The idea is that the more you post, the more you earn, and they will pay you in the region of 20% commission on each sale (once the minimum has been hit). Sounds easy? If it were that easy then there would be multiple people on every street all trying to make the expected ‘£40 – £200 per week’ advertised. In reality very few get close to making it work.
How does the product work?
As mentioned, when you become a distributor of a multi-level marketing company (which is what Betterware and Kleeneze are), you are required to generate sales, and are paid on commission only. No sales – no money. Betterware do not charge for the catalogues, but Kleenze do, and this may add more pressure to generate the return to pay for the outlay. The basic concept is that once you have received the catalogues, you post them through letterboxes and collect them a few days later, hopefully with an order, of which you make 20% commission. You then have to go back to the customer, hand over the products and take payments.
What is the initial investment?
Betterware do not charge for the catalogues, although Kleeneze charge around £45 per set, and most distributors will purchase more than one, or need to purchase more to make any sales order worthwhile.
What is the rate of return?
Kleeneze claim that their distributors can earn between £50 and £500 per week.
Betterware claim that distributors can earn between £40 and £200 per week.
One of our team members have actually tried Kleeneze many years ago, and had this to say:
“It is VERY hard work to make any money at it. The problem is, mainly, that the prices in the catalogues are just so high, and with the internet, and eBay, etc. you can get all the products cheaper, even with postage. Another problem is the sheer time it takes to make just £30-£40 per week, which is far below minimum wage and a serious load of effort for pretty much peanuts. On top of that you have two sets of other annoying issues. 1) Customers not being in when you go to collect your catalogues. 2) Customers not being in, or having the money when you go to collect (if you get any) payments for orders. It really is a serious load of effort, for very little in return. It is just not worth it”
Conclusion
Multi Level Marketing companies have a distributor failure rate of well over 95%. Which means that only a maximum of at most 5% make any money from it. As far as the company is concerned, they do not care if you succeed or fail, in our opinion, because due to the nature of ‘making money’, there will always be another hoard of willing ‘triers’ looking to make a little extra, and wasting countless hours chasing after something that will pay them very little, if anything.
Sure, you will always see those distributors who are making a couple of grand a week, but they are most definitely the exception, rather than the rule, and will have a team under them (you) doing all the work for them, delivering, collecting, etc. etc. And the products can now all be found cheaper. Many people now see such catalogue products as extremely over priced.
We would not recommend this activity of delivering catalogues to earn a very low amount of money – if any
wow, you should check your facts before publishing anything. I have been a kleeneze distributor for 12 years now and I have found that if you want to know how something work you should ask someone successfully doing the work not from people who fail. if you want to be rich like Richard branson go and ask him and put as much work as he did, don’t ask jo blogs from round the corner who tried everything for 5 minutes and still claiming benefits.
I would like to point out that betterware are not an MLM company or network marketing business.
with kleeneze you will earn 21% of anything you sell no minimum to hit. like any business nothing is easy , it is a simple system to follow but you have to put the hard work to establish your customer base. you need to have a “can do attitude” and decide to commit to the work , this is the first reason why people fail they will complain about every thing. the second reason people fail is they do not follow the guidance of the person who introduce them or they do not get any guidance at all(this is sadly part of it). we also offer a 30 days full refund to any distributor who realise they cannot make this work for themselves and get their £25 initial outlay.
most of the people who commit to place their catalogue regularly following the system will earn around £250 in their first 4 weeks for around 10hours of actual work per week, those who don’t…won’t.
I committed myself to earn a full time income from day one and after my first month earned over £800, I have no sales background I am a chef by trade.
yes at the beginning you may not find all your customer home when you deliver the goods(some of them work) but as you start to know them and build a relationship you will learn when is the best time to find them home.
yes you can buy the item cheaper somewhere else but if you add the time to drive to the shop and park then you don’t save a lot. we are a home shopping company and the majority of our customers are elderly, disable or with health problem and for them a catalogue is perfect.
kleeneze are well aware about the dropout rate in distributors and are working very hard to help retention and have recently(in march 2014) added some incentives and reward for people placing orders in their first 4 weeks.
this doesn’t just apply to kleeneze but success in anything you do is based on the time and effort you commit from day one if you don’t then failure is always the result.
why is your site so popular, is it because you have a team of committed people researching and preparing the reports you publish? what if their attitude was “I have to research another one of those damn thing and do a report before the deadline…etc”
why would I personally recommend kleeneze, no pressure as you set your own target, flexible hours to fit around any commitments, earn the income you want not what a boss decide you are worth, the chance to build a fantastic income working alongside a team of people committed to do the same, fantastic reward and recognition for every step you take and achieve, take a break or a holiday when I choose, that’s the beauty of network marketing .
Hello Gerard,
If you read the review closely you will see that a member of our own team has tried Kleeneze, and we have also had contact from many other ‘distributors’ who it did not work for over the years.
The basic fact is that the products are far, far too expensive, and considering there are no shops to pay rent for, then it is fairly obvious that the bulk of the profits are going on distributor profits, and Kleeneze company profits.
The 21% profit you make is one of the main problems. There is probably not a single product in the catalogue that cannot be purchased cheaper online, without having to go to a shop, eBay for example, Amazon for another example.
The above, even with next day delivery cost factored in are still cheaper – with a guarantee that you will actually receive the product, without having to deal with strangers on your doorstep, and knocking on your door without invitation to collect catalogues that you did not have an interest in receiving.
Kleeneze and Betterware products are too expensive. A quick check of Kleeneze and their reported accounts show a steady decline in sales, which most expect will decline year on year as the popularity of the internet increases, establishing more and more outlets offering genuine value for money.
In fact, I myself have in the past ordered from Kleeneze and the two orders we placed, we never heard anything again – assuming that either the distributor gave up, or the products were not in stock. We stopped ordering after that, and that was a few years ago.
We still receive the catalogues through the letter box from time to time, and we don’t even look now, too expensive, and a high chance that the product will not arrive anyway (on experience), and we know others that think the same way.
If you are making it work for you, then great, but the chances of most people making it work, for the rewards given, are virtually zero.
Comments similar to the following are rife on the internet:
And yes, although some people do make it work, they are in the minority, and there are easier ways to create an income.
Also Gerard, it has been well publicised that Kleeneze distributors, including yourself have been falsely advertising on government websites, .gov, and other job websites, which is seen as a desperate attempt to potentially dupe prospective distributors into believing they are being offered jobs, when the reality is that the offer is self employed. Very underhanded, and a totally different entity entirely:
http://www.channel4.com/news/universal-jobmatch-duplicate-job-franchise-mp-concern-job
If the opportunity was as fruitful as you describe, then there would be no need for distributors to blatantly tell mistruths.
Regards,
Admin
I tried kleeneze a few years ago, and getting orders was not easy. After going to a hundred doors and getting maybe 2 orders it was not worth the effort.
Sharron
Don’t waste your time with kleeneze, like others have said it is a waste of time, peanuts for a shed load of work, far less than even half of minimum wage.
I did Kleeneze a couple of years ago for about twelve months and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. The earnings are vastly overstated – most of the products are way too expensive and the recruitment process for building a team is saturated with a huge drop out rate. Definitely one to avoid – I was making literally £1 an hour after costs. Don’t waste your time and money.
I did Kleeneze between jobs for a year. Whilst the money helped it was peanuts for the amount of effort I put in.
In those days 20 years ago people began encroaching on the territory of longer established salespeople. A free for all which Kneeneze didnt care about so long as sales were made universally. To get anywhere in this business I think you have to be uncaring and ruthless.
If you are approached about selling then think carefully.
I am an area co-ordinator for Betterware, yes, sometimes its tough, some areas sell better than others, I have distributors regularly grossing weekly sales of over £500 for which they get 20% commission (there are also regular promotions and annual bonuses, which several of my distributors get) There are others that only deliver 100 catalogues (or less) a week, and subsequently don’t earn as well.
It is a tried and tested system, and once you have been doing the job for a while (if you don’t quit at first hurdle as many on here seem to have done) you get to build a regular customer base, and know which streets in your area are better.
It is not meant as a replacement for a full time job, though many people do this either in early retirement or as an additional income and you are free to deliver and collect as many catalogues as you wish,
What a sad lot of negative people on your forum. What a good job Gerard Coste added some sensible comment. This business works, it is people that do not work and then they try to blame the company for their lack of effort. I joined Kleeneze in 2004 and in those days you had top p[ay £160 to buy 200 catalogues. Nowadays you can start from £25. You can distribute catalogues or sell online or both. When I joined I made my money back in my first month and have never looked back. I had to stick at it, there were good months and bad months but I enjoyed the work and as I established my customer base, the bad months receded. I now sell over £1000 worth of goods each and every month, I have started to build a small team of distributors, which I admit is not easy but it can be done by anyone if they put in the effort. I earn just under £1k per month. I am 73 years old and have health problems but this money is a tremendous lifeline to add to my pension. I will continue until I can no longer physically do it but by then hopefully my wonderful team, who have become my friends, will continue earning good money for themselves and the residual income will continue to come in to my wife long after I have departed from this world..
Hello Steve,
I am genuinely pleased you are making some money with it, but our opinion will stay the same, and there are far easier ways of making money in this day and age without trawling the streets trying to pick up a few pounds here and there in all weathers.
You also only have to look at the company accounts of the company to see that sales are rapidly declining, and network marketing as a concept is also becoming outdated. Only a very small percentage of participants will make reasonable money, and for the effort required, compared to the drop out rate, we cannot recommend it.
Good luck,
Regards
Admin
This business is now starting in Spain. I live over here and have been offered the chance to distribute Kleeneze products. I´m worried after hearing all these comments. My main concern tho is the Spanish taxman and what it costs to be self employed here in Spain. I don´t think that Kleeneze has taken that into account. If youre self employed here in Spain, the minimum you will pay each month to Social security Department is 500 euros. No entitlement to dole if anything goes wrong ! And that´s the minimum even if you don´t make any profit. I don´t think they have investigated well the situation for a Distributor living in Spain. I´m British, but would like to ask if all Distributors here are going to be British. At least that would narrow down the competition ? But honestly, for a Spaniard to go self employed is a very big risk. I know people who have lost homes because they weren´t making money, the Social Security has to be paid ! The only ones to get away with it here is the Politicians ! I really don´t know what to do! Help me please !! Anyone !!
Hello Maria,
A very interesting comment that, as I doubt most people know about the tax implications in Spain. I would definitely research it more if I were in yuor position, as by the sound of things, it may not be worth your while if you have to pay taxes just for the sake of being self employed, instead of based on your self employment income.
Regards,
Admin.
in the case of kleenx ihinkthe bussness is for the sale of catalogs, you as a begginer are forced to commit topurchase 150pounds in 3 months.to become a distribuitor. thats the bussness…
nelson