To be fair, Elepreneur is quite a well-balanced multi-level marketing opportunity. Its product line is solid and it has been able to generate demand through sales and through its unique compensation plan that seems to drive effort to focus on driving sales. Elepreneur, however, still bears a degree of semblance to Ponzi schemes.
Elepreneurs and Elevacity belongs to Sharing Services Global Corporation (SSGC). The SSGC consolidates Elepreneurs and Elevacity though with little success. The CEO of Elepreneurs happens to be Keith Halls who was a distributor for Synergy Worldwide in 2001, and a marketer and a shareholder at Youngevity where he was questioned about insider trading in 2012. Much of Elepreneur’s marketing information can be found at Elevacity’s website. This seems to be a questionable marketing choice.
Unlike most Ponzi schemes, Elepreneur does have an underlying product that could be invested in. It does not only bank on its affiliate membership. It should be noted, though, that in 2018, it had no product or service to be invested in. Some might say that the introduction of this line of product is a ruse to conceal Elepreneurs’ illegitimacy. This “ruse” seem to be a well planned and costly one though.
Elepreneurs market immediate impact products. Its products and their marketing information are found on Elevacity’s website. Elepreneurs products has two categories: wellness and skincare. It is worrisome though that Elepreneurs shows no approval for treatments neither is there any scientific backup for the “multi ailment cure” Xanthohumol which most of Elepreneurs’ xproduct contains.
Although Elepreneurs does not really pronounce the need for new members, its structure says it does need new members to thrive. The unilevel compensation plan it runs on works like the conventional pyramid structure of Ponzi schemes. A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them down an infinite number of levels.
Elepreneurs also run a 13 rank system with each rank enjoying commission caps, retail commissions, leadership bonuses, customer acquisition bonuses, and recruitment and residual commissions. Elepreneurs’ coded compensation structure ensures that early adopters earn more and also increases the chances of affiliates earning more as they bring in new affiliates.
Elepreneurs has cleverly balanced the need for sales and the need for new investors with its unique business or retail model. It would be therefore incorrect to outrightly call a Ponzi Scheme.
Elepreneurs passes the volatility test. It does not outrightly guarantee high returns but bases it success on recent trends of achievement. “For the fiscal year ended April 30, 2020, our consolidated net sales increased by $45.5 million, to $131.4 million, compared to $85.9 million for the fiscal year ended April 30, 2019.”
Elepreneurs also claims to have “a ratio of nearly 10 CUSTOMERS FOR EVERY 1 DISTRIBUTOR! (409,739 Customers to 42,689 Distributors as of October 31, 2019).” In spite of all of these, it is still doubtful if Elepreneurs can more sales – more affiliates structure can sustain it when diminshing returns sets in. Would Elepreneurs not falter when sales and new investors begins to stall?
Elepreneurs is one of those well-planned schemes with the pyramid structure of a Ponzi scheme. It is hard to cast doubts because it is being well marketed, it is geared by sales and its ROI is down to earth. The truth remains that it need investors for sales to continue. It needs to turn buyers into investors. Investors who are looking for a long term investment should be careful.
