The Truth of Car Bonuses in the MLM industry (aka “The Good, Bad and the Ugly Truth Behind that Beemer”)!

MLM Car Bonus

There are many companies out there that offer car bonuses in the home-based business/network/multi-level marketing industry.  I’ve seen them in many different forms, and some just disguise them better than others. 

Don’t be fooled by all of the “fancy words” or “smoke and mirrors” with car bonuses.  I have many concerns with how some companies will reward (and “penalize” in some ways when refused) you for it:

1)  What is going to happen, hypothetically speaking, when you (or someone in your organization) loses their monthly qualification for their car payment?  Where do you think that payment is going to come from?  You’re probably right if you said “right out of my own pocket”!  I had a chat with a good friend of mine that’s in another company that has a car bonus.  He told me that he has to spend about a week out of the month calling his downline to make sure that they keep their volumes up so everybody can “stay qualified”.  One of his people fell below their qualifications, and lost their bonus money and status.  Ouch!
2)  What happens if your team falls apart or, worse yet, your company goes bankrupt?  You’re stuck in a long-term lease for a car that you can no longer afford.  Double Ouch!
3)  This is not really a “free” car, either.  Your ability to get that car also is very dependent on your credit rating.  If you have a “less than favourable” credit rating, your chances of driving off the lot with that new car is “slim to none”.
4)  If you refuse to take that car bonus, some companies will still give you that car bonus, but only up to half of the value of the original car bonus.  IMHO, not a very fair deal for the distributor that doesn’t want that “fancy car”.
5)  What happens when you have to maintain the car (i.e. oil changes, mechanical or electrical issues, etc.)?  Who pays for that?  Not the company that you are promoting!  Unless it’s part of the leasing contract, it will probably come out of your pocket.

My suggestion to these companies is to eliminate this “incentive”, as it only leads to a lot of hype.  Our industry already has too much of it!  Spread it around to more of the “Average Joes”.  An extra $50-100 in their wallets will go a long way to make them (and, in turn, the company) more productive.  A happy distributor is one who will stay longer with that company!