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  • Personal Development Week:

    The Herbalife settlement
  • July 21, 2016

    Herbalife to Restructure Operations, Pay $200 Million to Settle FTC Charges

    Herbalife International of America, Inc., Herbalife International, Inc., and Herbalife, Ltd. will restructure their U.S. multi-level marketing business operations and pay $200 million to compensate consumers to settle the FTC complaint that the Herbalife companies deceived consumers into believing they could ... Read more ›

  • July 21, 2016

    FTC Settlement with Herbalife—OMG!

    Network marketing is in the midst of a rapidly advancing Orwellian era. It’s been slow to develop, starting in 1996 when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued its decision in Webster v. Omnitrition, but it’s snowballed in the past two years.  Today the snowball grew exponentially with the announcemen... Read more ›

  • August 1, 2016

    Ackman’s crusade against Herbalife—in plain English

    The recent $200 million Herbalife settlement leaves us with some open questions about how Herbalife will do in the stock market and what Bill Ackman will do with his short position. In case you’re not entirely familiar with the concept, a short position is when a broker sells you a stock that they do not... Read more ›

  • August 13, 2016

    The Case for a Chief Compensation Officer

    In the August issue of Direct Selling News, InfoTrax Systems Vice President of Commissions Operations, Kenny Rawlins, makes a compelling argument for the inclusion of a chief compensation officer (CCO) on the executive team of every direct selling company. Last year’s Vemma injunction and the recent Herb... Read more ›

  • August 22, 2016

    FTC Demands Customers. How Will You Comply?

    The Herbalife settlement is out. We’ve had time to examine its contents. We have compared this settlement with last year’s Vemma case. Several of the particulars the FTC went after in each case are similar. One similarity—the focus on customers—is daunting. The FTC wants most of your sales to be made ... Read more ›

  • October 24, 2016

    Your comp plan in a post-Herbalife settlement world

    “What does my company need to do in order to stay off the FTC’s radar?” This is the question on everyone’s mind in light of the recent Herbalife settlement and Vemma action. I’m not an attorney, but as InfoTrax's Vice President of Commissions Operations, I’ve read the court documents for both case... Read more ›

  • October 31, 2016

    Herbalife, inventory, and personal consumption

    Legal action taken against any MLM catches the industry’s attention. Company owners find themselves perusing court documents, studying the details, and trying to identify takeaways about the legal climate. The recent Herbalife settlement leaves us with many takeaways. One of them is a new and perplexing app... Read more ›

  • November 7, 2016

    Does the Herbalife settlement affect your operations?

    I’ve released a few articles discussing the Herbalife settlement and what it means for the industry already. Commissions are my area of expertise so my previous articles focused there, but I’m also intrigued by the operational implications of the settlement. Three of the restrictions we see in the Herbali... Read more ›

  • December 9, 2010

    International Sponsoring And Commissioning

    If your company is preparing to go international, you need to consider how you will handle international sponsoring and commissioning. You need to consider how your compensation plan will operate in the different types of markets—eCommerce, traditional, and in-person markets. The behaviors you need to rewar... Read more ›

  • December 8, 2013

    Why Do You Want to Own A Direct Selling Company?

    Why do you want to own a direct selling company? One motivation for starting a company in this industry is obvious. Other than a home-run technology company, few businesses have such fast upside potential as a direct selling company. A network marketing company recently enjoyed revenues close to a billion dol... Read more ›

  • March 30, 2022

    The straight facts on stacking

    There are certain compensation strategy problems that we see play out again and again around the industry. Stacking is one of them. It is the bane of level commissions, and it can cripple an organization—distributors who stack take away more money than the compensation plan is designed to pay them, hurting ... Read more ›