April 6, 2021
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Someone you know might have introduced you to hempSMART’s products as a great way to live a healthier and happier life while getting the opportunity of making good money at the sides.
However, you might be a bit skeptical if hempSMART is just another scam and pyramid scheme, or maybe this is finally one of the few and rare legit opportunities out there.
But before anything else, I’d like to congratulate you for spending the time to do research and listening to your inner curious self.
You’re doing the right thing!
Why? It’s because 99% of all MLM members don’t make any money because they jump blindly into the company.
I want to save you that hassle, which is why I made this honest, accurate, and up-to-date hempSMART review. I’ve included images, videos, and solid information to show you the true pros and cons of joining this MLM.
Reading through this review will help you come up with an informed decision if it’s right for you or not.
The overview and rankings
Name: HempSMART
Founder: Donald Steinberg
Type: Retail Commissions MLM
Products (Including Pricing): 35 out of 100
Success Stories: 30 out of 100
Price To Join MLM: $49-$129 + ~$100/ month sales quota (35 out of 100)
Summary: hempSMART is an MLM company that sell various CBD-based health and nutritional supplements such as drops,oils, capsules, and topicals.
Make Time Online Rating: 33 out of 100
Recommended: No
hempSMART is an MLM company and subsidiary of the Marijuana Company of America (MCOA), which is a company based in Escondido, California.
They sell various CBD-based health and nutritional supplements such as drops,oils, capsules, and topicals.
Aside from their products, they also offer Business Development Packs for their members, which they call as their affiliates or representatives.
I also found out that even if they’re headquarters are in California, they still sell products worldwide, with their global target market being the UK.
They even have an office in Manchester, England, which I believe is a backup support in case their main office in the US gets shut down knowing that CBD isn’t yet widely regulated and affirmed by the government.
But what makes hempSMART different from other companies is that their products can be purchased by members at special and discounted wholesale prices instead of the regular retail prices.
Members then sell these products to the market at retail prices.
Affiliates can also recruit members and build their own downlines to earn more (more on this later).
Donald Steinberg is the CEO and founder of hempSMART. He runs the company together with his close friend and associate, Ian Harvey, who serves as hempSMART’s global sales director.
Donald also founded the Marijuana Company of America in 2015.
He still runs his company up until now and is planning to expand it more overseas while improving the reputation of CBD and cannabis in general to the mainstream market.
Technically no, hempSMART is not a pyramid scheme because distributors can still earn money by selling their products.
However, hempSMART has a lot of similarities with pyramid schemes in disguise.
Let me explain what I mean by this...
A company which pays members to recruit more people into the company instead of selling products or services.
Check out the Wikipedia diagram below to see why it's impossible for everyone to make money inside a pyramid scheme...
And like most MLMs, hempSMART does indeed offer real products that have health benefits even if most don’t have any therapeutic claims (at least they’re effective based on customer testimonials, though!).
But take note that if the products are very expensive and the focus is on recruiting instead of selling to earn good money, then it’s very likely that this is a “pyramid scheme in disguise.”
Feel free to watch the 5-minute video below that explains how some companies (most especially MLMs) disguise themselves with products just to avoid being labeled as a pyramid scheme...
It has been proven time and time again that you can’t make good money in an MLM. What’s worse is that you can even lose money, just like what a recent study states where between 73% and 99% of all MLM members lose money.
And this has been proven by the Federal Trade Commission! As what you can see below...
hempSMART also hasn't released any income statement, which is a rare thing for MLMs.
And based on the looks of it, I can easily tell that this is because their members aren’t really making good money! Or even losing money...
I’ll dig deeper into this later as I will be explaining how members can technically earn money.
hempSMART is an MLM company selling CBD products.
And for the company to save money on marketing and advertising campaigns, they get everyday people to promote and sell their products.
These everyday people who most likely don’t have any sales or marketing background get the opportunity of making money on the side.
It sounds like a win-win, eh?
But hold your horses because there’s more to it than that...
It helps improve brain health and function, which supposedly can make you smarter. It also says that it helps you to remember details easily while also improving your focus.
Here's a 1-minute video of the hempSMART brain:
This can be applied to the skin to reduce inflammation from allergies, as well as hydrate and rejuvenate the skin (and make you look younger?).
This is another pain reliever, but unlike the capsulized version, this one comes in the form of a cream which you simply have to apply on the part which aches or where you feel pain. It contains CBD, terpenes, and CBG.
It is important to realise that the CBD MLM market is already very saturated. There are tons of companies that offer a very similar product line such as:
This will make it harder to sell these products as there are a lot of companies trying to sell the same thing.
So you may be asking yourself...
You can make around 10% to 30% commission on anything that you sell.
But you need to plan ahead on how many CBD products you can sell to your friends and family monthly so you don’t end up paying for it just to retain your membership.
The very few people (less than 5%) in MLMs that make good money recruit lots of people and act like sales managers.
This means that they’re not just doing the selling on the side but they treat it as a full-time job! You even have to aggressively encourage people and do your best to help your downline just to sell more.
Plus, you need to be really “extroverted” and have some professional sales experience to earn any money from this MLM...
Here’s a fact that most MLMs and recruiters won’t tell you…
If you’re planning to make money on the side and work just a few hours weekly — then you won’t make any money!
There are two ways you can make money from hempSMART, which is common for any MLM company:
You won’t get paid directly for recruiting people. You instead will earn from the bonuses from the sales coming from your downlines.
Why? Because that’s how hempSMART, and many MLMs avoid being labelled as an outright pyramid scheme and bring shut down!
I’ve created a clear explanation of the company’s compensation plan.
But before we proceed to that, you’re probably wondering...
There are three options when joining hempSMART:
Avail the Associate Registration Pack worth $49 to become an official associate. You gain a 15% discount when buying hempSMART products, which you can eventually sell at retail price.
This lets you recruit more members to the company and include them in their downline — which again, is normal for any MLM.
Becoming an associate also means that you’re qualified to get the rewards and compensation for your sales and downline bonuses. You’ll also have your own replicated hempSMART website, which is an ecommerce store where people can order from you.
There's also free business training and access to the exclusive and members-only app and resource library, as well as technical support.
But you don’t have any products to sell.
That’s what separates this start pack from the more advanced Fast Track option.
You get all the perks present in the Associate registration pack, plus a 250 mg Full Spectrum Mint Drops and Full Spectrum Strawberry Drops.
If you’ve got the money and you’re willing to risk to increase your chances of earning more soon, then you can go for the Fast Track 500 mg option.
You’ll get 500 mg bottles of their Full Spectrum Mint Drops and Full Spectrum Strawberry Drops, plus all the perks and inclusion in the basic Associate pack. All these for $129.
I’ve noticed that most, if not all MLMs have confusing compensation plans, that there are times I realize it’s easier to solve a Rubik’s cube blindfolded!
hempSMART is no different.
So, I’ll do my best to keep this simple and easy to understand. There are 3 ways to earn money:
You can buy hempSMART products at a discounted price, which is 10% to 30% lower depending on your rank. You can then earn a 10% to 30% profit from every sold product.
You earn commissions from your recruited downlines. The amount of commission you get depends on your rank.
Check out the table below.
PQV refers to Personal Qualified Volume, which is the amount of products you’ve sold monthly. GCV refers to Group Qualified Volume, which is the number of products sold by your group/downline monthly. You need to maintain those figures for you to remain or upgrade in rank.
You then earn 2% to 7% in downline commissions as what the table below shows...
Get a 25% commission bonus when you’ve sold 200 products or PPVs in a month. You need to avail the $179 registration pack to avail this bonus.
Get a 25% commission bonus on level 1 downlines and 12.5% commission bonus on level 2 downlines when you’ve sold a minimum of 300 products or PPVs in a month. You need to avail the $279 registration pack to avail this bonus.
Here's an 11-minute video explaining hempSMART's compensation plan...
No, hempSMART isn’t a scam. The company offers real and legitimate products. They also pay their affiliates properly.
However, aside from selling their products, members need to focus on recruiting more people to include in their downlines to earn good money.
This makes many people skeptical about the company because it’s like a pyramid scheme in disguise because of its focus on recruitment instead of selling.
The rest of this hempSMART review will help you come up with an informed decision if it’s a fit for you...
Just to be fully transparent with you, I am not a distributor myself and I do not endorse hempSMART in any way.
I have researched the website, testimonials and information on the Internet to get to the bottom of what this program genuinely does. This is because I have been burnt from programs just like this in the past and I want to prevent others from making the same mistakes. If you’d like to learn how to “Spot an Online Marketing Scam” then click the highlighted text.
Tired of MLMs? Check out how I make money online here!
There are a number of things that I really like about hempSMART if I were to compare it to the other MLMs that I did deep research about...
Key Terms:
Most MLMs cost more than $1,000 to start. That isn’t the case with hempSMART because you have 3 options.
You either choose the $49, $99, or $129 starter pack. It’s a good sign that hempSMART is not a scam as they are confident that their products will sell and they don’t have to overprice it just to get money.
The CBD products they offer have health benefits such as helping relieve pain, inflammation, and can even smoothen out the skin thanks to their rejuvenating features.
Here's an infographic to help you see the health benefits of CBD...
Although these products don’t have any therapeutic claims, their effectiveness have been proven by many of their users.
One of the biggest downturns to MLMs is that they have some hidden truths that they don't want to show to people. And unfortunately, these people won't know about them until they join.
If you know the real deal with MLMs like hempSMART, then you could prepare for these challenges ahead...
hempSMART’s income disclosure is nowhere to be found.
Perhaps, they intentionally did this because their members aren't making enough money, which isn’t surprising for an MLM.
Selling CBD products is becoming more difficult because the number of MLM companies selling CBD is increasing. And what about MLMs? They’re downright aggressive in selling!
As you can see, the CBD market is expanding. And that only means one thing... more CBD businesses are popping up! Which then makes it harder for you to sell.
The only realistic way for hempSMART representatives to avoid losing money is by recruiting people into the company and becoming their downline.
What happens when a company requires its members to recruit? This…
Yes, there’ll be some and very few people to make good money, but for you to be successful, you need to recruit lots of people who are surely going to lose money.
That surely is not ethical by all means...
CBD products aren’t yet regulated. They also have a negative stereotype from most consumers and the government because of their relation with cannabis.
Check out the images below to see the reality of whether CBD prooducts are legal or not...
At least that's according to the Washington Post, a reputable news company, along with the many journalists reporting that CBD isn't really legal.
The map above also shows that you'll have a hard time selling hempSMART's products because CBD isn't legal in many states.
It’s very clear that many people are interested in hempSMART. But what are your chances of making good money from this MLM?
If you need to recruit people just to even off your expenses or to stay active, then the company’s structure is very similar to pyramid schemes in disguise.
You need to make money by recruiting people who are also most likely going to lose money! That surely doesn’t sound like an ethical business to me...
MLMs are not scams or illegal. However, I'm not a fan of them because of the restrictions to the expensive products you have to promote.
Once I learnt about affiliate marketing, I realised it's a far superior business model because:
In 2018 I had no idea what affiliate marketing was.
But I went from a full time PE teacher to making a passive income online within one year...
If you want to discover how I did it then check out this special video I created which explains exactly how. You can also get your free 7-day bootcamp to get started.
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