efusjon Fails - Another "Ground Floor MLM" Tragedy

Whenever I see hype, it raises a huge red flag for me. It's a sign of something that is driven by recruitment, and does not have a long term future. In the case of efusjon there was bucket loads of it.

The company began in 2008 and was formerly launched in January 2009. It experienced rapid growth until their Facebook Application Launch failed miserably and a lawsuit was filed against it by MLM attorney Kevin Thomson in late 2009.

The lawsuit was filed in an effort to get the company to change its business model to protect its distributors from promoting an illegal pyramid scheme.

Since then it has been on a gradual decline. In late August 2010, it sent this letter to its distributors...

Dear eFusjon Distributors:

It is with great sadness that we announce today that we must cease the direct sales multi-level marketing business of eFusjon, Inc. as of September 1, 2010.

The independent contractor distributor agreements will terminate as of this date. See Distributor Agreement, Section 7("The Agreement shall continue in effect between the parties hereto until either party terminates the Agreement..."). Qualified distributors will receive their last compensation check for the month of August, less offsets against any amounts that are owed to the Company, on September 10th. Any commissions due will be available in your "Hyperwallet" account until October 31, 2010, after which date you will need to contact the corporate office (to access your "Hyperwallet" account please go to www.efusjonpay.com, or contact customer service for assistance). The Company will send refunds of the $30 membership fee to those distributors who became members in August 2010.

This was a very difficult decision for the Company and not one we had hoped to make. When the owners started eFusjon in 2008, we envisioned a unique and successful MLM business with healthy and unparalleled beverage products. The goal was to market these products through independent distributors via the MLM direct sales business model. Distributor performance, however, has been steadily declining for over a year now, and as a result, so has the Company’s revenues. The Company can no longer maintain a marketing model that is not generating the funds needed to grow a viable business. In short, the Company’s MLM business model is no longer a sustainable marketing strategy.

With a certain level of optimism, we also announce today our decision to explore other opportunities for the eFusjon product many of you have come to love. For some period of time, you may continue to enjoy eFusjon products through purchases (without compensation) on the eFusjon website www.efusjon.com.

Lastly, we extend a sincere and heartfelt thank you to all of you for your dedication to eFusjon over the years and for standing by our product and the Company during the height of our success as well as through more recent challenging times. We share your disappointment about the recent turn of events, but are cautiously optimistic about the future of eFusjon and eFusjon’s unparalleled, healthy beverages.

With gratitude,
The eFusjon Corporate Officers

I'm writing my opinion not to condemn the company, but to educate.

This is a drum that I'll be beating for many years to come because: I want people to be educated about this industry of network marketing and to choose wisely for their long term future.

This is another event that will ruin the aspirations of many people and leave them with a bitter aftertaste of the profession of MLM. It doesn't serve our industry at all, but there are valuable lessons to be learned.

Time and time again, hyped up start up MLM companies with "revolutionary" compensation plans have proven themselves incapable of staying in business. And yet, the glitter, the dollar signs shine so brightly that greed completely takes over any common sense.

My mentors have taught me that whenever a company explodes and then collapses, it's because of greed and ego.

efusjon came on to the scene competing in the bloated energy drinks market. The product wasn't the first of its type, wasn't really anything extraordinary, and it certainly wasn't value priced.

The retail commissions were a joke. Distributors would have lost money if they tried to retail the product at recommended retail price, taking into account shipping costs.

Since you couldn't retail the product, there was no other reason to get involved than to take advantage of the "revolutionary", 3 x 15 forced matrix compensation plan. And to keep your position in the matrix, you had to order 48 cans of the stuff every month whether you wanted to or not.

The company had clear intentions to expand very quickly with an application that would exploit Facebook to tell the whole world about efusjon. That was promptly and rightly shut down by Facebook itself - the beginning of their decline.

The company never had a long term vision, and the people it attracted reflected that. People got involved in this to get rich quick.

Now it has suffered the same fate as the overwhelming majority of new MLM startups - it did not last the first 2 years.

If you want to build long term wealth in network marketing, don't be blinded by greed and ego. Choose wisely. Find a true mentor with a servant's heart...

To Your MLM Success,

Wayne Wu

Looking for success in network marketing? I struggled for 2 years before stumbling upon the right answers. Let me freely share them with you.

Original article: efusjon Fails - Another Ground Floor MLM Tragedy posted at The Profitable Networker.