Is Team BeachBody A Scam Or A Worthwhile Business Opportunity?
“What does it mean to be a Team Beachbody Coach? It means earning an income while you help yourself and others live healthier, more fulfilling lives. It’s being passionate about helping to end the trend of obesity in this country. All by doing what you love—staying fit and healthy, while inspiring others to do the same…”- TeamBeachBody.com
What Is Team Beachbody?
Based out of Santa Monica, California and headed by CEO Carl Daikeler and president Jon Congdon, since Beachbody started in 1998 they advertised various weight-loss products through infomercials.
Some of the many popular workout programs include TurboFire, P90X, 21 Day Fix, Insanity, Brazil Butt Lift, CIZE, Rockin’ Body, Turbo Jam, and Hip Hop Abs.
Their product line also consists of supplements, fitness gear and Beachbody On Demand that allows customers to get unlimited access to hundreds of the most popular workouts online along with a daily calendar, fitness guide, nutrition plans, and a progress tracker.
With a network of over 450,000 independent “Coach” distributors, Team BeachBody-the direct selling side of the business began in 2007 by Daikeler.
About Daikeler
Daikeler has over 25 years of broad product marketing experience. He has done everything from conceiving and promoting products, media buying, operations, international distribution, and general management.
He started his entrepreneurial career in fitness product development when he created 8 Minute Abs after he co-founded TelAmerica Media.
How To Become A Team BeachBody Coach
Becoming a Team BeachBody “Coach” is so simple that anyone of legal age that lives in a country where BeachBody is in business can become one. All you have to do is complete your “Coach” application and purchase your coach business kit.
It’s funny that they even use the word coach to call their salespeople that when the majority of them aren’t qualified to coach and are more like cheerleaders.
Instead of having their coaches getting officially certified in nutrition and physical fitness, the company gives them their own training materials and classes.
Better yet, people should be seeking advice from an experienced credentialed health professional that won’t disregard possible health hazards. Team BeachBody has a policy where coaches can’t recommend, diagnose, or advise beyond their own professional training.
To be able to make money with BeachBody, you need to pay them a starting and a monthly fee to be able to direct people to their website and recruit others. Directing people to a duplicate of a company’s website and getting paid a commission is affiliate marketing and should be free.
The Team BeachBody Compensation Plan
Team BeachBody’s compensation plan is based on the sale of BeachBody products and team cycle bonuses.
Commissions Paid:
- Challenge Packs $40–$105
- Retail 25%
- Team BeachBody Club Member 15%
- Memberships 40%
A binary compensation plan is used for team cycle bonuses that places two legs underneath each coach.
This allows coaches to earn from sales of their entire downline organization. Coaches earn between $14 and $18 everytime they cycle 300 Balanced Volume Points. This can happen multiple times a day for top level coaches.
Here’s a video explaining the Team BeachBody Compensation Plan:
To advance in rank in the compensation plan, you have to recruit a lot of people and personally purchase or retail a minimum amount of products each month.
Coach Connection Program
“Coaches currently qualified with a paid-as rank of Diamond Coach or above are eligible to receive new coach leads received by the company. Qualified Diamond Coaches must satisfy the following criteria to receive coach leads: Must achieve at least 100 PV originating from new or ongoing home direct orders in the last 30 days, of which at least 50 PV originates from your personal home direct orders.” – Source Section 4 Team BeachBody Policies and Procedures
How Much Money Will You Earn As a Team BeachBody Coach?
Footnote 2 of the 2011 income disclosure statement states that 49.3% of coaches earned a check while 50.7% didn’t. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the 2012 IDS in footnote 3 states that only 45.9% earned a check while 54.1% earned nothing.
According to the 2014 to 2015 IDS, the average earnings per year for a coach only retailing products is $502 per year.- beachbody.com
2015 through 2016 states that the majority of coaches are making an average of $449. Combining that with the Emerald rank, 94.1 % are making less than $3,100 per year.
Team BeachBody 2016 Income Disclosure Statement
In each IDS, footnote 1 states that the information is based on coaches who were with BeachBody for the entire period, excluding the results of newcomers. A less than 53% chance of receiving a check is for those who were with BeachBody for a year or more.
How Much Does It Cost To Join Team BeachBody?
You will probably end up throwing away more money than you make. Here’s a list of the upcoming fees you will be have or be enticed to make.
- $39.95- A one time fee for the Business Starter Kit that includes a coach welcome book, 30-day access to your coach online office, a personalized coach website, and support tools.
- $15.95/month- This is an automatic monthly fee once you become a coach for a website and a subscription to Success magazine. Part of the magazine talks about legitimizing MLM as opposed to Fortune, Entrepreneur, Inc. Fast Company, and BusinessWeek. The $15.95 seems like no big deal to some, but it’s strange how some freaked out when Netflix increased their price by just a buck when they provide an expensive unlimited service at half of this fee.
- Weekly Club Fees – To qualify for their customer lead program, you have to be a be a club member which is $2.99 a week billed quarterly.
- Conference Fees – The conferences are completely optional, but your upline will tell you that if you really want to succeed in your business, you can’t miss it. The four day 2017 BeachBody
- Coach Summit is from $195 to $295 depending on when you buy it. This doesn’t include your hotel, car rental, airfare, and pricey restaurant food which easily adds another $1500 in costs.
Would the Public Pay $125 Per Month For Shakeology?
Their workout programs are rated an average of 4 stars and deliver results the right program is chosen. The problem with this is that it’s only a one to maybe three time commission so coaches emphasize on selling pricey Shakeology due to recurring commissions. They will tell you that if you want to be successful, you have to drink Shakeology yourself.
Similar to Shakeology at half the cost is Vega One which is not certified organic and the first two ingredients may be treated with synthetic pesticides and roundup herbicide. Also in a heavily processed form is isolated whey. It’s very important to drink a certified organic protein shake if you drink one daily.
Removed Ingredients
The plant amaranth and holy basil tulsi were removed from Shakeology due to insufficient supplies of each.
Acai was also removed from the shakes because it was found to be linked with a heart and central nervous system disease called Chagas.
A Better Option
Tera’s Simply Pure Organic Dark Chocolate Whey Protein has 20 grams of whey protein, it’s certified organic by MOSA, ethically sourced from family farms in Wisconsin, grass fed, rBGH/rBST Free, non gmo, kosher, and blended with fair trade certified dark chocolate.
What about Team BeachBody’s Ultimate Reset Cleanse?
Even though there isn’t any health concerns found in Team BeachBody’s Ultimate Reset Cleanse, one of the main and affordable ingredients turmeric can easily be consumed in soup, sauces, and curries.
Other ingredients include enzymes that the body already builds on its own.- Cosmopolitan
Team BeachBody Pros
- Encourage your friends to get fit and healthy
- Low start up costs
- A Coach will always earn a 25% commission on any products they sell
- Get a chance to win a vacation or other great prizes
- Beachbody has great and popular workout programs created by fitness celebrities.
- No inventory, shipping, or customer service
Team BeachBody Red Flags
- Your downline can grow unlimited levels- “Excessive levels in a downline is another sign participants are expected to sell primarily to their downline, rather than to the general public. This makes it an exploitative money transfer scheme”. – Source The problem with 5 or more levels of compensation.
- “Your income is based mainly on the number of people you recruit, and the money those new recruits pay to join the company — not on the sales of products to consumers.”–FTC.gov At the 17:06 mark on the Side Hustle Nation blog on podcast 77, Kellie Gimenez– a Diamond level coach says, “…A majority of your income isn’t going to be coming from the products, the majority of your income as you grow a team is going to be coming from the coaches and the volume that they sell cause you can only sell so many workouts every month…If they’re not drinking Shakeology every month, they can buy one workout and never buy anything else from you…When I first started as a coach and I didn’t have a team underneath me, I was making about $500 a month selling products so I mean that’s not bad. It paid for our groceries, it paid for gas it was a good income but it’s definitely not something that could be a successful side hustle…” So she’s making more money from recruiting than sales to the public.
- The average income per year for a person that is only retailing Team BeachBody products is $500 per year. The cost per month for Shakeology is $129.95 adding up to $1,559.40 per year.
- Their low quality protein shake and their BeachBody on Demand service are overpriced. At 140 calories, it’s not an adequate meal replacement. It’s already a costly shake and when you add your own ingredients, the price increases to about $5 per shake. It doesn’t become less of pyramid scheme if they give distributors a 20% savings because it is minimal when it’s so overpriced. You could buy four 24 oz containers of Tera’s healthy organic whey protein with the price you pay for Shakeology. Dailyburn is a third of the price of BeachBody on Demand at $14.95 a month.
- To receive coach leads from the company you are required to purchase their Coach lead program.
- Qualified Diamond Coaches must achieve at least 100 PV originating from new or ongoing Home Direct orders in the last 30 days of which at least 50 PV originates from your personal Home Direct orders. – Source Team BeachBody Policies and Procedures
- Coaches are in inactive status if they accumulate 49 or less personal volume causing them to go down in rank and cause a permanent removal of all their team volume.
- You have to compete for sales with BeachBody’s endless effective advertising on television.
- If a coach or somebody in their home is involved with another network marketing company, he/she will not be able to earn the Star Diamond Leadership Bonus.– Source Team BeachBody Policies and Procedures
Team BeachBody Complaints
From these complaints, we can conclude that there isn’t much demand for BeachBody on Demand or Shakeology. Here are some of the numerous claims found about Team BeachBody’s unethical billing at the Better Business Bureau:
03/22/17 Jackie C.
“I had cancelled my subscription after 2 months when the product did not do what it said. I have been charged $42.22 every month since then for an “on demand” subscription I never opted for. They refuse to reimburse me, and will only refund charges for the 30 days. Their customer service was rude and unwilling to help. This company is a rip off.”
02/22/17 Janice C.
“First of all, I did not give them my credit card information so I have not lost money. I wanted to order the Country Heat Videos as advertised on TV (Feb.22/17 9:15am). The ‘special’ order dropped the price to $40 from $60 and included: 30 day risk-free trial, online coach, overview guide, message board plus express delivery free. I wanted to pay for it using PayPal so went to the “advertised” website and found it did not exist. It was part of Beachbody.com although this took some time to find. When I finally found the ad for the workout videos, it did not offer the same price but a higher price with no extras. So I called the ************** & spoke with ***** who would not provide any information but when I said I did not want to order over the phone, he said, “Thank you. Have a nice day.” …and promptly hung up before I cd respond. I called back and pressed option 1 for customer service which sent me to another number where I could not find the information. So I called ***** again who did not want to help me find the product online but gave me the number***************… where I cd not find anyone to speak with me. They are misleading people with a non-existent website to purchase the ‘special’ price so you will call instead where they will pressure you to spend more, I think. I really thought the product looked good but if they don’t want to sell it to me, I will find another suitable product, elsewhere. Beachbody phone personnel was rude, impersonal, non-helpful. It appears I am not the only one who has experienced this, but if they have a good product why are they making everything difficult and convoluted. A disgrace of a company! Shame on you Ms.******** for allowing these negative reviews to continue….A better run company would be open, honest and still make great money selling good products.”
02/20/17 Sharon M.
“I purchased the 21 Day Fix 15 months ago and declined the online membership that costs $41.20/3 months so I never expected it to show up on my credit card statement. My husband pays my Discover bill and I recently wanted to check on another issue and noticed that I have been charged for the last 15 months for this service. I never set up an online account in that entire time. I have seen similar complaints for this company. I feel taken advantage of and deceived.”
Team BeachBody At A Final Glance….
Unfortunately Team BeachBody various red flags make it more of a pyramid scheme. Their unqualified coaches are more motivating multilevel marketing sales people with the majority of them making insignificant income. Endless recruiting and meeting increasing personal volume are required as you advance in rank in the binary compensation plan. BeachBody has a history of never ending complaints of unauthorized charges and difficulty in canceling auto-shipment orders and monthly coach fees. If you need to lose weight and improve your health, you don’t need the BeachBody community to help you stay motivated when there are free communities you can join including Sparkpeople.com, BodyBuilding.com and StickK.com. Also as mentioned, Tera’s Organic Whey Protein is a much healthier alternative to the crazily overpriced Shakeology. Although the fitness programs are great and can save you a ton of cash on gym memberships, take better care of your pocket and health by staying away from the Team BeachBody business opportunity.
To Your Success,
If you have any questions, comments or would like to share your experience with Team BeachBody or Shakeology, please state them below. If you found this article helpful, please share it to help others! 
