III. Making Money with Essential Oils

If essential oils only enhanced the physical and emotional health of you and your pateints that would be reason enough to use them.  But today's essential oils can also help you create and grow a passive, recurring income. That is, an income you receive every month -  even if you spend the entire month hanging out on the beach!

There are actually 5 different ways to make money with doTerra

• Retail sales
• Fast start bonuses
• Power of three bonuses
• Unilevel bonuses and
• Leadership (corporate profit sharing) pools

In this lesson, I go over retail sales and fast-start bonuses.  In the next lesson I cover the the two main doTERRA compensation plans: The Power-of-3 bonuses and Unilevel bonuses. Leadership or corporate profit sharing pools are covered on my website on this page. 

Retail Sales

When you sign up as a distributor (Wellness advocate) with doTERRA you can purchase products at wholesale prices and then resell them at retail.This is similar to selling supplements out of your office.

You will receive a minimum 25% commission on all products sold this way. (You can charge more than the stated retail price of a doTERRA product if you choose - which, of course will give you a greater profit - but you may not sell products for less than the stated retail price.)

You can find the retail price for each product on the product page of the doTERRA website as illustrated for Lavender essential oil above.

Create Links to Sell More Products

In addition to selling doTERRA products directly, you can also create links to products on the free website you receive when you sign up as a doTERRA Wellness advocate. Retail customers can then purchase the product by clicking on the link. You will receive a 25% commission on these sales.

This is an awesome feature because it means you don’t have to carry every essential oil or product that you might want to prescribe or offer your patients in your office.  It also means you can sell products directly from your website or newsletter. 

For example, I might not want to sell things like laundry detergent and cleaning products from my office. But I could write an article on avoiding toxins around the home in my newsletter and include links to these products.

Retail commissions from your website are paid out monthly. Retail sales from your website also help you qualify to receive the bonuses described below. 

Creating a Passive, Recurring Income

The reason you can create a (potentially large) recurring income with doTERRA is because they are a multi-level marketing (MLM) company. This means that, in addition to getting paid on the product you personally sell you also get paid when people you introduce to the doTERRA business sell product and when people they introduce to the business sell product and so on down to 7 “levels”.

Although the structure of MLM leads some people to believe it is a “pyramid scheme” it is not. MLM is a completely legitimate marketing strategy that has many advantages both for the company - and for you.

If you have reservations about joining an MLM company please see my pages  "Is MLM Good or Bad?" and "How is MLM Different From a Pyramid Scheme?"

All compensation that you receive from doTERRA other than retail sales rely on this basic MLM structure. But before we take a closer look at those compensation plans there are a few terms you need to know.

Terms You Need to Know

Before we look at the remaining parts of the doTERRA compensation plan there are a few terms you need to know. They are. . .

• Wellness Advocate
• Retail Customer
• Wholesale Customer
• Levels
• Presonal Volume
• Organizational Volume

Wellness Advocate.  doTERRA calls their distributors Wellness Advocates, and that is what I call them on my website and in these lessons. To become a Wellness advocate you can either purchase an enrollment kit or pay a $35 membership fee and purchase the doTERRA product/s of your choice. For more on how to get started with doTERRA click on this link.

Wellness advocates receive their own company website and are eligible to receive payment from all aspects of doTERRA's compensation plan. 

To see an example of a Wellness advocate's website (mine in this case!) click on this link. 

1. Retail Customer. As previously mentioned, essential oils and other products sold by doTERRA can be purchased directly via person-to-person sales or off the website you receive when you become a Wellness advocate.

Customers can buy these items for retail price (making them retail customers) or they can elect to receive a 25% discount by signing up to become a wholesale customer.

2. Wholesale Customer. For an annual $35 fee, a retail customer can become a wholesale customer. Wholesale customers can purchase doTERRA products for the wholesale price which is 25% below retail. 

Both retail and wholesale prices are indicated on the product page for the item in question. In the illustration above, notice that the retail price is crossed out indicating that the person who signed in is a wholesale customer or Wellness advocate (me!), and so would pay the wholesale price.

Wholesale customers can elect to become Wellness advocates at any point without paying an additional fee. 

3. Levels.  doTERRA is a multi-level-marketing (MLM) company. This means that, in their main compensation plan, Wellness advocates get paid on several different "levels".

As a Wellness advocate your "first level" consists of those Wellness advocates that are placed directly under you, your "second level" consists of the Wellness advocates positioned under the Wellness advocates on your first level and so on. 

In the illustration above, the person on top has 4 people on his first level, 7 people on his second level, 8 people on his third level and 10 people on his fourth level. 

doTERRA pays commissions or bonuses on 7 levels.

4. Personal Volume (PV). Each commissionable product sold by doTERRA is assigned a point value. Your personal volume or PV consists of the combined points of all products purchased by you and your retail customers each month.

The PV of most products is equal to their wholesale price. However, this is not always the case and some products do not qualify for a PV. 

The PV is clearly indicated on doTERRA's website on the product page for each item. In the illustration above, notice that the wholesale price of Copaiba softgels is $34 but the PV is 32.

It is important to distinguish between the purchase price of an item and its PV value because qualifications and bonuses are based on PV.

You can use your accumulated points to pay for your essential oils and essential oil products: Note the "pay with 34 points" option in the upper right corner of the illustration above. 

5. Organizational Volume (OV). Organizational volume is the combined PV of you and all the Wellness advocates, retail customers and wholesale customers in your organization.

There are a few more terms you will eventually need to become familiar with to fully understand doTERRA's compensation plan. You can find those on this page. But for now, the terms above will do. 

So, let's take a look at the next level of doTERRA's compensation plan: Fast-Start bonuses. 

Fast Start Bonuses

Because doTERRA realizes it takes time to build your MLM organization, they give you two different ways to make money as you are just starting out.  The first of these is the Fast-Start bonus plan.

Fast-Start bonuses are commissions paid on the total personal volume (PV) purchased by new Wellness advocates or wholesale customers within their first 60 days. These bonuses are paid to 3 levels.

Here’s how it works. . .

• When you enroll a new Wellness advocate or wholesale customer you will receive a 20% commission on all PV they purchase in their first 60 days.

• When these Wellness advocates enroll a new Wellness advocate or wholesale customer (who would then be on your second level) you receive a 10% on the PV those Wellness advocates purchase in their first 60 days.

• And when your second level Wellness advocates enroll a new Wellness advocate or wholesale customer (who would then be on your third level) you receive a 5% commission on all PV they purchase in their first 60 days.

Each PV is worth $1.00 and fast-start bonuses are paid out weekly.  

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