But is it Pure Romance for your wallet?

Disclaimer: This post is the opinion of the author and should not be taken in place of professional legal or professional financial advice. The author has not ever been a customer or consultant of Pure Romance or any MLM or direct sales company. 

We’ve all had a friend in the MLM business. Some of us have had many friends in the business. And it can be kind of awkward at times.

Perhaps you really like your friend, but you don’t like the product. Maybe you’re staunchly anti-MLM. Regardless, imagine you’re in a situation with your #bossbabe friend.

And that friend is now selling sex toys.

Cue the immature giggles.

Pure Romance is a direct sales company that sells adult products.

So now you have the privilege of feeling even more uncomfortable about telling your MLM friend no. Because let’s face it: buying sex toys and products from your friend is not something many people do every day.

But let’s put that thought aside and actually analyze the Pure Romance income opportunity. And spoiler alert: Pure Romance really pushes the idea that you can make money from becoming a consultant.

What is Pure Romance?

Pure Romance is a direct sales company that sells adult / “romantic” products. But like most direct sales companies, their true bread and butter is consultants. Pure Romance makes money from signing people up to become Pure Romance Consultants.

Some may argue that paying to become a consultant without a guarantee is harmless. After all, many people pay for the gym or a Costco membership they never use. But they have the “opportunity” to use them.

The difference? With a gym membership or a Costco membership, you’re paying for access.

Ok, you say, a direct sales company is no different. You’re paying for access to an opportunity. But this is the issue. At Costco or a gym, you know (and get) what you’re paying for.

With direct sales companies, you don’t know what you’re paying for. Is it a financial opportunity? Well, most likely not according to most income disclosure statements.

And it’s not like you’re paying for a discount on the products. LuLaRoe is an example of this. Although consultants were buying the products at “wholesale prices” the fact of the matter is you could purchase similar products on Amazon for much less. So not really a discount IYKWIM.

How do I become a Pure Romance Consultant?

Perhaps you’ve been approached by a Pure Romance Consultant. Maybe you stumbled upon the company on your own. Or you have a friend who’s considering this.

Or maybe you’re just fascinated by the bullshit that is direct sales recruiting.

Let’s break it down.

becoming a consultant

If you want to sell Pure Romance, you need to join as a consultant.

It’s pretty easy to do.

In fact, if you go to pureromance.com, the very first thing you see is a banner telling you how much it is to join:

It’s easy to see that the product Pure Romance really wants to sell is the Business Starter Kit.

Otherwise, why would you make this the most prominent statement upon visiting their website?

It’s clear that recruiting consultants is a priority. And the target market? Women.

A little more about becoming a consultant

There’s more to being a consultant than the Business Starter Kit. Although the homepage banner makes it seem like you can “start a business” with $199, it’s really not that simple.

And note that while direct sales companies market the idea that you will own your own business, you will not have any control. You are not authorized to make any decisions. This is straight from their policies:

It’s very clear: You have no power or authority. You are not an employee of the company. Although the language is crafted to make this seem like a good thing, there’s no getting around it.

This is not your business. It is not your company.

It’s not my company?

Yes, even though it says “you an independent business owner.” And can we please pause for a minute and appreciate the glaring typo for what it is? This company doesn’t care enough to proofread the introduction of their 2018 Incentive Requirements Guide.

Why?

There’s no way to know for sure. But here are a few guesses:

They know you’ll never actually read the policy. Because why would you? You’re too focused on figuring out how to sell the products that Pure Romance doesn’t even care about selling.

They know you’ll churn and burn before you dig into the details. Because direct sales companies make money from recruiting new consultants, there is little care given to the relationship and education of  current consultants. Why invest in their “independent business owners” when they’re not actually part of the company?

They want to build a tribe of idiots, and this is typo was designed weed out the pesky, detail-oriented people. I realize this is a very scientific guess. Please let me know if I should elaborate.

Those are my guesses. I would love to hear yours in the comments.

What it really costs to sell Pure Romance

So let’s say you don’t care about the details, you just want to become a Pure Romance Consultant. After all, you’ve harbored a lifelong dream of giving adult sex education at “parties” and then loading people up with sex products.

Congratulations, Pure Romance is here to make your #bossbabe dreams come true, hun.

If you decide to take a leap and join, you can sign up with a $199 Business Starter Kit.

If you just want to be basic about it, that is.

Note that according to Pure Romance’s promotional material, if you really want to be a smart cookie, you’ll buy much more than the basic kit.

The next level up is the Deluxe Kit. It costs $319.

After that, the final option is the Deluxe Plus. The cost is $439.

What other costs are involved?

consultant website

In the first year, your Pure Romance website costs are bundled into the Starter Kit. Thereafter, it’s $24.99 per year.

inventory

Some will say you don’t need inventory. But it is evident from the promotional material that you are encouraged to stock products.

The language in the rewards book implies that if you stock more inventory, you’ll sell more product. But that’s not a guarantee. Sadly what happens with many direct sales consultants is an inventory surplus.

Direct sales consultants are encouraged to buy, buy, buy at a “discount.” The problem? There’s very little planning or education on proper inventory management.

Why? It’s simply not in the best interest of a direct sales company to teach consultants how to manage their “independent business.” After all, the direct sales company is a supplier.

It’s the direct sales company’s goal to sell as much of their opportunity memberships and products as possible. This is how they profit. How you profit is of little to no interest to them.

But how much can you really earn?

So what? You’re not like the rest of those lazy consultants. You’re a go-getter. A rise and grinder. A true #bossbabe in the making.

Since there’s nothing that a well-meaning person can do to disenchant you from the future of your “financial freedom,” let’s break down how much product you’d have to sell to earn the equivalent of a minimum wage job.

pure romance consultant assumptions

For this example, we’ll assume:

• You start with the cheapest starter kit ($199)
• You do not stock any inventory, even though you’re encouraged to do so
• You don’t recruit anyone new, so you’re at the most entry-level rank
• You want to earn the equivalent of a full-time, minimum wage job before taxes (Approximately $1,087.50 per month)

pure romance’s most popular product

Ok, so here’s the kicker. We’re not sure what to go with when it comes to Pure Romance’s most popular product. Although the company goes for shock value with its sex education and sex toy marketing, the Pure Romance Hot List is mostly just lotions and creams.

But, since lots of direct sales advocates will get huffy and puffy about setting a low price point for the most popular product (lotions/creams are about $20-$30 each), we’re going to go for gold here.

We’re going to assume that you sell all of your customers a $189 “dual action” vibrator. Warning: the photo that follows is a photo of a sex toy. Scroll at your own risk.

 

Is it possible to sell this to my friends and family?

Well, in theory, yes. It’s quite possibly an easy sale, since your loved ones may be mortified by your approach. They may even shell out hundreds just so that they never have to have a conversation about their love life with you again.

Commission rates for a starter consultant

At the entry-level, you’ll be earning 15% on all sales through your Pure Romance website.

So if you sell a $189 product, you will earn $28.35 before taxes.

Great! So how many do you need to sell in order to earn the equivalent of minimum wage each month?

38.35 dual action vibrators, people. We’ll round up to 39, since you can’t sell 0.35 of the product.

So 39 of these babies each month at $189 a pop. Also an additional 8 in the first month to recoup your investment. So 47, total, in month one to earn the equivalent of a minimum wage job and recoup your starter kit costs.

Easy enough, right?

Not so fast tiger. Before you jump on the Pure Romance boat, ask yourself:

Do I have a list of leads?

A lead is someone who is a prospective customer. Only about 3% of leads (and that’s being generous) convert to sales. So to sell 39 dual-action vibrators each month, you actually need 1,300 people interested in buying one each month.

Do you make 1,300 friends each month? Do you even have 1,300 friends on Facebook? If your answer is no to both, think about how achievable this may be.

Furthermore, those 1,300 people must also be oblivious to sites like Amazon, which sells hundreds of similar products starting at just $12 – with the added bonus of anonymity.

AM I COMFORTABLE LOSING $199?

If you’re not comfortable losing the full $199 of the starter kit cost, you should not “invest” in becoming a consultant. In the direct sales industry, you are more likely to win from gambling than ever turn a profit as a consultant.

And turning a profit would mean recouping your initial investment first. So keep that in mind before you whip out the credit card.

A lot of direct sales and MLM #bossbabes will post promotional statuses on social media. They’ll try to “encourage” (translation: bully) you into believing you should “take a risk” and “start a business.” But if you’re barely scraping by, it is a bad idea of epic proportion to invest in a direct sales company.

 

The bottom line

How many people actually make money selling Pure Romance? The answer: no one knows. The Pure Romance income disclosure statement is nowhere to be found online. If you have a copy, please contact us to share.

And if you’re curious about direct sales opportunities and how the math adds up, you can always check out our free Direct Sales Calculator to create a personalized estimate.