Pros
Exposure - You have the opportunity to interact with customers that may actually see you as someone with potential and offer you a real job
Cons
I was one of the people that made it all the way to "ownership" as they call it. Sure, they put you in a building, tell you its yours, put some furniture that was bought at a resale shop in it, and put up a few ads to start your recruiting. All sounds like you are getting a quick in to running your own business. Now here's where it gets fun - remember you are the last one to get paid. Most of the time, if you arent out yourself selling, then your "promoting owner" wants to know why you are even paying yourself. Try and pay yourself a pretty penny, it comes back to bite you somewhere when you cant make rent, your merch payment, or even balance your payroll. Therefore, yes, you are FORCED to continue doing the grunt work you have been doing to get where you are. OWNERSHIP? More like glorified manager. As the owner you should have the right to branch out, explore different products or techniques...good luck with that. The second you try to find an alternative product, any merch you may be selling for smart circle gets yanked, as does your recruiting, office furniture, and anything else they offered to help you with. They call it ownership, but they really keep you on a leash because the truth is, you have nothing without them, and they know it, and abuse it. Face it, owning your own company means you have your own product/service and a hefty bank account to back yourself with. All that they preach and brainwash you into working day and night for is a lie because they will abuse you as an owner just as they did as when you were a street salesman. Speaking of day and night...dont expect your weekends off and early nights anytime soon. You had better be prepared to work 7 days a week as well as nights unless you have a top notch assistant manager that you trust enough and is willing enough to do that for you. Finally, they have crap accountants. They provide you with one to handle your payroll and taxes, but they miss a lot...and when they do, guess who is responsible. Good luck to all that attempt to overcome their work horse habits, and of you do make it to ownership as I did, consider yourself an awesome salesman that proved you could do it, and go find a real job. Get out while its still easy, once you make owner, their are legal documents to be signed, and its just like getting a divorce at that point when you try to get out. It was 3 years of my life I deeply wish I could have back. PS: One more thing I just remembered. Your benefits that they say you get access to after 6 months - they dont exist. They dont expect you to last that long so they tell you that just to get you to stick around. If you do make it that long and ask they simply tell you they dropped their plans, but you are a success, you can go purchase your own benefits online.
