Is Monat An MLM?

According to Investopedia, an MLM business model is one that "encourages existing members to promote and sell their offerings to other individuals and bring on new recruits into the business. Distributors are paid a percentage of their recruits' sales. New recruits become the distributor's network or downline and are, in turn, encouraged to make sales to earn money." So while it's true that Monat is a direct sales company, meaning consultants sell Monat products directly to customers rather than those customers buying from a store or website, it's not the only way consultants earn money. In fact, in order to really succeed at selling for a MLM, you have to recruit people to sell underneath you, and get them to recruit people under them, and so on. This is where the business model starts to look like a pyramid. 

The reason this isn't considered a pyramid scheme is because of that direct sales component; Monat really is selling an actual product. But the tricky part is that a whopping 75% of people who sell for MLMs never make a profit. Ever (via Fundera). This means the vast majority of people who become convinced to sell Monat products thanks to promises of huge financial success never see such results. In fact, they are more likely to lose money than make any.