Is Origami Owl a Good Business? | Bob Margroff Enterprises

Product Name: Origami Owl

Website URL: www.Origamiowl.com

Founders: Isabella “Bella” Weems, Christian “Chrissy” Weems, Tyshon Basha, Shawn Maxwell

Price: $49 (Start-Up Kit), $99 (Essentials Kit), $199 (Signature Kit)

Worth It Rating (1-10): 6.5

Okay, okay… you caught me again doing another review on another MLM. Why not? There are so many of them out there and this one is not any different in the way it makes money with its system. There are two primary ways to make money with them, but I’ll get into that in a short bit.

First, have you heard of Origami Owl? You either have or you haven’t. Now you are probably asking me one other question: Is Origami Owl a good business? I will answer that… just keep reading and I’ll get to it.

Who Are They?

Well, to start off they are a privately owned MLM… as most of my more recent reviews have been. They were started back in 2010 by Isabella “Bella” Weems. At the time she was 14 years old and was partnered or mentored by her mom, Christian “Chrissy” Weems. They sell custom jewelry through direct sales and the Living Locket is their signature piece. It can be customized in many different ways… which I will get into a little later.

Origami Owl is headquartered in Chandler, Az. Currently, they have 60,000 independent sales consultants in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. They aren’t one of the top 20 MLMs, but they seem to be popular with mom/daughter teams. Mainly because they utilize a mom/daughter team mentoring system. It is a unique way to bring in younger people and show them how to sell and market businesses of their own.

There are so many younger people out there in the world that have no idea how to create and market a business. Heck, I’m 56 years old and I’m still learning. I don’t use MLM as my platform, but I have in the past and now understand the concept of it. That’s what makes my website helpful to you if you have no experience or have been in an MLM. Oh, just in case you haven’t read any of my other posts, and never heard of it, MLM stands for Multi-Level Marketing.

Anyway, I got a little off track here… and to get back on track… O2 has three different kits to get you started in their business as independent sales consultants. The price you pay to join is determined by the kit you start off with. The kits are as follows: Start-Up kit, $49 (retail value of $80); Essentials kit, $99 (retail value of $350); and last but not least the Signature kit, $199 (retail value over $645). The detail of their kits and their contents will be discussed later in “The Details…” of this article.

What Makes Their Success/Failure?

Their biggest asset is the variety of their accessories and or the signature piece in their inventory. the Living Locket… is a customizable locket that you pick the charms to go inside. Based on birthdays, favorite sports, travel goals, or anything that your heart desires.

Is Origami Owl a good business? - Locket watch The way that the business is defined and promoted is also another way they are successful. Consider this… Bella wanted to earn enough money in 2010 to save up for her dream car. Well, she and her family brainstormed and came up with an idea to sell jewelry and the business was so successful, that they earned millions in the first couple of years. It grew so fast that Bella was able to get her dream car… plus some.

They eventually decided to market their business using the MLM model. The goal was to share their passion and help others to build a business of their own using jewelry as their product. It caught on so well with women all over. One of the best parts is their mentoring partnerships between moms and daughters. I believe I mentioned this already, though.

One problem they seemed to have is their customer service, but they seem to have improved on that. You can go to the Better Business Bureau website and see what their current BBB rating is, currently it is A+, but it was a B+ at one time. If you look at the past complaints you will see where the focus or majority of the complaints were related to.

However, they always responded on the BBB website to the customer making their comment there. It seems they are making an attempt to improve on the customer responses.

The Details…

Now, the details of how a Jewelry Designer earns income with Origami Owl or as they say on their website, O2. They use two methods as most MLMs do.

The first method is they book a home party called “Jewelry Bars” and sell directly to the attendees of the party. There is about a 25% markup in profit on the price of their jewelry. So, as with most MLM, the markup is their profit margin for the Jewelry Designer to make instant income.

The second method is to sign up more Jewelry Designers… as is the same as most MLMs. The more you sign up or sponsor the more you may earn through a commission system that earns you a percentage of whatever your downline earns. It is really that simple.

So, as you can see it really isn’t any different than any other MLM out there. You either make money with direct sales and/or you make it by sponsoring other jewelry designers or as other MLMs may use… distributors. The terminology may be different, but the concept is still the same.

Okay, now I am going to get into their kits to get you started in O2. There are three kits: The Startup Kit, The Essentials Kit, and the Signature Kit.

The Startup Kit: Cost is $49 and has a retail value of $80 based on what it contains. Included in this kit is a $50 jewelry credit, business tools (consisting of the brochure and 10% off the 1st order of business cards)

Plus: FREE standard shipping on 1st jewelry order; FREE personal eCommerce website to run the business; FREE trial of State-of-the-art My O2 connection App with custom, shareable content; FREE marketing e-mails and other digital marketing support sent to your customers on your behalf when they opt-in; FREE Designer Back Office (to include business tracking and training); FREE On-demand business and personal development training; FREE participation in the You Matter Rewards Program that allows the opportunity to redeem points for a variety of items (such as Apple products, home goods, fitness products, vacations, and more).

Essentials Kit: cost is $99 and it includes over $350 in jewelry and business supplies.

Plus: all the same

FREE items such as the Starter Kit.

Signature Kit: cost is $199 and it includes over $645 in jewelry and business supplies.

Plus: all the same FREE items from the Starter and Essentials kits.

Ok, here are a few things about the sponsoring that you may want to keep in mind. There is a 20% to 40% commission with a 10% bonus for hitting 250 Personal Volume (also known as PV). Again, the typical focus is on holding jewelry bars, which under this pandemic, maybe a little tough to do with the social distancing precautions. I know that it won’t last though, but you know it has got to be hurting the Jewelry Designers’ profits at this time.

Oh, a little plug about affiliate marketing…this is the perfect time to be doing this. As it requires no personal contact and all one needs to do, is attract people to a website and click links to shop. More people are shopping online these days as a result of “social distancing” anyway. What better way to try to make money with affiliate marketing?

Sorry, that was shameless… or was it? LOL!

One more thing about sponsoring downline members….4% to 15% of sales from downline is counted as your sales… the actual percentage depends on your level in your team.

How Long Will It Take to be Profitable?

This one is a tricky one as it is with most MLMs. The time it takes to build any profitable business takes time. I think I may have mentioned it before. But, at the risk of being repetitive: If you were to build a “normal” brick and mortar business, you would have your initial investment and by the time you turn a profit, 2 to 5 years may have gone by.

With an MLM, you have your initial cost, which is relatively inexpensive, and then time to build your “team” or downline as it is also known. But, hey if you hold jewelry bars as is the case with O2, you may make immediate income from the mark-up from the distributor or wholesale cost. As I mentioned above there is roughly about 25% profit you earn.

That profit is then all yours to keep. You have to be able to start bringing in more than your initial investment in the business to be able to say yours have been profitable. It is faster if you build a downline. At least that’s the way it is with most MLMs and O2 is no different in that respect.

As an O2 jewelry designer, you are required to maintain 75% PV per month to remain active at higher levels. This must come from customers and/or personal purchases. Now if you are trying to maintain your PV on your own, it WILL eat into your profits. Now, when you are just starting out the 75 PV is for every three months. It still will eat into your profit to maintain this by yourself.

Since I was in an MLM before, I know trying to maintain a requirement of PV or monthly sales and recruit a team to add to your downline is not an easy task. You end up spending more than you actually make. That’s one of the reasons I don’t do MLMs anymore. Affiliate marketing is so much better for me.

Who Can Do It?

Well, according to the O2 website, anyone. Moms can partner with their daughter or son (now). Again, I mentioned this earlier. And it is a great way to introduce the younger generation to become an entrepreneur.

This is correct, by the way. Anyone with the drive and determination to build a business of their own can be an Origami Owl Jewelry Designer. Again, it requires work and time. Simple? I think so.

But, I have one more thing to cover…

Is It Worth The Time and Money?

O2 is relatively inexpensive, so the price is worth it and I say I’ll rate it about a 7.

The time factor is the only thing that I have reservations on. Only because I feel that way about all MLMs. But, in the long run, if you are willing to put the time in, why not? Personally, I wouldn’t do it anymore, since I was once in an MLM. Read more about it here.

So, my worth it rating for time is: 6

So, based on my overall rating of 6.5, I think that answers the question, Is Origami Owl a Good Business? And my short answer is a resounding “NO”.

However, a good business to be in would be affiliate marketing, and if you want to see more then click this: