Usana Health Sciences has grown into a very large and well-known health and wellness network marketing company. They offer a variety of healthy home and personal care products, as well as an income opportunity if a person becomes a distributor and sells their products.

However, there are some very real concerns and problems about starting or participating in a Usana business. In this article, I’ll provide an unbiased review of the pros and cons of running a Usana business and see if we can find out if Usana is a great opportunity or a great scam.

Usana was founded by Dr. Myron Wentz, a microbiologist and immunologist. Dr. Wentz founded Gull Laboratories in 1974 and built it from a one-man operation to become a leading provider of viral diagnostic tools. In 1992, Wentz sold his stake in Gull Labs and started Usana in hopes of preventing disease, not just treating it. Today they offer a line of high quality accessories and personal care items.

For distributors, Usana pays with a binary compensation plan, where a representative builds a left side and a right side simultaneously. One of the great things about their compensation plan is the fact that there are no monthly group volume requirements. Commissions are obtained based on the group’s sales volume (GSV).

Another great advantage of starting a business in Usana is the need: currently, the demand for products that can help in the prevention of diseases is enormous. Since current marketing trends are what they are, you can sell just about anything that has “antioxidant” written on it.

Usana is a network marketing company, which simply means that a distributor can join in and build a downline and grow a distribution channel. The first sign we noticed was that Usana encourages its distributors to buy business opportunities (or bizop leads) to grow their organization. The problem with potential customers looking for opportunities is that nine times out of ten, they are not actually looking for an opportunity. In fact, the way many leads are collected is quite misleading. The process works like this: you’re browsing the web, looking at different sites, and suddenly you see a pop-up ad to win a free toaster if you take a quick survey. If you take that survey, you will be asked to submit your name and phone number to get your free toaster. The moment you fill out that form, you really become a potential customer looking for opportunities.

For people who have used potential leads before, this would explain why so many times when they contact leads, they have no idea how they were included in an opportunity search list. Also, these types of lead lists are sold and resold multiple times, so when you contact the lead, they have already spoken to eight different people with a “great business opportunity.”

The reason so many network marketing companies have such a bad reputation is due to many of the ineffective marketing techniques that new distributors are taught to grow their downlines. The sad thing about growing a business in Usana is that if the distributor does not want to use the opportunity leads, they are encouraged to seek out their “warm market” or their friends and family. They are asked to hand in free product samples, business cards, brochures and flyers, and if the distributor is ever discouraged, they are simply told to “stay motivated.”

The fact is, someone could make a lot of money promoting health and wellness products. yew they know how to market effectively. Trying to generate a six-figure income at the expense of friends, family, and co-workers is more than a hard sell – in this age of skepticism and scams, most people have set out to make money from network marketing and not they want their family members to approach them for income opportunities.

In closing, I would say that starting and growing a business on Usana is lucrative if someone knows how to market effectively. It is not a scam, but like any business, success will be determined by the skill set of the marketer. The potential to grow a great business is there, but not with outdated marketing techniques.

If someone doesn’t have the first clue on how to market effectively, I suggest they learn how to be an effective marketer or just use the products and leave it at that.