Young Living Business… how do you build it? Where do you start? Can you actually make money with it? We've listed out our most frequently asked questions and compiled them for you right here.
One of my favorite aspects of writing a blog is to see my statistics page where I am able to see if they search for anything specific. Most of the search terms I've touched on already, and makes me excited to see people are actually searching through my content to help answer specific questions. In this post, I'm compiling all my frequently asked questions that refer to operating an essential oils business with Young Living. Most of these are also true with doTerra, which also comes up a lot in my search tool.
I've been mostly focused on how using essential oils can help the body and mind, while compliantly staying within the confines of the FDA and FTC that regulate marketing speech. I haven't, however, discussed much of the business side of Young Living on this blog. Since I've been seeing numerous questions and searches pop up regarding the Young Living business opportunity, I am left assuming there are many unanswered questions floating around about the compensation plan. Admittedly, the compensation plan can be a bit arduous for those new to the plan. I would like to take a few moments of your time to touch base on them.
****I will continue to update this post with additional questions as I see them****
So far the questions I've answered are:
- "Do you have to sell Young Living oils to be a wholesale customer?"
- Can I sell Young Living oils to others for wholesale prices?
- What are the different membership/purchasing options with Young Living?
- "How much can you make with Young Living?"
- "What effect does being an enroller or sponsor have on the Young Living Essential Oils compensation plan?"
- "Do I have to purchase a Premium Starter Kit to be a Wholesale Customer?"
- How do I build a Young Living Business without being salesy?
- "Can you use Young Living as a fundraising tool?"
- "What is the difference between Young Living, and other brands?"
- Are there any other questions you have about starting or growing a Young Living business?
“Do you have to sell Young Living oils to be a wholesale customer?”
No. Being a wholesale customer gives you the OPTION of earning an income, however doing so is not required.
You must be a wholesale customer to become a distributer and receive an income, but you are not required to sell oils to enjoy the wholesale prices. In fact, only 6% of Young Living wholesale customers pursue the business of Young Living!
There is never any pressure (at least not on my team, and not from Young Living's corporate office) to build a business.
Can I sell Young Living oils to others for wholesale prices?
Yes, IF that means you're setting them up with a wholesale account of their own through Young Living.
IF you choose to purchase Young Living oils and sell them to others (whether initially intended or just reducing your stash), you must sell them for no less than 10% MORE than the currently listed wholesale price.
What are the different membership/purchasing options with Young Living?
There are three types of accounts you can have that involve buying and selling essential oils with Young Living: retail customer, wholesale customer, and professional account.
Retail customers would purchase oils from you through their online account at retail prices.
Wholesale customers purchase from you through their wholesale accounts on the Young Living website and receive a 24% discount from retail prices, just like you would.
Young Living discourages distributors to hold an inventory to resell oils based on that inventory, however according to the Policies and Procedures document you can resell an oil at a minimum of 10% over wholesale value. This is separate from oil giveaways.
There is also a professional account option for people wishing to resell Young Living products in their retail stores or to use in practices. Professional accounts receive a 40% discount from retail prices, and are designed for businesses to use or resell. They cannot have a downline, or grow a business. People sponsoring professional accounts receive a reduced point value amount that goes towards overall organization volume and associated commissions/bonuses. Many people who have a professional account also have a wholesale account for personal use (and sponsor their professional accounts).
While professional accounts look enticing with that 40% discount, there are some limitations. Professional accounts are only able to make orders via calling customer service or faxing in orders. Wholesale members are able to place orders online or by calling customer service.
Many people I've been talking with lately who run their own small-scale retail businesses have been sticking with a wholesale account because when you factor in Essential Rewards (ER), you would receive a 24% discount, plus up to 25% back in product credit for ordering monthly. That essentially gives you 49% discount when you factor in the ER perks. Of course, they're using their accumulated points to handle their own personal needs, while only purchasing business needs. If you're ordering enough to resell at your business each month, you could also end up receiving everything you need (or close to it) for your personal use for only the cost of shipping.
“How much can you make with Young Living?”
Realistically: as much or as little as you want!!
The beautiful thing about network marketing, is your pay directly reflects your efforts. If you want to make enough to cover the products you plan to purchase, you can. If you want to make enough to replace your salary and quit your job, you can. If you want to make enough to retire a very comfortable life, you can. If you want to be a multimillionaire with five homes, an ocean cruising yacht, and an island… YOU CAN. Do you want to double your paycheck every year (or month)? YOU CAN!!! You are only limited by your potential and directly paid based on the results of your efforts.
The compensation plan is broken up into three segments: creating a foundation, building a business, and developing leaders. Like with all network marketing companies, developing leaders is crucial to succeeding in promoting up the ranks. Young Living's compensation plan provides their distributors with 24% commissions on retail sales, and 4-8% commissions on purchases up to five levels down in your organization. Once you earn your way to the “building your business ranks” of silver, gold, and platinum, you will also be paid up to 3% bonuses based on developing leaders, which essentially doubles your paycheck.
When you sponsor retail customers, you make 24% commission off the retail value.
Sponsoring wholesale customers who decide to build their own businesses or share oils with their friends open you up to a whole income-generating system.
To keep it simple, lets talk about the commissions. Lets say, you sponsor Chelsea. You will earn 8% off the point value (usually the wholesale price) of what Chelsea purchases each month. If Chelsea decides to sponsor someone, (lets say Mary, your level 2), you will receive 5% of the point value from that Mary's purchases. If Mary (your level 2) decides to sponsor Joe (your level 3), you will receive 4% from Joe's purchase point value. If Joe sponsors Missie, you will receive 4% of the point value of her purchases, as will you from Jennifer's purchases if Mary sponsors Jennifer. In case I've confused you, look at the illustration below to help make it easier to understand.
There are a few bonuses too that can substantially increase your paycheck, but those do become more complicated to beginners. I haven't covered how much you can make in bonuses aside from the Fast Start and Start Living bonuses because the number vary month to month depending on Young Living's commissionable sales.
Here is a screenshot of the 2016 average income statement. The screenshot is linked to the full disclosure document. Disclaimer: These are averages, not guarantees of what you will make. You could make more, or you could make less. You will be paid monthly based on your personal and team results from the previous month. Of course the more you do the more you will be paid.
“What effect does being an enroller or sponsor have on the Young Living Essential Oils compensation plan?”
This one is probably among the most asked in our oils business group (yes, we have a fantastic, rapidly growing group on Facebook specifically for our business builders to ask questions and receive support).
An enroller is someone who enrolls a new customer. Often that is the person who introduces the new customer to Young Living oils and/or teaches a class. Most often the enroller and sponsor are the same person. When the sponsor and enroller are different, it's usually because the enroller agrees to strategically place a new customer to fit under someone in their “downline” (someone else in one of the levels below him/her) for strategic business building purposes. Remember, when you look at the Compensation Plan (image is also posted above), there are several “levels” where people are stacked under you either by you enrolling/sponsoring them, because someone you sponsored sponsors someone else, or because one of your mentors (likely your sponsor) has strategically placed that customer under you.
The effect of being either or both the enroller or sponsor ultimately depends on your strategy. Young Living provides two bonuses for enrolling a new wholesale customer through purchasing a premium starter kit: the Fast Start bonus and the Start Living Bonus. The Fast Start bonus provides you as the enroller with a bonus of 25% of the point value of all purchases that new customer makes within the first three months. This bonus also provides the enroller of the person enrolling a new member with a bonus of 10% of what the newly enrolled wholesale customer orders. The Start Living bonus also provides you with $25 bonus for enrolling a new wholesale customer with a premium starter kit, regardless to which level you stack that new customer in.
So, remembering the example above… if you enroll and sponsor Chelsea with a Premium Starter Kit ($160, 100 point value), you will receive $50 (100pv*.25=$25 for the Fast Start bonus, plus $25 for the Start Living bonus). If Chelsea then enrolls and sponsors Mary, you will receive $10 (100pv*.10=$10 for the Fast Start Bonus), and Chelsea will receive $50 in bonuses. Does that make sense? I hope I explained it simply enough.
Instead of keeping my bonuses, I like to use them to provide my new wholesale customers who buy a Premium Starter Kit with approximately $30 in reference materials and often other promotions like roller bottles or an extra oil or samples of more expensive oils as Thank You gifts. I also encourage my team leaders to do the same. We love building relationships with our customers and making sure they have all the support they need whether they choose to pursue the business side of Young Living or just want the discount.
Making sure our customers have references (especially those who live further away) helps us with coaching them to understand how and when to use the oils, and empowers them so starting the oily journey isn't so overwhelming. I also add all new customers to our team's exclusive Facebook groups for added support.
“Do I have to purchase a Premium Starter Kit to be a Wholesale Customer?”
No. I know shelling out $160+ can be daunting on the wallet and not everyone is able to do so. There is another option, although I, as many other Young Living users, truly believe the $160 Premium Starter Kit option with the diffuser and 10 oils is the best deal… especially now that you're able to finance your starter kit through Pay Pal Credit for 0% interest.
Your other option: there is a $45 Basic Starter Kit that contains some samples and 5ml of Stress Away. In fact, as a wholesale customer you're able to purchase additional Premium Starter Kits too, they just aren't available to new wholesale customers. I've actually purchased 3 Premium Starter Kits in the last year because they are such a great deal when you break down the cost of what you're getting!
As mentioned above, I do provide reference materials to new wholesale customers who purchase a Premium Starter Kit. I do not currently buy reference materials for those who purchase a Basic Starter Kit, but I do provide information on where to find them (and how you can buy them at discount), and add all of my customers to our team's exclusive Facebook groups for support.
Another option to help ease the cost is through sharing
Purchasing one kit will cost you $160, plus shipping and taxes. By sharing oils with other people, you can earn this money back!
If you buy a Premium Starter Kit this month and 3 people purchase their Premium Starter Kits from you, you will receive at least $150 back! If 4 people purchase through you, your kit plus the shipping and taxes will be more than covered (you'll receive $200+ check from Young Living)!! Many people choose to do this, never spending a dime out-of-pocket on any of their oils!
There is never any pressure to sell or pursue a business. We just like to make sure you know your options, and make sure you know that we are here to help with whatever your goals are whether you're searching for wellness, nontoxic living, abundance, financial security, or just want something healthy around that smells good.
How do I build a Young Living Business without being salesy?
The simplest form of this answer: be yourself. Be 100% authentically you. If someone suggests you build the way they did, and it doesn't feel right… don't do it. Be you. Care for the people you're talking with. Be polite in asking permission to help them solve their problems… then help them and trust the process will reward you financially.
This is what I detail when I coach my team leaders: authentically building their essential oils businesses based on who they are, what their lifestyle needs are, and in ways that makes them feel good. In turn, they feel appreciated by their members… they enjoy building a business that isn't forced or feeling yucky… and they become more motivated in helping others while experiencing less stress of their own.
“Can you use Young Living as a fundraising tool?”
Yes and No.
This really depends on YOU and how YOU operate. Young Living offers their distributors a generous compensation plan that we discussed earlier. What you choose to do with the compensation you receive is entirely up to you.
Lets say you choose to run a month where you decide all (or a portion) of your commissions and bonuses you make that month will be donated to a specific cause, you can (and if it's a 501.3C company, you can use it as a tax write-off too)!
Young Living as a company does not offer any special programs to help people fundraise outside of offering donations to the Young Living Foundation programs.
Another idea:
You can also sign up a 501.3C company as a wholesale customer to enable them to enjoy earning a corporate lifetime of residual income should they choose to build a business and use the commissions to support the nonprofit's cause.
“What is the difference between Young Living, and other brands?”
To summarize this the best, I'd like to refer you to my article outlining the top 10 dirty little secrets in the essential oil industry that no one is talking about.
I really dislike the dramatic “brand wars,” that are thundering throughout the internet. All it does is highlight pettiness centered around hearsay and turn people away from wanting to add essential oils to their personal wellness regiments. I feel that type of behavior does a great disservice to the natural living movement and everyone caught up in the controversy should be massively ashamed of themselves!
At the end of the day, all I want is to help educate people about essential oils and help them find the best fit for their lifestyles. Thankfully, through Young Living I am able to earn the income I need to help me afford working my passion (you can read some more about my oily story here), building this blog to share information with you, and stay home with my young children.
2013-2014 I extensively researched both Young Living and doTERRA along with a few store-bought brands to find out which brand was the best fit for me. Ultimately I chose Young Living because of how much more the oils seemed to work with my body, their Seed to Seal Guarantee, the LARGE variety of single oils and blends they sell, AND because of the hands-on mentorship and incredible customer service.
Young Living differentiates themselves from the rest by setting industry standards and doing what is right. They are all about sustainable growth and not compromising their ethics. They own many of their own farms and instill their strict standards on the farms they partner with. They are the poster child of sustainable farming, and do not use chemicals in any of their processes.
Why is this important? Quality.
What is the point of leading a healthier lifestyle and avoiding harmful chemicals if your oils that you inhale or put on your skin contain harmful or counter-productive chemicals? Or if the oils you're using are completely synthetic, not providing any therapeutic value?
Young Living is a network marketing company that sells essential oils and oil infused lifestyle products (skin care, hair care, vitamins, supplements, drinks, snacks, cosmetics…etc). While many people are uneasy by what this means, there is no need to run away and hide.
Young Living embraced the network marketing structure to further their mission to teach people about the benefits of using essential oils in a variety of ways. Network marketing functions through word of mouth marketing, which has been proven numerous times to be far more effective than traditional advertising methods.
What better way to do that than to help educate, empower, and reward your customers to help you spread the word??? This sets Young Living apart from the others because now their customers are able to receive one on one coaching from someone who genuinely and personally cares about them. You can't get that kind of treatment and support from purchasing oils at a local store!
Instead, when you purchase from a distributer (like me), you are able to receive one-on-one care and support from myself personally or from my quickly growing team. We have an online community of people ready to help support you tailored to your individual needs. Their customer service department is also amazing. I call or message them frequently to verify and answer questions. They are always there to help and go above and beyond what generally expect of them. During the time I made purchases from other oil companies, I never received such warm and welcoming support as I have through Young Living. Good luck finding the support you need from the grocery store when you purchase oils from them!
Young Living vs doTERRA… what is the difference?
I've also had many searches about the differences between Young Living and doTERRA. I won't be answering those questions on this post because I do have a blog post specifically reviewing the two from my personal first-hand experience. I have also updated that post to include information specifically requested by my readers as well.
Most of the answers in this post also are true for doTERRA businesses. I also have a post written all about my experiences comparing Young Living and doTERRA's business opportunities.
If you're a doTERRA member needing help, I would like to encourage you to seek assistance with your upline leadership. If you're not a doTERRA member and are interested in doTERRA, I would love to refer you to my gorgeous cousin for assistance.
Of course, you're also welcome to join us in my course being released to the public on how to successfully run an essential oils business.
If you have more questions to add to the list, feel free to search for them on this website to see if I've written about it already or feel free to contact me.
So far, that sums up the most asked questions from my search bar statistics report. I hope this helps explain and summarize your questions sufficiently.
Are there any other questions you have about starting or growing a Young Living business?
Please feel free to add them in the comments below, or head over to my Contact page and ask them privately there. I'll be happy to add them here and answer them in the comments!
If you enjoyed this post, please like, comment, and share. Also, if you’re not in our online community, you should be! Check out Online Facebook Community for more info!
Nicole
PS If you need help building your essential oils business, please head over to my contact us page and let me know you'd like to be added to the wait list! We will soon be launching an online course available to the public that will cover how to build an essential oils business by fully embracing who you are, your lifestyle, and your needs!
Are you allowed to make products using young living oils & sell those products
I’m sure I’ve read that it is not allowed yet one of the diamond crown leaders is promoting and selling her own blends as rollers on a website
Could you please confirm
If this is permitted from young living as I thought that was in the contract that you can not use them to make your own blends to sell
Hi Erin, the answer isn’t very clear from YL. I did contact them years ago and was told that distributors could sell products made from YL oils, however they could NOT be marketed as such.