Is Southwestern Advantage a Scam ?

The Southwestern Advantage is one of the oldest MLM companies founded in 1885 by Rev. James Robinson Graves. 

It’s an MLM type of company that does not necessarily encourage its representative to make a downline of members. 

Instead, they motivate you to focus more on the selling role– “the more you sell, the more you will make money”.

Their products are mostly educational materials and resources like books, software, and many more. 

Their independent contractors, or sometimes referred to as their “intern,” company representatives, sellers, and others, are mostly recent graduates from universities across different places from the US.

In the beginning, the company’s goal was to offer youth business opportunities because they firmly believe that through these experiences, the youth can earn and, at the same time, develop their business expertise.

Which actually fruitful in the following several years but, in the long run, failed.

Since then, the company became very hostile in the marketing strategies to the point that some universities barred them from entering their premises.

Again, Southwestern Advantage is an MLM type of company, that does not necessarily force you to build downlines, and you still have the ultimatum to do so. 

That’s what great about them. 

The opportunity that the Southwestern Advantage provides to recent graduates is what they call “seasonal internship.” 

In these seasonal internships, they are given the advantage of selling their products, mostly educational materials like books, software, and many alike. 

These recent graduates are then called as independent contractors or the company’s interns.

Like a traditional MLM type of company, these interns are well-instructed to sell their products, mainly utilizing the infamous door-to-door technique. 

Actually, they are left on their own regarding how they will sell it, but the most preferred way of doing it is through the door-to-door strategy.

However, they have bad records regarding low-quality products, poor management, extreme marketing strategies, and anything absurd about Southwestern Advantage. 

One of the leading causes, why some organizational bodies believe that Southwestern Advantage takes dominance over their independent contractors, is the scarcity of compensation for the underlying operational necessities. 

In other words, they don’t refund, pay, or even provide an allowance for their interns’ expenses on food, transportations, hotels, etc.

The strange thing is, even with that dilemma, most independent contractors would still choose a system like that, and some also recommend it. 

Nothing really explains this sufferance, but most likely, it’s due to the representatives’ immature or inexperienced nature.

You have to consider that most of their independent contractors are recent graduates. 

Meaning, they are still young and not that self-assured enough, and even raw from the reality. And because of this matter, many concerned citizens raised their worry about Southwestern Advantage.

Suppose you are really that fascinated enough by joining any MLM company.

In that case, there is, it’s essential to fully understand their products, as this is precisely what you will be selling throughout your experience under them. 

For Southwestern Advantage, their tagline is: “Conquer homework, quizzes, and tests for kids Pre-K Through 12”.

There are a handful of products under a few unique categories:

There are also online materials and loads of physical books on offer with DVDs kits.

Southwestern Advantage Books

Southwestern Advantage’s flagship products are their educational books and website. 

It’s actually challenging to realize how much the overall costs as there are no details for that on their official website.

I guess the only way to know about it is through their independent contractors.

Their online learning assistance costs $19.95 per month subscription, and still, it’s unclear what this particular service is for. 

You can also find many of their products on eBay or Amazon; however, the books and online assistance are structured to work together. 

Southwestern Advantage’s interns typically consult with the family concerning on how to use the overall educational materials.

There is something not available to those second-hand books online.

Some of the books’ main advantages for older aged students are it maximizes time with research and preparing for examinations, for example:

There is no fixed cost to join Southwestern Advantage, but there will be some expenses you need to take note of, and these include transportations, food, hotels, and the list goes on. 

There’s no starter package or direct application fee, and you don’t need to hold any inventory to become an independent contractor. 

A set of educational tools will be handed over for you to sell over the summer (after graduation). 

Some people also want to avail of business cards to leave behind, but this is entirely optional.

To join and become an independent contractor under Southwestern Advantage, you only need to sign up and register on their website.

No application fees are asked from you. 

Once you’ve successfully met these conditions, Southwestern Advantage will introduce you to a set of educational products to sell and choose your target place.

You may create your downline, but most interns just want to focus on selling, because for them, boosting their sales is the only way to make money. 

But unfortunately, Southwestern Advantage does not have a compensation plan like any other MLM company because they don’t have a clear ranking of such.

The total earnings of Southwestern Advantage’s reps solely vary on how much they can sell within their days of seasonal internships. 

That income is reduced by the underlying operational needs like transportations, gas, food, and all other necessary things during that duration. 

They can also earn a cut from the sales that they have collected (which I will expound unto the next section).

In this kind of method, most of Southwestern Advantage’s reps do not make much. 

You can utterly say that the only valuable lesson for these independent contractors is the personal experience they can acquire from the opportunity. 

They can flaunt this experience to their curriculum vitae to add more edge from their fellow interviewees in the future.

One of the main reasons I deep reviewed and have decided to check this MLM company is that someone on Reddit claimed that Southwestern Advantage is a complete pyramid scheme.

Though this company existed for so many years now, I have not heard of it, and I thought it would be thrilling to look inside and discover what it has really to offer.

From what I can tell, based on my research, Southwestern Advantage is not a pyramid scheme; however, it does undoubtedly have its downturns, which we will get into it one moment, but first, let’s take a glance of its advantages.

Southwestern Advantage is not a scam, if it's fraud, then, they might not progress or even exist today in the first place. 

Above all, they have a legitimate tangible product, and a legit company lived for many years now.

A multi-level-marketing company can perhaps be called a scam only if its products are just a tale of smoke or fake, and their main goal is to lure people into the platform and recruit more and more downlines– Southwestern Advantage is neither of these. 

They still exist and operate at this moment. 

The only issue here is, it’s definitely a tough call to join this type of earning opportunity. 

Even with the subtle mission that Southwestern Advantage provides, it’s sad to say that they still have to face lots of poor reviews from their former contractor and customers.

Some of the retaliations that they have undertaken all these years are about poor working environments, credit accounts charged without a subscription, insufficient customer service, human trafficking claims (this is alarming), and more. 

Despite all these arguments, Southwestern Advantage is still thriving; however, as the saying goes, first impressions typically last. 

So, you see, it isn’t easy to sell and inevitably to make money through Southwestern Advantage.

So that ends my ‘Is Southwestern Advantage a Scam?’ post. I hope it served its purpose on you.

Now, if you want to add something relevant to the post above, make sure to shoot a comment down below, and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Take care, and keep hustling!

By the way, care to check my deep review on the best affiliate marketing training available on the market? See below.