Originally founded in 1974, Enagic is a multi-level marketing company that has regained traction in recent years. Hironari Oshiro launched this company decades ago but began Enagic USA back in 2004.
The company sells Kangen water filtration/alkaline ionizers that can vary in price, anywhere from $1,280 to $5,980. Some around Enagic have even claimed that the alkaline benefits derived from the product have reversed the effects of diseases.
If you choose to distribute Enagic, you’re paid commission on the units you sell as well as earning bonus money for other distributors that you bring into the company.
Can you be successful with this business model and product?
The tricky thing about MLM’s is figuring out if the product is sustainable. Take my word for it, I joined my first MLM at the age of 18 when I was a freshman in college.
I saw what I thought was a crazy opportunity to make a lot of money but what I didn’t realize is how crappy the product was.
It’s important for you to dig deep into the company’s history and what the culture is like. How ethical are it’s leaders?
You really need to do your homework because there are really good network marketing companies and there are many really bad ones.
I’m going to offer you an unbiased opinion of this opportunity in particular. I have experience in the MLM world so I’ll share what I like about this opportunity and some things that concern me.
The bottom line is that there are absolutely easier ways to make money in online business than trying to sell water filtering equipment to friends and family.
If you want to take a look at my #1 recommendation for online business opportunity then be sure to click here.
Products of Enagic
There are an array of Kangen machines that are offered by Enagic, seven in total. All of these devices can produce alkaline water except for one.
Here’s a list of them (listed from lowest price to highest):
- The Sun US $1,280
- Leveluk Junior II $2,380
- Anespa $2,390
- Leveluk DX $2,980
- Leveluk DX2 $3,280
- SD 501 $3,980
- Super SD 501 $5,980
The SD 501 happens to be their most popular product. Earlier I said that it’s important to look into the products offered so let’s break down if the $3,980 price tag of the 501 is worth it.
ORP stands for Oxidation Reduction Potential and Enagic says that their products make water -200 ORP to -400 ORP.
What does that mean though.
Well, generally water with a lower level of ORP is looked at as a higher quality of water. It leads to decreased rust on metals and deterioration of others.
Just to give you a reference, tap water has roughly +500 ORP, spring water has about +150 and bottled water has about +200.
Of course things like mineral content, vitamin content, etc also play their own roles in determine the overall quality of water as well.
So it’s important to look at things other than just the ORP levels of the water.
There are people out there on both sides of the fence when it comes to Kangen water. Many say they noticed no effect on their bodies from using it. Others have made dramatic statements like it reversed their diabetes, cancer, etc.
I don’t really know how accurate any of these are but I do know that there aren’t any scientific studies to support any of the claims. So take those statements for whatever they’re worth to you.
It’s easy to understand why Kangen water has regained traction in recent years. We live in a world that’s becoming more health conscious by the day.
Couple that with the rising popularity of online business and it’s easy to understand why this company is on the up and up.
Personally, I feel like it’s a good filtration unit. And with the claims out there about curing diseases, it could be a good product to try.
Now that we’ve seen what the product can do, let’s look into life as a distributor which is where the real business opportunity should lie.
Kangen’s Compensation Plan
Before we talk about compensation, let’s figure out how you can even become a distributor.
To get started you must purchase the $4k unit. Reason being you will use this product that you own to promote the same thing to others. Makes sense.
You’ll receive $285 for every two devices that you sell when you begin. After you’ve signed up at least eight other distributors your profits from this sale will go up.
Your profit levels will cap once you’ve recruited thirty-four additional members to your team and hit the top rank.
We discussed before that Enagic operates as an MLM which means that at this point you will earn income at multiple levels.
You will get bonus income from any sales that are made by your recruited team members as well as members that they have signed up themselves.
This can potentially go down quite a few levels but it depends on the amount of sales at each one.
The compensation plan of Enagic is like many other MLM’s out there.
You will see the highest financial potential if you work to recruit more than sell the product itself. It’s your job as the business owner to find people who like the opportunity as much as you and then coach them to be successful.
The success of your recruits leads to your own personal success of course.
Let’s look at some pros and cons of Enagic.
The Pros
- increasing interest in water purification as people become more health conscious
- Enagic has seen an it’s popularity rise since 2013 according to Google trends
- if you can find a good leader/mentor, you have the ability to do well and learn a lot, especially if you’re new to owning a business (as I was when I got into MLM)
- very fruitful earnings and compensation potential
The Cons
- high cost compared to other water filtration systems that can obtain similar ORP levels
- you’ll have to contact friends and family first about the opportunity. This can become very negative (believe me it happened to me)
- there is a statistic out there that is very discouraging. 98% of distributors will not make enough income to support their family
- at some point you will run out of friends and family to talk to, you’ll need to devise a strategy of finding others to join your team
- very hard to come up with a automatic lead gen system to keep your pipeline full
Ask Yourself This
I believe in MLM as a legitimate business model but it isn’t for most people. Therefore, ask yourself these things before jumping into the Enagic opportunity.
- are you good enough with sales? will you be comfortable talking to strangers regularly about your opportunity? are you afraid of rejection?
- is water filtration really worth the $4,000 cost? more importantly, is it worth that much to others?
- how big is the market for water filters with such a high price? will I be able to find enough interested people who see the value?
In Conclusion
MLM products tend to be priced higher than comparable products in the retail space. It’s no surprise that the Kangan filters are no different.
You’ll have to be okay with selling something that’s priced a lot higher than it’s competitors.
Generally, the product isn’t the true reason for failure when people jump into the network marketing space. I’ve seen some make millions and others lose a lot of money in this business with the exact same products.
Why?
Simple. Some are better sales people than others.
Sales is an art form. IMO you aren’t born with it. That’s the good news for new network marketers.
But you have to be willing to learn sales and realize that it won’t happen overnight. Just like anything else it takes a lot of practice no matter what you’re trying to sell.
You need to develop skills and this is no different than any other business. If you’re going to be an entrepreneur you need to master your skills.
Your income will only go as high as your skill level.
With Enagic, the two biggest skills are sales and online marketing. No doubt.
This coincides with the reason that most MLM’s get a ton of complaints online. Or why every single one of them has scam claims on the internet.
People get into this business thinking it’s easier than it really is because they were misguided from the start.
It’s not just calling up your best friend and explaining how you’re going to get rich together. Because when they say no and you’re discouraged, you start to get desperate.
Listen, network marketing is hard. Believe me. But it can be extremely rewarding. I’ve seen it.
Unfortunately, network marketing breeds these negative connotations itself just in the way that the business model operates.
The marketing is completely on the plates of the recruits. Many of these people have never done sales in their lives.
It’s important for you to understand that simply talking to your friends and family will not make you rich here. You need to get comfortable with talking to strangers about your product and opportunity.
Most importantly you need to develop skill sets that will lead to success. All of the top earners in Kangan have skills that set them apart from the pack.
Always find the person in the company that has exactly what you want. Closely pay attention to what makes them different from everyone.
Confidence? Smooth talker? Swagger?
These are all things that are developed over time. Skills.
Similar to the skill that allowed me to rank this site on Google. Or maybe it’s developing content on other social media platforms. Maybe it’s simply getting more comfortable with direct sales.
I guarantee you anyone in network marketing that has sustained a high level of income has an array of skills.
A lot of them even develop their skills once they get into network marketing. Sales and marketing are high high level skills that take a lot of time to work on.
It’s important to understand that you only get paid as much as your value is worth to the world/marketplace.
Like I said before, I joined network marketing when I was 18 and a freshman in college. Life as an entrepreneur was new to me, I lost money, but in the end it changed my life forever.
It opened my eyes to income levels I’d never seen before. So when I came across a local lead generation course when I was 24, I was able to run with it from the start.
I knew how hard I had to work but I also knew what the pay off could be. And man was I right.
After 3 months in local lead gen I was able to quit my 9 to 5 and commit to my business full time.
Life changer. A month later I was making more money per month than I ever had in my life.
I built this pool site below that’s been paying me $650/mo almost on auto-pilot since I quit my job.
All because I learned a skill that not many have and I worked at it. I continue to work at it.
I love helping small businesses because they’re always looking for more leads to grow their business.
I don’t drag my ass out of bed every Monday morning anymore. I wake up thrilled because I know I have a skill that I can offer to the world and give myself a raise almost any time I want.
Please take my word for it, don’t jump on another hype train like I did. Invest in your skills! It will change your life just like it did mine.