It is undeniable that with the deteriorating state of nature, humanity is facing a great need to change its way of living. Thankfully, Viridian stepped in as it aspires to make a better world. Beyond that, the company also offers opportunities for people to earn income. Nonetheless, can you really make money with viridian energy?
The Basics
- Company: Viridian
- Founder: Michael Fallquist
- Products: Energy-related products and services
- Website: http://www.viridian.com/
If there is one thing commendable about Viridian, it is the company’s vision to help nature. It started with the aspiration of Michael Fallquist who used to be the Chief Operating Officer of Commerce Energy. Dreaming to build a sustainable energy company that would secure the future of the next generation by providing nature-friendly energy, Fallquist built his own team in 2009. These teams of experts started working hand in hand with Crius Energy which is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut. Later, Viridian would build its own empire on the same location as its parent company.
With its prolific vision, the company now manages to offer its service in various places in the United States and Australia. This is through the company’s step of presenting its service in public using the MLM business model. Through this, the company manages to spread its aspiration in various households.
The company’s continuous success is also attributed by the leadership behind it. Some of the key persons in Viridian include Paul Booth, the Viridian CEO who was also the Founder and CEO of DPI which has contributed in the designs of many MLM compensation plans; VP Australia Robert McFadden, one of the successful personalities at USANA; VP Leadership Development Charla Gervers, a former leader-molder of L’Dara and BeautiControl; and Director of Field Operations Sorba Brima, a Physics major who is an industry expert in energy that used to work for Noble Americas, a major energy firm.
With that, the company continues to influence the public by promoting its products and services. Nonetheless, despite the impressive mission and vision of Viridian, it faced some controversies in the past. One of them is a state investigation due to its consumers’ complaints in 2015.
With this the State of Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) reviewed the company’s contracts, contract renewal, customer notification and enrollment procedures.
According to the 2015 article of Fox61, the authority stated that it “has received complaints regarding the assessment of early termination fees by Viridian. Specifically, consumers allege that Viridian automatically renewed customers to a fixed rate contract at the end of a previous contract without customer consent or authorization. If the customers then left Viridian by switching to another supplier or returning to Standard Service during the term of the renewed contract, Viridian assessed an early termination fee on the grounds that the early termination fee provision was contained in the renewed contract.”
According to PURA, the action was mainly caused by the 100 complaints made by Viridian customers since 2012. It was also mentioned that the company was facing 172 complaints on the website of Better Business Bureau (BBB) that time.
Nonetheless, the said complaints are nothing new as Viridian was formerly fined by Maryland $60,000 in 2012 due to “false and deceptive marketing practices.”
In 2015, the company faced a class-action lawsuit in Maryland claiming that the company had a “fraudulent and deceptive bait-and-switch sales model” while its Viridian associates “form a retail pyramid.”
The Products
Viridian offers products and services promoting sustainable energy. According to the company, by using its electricity, an average consumer could help the planet by avoiding 9,296 pounds of CO2 which is equivalent to 10 trees grown over 10 years and 36,552 12OZ of aluminum cans recycled. Furthermore, it also claims that by using its natural gas products, an average Viridian customer could help avoid 3,506 pounds of CO2 that is equivalent to 41 trees grown over 10 years or 12,180 12OZ of aluminum cans recycled.
That said, the company offers various energy sources which include its Everyday Green Electricity. According to Viridian, by switching to the said plan, “the utility will continue to service your lines, and you’ll have as much power as you’ve always had. There won’t be a single flicker to mark the transition.” This somehow seems true since the company prides itself for providing services without any interruption.
The company also offers Simply Right Natural Gas. The company says that neutralizes the emissions created by each consumer’s usage as the company itself “purchases high-quality carbon offsets.” According to Viridian, having the plan also benefits others as it is linked to Simply Right Natural Gas Fund which “supports non profit organizations that are driving and creating positive change in the natural gas industry.”
Viridian also offers a Solar Power plan that won’t charge you for installation. Also, the company assures that any damages and repairs for the solar panels that come with the plan would be monitored by the company itself 24/7.
Compensation: Can You Really Make Money With Viridian Energy?
One of the things that Viridian boasts besides the energy it produces is its capability to generate opportunities as well. Since Viridian is functioning using an MLM business model, it is no wonder why the said opportunity seems to be available everywhere in the US and Australia. Nonetheless, can you really make money with Viridian energy?
That said, let us see the company’s compensation plan and decide if it is really capable of generating you decent income.
- Personal Pay and Mentor Pay
This is like any other bonuses that you would see in other MLM compensation plans. Just like them, you could earn by selling some products or by getting customers for Veridian. According to the company, you can also earn your commission on every sale or deal that your personal recruit would be able to generate.
However, since Viridian offers a variety of services, the commission and your personal earnings would depend on the deals you would be able to sell to the Viridian customers. Some of them include Personally Enrolled Residential, Travel Light Membership, Travel Light Member Savings, Karma Savings, Solar Installations, Personally Enrolled Large Commercial Energy Account, and Personally Referred Commercial Solar Account.
- Trio Bonuses and Trio Mentor Bonuses
These bonuses are granted depending on the performances that would be achieved by an Associate on his or her first 28 days in Viridian. According to the compensation plan, you become an active Associate by acquiring your first 15 Personally Qualified Volumes (PQV or your personal sales activity for all the Viridian products and services).
You can earn your 15 PQV by personally acquiring three qualified energy customers or selling one Travel Light membership. Nonetheless, there are other ways to earn your PQV.
After being an active Associate, you now need to find your own personally-recruited Associates on your left and right leg. By helping them to be active Associates within your first 28 days, you would earn your bonuses.
- Team Pay
Since Viridian is using a binary pay system, it is very crucial to remember that you are going to be paid by your weaker leg. This is where your Team Pay comes to play.
Team Pay is generated from customers paying both the upfront and recurring payments for all of Viridian’s products and services. That said, you could earn 15 percent of your “payline” or weaker leg. The sample below is a fair representation of a positive scenario. However, do remember that such a situation is not always possible in a binary pay system. Hence, do remember that as an upline, you should be able to keep an eye on the sales of your both because if not, one of the legs might produce so much sales (Powerline) leaving the weaker leg with little earnings. This would be a downside for you since Associates at Viridian only receive 15 percent Team Pay based on the payline.
- Leadership Check Matches
The earnings an Associate would get from this depends on the Team Pay that would be received by a downline Associate. Here, the percentage of your Check Matches depends on your paid-as rank. According to Viridian, you can earn up to 34 percent on your personally-sponsored Associate’s earnings.
As you advance on the ranks at Viridian, you’ll also generate your own generations. That said, you can earn up to 24 percent on the downline Associates’ earnings of your personal sponsorship lineage. Nonetheless, and then again, it depends on your paid-as rank and the numbers of generations under you.
- VLife Bonuses
This is one of the great bonuses being offered by Viridian to its Associates since it is in a form of money bonus. It starts at the position of the Director rank which receives $500 and can go up to $200,000 for the position of Diamond Ambassador.
Nonetheless, reaching these ranks, of course, entails some requirements that should be met. It includes your own PQV for the last four weeks, Active Personally Sponsored Associates (PSA) per outside line, various leadership rank lines in your personal sponsor lineage, and your payline Carryover Volume (the difference in your Powerline Volume and Payline Volume that is carried over into the next weekly commission cycle) in the last four weeks.
That said, here is the succession of ranks that you would face at Viridian before enjoying the said bonuses and commissions.
- Associate
- Active Associate
- Senior Associate
- Consultant
- Senior Consultant
- Executive Consultant
- Director
- Senior Director
- Executive Director
- Partner
- Platinum Partner
- Diamond Partner
- Ambassador
- Platinum Ambassador
- Diamond Ambassador
How Much Will I Earn at Viridian?
Prying on the actual earnings of MLM folks could always be impossible for the public. Thankfully, MLM companies are releasing their income disclosure statements. Nonetheless, how helpful are they? Do they provide all the important information for the public to scrutinize? Most of all, do all income disclosure statements provide honest figures? Unfortunately, no.
It has always been an epidemic problem among companies in the MLM industry. So, why are they doing it? Are there things about the figures that are better not to be seen? Let’s answer that after viewing Viridian’s 2017 income disclosure statement.
Looking at the report, you would notice that the earnings of Viridian Associates are just summarized in four positions though the entirety of the organization is composed of 15 ranks. The report highlights the earnings of Associates, Qualified (Active) Associates, Director, Partner, and Ambassador.
According to the summary, the 10,612 population of Associates had the high monthly earnings of $1,262 while their average monthly earning was at $104 and its lowest hit at $1. It almost had the same figure as Qualified Associates.
On the other hand, to at least get a decent income, an individual should at least reach the rank of a Partner which had a high monthly earning of $7,939 while its low monthly earning hit at $13. This is quite bothersome. Thinking that the Partner rank is already under the established leadership ranks but still got $13 as its lowest earnings a month is something to think about.
Lastly, the Ambassador rank had high monthly earnings of $152,488 but its lowest monthly earning fell at $549. Do remember that the Ambassador rank is already the third highest position in the organization. Though its high monthly income earning is quite impressive, it is still dismaying that you could still earn half a thousand in the said position.
Now, you know why MLM companies conceal some information in their income disclosure statements.
Is Viridian Legit?
One challenge that is always being faced by an MLM company is its legitimacy. This is because of the fact that MLMs are structured using the system of a pyramid scheme. Though using the pyramid system is legal, the ethic behind it is being questioned by many.
In this system, the individual contractors of the MLM companies are arranged in a pyramid structure. Those who earned the opportunity would be placed at the upper part of the system while those who are newly-recruited would be placed at the bottom. There seems not to be a problem in this structure. Unfortunately, the way these people generate some of their earnings makes the system problematic.
The individual contractors at MLM companies earn their commission through the portions of earnings of those below them (downline). While it serves as a positive perk for those at the top, it serves as a problematic system for those at the bottom who are losing portions of their earnings.
To escape the system, those at the bottom would be encouraged to recruit other individuals so that they would be placed somewhere higher. In return, these recruiting individuals would do the same to their own recruits and the system continues.
This is the thing that makes the MLM industry problematic. According to Jon M. Taylor, MBA, Ph.D. of Consumer Awareness Institute, 99 percent of the recruits in MLM industry lose their money while those at the top of the system enjoy the compensations being provided by the companies.
In his study, Taylor stated that: “MLM as a business model – with its endless chain of recruitment of participants as primary customers – is flawed, unfair, and deceptive. Worldwide feedback suggests it is also extremely viral, predatory and harmful to many participants. This conclusion does not apply just to a specific MLM company, but to the entire MLM industry. It is a systemic problem.”
Hence, this explains the high failure rate among MLM companies. According to the 15-year research of Taylor, people committing at legitimate small businesses have higher possibility to profit than any other MLM businesses.
That said, should you join Viridian MLM company?
Weighing Things: Pros and Cons
Though you have already been told of the things about Viridian, let us still have a short review of the things that you should consider before joining the opportunity being offered by Viridian.
Pros
- It offers products and services that benefit nature.
- The company has a team of leaders that has impressive backgrounds.
- Viridian has an impressive aspiration and that is to produce sustainable energy for various households and businesses.
- The company produces an income disclosure statement and that is a good thing as compared to other MLM companies that refuse to release their own reports.
Cons
- Viridian, despite its impressive reputation, had faced some controversies that tainted it.
- The figures on its income disclosure statement are undeniably ugly. Just think about those high-ranking positions that still received low earnings.
- The low earnings stated on its report only prove one thing: the compensation plan being offered by the company could not assure you of a favorable opportunity.
- Viridian is an MLM and though it is legal, the fact that it uses pyramid structure in its organization is quite troubling.
Conclusion: The Verdict
Though Viridian has a good mission to help nature, it is apparent that the opportunity it offers could bring you little to nothing. Despite that, do remember that earning in the MLM industry depends on the amount of time, effort, diligence and dedication an individual is willing to invest. That is true since no opportunity is a picnic. Nonetheless, do pick the opportunities that won’t just promise you green pasture of compensation but so as utter success in each of your steps.
Thank you for reading this article. I do hope that I have answered your questions about the Viridian Energy opportunity. Nevertheless, if you are still looking for better ways to earn, we can help you! We have been doing it since 2015 at the comfort of our homes! Click here and know how!