Written by Matt Zavadil
Updated July 21, 2022
Is ONE HOPE Wine a pyramid scheme?
In a word, no.
Many people are asking if ONEHOPE Wine is a pyramid scheme because of how the business opportunity works.
Some claim that ONE HOPE is a scam.
If you’re a Cause Entrepreneur, thinking of becoming one, or you’re a ONEHOPE Wine customer, you need to know one thing:
Anyone telling you that ONEHOPE Wine is a scam or pyramid scheme is severely under-educated about the direct sales/MLM business model.
In this article, I’ll educate you about why One Hope Wine is not a pyramid scheme.
Feel free to use this as a resource to:
- Put your ONEHOPE Wine pyramid scheme fears to rest
- Educate those around you making egregious claims about the company
I’ll also provide an overview of the ONE HOPE Wine business opportunity, compensation plan, and product line.
Shall we get started?
What Is OneHope Wine?
Before we jump into whether or not ONEHOPE is a pyramid scheme, let’s first establish what the company is and does.
ONEHOPE is a for-profit social enterprise. Founded in 2007 and based in California’s Napa Valley, the company expresses a mission to change the world “one product at a time.”
Company founders include Jake Kloberdanz, Tiffany Wojtkiewicz, Sarah McPeake, and Kristen Shroyer.
They partner with different causes and nonprofits to host wine tastings and events. A portion of the proceeds is then donated to that cause.
To date, ONEHOPE has partnered with over 20 different causes, donating over $8 million. The company supported the following types of causes:
- Education and literacy
- Providing children with meals
- Eliminating tropical diseases via medicine
- Educating women about ovarian cancer
- Saving endangered species
How Does OneHope Wine Work (ONEHOPE Wine Review)?
The way ONEHOPE Wine works is people interested in becoming an entrepreneur can sign up to host wine tastings and events. One Hope calls its representatives Cause Entrepreneurs.
You don’t need any prior experience in the wine industry. The company provides you with all of the materials, products, and training that you need to be successful.
As a One Hope Wine Cause Entrepreneur, you make a commission on every sale that you make. You also have the opportunity to earn bonuses and commissions on the sales of other people that you recruit into the business.
OneHope Wine Products
ONEHOPE sells a variety of wine products, including:
- Red wine
- White wine
- Rosé wine
- Sparkling wine
- Dessert wine
Each product is made with a specific cause in mind.
For example, the company’s Vintner California Chardonnay is made in support of breast cancer awareness and research. ONEHOPE donates money from the purchase of each bottle to breast cancer research.
The company also has a line of wedding wines, including:
- Brut Sparkling Wine
- Pinot Noir
- Chardonnay
The wedding wine is made in partnership with Wish Upon a Wedding. ONEHOPE donates a portion of the proceeds from each purchase to this nonprofit, which provides weddings and vow renewals for couples facing terminal illness or other serious life-altering circumstances.
OneHope Wine’s Flagship Product
One of ONEHOPE’s most popular products is its California Sparkling Brut. It provides customers with a versatile wine that can be used for a variety of occasions, including:
- Weddings
- Bridal showers
- Engagement parties
- Anniversaries
Is ONEHOPE Wine an MLM?
Yes, ONEHOPE is an MLM company. As a network marketing company, it allows its Cause Entrepreneurs to earn a commission on the products they sell.
The company operates in a similar way to other MLMs, such as Mary Kay and Avon. Cause Entrepreneurs sign up to sell ONEHOPE’s products and earn a commission on each sale they make.
Each representative can also generate revenue by building a team of other Cause Entrepreneurs. When someone on their team makes a sale, the representative earns a commission.
The company offers a few different ways for its Cause Entrepreneurs to sell its products, including:
- Home parties
- Online parties
- One-on-one sales
- In-person events
How Do MLMs Work?
Network marketing, also known as Multi-Level Marketing (MLM), is a business model in which a company recruits distributors to sell its products directly to the public.
Distributors earn commission based on their sales and the sales of their downline distributors.
Mistakenly, many MLMs are called pyramid schemes.
However, MLMs are legal when the focus remains on selling products to customers.
Is ONEHOPE Wine a Pyramid Scheme?
For an MLM to be a pyramid scheme, it must involve the exchange of money for recruitment into the company.
One Hope Wine is not a pyramid scheme.
Its representatives don’t receive income from the ONEHOPE Wine compensation plan when recruiting new Cause Entrepreneurs.
Right about here is when uneducated people bring up the, “Is this one of those pyramid thingies?”
Misinformation about the topics abounds online.
You’ll also hear, “Only people at the TOP make any money.”
When I hear this statement, I always know I’m talking with someone that doesn’t understand how MLM companies operate.
I’ve joined MLM companies and out-sold and out-recruited those “above” me.
Therefore, I earned more income than the people at the “top”.
The easiest way to understand ONEHOPE Wine and other multi-level marketing companies is to understand how a real estate broker or insurance broker operates.
The broker hires agents to sell homes or insurance.
The agents earn a commission on each sale. The broker also earns a commission on the sale generated by each agent.
It’s called an override commission.
ONEHOPE Wine and other MLM companies operate the same way.
Is OneHope Wine a Scam?
No, ONEHOPE Wine isn’t a scam. Some people join the wine MLM company to sell products only. They have no intention of recruiting people. They’re like the insurance or real estate agent I explained above.
Some people join ONEHOPE Wine MLM and want to operate like an insurance or real broker.
They get excited about maximizing the compensation plan by making retail sales and recruiting people. They can now earn money by selling wine themselves and by overriding the retail commissions created by a Cause Entrepreneur in their downline.
They’re like the broker explained above.
All above board.
All legal.
Is ONEHOPE Wine a scam or pyramid?
Certainly not.
I hope my quick ONEHOPE Wine review helps you see how it’s structured. Let’s dig a little deeper though…
Success Is Rare With OneHope Wine
Why do so many people in MLM lose money?
And why do some people complain that they lose money with One Hope Wine?
Ahh, now we get to the crux of the problem.
Let’s start with some statistics.
Did you know that the online course industry will become a $336 Billion market in the next few years? It means the market will grow by over 9% over 10 years.
Guess how many people finish an online course they paid money for? Only 4% finish their course.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, half of all small businesses go out of business by year five. After 10 years, 70% of all small businesses fail.
Where are the people with pitchforks to stop people from creating and selling online courses?
Where are the witch hunts taking down the Secretary of State for all states in America? They charge people money to start those businesses that fail.
What about website hosting companies or software like Teachable, that let people host online courses?
What about landing page software like Leadpages that allows (oh the horror!) people to build sales pages to sell online courses?
I think you’re getting my point LOL
You’ll hear people yelling and screaming (even creating entire blogs about it) about the fact that people are losing money in the multi-level marketing (MLM) industry.
Of course they are!
Most people don’t know how to build a business. They’ve spent their entire lives being told what to do as employees.
I struggled when I first got into MLM. I struggled when I first started building via online marketing.
Entrepreneurship is hard.
So, if you’re a Cause Entrepreneur with ONEHOPE Wine and someone tries telling you it’s “one of them pyramid schemes,” or “people fail at this stuff,” or ask, “is ONEHOPE Wine a scam?”
You tell ’em, “It’s legal, most people don’t give entrepreneurship enough time before quitting, and I’m not gonna apologize for working hard as a business builder in this company.”
The OneHope Wine Business Opportunity
A ONEHOPE Wine review isn’t complete without taking a look at the multi-level marketing business opportunity.
ONE HOPE Wine Compensation Plan
The ONEHOPE Wine compensation plan works similarly to most MLM companies.
While you can look at the details here to understand its uni-level legs, monthly qualifications, sales commissions, fast-start bonuses, generational bonus, group volume bonus, and commissionable volume, you basically need to understand that you make money in two ways:
- Personal commissions
- Override commissions from downline member sales
Personal Commissions
You earn a commission on every product you sell. The amount you earn is determined by your rank in the company.
The more product you sell, and the more people you enroll in a wine club, the higher your monthly commission check will be.
Override Commissions from Downline Members’ Sales
This is where things start to get interesting for people who take their ONEHOPE Wine business seriously.
You can earn override commissions on the personal sales of people you enroll in the business.
The amount you earn is determined by your rank in the company and how much product your downline members sell.
If you’re at a low rank, you’ll only earn a small override commission on each sale. If you’re at a high rank, you can earn a higher commission percentage on each sale.
The higher your rank is, the more people you can enroll in your downline, and the more product they sell, the more money you’ll make in override commissions.
To move up in rank, you need to generate a certain amount of sales volume each month. The higher the rank, the higher the monthly sales volume requirement.
This is where people sometimes get confused and think ONEHOPE Wine is a pyramid scheme. They see that you need to generate a certain amount of sales volume each month to move up in rank and they think it’s impossible to do.
The truth is, it’s not impossible to do. It just takes time, effort, and consistency.
It also takes a commitment to learning more about entrepreneurship, sales, marketing, and specifically, online marketing (more about this below).
If you’re serious about building a ONEHOPE Wine business, you’ll make the rank requirements each month and you’ll start earning override commissions on the sales of your downline members.
And as your downline grows, so will your monthly income.
Rank Advancement Positions
Here are the rank positions from the compensation plan.
- Cause Entrepreneur (CE)
- Lead CE
- Senior CE
- Executive CE
- Director
- Lead Director
- Senior Director
- Executive Director
- Senior Executive Director
- National Executive Director
Why Is One Hope Winery Positioned Well?
Let’s look at three interesting aspects of the ONEHOPE Wine MLM opportunity.
Established Company
Most people looking at ONEHOPE Wine see the positive aspect of working with an established company.
The company is less than 15 years old, which is young in the business world, but it’s been around long enough to have a proven track record.
It’s not a fly-by-night company that will disappear tomorrow. It has a solid foundation and is growing each year.
Expensive Products
Some people might look at this as a negative. In my mind, it’s a positive. You don’t want to sell products that cost too little. Otherwise, you’ll be competing on price and that’s a race to the bottom.
It’s much better to sell products that have a high perceived value and that people are willing to pay a premium for.
You get this with ONEHOPE Wine products.
Competitive Niche
Again, people who don’t understand entrepreneurship point to this as a negative. However, it’s a positive.
A competitive niche is a good thing because it means there’s money to be made.
It also means that people are already aware of the product and the market exists.
If you enter a niche where no one is buying anything, then you have to create the market, which is much harder to do.
In a competitive niche, people are already buying wine. You just need to show them why they should buy it from you.
This is not that difficult to do if you have the right marketing strategies (more on this below).
How To Make Money From One Hope Winery
After you join ONEHOPE Wine, the journey is only beginning.
You need to think about this like a ONEHOPE Cause entrepreneur…like a business person.
It’s time to get rid of all your employee tendencies. Stop chasing down family members.
To maximize the comp plan, produce customer orders, and become a National Executive Director, you need to learn how to market this multi-level marketing company and its products like a pro wine consultant.
Start Thinking & Acting Like an Entrepreneur
1. Take the time to learn about entrepreneurship. This includes learning about MLM business concepts, sales, and marketing.
2. Be consistent in your efforts. Don’t give up after the first few months. It takes time and effort to build a successful business.
3. Have a positive attitude. This is so important. You need to believe in yourself and your ability to succeed. You also need to be coachable and open to learning new things.
Learn How To Market Like A Pro
To make the rank requirements each month, you need to generate sales volume. The best way to do this is to learn how to generate leads and sales online.
Here are a few things you can do:
- Learn how to generate leads with Facebook ads
- Use Instagram & other social media to build relationships and generate leads
- Create a blog and use it to generate leads through SEO traffic
- Learn how to use email marketing to build relationships and sell wine
Remember, if you want to be successful in any business, you need to learn how to market effectively. This is especially true in the wine industry.
The good news is? There are many ways to create residual income by turning your ONEHOPE Wine efforts into a legitimate online business.
It just takes time and effort to learn how to do reach a lot of people monthly to generate online purchases.
FAQs About ONEHOPE Wine
You might still have questions about ONEHOPE Wine. Let’s answer a few commonly asked questions.
How much does it cost to start a OneHope Wine business?
You’ll invest $39 on your Join Starter Kit. It includes your business materials, a sparkling wine stopper, and an interactive planner to help you get started. From there, you’ll pay $8.25 per month (billed as an annual payment of $99) for the following:
- Marketing tools
- Personalized website
- Business analysis
- World-class wine education
- Community support
- Training videos
- Access to exclusive specials, incentives, and events
Is ONEHOPE Wine a scam because it charges for a Join Kit?
Of course not LOL
You will pay a fee to start any type of business, multilevel marketing or otherwise. You can pay $39 here or six figures to join a Mcdonald’s franchise. Investing upfront in a business opportunity is only a scam to those who don’t understand entrepreneurship.
Is ONEHOPE Wine a scam because it charges the annual membership fee?
Again, no. The personalized website alone makes the fee make sense. Did you know that you’ll pay $4 to $100 per month (depending on your host) to start a blog in any niche?
How much can you earn with OneHope Wine?
Income is not guaranteed in any business. It depends on your efforts.
Your success in making money with ONEHOPE Wine depends big time on whether you become a sales and marketing person.
It’s not possible to make much money at all unless you improve your entrepreneurship skills. Commit to this. It’s true with the MLM business model, affiliate marketing, eCommerce, or any type of business.
Why aren’t people earning decent money with MLM companies like OneHope Wine?
I discussed this above, but it’s worth another stab at it.
The answer is that most people who join an MLM company are looking for a job. They’re looking for someone to tell them what to do so they can put in a few hours per week and earn an annual salary.
This is not how you build a successful business. You need to treat it like an entrepreneur would. Put in the time and effort required to build a legit business.
I’m not saying it’s easy. I’m just saying that it’s possible if you’re willing to work for it.
Bottom Line: Is ONEHOPE Wine a Pyramid Scheme?
Is ONEHOPE Wine a scam or pyramid?
No. It’s a legitimate MLM company with a solid opportunity where you can earn money, work the comp plan up to National Executive Director, and have fun in the process.
The key to success is learning how to make money online by becoming a better marketer.
By the way, it’s not necessary to become an amazing salesperson.
You just need to learn online marketing methods that attract qualified leads every month.
It’s imperative whether you want to build a customer base locally or get started making money online with ONEHOPE Wine.
There are Internet strategies that will attract best-fit leads on a local level or nationally.
If that makes sense to you but you’re unsure where to learn those necessary marketing skills, I invite you to grab my free video series.
In it, you’ll learn exactly how ultra-successful networkers use digital marketing to avoid uncomfortable sales methods and rejection.
Come take a look, I’d love to show you how to earn the same passive income online I’ve achieved via these Attraction Marketing techniques.