You are here because one of your friends invited you to join the opportunity and make extra money, but what Is Tastefully Simple? If you land on my site to find the answer, you’ve come to the right place.
In my Tastefully Simple review, I’ll cover the below topics to help you understand them better:
- What Is Tastefully Simple?
- How Does Tastefully Simple Work?
- Tastefully Simple Compensation Plan
- Tastefully Simple 2022 Income Disclosure
- Tastefully Simple Pros & Cons
- Can You Make Money Selling Tastefully Simple?
- Is Tastefully Simple A Pyramid Scheme?
- Is Tastefully Simple A Scam?
By reading this review to the end, you’ll get enough information to make up your mind. Before we explore this opportunity, I promise you something first.
I am not associated with Tastefully Simple in any form, so you won’t see me pitching or pushing to click a “JOIN NOW” button.
This review is my approach to examining whether it suits me or delivers. If yes, I’ll take a shot; if not, I will steer clear. Without further ado, let’s get started.
Disclaimer: As the owner of Smileaffiliatesuccess.com, I have tracked down special deals for products, tools, and services mentioned herein. When you click my affiliate links on this page to make a purchase, I may get a small commission, and you will definitely get a great bargain. This is a win-win advantage for both of us.
What Is Tastefully Simple?
-Summary of Tastefully Simple-
Product Name: Tastefully Simple(TS)
Founders: Jill Blashack Strahan
Product Type: Meal prep kits and other prepared food products MLM(Multi-Level Marketing)
Price: $49-$99 Starter Kit + Website Costs $197.23 + other costs
Recommend: No
Tastefully Simple is an MLM company that sells meal kits, seasonings, sauces, baking mixes, and other prepared food items. As of this writing, they are operating for more than two decades and keep growing.
They also allow you to become a consultant to build your business. You can choose to host a home party or Facebook & other online parties to demonstrate the products and share the catalogs. In a home-party vibe, it’s easy to make sales.
But, is this a good opportunity for you? Let me share more details right below.
Inside Tastefully Simple
They have a wide range of products you can purchase as a customer or consultant. Here are the product lines:
Product Lines
- Meal Kits: 30-Meal Kit, 10-Meal Kit, and 5-Meal Kit
- Products: bread & soups, desserts & baking, dips & appetizers, dressings & oils, drinks & beverages, kitchenware, sauces, seasonings, and snacks
- Cooking style & ingredients: Asian, tropical, Mexican, Italian, grilling, kid favorites, clean eating, no-gluten, or kosher
- Others: gift sets, recipes, and kitchenware
Do Tastefully Simple Products Work?
I don’t use Tastefully Simple products myself, so I cannot give you my firsthand experiences.
I managed to find others’ reviews of TS Seasoning Salt on Amazon, both positive and negative. I hope they help you well.
-The Positive Reviews-
-The Negative Reviews-
How Does Tastefully Simple Work?
There are two ways to make money with Tastefully Simple:
- Selling Products: Sell Tastefully Simple products
- Recruiting: Recruit people to become your downlines to earn extra commissions, bonuses, and incentives when your team makes more sales
Getting Started
To start running your Tastefully Simple business, you need to purchase one of the starter kits ranging from $49-$99.
Once purchased, you can host parties, including in-person tastings, online parties, catalog parties, expo events, and more to do the promotions.
Home Parties
The home party is the most popular way to boost your sales when it comes to traditional MLM marketing.
Remember those home parties your mom went to see someone showcased Tupperware products?
Yes, it’s the same here. During COVID-19, TS consultants host Facebook or other online parties to boost sales.
Website Costs
In each starter kit, you’ll get your website where your clients can order 24/7. It’s free for the first two months; after the trial, it costs $13.94 per month for the website.
People can also make purchases through your site; it’s $29.95 per year for TS Connected and ProPay.
Tastefully Simple Compensation Plan
Now, we come to the most complicated – the compensation plan.
I’ve reviewed many MLMs, and I have a headache and feel dizzy every time I read them. But don’t worry, I’ll try my best to make things easier for you.
- Retail Commissions: Earn 15%-40% when your monthly sales hit $100+
- Team Commissions: Earn 1%-7% when you and your team hit a specific sales target in a given month
- Fast Start Bonus: Earn $250 when you sell $250+ products during your first ten weeks
- Leader Ladder Cash: Extra $50-$2,000 when you move up the leader ladder
- Leader Fast Track: Earn double Leader Ladder Cash when you are new consultants in your first three months
- Team Growth Cash: Earn quarterly cash when you are Gold+ with team sales growth of at least $1,000 compared to the same quarter of the prior year.
- Shining in Leadership Cash: Earn $500 cash for modeling your balanced business of selling, sponsoring, and leading.
- Party Rewards: When you have $200+ sales at a party, you will get $20 free products. $300 for $30 in free products and so on.
If you still don’t understand at all, it’s alright. Essentially, efforts = earnings.
You can check more details on this page or remember to sell many products or recruit downlines, and then you will receive commissions and bonuses.
How Much Do You Need to Sell to Stay Active?
There is no monthly sales quota with TS, and you are paid commissions based on your monthly sales volume.
To remain an active consultant, you need to sell $200 in retail sales each calendar quarter.
If you have $0 retail sales for 12 consecutive months, you will be given 30 days’ notice. You will be deactivated if you do not re-engage your business.
Now, we can calculate the cost for one year of becoming a Tastefully Simple consultant:
- Starter Kits: $49-$99
- Website Cost: $13.94 per month and $29.95 per year, a total of 13.94*12+29.95=$197.23
- Stay Active Requirement: $200 per quarter
The best case is $1,046.23, while the worst is $1,096.23. This doesn’t count other miscellaneous costs such as party prep kits, marketing collaterals, Tastefully Simple products, catalogs and order forms, etc.
The total costs may be much higher than my calculations if you want to make your TS parties perfect… Did I mention you need to clean your place before hosting the parties and the decorations…?
Ugly Truth About Tastefully Simple
TOP#1 Tastefully Simple 2022 Income Disclosure
Before you join Tastefully Simple, you need to check their income disclosure. Here are some interesting numbers you should know.
- 28% of active consultants made $0-$99
- 54% of active consultants made $100-$999
- Only 5% of active consultants made $5k+
If they count all the consultants in the above table, the real numbers will be so much worse. I don’t know about you, but I don’t take this as my primary income for now.
TOP#2 Home or Virtual Parties
I don’t know about you, but I am introverted & not into home parties.
Before the home parties, you must clean your house, put on some happy-vibe decorations, and prepare enough TS products to do your demonstrations.
Even at virtual parties, you must find the best corner of your place to showcase TS products, most likely in the kitchen. Tell me, is this bothering you when you don’t have a fancy kitchen at your place?
TOP#3 You Can’t Make It If You’re Not A Foodie
Since I am not good at cooking and not into cooking, TS is not for me. I don’t mean you can’t make money with it, but it’s just not my type.
If you are a foodie who loves cooking with different styles, I believe this is the one to go.
Besides, you have more chances to sell TS products because you are doing something you are passionate about, making it fun and less work.
What I Liked About Tastefully Simple
TOP#1 The Longevity
More than half of new businesses fail during the first year, 45% during the first five years, and 65% during the first ten years.
Jill Blashack Strahan built Tastefully Simple in 1995, and now 27 years have passed, and they are still surviving. This proves it’s not a scam at all but a legitimate MLM company.
TOP#2 Food Made in The USA
When a world full of “made-in-China” products, it’s refreshing to see TS products made in the USA. This provides jobs to the local employees and helps the economy.
Can You Make Money Selling Tastefully Simple?
You can make money by selling Tastefully Simple products, especially for extroverted foodies who love seeing different people daily and sharing their passions.
You can become one of the 3% active distributors who made $5k+ per year. It cannot be your primary income, but you can pay some bills.
Is Tastefully Simple A Pyramid Scheme?
No, it’s not a pyramid scheme at all. Let’s read Wikipedia’s definition of a pyramid scheme.
“A pyramid scheme is a business model that recruits members via a promise of payments or services for enrolling others into the scheme, rather than supplying investments or sale of products.”
Tastefully Simple is not a pyramid scheme because it offers made-in-the-USA products that people need for daily cooking.
Is Tastefully Simple A Scam?
No, it’s not a scam at all. Typically, a scam or a pyramid scheme cannot survive the first year once people complain and report it to the authority.
Tastefully Simple has operated for over two decades; if they were a scam, it couldn’t survive this long and keep growing for the next decade.
When it comes to making money online, there are plenty of options on the internet, such as freelancing, dropshipping, GPT sites, drop servicing, or affiliate marketing. Wanna know my top pick?
My Alternative Way to Make Money Online
My alternative way to make money online is through affiliate marketing instead of promoting Tastefully Simple products in person.
Imagine you sell Tastefully Simple products to your friends, family, or anyone you know. Don’t you feel embarrassed or blushed? They might avoid you ever since.
Doing affiliate marketing will save you from that:
- It’s free to start your affiliate marketing business.
- You don’t need to buy physical products and sell them face to face.
- There is no monthly minimum sales quota in affiliate marketing.
- You don’t recruit people to become your downlines to build a team.
- You are not restricted to promoting one product. You can promote anything you like!
- Work on your schedules & you are your OWN BOSS!
You only need to start a blog with quality content. So every time people land on your site to read your product reviews or other articles, they will find insight and value.
If they like it, they may purchase the products or services via your links. Here comes your earning potential.
The platform I am using currently is Wealthy Affiliate. You will find all the proven-to-work training courses, every Friday night LIVE training courses, one keyword research tool called Jaaxy, 24/7 site support, and the most friendly community.
You are more than welcome to check my full Wealthy Affiliate review HERE, or click the button right below to start your online journey with us.
Wealthy Affiliate Income Proof
Here are some of the most active members from Wealthy Affiliate. Each of them did succeed in generating a sustainable income to replace their 9-5 jobs. You are more than welcome to check their stories HERE.
- I Made Over $1 Million With Affiliate Marketing.
- Can someone make a full-time income promoting WA? You bet they can!
- What Does $1000 Per Day Look Like?$
- 40,000 In One Weekend
- A Very Humbling $12,803.26 Month – August Progress Report
- It’s Getting Better: $500+ in 2 Days
- Newbies Pay Attention! $5,195.20 Affiliate Check for June: Thanks, WA!
- Joined the 10K Per Month Club. January Earnings $13,481.39
- New Record: $1,300+ Per DAY! Affiliate Marketing Works & Rocks!
- Made $7,395 in a WEEK: First Black Friday Results!
I hope you enjoy this review, and you are more than welcome to share ideas or leave your comments below. I will reply as soon as I can, thanks.
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You only make $$ in MLM/Network Marketing if you do the work! Like a job, you need to show up and execute your plan of action.
Hi Margaret,
Thanks for the comment. I agree that taking action and working hard is the key to our success no matter in MLM/Network Marketing or Affiliate Marketing.
Cheers,
Matt
Tastefully Simple reminds me of another program, Mary Kay Cosmetics. I joined Mary Kay years ago and eventually stopped because I wasn’t recruiting enough and had to buy a minimum amount of product each month in order to stay “active”.
Tastefully Simple sounds similar to this, but it sounds even more complicated with the virtual shows, cooking, cleaning, presentation, etc.
Thanks for the great review. I like how you highlighted both the pros and cons. I do not intend to join anything like this again.
However, being a Wealthy Affiliate member, I find this program to be much simpler and much more rewarding.
Nina
Hi Nina,
Nice to see you back on my blog again. I hope my Tastefully Simple review helps you well. 🙂
Mary Kay and Tastefully Simple are MLMs, so they have many similarities in nature. The statistics said that 99% of MLM members fail to make money, while less than 1% actually turn profits. I am not surprised that you couldn’t make it.
On the other hand, I love to hear that you are also a Wealthy Affiliate member as I did. It’s the most helpful affiliate marketing platform in the industry, and I love using it every day. If you have problems that I could help with, don’t hesitate to drop me a line inside WA. I am always happy to support WA members in their online businesses. 🙂
Cheers,
Matt
Though Tastefully Simple products look excellent, I certainly would steer clear. I love cooking and I’m sure any one of the meal prep kits would be perfect. However, being a shy person, I’d find hosting parties challenging. I had to laugh at the idea of virtual parties in my kitchen. Made me think of a funny tv ad where a woman avoids showing her kitchen during a Zoom meeting as it was so bad! The compensation plan sounds very complex, and would give me nightmares trying to understand it! Plus, it seems very expensive if you include the website. Also, you’d still have to get traffic to the site which they don’t teach. I totally agree that affiliate marketing is by far the best option, and as a Wealthy Affiliate member can certainly recommend it:)
Hi Kathy,
Yes, the product quality seems nice and has a good reputation online. Aside from the products, the compensation plan is the most complicated element in this business opportunity. The key to success in an MLM business is consistent recruitment, so it must be hard for a shy person like yourself. You did a good job not to go this route to make extra money, and it’s wonderful to know you chose affiliate marketing as I did.
For people interested in affiliate marketing, I recommend Wealthy Affiliate. It has legitimate training, one keyword research tool, and many more powerful features and functions. I am sure you’ll love it! 🙂
Cheers,
Matt
I am sure Jill is a good person, however, the fact that this is an MLM does not give me good vibes.
I will tell my friends who showed me this that I know more about it and sorry I do not do MLMs. I did them in the past and I was not happy and did not succeed.
Hi Thabo,
Thanks for stopping by and leaving your comment on my Tastefully Simple review. I hope it helps you well. 🙂
99% of people fail to make money with MLM due to the compensation plan. It requires you to do lots of recruitment to build a large team to make sales to earn more commissions and incentives. So, I am not surprised when you shared your story with MLM in the past.
I suggest you try affiliate marketing to run an online business since it’s so affordable than MLM. You can check this post to learn more!
Cheers,
Matt