You are likely here because you’re looking to answer the following question: is Ambit Energy a pyramid scheme?
I’ll cut right to the chase:
No!
Ambit Energy is not a scam or pyramid…
But the full answer is not necessarily that black and white.
You see…
The Ambit Electric Company operates their business using a model known as network marketing, also commonly referred to as MLM or multi level marketing.
And there is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding in the general public regarding the network marketing profession.
But we’ll get to all that a bit later.
In this Ambit Energy review, we are going to be discussing the following:
- How the company got started
- What they sell
- How the business works
- The compensation plan
- How you can succeed
My hope is that after going through this resource, you will be equipped with all the information you need to make an informed decision and move ahead with conviction, no matter what you decide to do about this opportunity.
First, let’s chat about how Ambit Energy got started.
Ambit Energy Electric Company | History
Ambit Energy was founded in 2006 in Addison, Texas by Jere Thompson Jr. and Chris Chambless.
What does Ambit Energy Do?
They sell electricity, natural gas, and solar power services which are all sold through independent distributors. They put a heavy focus on areas with deregulated energy markets that allow for competition; where customers have the freedom to choose their own energy provider.
After Ambit Energy was founded, they immediately experienced explosive growth and in their first year, they generated over $1 million in revenue. Seven years later, they surpassed $1 billion.
They now have more than a million customers in 17 states, parts of Canada, and Japan.
Where Is Ambit Energy headquarters?
The company’s corporate headquarters are located in Dallas, TX and its main operations centre is in Plano, TX.
Who owns Ambit Energy today?
In November 2019, Ambit was acquired by one of the largest Energy companies in the world, Vistra Energy.
Is Ambit BBB Accredited?
Ambit Energy has been accredited by the Better Business Bureau since 2006, though their BBB page features a lot of negative reviews.
I would take all these reviews with a grain of salt however, because the BBB website tends to be a bastion of negativity.
Folks do not tend to visit the site to leave a review when they have had a good experience because let’s face it… as humans, we take good experiences for granted.
But when we have a bad experience, it’s our natural inclination to shout it from the rooftops.
How Ambit Energy Works
Now more than ever, we are all looking to save money on our energy bills.
Often, this can be achieved by going through alternative energy providers instead of the big corporations we’re familiar with..
So what is Ambit Energy and how does it work?
As we mentioned already, the Ambit Energy business is an MLM company, also commonly referred to as direct sales or network marketing.
This means that rather than providing services and raising awareness through traditional advertising campaigns, the Ambit Energy MLM gives regular folks like you and me the opportunity to market and sell their services for them.
When you become an Ambit Energy consultant, you will be tasked with two main goals:
- Acquire new customers
- Recruit consultants
Every time you acquire a new customer, you will receive a commission every time that customer pays their energy bill.
This is great because it will provide income for you, month after month, year after year.
But the true power of the Ambit Energy business opportunity comes from building your own team of consultants.
Not only will you earn income from customers you personally acquire, but you can also earn income when one of your consultants acquires a customer.
And when your consultants start building their own teams, you can earn from their efforts as well.
Network marketing can create leverage for a regular middle class Joe or Jane.
As the late Jim Rohn once said:
Profits are infinitely better than wages.
The richest people on the planet became rich by leveraging the efforts of other people, and network marketing gives that opportunity to everyone.
Will it be easy?
Absolutely not.
But is it possible?
For sure. Many people have done it!
Is Ambit Energy A Good Company?
Yes, I believe it is.
Many Ambit Energy reviews online talk about how much more affordable Ambit is compared to competitive energy providers.
However, it depends where you look.
TexasElectricityRatings.com for example, is full of overwhelmingly positive Ambit reviews.
The Better Business Bureau website on the other hand, hosts many negative reviews.
This is not really surprising since the BBB website has always been a bastion of negativity. Frankly, it’s where people go to complain.
But let’s be honest…
With energy prices today, it might be worth a shot to save a few bucks every month, right?
Ambit is not available where I live but if it was, I’d certainly give them a call, regardless of a few negative Ambit Energy customer reviews.
Ambit Energy Compensation Plan
There are four main types of compensation plans often used by multi level marketing companies. They include:
- Unilevel
- Breakaway
- Forced Matrix
- Binary
Each of these models has its own pros and cons which you can read about in this deep-dive MLM analysis article here.
How Does Ambit Energy Pay Consultants?
The Ambit Energy compensation plan is based on the Binary pay structure.
With the Binary plan, you can personally recruit as many people as you want. But you can only place a maximum of two people directly underneath you in your organisation.
The two people who are placed underneath you will become the two “legs” of your organisation.
When you recruit more Ambit consultants, they will be added to one of the two legs of your team.
When payday arrives, you will get paid out the commissions on whichever of your 2 legs earned less money.
This is done in order to incentivise you to build out your teams evenly. You don’t want to add everyone you recruit to just one leg. That would create a very lopsided organisation and would make one of your legs very unhappy.
The most powerful part of the Binary Ambit Energy compensation plan is that it creates a lot of excitement and enthusiasm in your organisation.
Think about it…
You’re adding more people to your team, but you’re placing them below other people in the organisation.
This means that not only would your team members be earning from the efforts that you put in, but you would also be earning from the efforts of those who are above you in the organisation.
Everyone gets excited and motivated from the quick wins, driving them to work harder and build their own organisations.
The exact percentages that you will earn are a bit complex to explain and would require an article of its own.
Here’s all you really need to know:
Every time you acquire a new customer, you get a $100 bonus.
Additionally, whenever one of your customers pays an energy bill, you will earn a commission.
As with all network marketing companies, the true life changing income is earned by building a large team. Acquire customers, recruit consultants, and teach them to do the same.
The Ambit Energy business presentation below outlines the commission structure that you would get paid out as an Ambit Independent Consultant.
You can also check out the official Ambit compensation plan document published by the company itself.
How Much Does It Cost To Join Ambit Energy?
In order to sign up for the business opportunity and participate in the Ambit Energy compensation plan, you would need to pay roughly $500.
How Much Do Ambit Energy Consultants Make?
The truth is, it varies a lot.
There are some who make no meaningful money with the business, while others are making well over a million dollars per year.
Unlike a job, your income depends 100% on how skilled you are and how hard you work.
Many people who make a large amount of money with this business have a very slow start.
This is normal.
In the beginning, you will be way overworked and underpaid.
But if you stick with it and commit to learning the business, you could eventually become way overpaid and underworked.
We’ll talk about exactly how to succeed with network marketing a bit later.
Is Ambit A Pyramid Scheme?
The Ambit Energy pyramid scheme rumours have been proliferating for several years now. I want to use this Ambit Energy MLM business review as an opportunity to explain why they exist and whether or not there is any merit to them.
Over the last few decades, there have been several illegal pyramid schemes that have operated under the disguise of legitimate network marketing.
When these organisations inevitably collapsed, they received a lot of negative and noisy coverage from the media.
And for good reason…
Many innocent and unsuspecting people got badly hurt.
These illegal schemes need to be called out.
The problem is, the media never made a real distinction between legitimate network marketing and dangerous illegal pyramid schemes.
So most people wrongly assumed that a company like Ambit Energy is a pyramid scheme and that they should stay far away.
So is Ambit Energy legitimate?
What’s the difference between an illegal Ponzi scheme and a legit company like Ambit?
You see, when you join a pyramid scheme, you simply pay for a spot in a pyramid shaped organisation.
That’s all you get for your money. There are no valuable products or services sold into the marketplace, which makes the “business” model unsustainable.
Why would the market support a business that doesn’t provide value?
It doesn’t. This means that folks near the top of the pyramid can get rich while the poor saps at the bottom lose all their money.
But the Ambit Energy network marketing business is really not that different from a traditional business.
There is a real valuable service that people want being sold into the real economy. The main difference is the way by which the services are marketed and distributed.
Rather than paying millions of dollars for advertising campaigns, they instead offer the opportunity for a regular Joe or Jane like me and you to sell the services for them and build a long term sustainable passive income.
Many people might point to the pyramid shape that the typical MLM organisation develops as it grows.
It’s a valid reason for concern.
Until you see the shape that a traditional corporate business takes on…
Looks suspiciously like a pyramid scheme, doesn’t it?
Listen, we as humans will always organise ourselves into hierarchies. It’s inevitable. It’s what allowed us to evolve into the beings we are today and climb to the very top of the food chain.
And hierarchies will always take on the shape of a pyramid.
You see it all over the place:
- Family
- Friend groups
- Business
- Churches
- Governments
It simply can not be avoided.
The difference between network marketing and the corporate model is that network marketing is inherently more fair.
If you are working in the mail room at a corporate business, you will never make more money than the CEO.
Unless you can climb up the corporate ladder, displacing folks all along the way, and take the CEO’s job away for yourself.
With network marketing, you can certainly earn more money than anyone above you in the organisation.
If you acquire more customers and build a larger team, you will earn more money.
Another Reason For Ambit Energy Scam Rumors
Another common reason for Ambit Energy scheme or scam concerns is simply the way that the business is often represented.
Many of the folks who get involved in network marketing are not experienced business people.
They’re just regular class folks who were sold a dream. And often, they were told that they would be able to get rich quickly and easily.
Unfortunately, that’s just not the case.
If you were to get started with the Ambit Energy business and you had the expectation that it would be easy, you would quickly become disenchanted.
You would find that many of your contacts are not that interested in joining your business or changing their energy provider.
And because you had lofty unrealistic expectations, you would likely become desperate.
This is what happens to many new network marketers.
Desperation sets in, and many become pushy and frankly, obnoxious.
This is very off-putting for many people, and some may suspect that you got roped into some type of cult or scam.
I believe that this is how much of the scepticism is produced around network marketing.
It’s important to represent the business accurately and behave professionally as you’re going about building your business.
And you have to have realistic expectations.
Understand that many people will not be interested.
But some will…
It’s just a numbers game.
You need to work through the numbers and find those that are interested and open to what you have to offer, rather than trying to force people.
Succeed With The Ambit Energy Opportunity
The real key to long term success in the Ambit Energy referral program is not just acquiring customers, though that’s certainly a part of it.
It’s really to build a team that will grow itself over time and acquire customers for you.
To paraphrase what Randy Gage said in his latest book:
You don’t grow your team. You grow your people so that they will grow your team for you.
And the most important thing that you must understand to achieve this is duplication.
As you grow your team, you want your team members to duplicate your success.
So let’s talk about three things you must understand to achieve duplication in network marketing.
I. This Is A Teaching Business
If you are able to recruit tons of new members into your team every single week, that’s great. But if you are unable to teach your team how to do the same, they will not last in the business.
They will be dropping like flies.
If you want your team to eventually get to a point where it will grow without your efforts, you need to put in the initial work.
Put a heavy focus on teaching your team how to do what you’re doing.
II. Always Use The Tools
When you join the Ambit Energy business, you will be given marketing tools that you can refer to when potential customers or future consultants ask you questions.
It’s important to always use these tools when you’re asked a question.
Eventually, you will get to a point where you might not need the tools…
But you should still continue to use them.
Why?
Because your new consultants will see that you do not need to be an expert in order to succeed. They will realise that they can do the business too.
Because they see you referring to third party tools, they will see that they do not need to be an energy expert in order to succeed with this business.
III. Stick To The System
It doesn’t really matter what works to recruit consultants or acquire customers…
What really matters is what duplicates.
When you join the business, you will be taught a system that has been specifically designed for simplicity and duplication.
There are many complex and high pressure tactics that you could use to recruit members.
But they will not duplicate.
When you recruit new consultants, they will be looking to you for guidance. Whether you feel like a leader or not, they will be trying to duplicate what you have done to succeed with the business.
And if they see you simply following the system that everyone is taught, there is a high likelihood they will do the same.
And they will teach their recruited consultants to follow the system, too.
For an in-depth guide on how to succeed in this business, be sure to check out my deep-dive MLM tutorial.
Ambit Energy Online Success
The system you will be taught by Ambit Energy is likely similar to what most network marketing companies teach.
Make a list of 100 or more of your personal contacts, and invite them to a meeting where they can learn more about your services and business opportunity.
This is an excellent place to start, and you should do exactly what you’re taught.
But eventually, you will run out of people to talk to.
By the time this happens, you should have built a sizeable team that is starting to experience some duplication.
At this point, you might start to think about taking your business online in order to expand.
You might be intimidated by internet marketing. Many people are.
But the truth is, it’s not actually that complicated. It really comes down to three main steps.
I. Define Your Target Market
In order to make your Ambit Energy marketing effective on the internet, you need to decide who you are marketing to.
What type of person do you want to attract to your business?
As an example, you may want to target someone who already works in the energy industry and is looking for a side income so they can save and invest for retirement.
Or perhaps you target real estate agents who are actively looking for a side hustle.
You can’t just go online and create generic content in the hopes that someone will be interested in what you have to offer.
If you want people to resonate with your message, you need to define what type of person you want, and create the type of content that they are looking for.
II. Create Content
As we discussed, you need to create content. The key to succeeding online is to always provide valuable content that people are actually searching for.
You want to become an authority figure, a thought leader in your niche.
If someone in your target market has a question that they’re asking themselves, then YOU want to be the first person that comes to their mind.
With this in mind, you can start creating content on whatever platform you feel most comfortable with.
A few options are:
- Start a bog
- YouTube channel
- Twitter, Instagram or other social media
- Related forums
Whatever platform you choose, always provide value.
There’s no need to mention your company by name.
Ever.
III. Build A List
Once you have a bit of an audience built, you should start an email newsletter.
Find a way to entice people to join your email list.
Once people are on your list, you can start thinking about actively inviting them to check out your business or maybe schedule a phone call with them.
But value should still be your number one focus.
If you are not truly out to help people, they will not open your emails.
Like we said earlier, people’s BS detectors are strong so you should be putting a huge focus on actually helping people and giving them what they want.
I recommend keeping 80% of your emails completely value-based and 20% of them sales oriented.
This way, you have plenty of opportunity to actually make money while still helping people and enticing them to continue listening to what you have to say.
I learned this concept from Gary Vaynerchuk. Here’s a quote from his book Jab, Jab, Right Hook which perfectly summarizes this concept.
But while it’s true that you can’t land a solid right hook if you don’t set up the punch with a series of good jabs, it’s also true that no fight has ever been won on jabs alone. Eventually, you have to take your shot. – Gary V
Jab (value), Jab (value), Right Hook (make the offer).
To be honest, this is a pretty simplified explanation of internet marketing.
For a detailed tutorial on how to work from home and succeed with Ambit Energy online, check out my detailed guide on digital network marketing.
Ambit Frequently Asked Questions
Let’s cover some of the more frequently asked questions that may have not been covered in this article.
I will be updating the Ambit Energy FAQ from time to time as more questions arise.
Is Ambit Energy Worth It?
While there have been some complaints recorded online in terms of Ambit customer service, most of the reviews are overwhelmingly positive.
Many people report definitive monthly savings on their energy bill and there are certainly some folks making good money with the business.
Does Ambit have a cancellation fee?
If you choose to sign a contract for a set price and length of time, you will be charged an exit fee if you cancel your contract early.
How do I cancel my Ambit account?
Simply call the number listed on the Ambit website, provide the requested information, and tell the representative that you wish to cancel your account.
How to become an Ambit Energy consultant?
You will need to sign up through an existing Ambit consultant. Simply reach out to the person who introduced you to the business and get signed up.
Ambit Energy Review | Conclusion
So what’s the conclusion?
Is Ambit Energy a good opportunity for you?
Well, it depends on whether or not you find yourself getting excited about the prospect of helping others save money on their energy bill.
If that sounds boring to you, then this might not be a good fit.
But if you can see yourself becoming passionate about a business like this, I would certainly feel comfortable recommending Ambit Energy.
It’s a well established company that has stood the test of time.
They have a good reputation with happy customers all over North America.
Perhaps you could sign up for the energy service offered by Ambit and take them for a test drive.
Then you will truly know if you feel comfortable offering the service to others.
But I believe it’s a good company and I personally feel comfortable giving it my recommendation.
My hope is that after reading this article, you now have all the information you need to move forward with confidence and conviction, no matter what you decide to do.
If there is anything that I missed, feel free to comment down below and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
Written By:
Johnny Friesen
Just a blue collar guy passionate about finance, network marketing, and writing. When I'm not working on a car, you'll find me working on various side hustles and sharing my musings with the world.
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