Is It Works! a legitimate network marketing company, and is its business opportunity worth considering? Yes, It Works! is an established direct-selling company with roots going back to 2001. Its original body-wrap product helped distinguish it from the crowded supplement market, and its unilevel compensation structure has features I genuinely like. But a good product and a solid pay plan are only part of the equation. The bigger question is how long it might take you to turn your own efforts into meaningful income.
I’ve been involved in network marketing and online marketing since 2002. I’ve seen excellent companies, disappointing companies, strong compensation plans and complicated plans that look much better on paper than they work in practice. In this It Works! review, I’ll look at the company’s history, products, compensation plan, and the practical realities of building a profitable organization.
What Is It Works!?
It Works! is a privately held direct-selling company founded in 2001 by Mark and Cindy Pentecost. It became widely known for its body-wrap products, particularly the Ultimate Body Applicator, and later expanded into supplements, weight-management products, skin care and other wellness offerings.
The company’s longevity deserves acknowledgment. In an industry where businesses can appear and disappear in a relatively short period, surviving for more than two decades is meaningful. Longevity alone doesn’t prove that an opportunity is profitable for its average distributor, but it does provide a longer operating history to evaluate.
Who Founded It Works!?
Mark and Cindy Pentecost founded It Works! in 2001. Mark’s background is especially relevant to this review because he had previously been involved in network marketing, including Excel Telecommunications. In other words, the founders weren’t simply outsiders deciding to enter the direct-selling industry. They had experience with the business model before building their own company.
That experience can be an advantage. Founders who understand the distributor side of the business may have a better appreciation for what motivates people, what makes a compensation plan attractive, and what can make it frustrating.
But there’s a distinction I always make: a company can be well designed for distributors without guaranteeing that most distributors will make substantial money. The compensation plan can be generous, the products can be good, and the business can still require considerable time, consistent sales, and leadership development.
What Products Does It Works! Sell?
The Ultimate Body Applicator and Skinny Wrap
It Works! made its name with a topical body-wrap product often referred to as the Skinny Wrap. The Ultimate Body Applicator is designed to be applied to the skin and marketed around temporary cosmetic changes in the appearance of the treated area.
I haven’t personally used the wrap, so I’m not going to pretend I can tell you how well it works. And I would be cautious about confusing temporary changes in appearance with actual fat loss. A body wrap isn’t a substitute for the physiological process of losing body fat, regardless of how impressive a before-and-after photograph might look.
Here’s the problem with even a recognizable product like the Skinny Wrap: how do you keep finding new people who might actually want it? Friends and family can only take you so far.
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What interests me from a business standpoint is that the wrap gave It Works! something recognizable. When a distributor mentioned the company, there was a particular product people could associate with the brand.
That’s worth something. Many network marketing companies sell another lineup of vitamins, minerals, weight-management supplements, and skin-care products that aren’t easy to distinguish from dozens of competitors. The body-wrap category isn’t exclusive to It Works!, and similar products do exist, but the wrap is a more distinctive calling card than another generic-sounding wellness supplement.
Supplements, Coffee, and Other Wellness Products
Over time, It Works! expanded into products such as Skinny Brew coffee, nutritional supplements, and beauty and personal-care items. As with any wellness company, I would evaluate these products on ingredients, actual customer experience, cost per serving, and whether people continue purchasing after the initial excitement wears off.
That’s especially important in network marketing. A product that creates a big burst of first-month orders but weak repeat purchasing can make an organization look impressive before its sales volume begins to shrink.
My overall view of the product line is mixed but generally fair: I appreciate that It Works! built its identity around a recognizable product. The broader wellness lineup, however, competes in categories where customers have plenty of alternatives.
How Does the It Works! Compensation Plan Work?
This is the part of It Works! that I find particularly interesting. The company uses a unilevel-style compensation structure, with published materials describing commissions on multiple levels and additional rank-based bonuses.
In the compensation materials discussed for this review, the first five unilevel levels have been described as paying 10%, 10%, 5%, 5%, and 5% on eligible bonus volume, with qualifications and additional generational bonuses at higher ranks. These are plan rates, not percentages of retail sales or proof of the company’s total payout. Compensation documents can change, so anyone evaluating the opportunity should confirm the current version directly with It Works! before making a decision.
Why I Like the First Two Levels
One feature stands out to me: 10% on the first level and another 10% on the second. I like that structure for a practical reason. It gives someone building a relatively modest organization the possibility of earning a meaningful commission rate on business that’s still fairly close to them.
Compare that with a plan where the attractive percentages don’t kick in until you’ve reached a much higher rank or developed several generations of leaders. Those plans can look spectacular when someone shows you a top-earner chart. But what about the new person who has sponsored a few customers and one or two distributors?
Early commissions matter. When someone sees that their work is producing income, they’re more likely to stay engaged. That doesn’t mean they’re profitable yet; expenses and purchases still have to be accounted for. But it does mean the compensation structure can offer a clearer path to early earnings than a plan that reserves most of its rewards for established leaders.
To me, that is one of the strongest arguments in favor of It Works!’ unilevel approach.
What About the Deeper Generational Bonuses?
Higher-ranking distributors may qualify for additional bonuses tied to qualified generations and leadership development. Those bonuses can extend the economic reach of the plan beyond the first five unilevel levels.
However, I’m deliberately not going to add every percentage in the document and declare that It Works! pays out a certain share of its revenue. Different bonuses can apply to different types of volume, and not every distributor qualifies for every bonus. Simply adding the printed percentages would create a misleading impression.
The question that matters to an individual distributor is more straightforward: What will I actually earn from the customers and active distributors I can realistically acquire and retain?
A 10% commission sounds appealing. But 10% of zero sales is still zero. The real question is whether you can consistently get your offer in front of interested people, instead of waiting for your next referral.
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Here’s why that question deserves attention. You might join a company with a respectable commission percentage, sponsor a few people, and begin earning something. But if your long-term goal is several thousand dollars per month, those early commissions are only the beginning. At some point, the size, activity, and retention of your organization become critical.
Does It Works! Offer a Good Opportunity for Beginners?
There are things I like about this opportunity for someone starting out. A recognized company name, a product that has historically stood apart from the usual supplement lineup, and potentially attractive early-level commissions are all positives.
But I wouldn’t tell a beginner that those advantages automatically make It Works! an easy business.
Think about what a new distributor actually has to do. They need to find prospective customers, explain the product, handle objections, follow up, make sales, and keep enough customers satisfied that orders continue. If they want to build an organization, they also need to recruit distributors and help those distributors do the same.
That is a lot of work, especially for someone who doesn’t yet know how to generate leads consistently.
I’ve watched people join good companies, get excited about the opportunity, and then struggle because they don’t have a dependable way to reach new prospects. They end up relying on friends and family, posting on social media without a plan, or waiting for the next company promotion to give them something to talk about.
The company can provide training and tools, but ultimately you still need customers and sales. A compensation plan doesn’t create demand by itself.
The Human Nature Problem in Network Marketing
Here’s the part of the industry that I think too many reviews overlook.
Network marketing presentations often show how quickly an organization can grow if everyone sponsors just two or three people. The numbers are exciting. A small group becomes a much larger group in only a few generations.
But those charts assume that people behave in ways they often don’t.
Some distributors never seriously get started. Some enroll a couple of customers and stop. Others work hard for a month, lose enthusiasm, and move on. A smaller number stay consistent, develop sales skills, and eventually become leaders.
That’s not an insult to the people who don’t build. It’s human nature. People have jobs, families, competing priorities, financial pressures, and different levels of commitment. The enthusiasm they feel at enrollment doesn’t necessarily translate into a year of consistent activity.
This is something I’ve seen repeatedly in network marketing: your income can become dependent on other people’s activity, even when you’re doing much of the recruiting and support. A large organization on paper doesn’t necessarily mean a large group of people consistently finding customers and making sales.
When a plan requires significant organizational volume, that human-nature problem matters enormously. You may need to keep recruiting to replace inactivity. You may need to help new distributors find customers. You may need to develop leaders who can work without constant encouragement.
And that process can take months or years. Some people never reach their target income at all.
What happens when the people you recruit stop recruiting? That’s when you discover whether your business has its own source of new prospects or depends entirely on a few motivated team members.
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Why Higher Early Commissions Matter More Than People Think
Let’s say two distributors have the same commission plan, but only one has a reliable way to reach interested prospects each week. Even if both work hard, the distributor with a steady flow of qualified leads has more opportunities to make sales, enroll customers, and identify people who actually want to build a business.
The difference isn’t the compensation plan. It’s the ability to keep meeting new people who are already interested in what you’re offering.
The 10% first- and second-level commissions I like in It Works! can be useful for a smaller builder. But a percentage doesn’t generate a customer. You still need enough qualifying sales volume for those commissions to add up.
And not every lead generation method is equally effective. Randomly messaging strangers or posting promotional links can eat up time without producing many serious prospects. Learning to attract interested people, capture their contact information, and follow up gives you a more repeatable process.
That’s the principle I come back to after more than two decades online: build a dependable source of targeted prospects and a list you can follow up with. Those are assets you control, even when individual team members lose interest.
That’s also why I like the 10% early-level commissions in the It Works! structure. They can reward smaller builders before they’ve developed a deep organization. Pair that with a sound customer-acquisition strategy, and the plan becomes more useful than it would be on paper alone.
Can You Build Significant Residual Income With It Works!?
It’s possible for successful direct sellers to build substantial income, and It Works! has had prominent high-ranking distributors over its history. But possibility is not the same as probability, and an exceptional earner is not a reliable benchmark for a new participant.
For a realistic assessment, I’d want to know the company’s current income disclosure figures, the proportion of distributors who earn commissions, typical business expenses, and how much repeat customer volume supports the income at each rank. I would not rely on an impressive lifestyle story or a single top-earner check.
My experience has taught me to separate three questions:
- Can the company pay meaningful commissions? A published compensation plan can help answer that.
- Can a skilled, persistent distributor build a substantial business? Possibly, but it depends on many factors.
- How likely is the average new person to reach that level, and how long might it take? That is usually the hardest question, and the one that matters most.
The third question is where the dream of effortless duplication meets reality. The people you sponsor are independent adults. You cannot make them work, follow up, sell, or remain active. Even when you provide good support, many will participate only casually.
And while you’re trying to develop those leaders, you still have bills to pay.
Is It Works! a Pyramid Scheme?
It Works! is an established direct-selling company that sells tangible products. That fact alone doesn’t settle every legal question about a compensation structure, but neither is it accurate to label a company an illegal pyramid scheme simply because it uses multilevel commissions.
The relevant distinction is whether compensation and incentives are grounded in genuine product demand rather than primarily rewarding recruitment. When evaluating any MLM, I look for real retail customers, products that people continue buying for their own value, transparent earnings information, and reasonable ongoing costs.
It’s also important to distinguish legitimate product sales from unsupported health or weight-loss claims. With products such as body wraps and supplements, distributors should be especially careful not to promise results that the evidence doesn’t support.
It Works! Pros and Cons
What I Like
- Operating history: The company has been around since 2001, giving it a much longer track record than many newer MLMs.
- A recognizable original product: The body wrap helped create a distinct identity in a crowded market.
- Unilevel compensation: I generally like the simplicity of understanding who is on each level.
- Early-level commission rates: The published 10% rates on the first two levels are appealing to me because modest builders need a chance to earn before they have a huge organization.
What Concerns Me
- Competition: Many of the newer wellness products compete with offerings from other MLMs and traditional retailers.
- Customer retention: Sustained commissions depend on continued product demand, not merely initial excitement.
- Dependence on other people’s activity: Building substantial organizational income can require leaders and customers who stay active over time.
- Time to meaningful income: A strong plan does not eliminate the possibility of months or years of work before reaching a significant income level.
My Final Opinion: Is It Works! Worth Joining?
Of the network marketing compensation structures I’ve reviewed, there are things I genuinely like about It Works!. The unilevel approach is appealing, and the early-level commission percentages strike me as stronger for a modest builder than plans that make you wait until a high rank to access worthwhile rates.
I also give the company credit for building a recognizable identity around the Skinny Wrap. Although I can’t personally evaluate the product’s effectiveness, having a product people immediately associate with the brand is a real marketing advantage.
That said, I wouldn’t make a joining decision based on those positives alone.
My central concern is the same one I have with nearly every network marketing opportunity: earning substantial residual income usually requires a great deal more than enrolling a few people and hoping they duplicate your efforts. Building a productive team takes skill, patience, and consistency. Human nature means many of the people you recruit will do little or nothing, and even good leaders can lose momentum.
That doesn’t make It Works! a bad company. It makes the economics of your individual business worth understanding before you commit.
You can like It Works!, believe in its products, and still face the same challenge every distributor faces: where will the next customers and serious business builders come from? A strong pay plan can’t answer that for you.
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Disclosure: This article reflects my independent evaluation of It Works! and my broader experience in network marketing. I have not represented that I personally used its products or built an It Works! distributorship. Compensation rules, products, prices, and qualifications may change; review current official company materials before joining. Earnings vary, and no particular result is guaranteed.
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