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My posts about XL Results Foundation Life Membership have sparked some debate here recently. Things really hotted up after a recent comment from a woman who was about to join XL after attending Roger Hamilton’s Business Breakfast Presentation in Melbourne. On returning home she decided to do some research on Roger Hamilton and his XL Results Foundation. When the search results served up my blog post, she was alarmed and left a long comment explaining her concerns about the sum – $12,000 – that she had almost paid over. Since that comment there have been contributions from other former XL members and those who had almost joined, expressing scepticism over the value of the offer. Some of these members asked me not to pub lish their comments as they were nervous of going public, and I have used their material as sources for this article. These comments brought several long and involved comments from the XL Results Regional Manager in Melbourne, Jeanette Jifkins, who was clearly very upset that others were not enthralled with her company. There have been other contributions from Paul Dunn, whose Ecademy profile says he ‘runs XL in Australia and he’ll soon be taking XL to America’, in staunch defence of XL’s charitable achievements.

Let me make it quite clear why I have written reports about this business opportunity. The offer to the potential member is membership of a network of entrepreneurs, and extensive training opportunities, whose quality is not independently verified or accredited. New prospects do not get a chance to study the contract terms before signing up, they are swept up in the moment by a persuasive presentation. They are often left to reflect on the implications of this decision only after they have parted with a substantial sum in hard cash. Paul Dunn has asserted in one of his comments that there is a cooling off period for new recruits. I would like to see evidence of that.

I do not view XL as a classic pyramid scheme, but I think others are labelling it that way because they do not see the Life Membership package offering a value to justify its high price – why is there not an annual membership option? This company has been in existence for less than a decade, it is privately owned so what guarantee do members get on the prospects of it existing in another ten years? If I decide to join any Chamber of Commerce or similar organisation in Britain there is a set annual membership fee, and at the end of a year’s membership I decide to renew if the organisation has given me value for money.

When I attended the XL Results presentation the big selling point was the scope for getting freelance work from other life members. Most freelance consultants spend their lives chasing more contracts, and I heard a lot of sad stories at the last Ecademy members’ event. So if a carrot is dangled in front of a hungry consultant, they are very likely to go for it. None of us know if our next contract will be our last and a carefully designed pitch can prey on those anxieties, making us think that life membership of XL Results Foundation is a possible answer to our problems. But of course there is no guarantee of any work and none of the comments in support of XL have given any proof of income generated through membership of the foundation. Charitable work is all well and good but this is meant to be a business networking organisation. The proof of a business organisation should be just that – real, tangible business results for its members.

The XL organisation business model seems weighted towards getting money from new members, instead of improving the value of the membership package. If the company wants transparency (as they have requested from me) then I would like to see them publish full detailed accounts of its revenue sources. They should also be able to show independently verified examples of members who have obtained worthwhile contracts and expanded their business as a direct result of their membership of the foundation.

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