What Is a Good Growth Rate for an MLM Company?
Updated: September 2026
Oleksandr Honcharov, CEO at FlawlessMLM
DSN's 2025 mid-year poll found roughly half of surveyed direct selling companies reporting revenue gains. With 18 companies achieving 20% or more year-over-year growth in the first half of the year, a useful range against which to judge what counts as strong performance.
In short: a good growth rate for an MLM company depends heavily on company age and size, but companies achieving 20% or more year-over-year revenue growth stand out as strong performers based on recent industry polling. While more established, larger companies often target steadier single-digit growth that's easier to sustain without straining infrastructure.
Company age changes what counts as a good rate significantly. This is because a new company might need aggressive growth just to reach sustainable scale, while an established company with a large existing base often prioritizes steady, sustainable growth over rapid expansion.
The 20%-plus year-over-year figure that stood out among companies in recent industry polling represents genuinely strong performance in a mature industry where overall revenue actually declined in 2024 following pandemic-era hypergrowth.
Growth rate alone doesn't capture quality, since a company posting an impressive headline growth number while active distributor rate and retention decline underneath is building on a less stable foundation than the raw percentage suggests.
Sustainable growth rates vary by product category too, with health and wellness, the largest US direct selling segment at roughly 35.3% of channel volume, sometimes able to sustain faster growth than smaller, more niche categories.
We encourage companies we work with to judge their own growth rate against their specific infrastructure capacity rather than an industry benchmark alone, since a rate that's healthy for one company's support and technology systems could strain another's badly.
Comparing your own growth rate against how the largest players in the industry are actually performing offers useful context, which our current ranking of the top 100 MLM companies provides.
Growth rate benchmarks by context
| Context | What counts as strong |
|---|---|
| New, early-stage company | Often needs faster growth just to reach sustainable scale |
| Established, larger company | Steady single-digit growth often prioritized for sustainability |
| Recent industry standout (DSN 2025 poll) | 20%+ year-over-year revenue growth |
| Industry-wide average (2024) | Revenue declined slightly, a post-hypergrowth correction |
Common mistakes to avoid
- Comparing every MLM company's growth rate against the same fixed benchmark ignores how much company age and size change what's realistic.
- Judging growth quality by headline rate alone misses whether active distributor rate and retention are healthy underneath.
- Assuming faster growth is always better for an established company overlooks how rapid growth can strain infrastructure a mature company already relies on.
- Ignoring product category differences when setting growth targets misses that some categories sustain faster growth more naturally than others.
- Setting growth targets without checking infrastructure capacity first risks a rate that's healthy on paper but strains the company's actual systems.
Conclusion: what is a good growth rate for an MLM company depends on company age, size, and infrastructure capacity more than any single universal number, though 20% or more year-over-year stood out as strong in recent industry polling. Matching growth rate to genuine capacity matters more than chasing the highest possible percentage.
Related questions
Is 20% annual growth good for any MLM company?
It's considered strong based on recent industry polling, though whether it's sustainable depends heavily on the specific company's infrastructure and support capacity.
Should a new MLM company grow faster than an established one?
Often yes, since new companies typically need to reach a sustainable scale, while established companies can prioritize steadier, more manageable growth.
Does a high growth rate always mean a healthy company?
Not necessarily; checking active distributor rate and retention alongside the headline growth number reveals whether that growth is genuinely stable.
How did the direct selling industry perform overall in 2024?
Revenue declined slightly according to DSA data, described as a correction following pandemic-era hypergrowth rather than a sign of broader industry weakness.