A while ago, I received an email from my mentor. He was telling a story about how one day, he found an entire downline genealogy of an existing MLM company for sale on the internet.
He knew the owners of the company, so he called them up and said “Hey! What’s going on? My gosh, your company is doing good, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. Company is doing great. But we couldn’t afford to buy the software, so we leased it. And part of the lease deal is, the software company owns the database.”
The software company decided it needed more money, so it sold the entire database to 10 third party MLM lead companies for $10,000 each, pocketing a nice $100,000 off the backs of the hard work of the distributors.
Can you imagine that? [click to continue…]
Long term residual income is the big promise of MLM. It can’t achieved if you have to build it over and over again. It can only be achieved if you are in a company that will be here for the long haul.
There is a saying that goes “Lies, damn lies, and statistics”… I don’t know if this is true but I have heard that 90% of new network marketing companies will not last two years, and 90% of those remaining will not last for four years.
That’s a 99% failure rate for new network marketing companies in the first 4 years!
The recent iLearningGlobal termination of its MLM pay plan is a classic example. It did not last 2 years as a network marketing company, and it was one of the biggest companies in recent history to fail in such a short period of time.
Still think joining a ground floor opportunity is a good idea?… [click to continue…]
Recently I received an email from a visitor to my blog. He asked me about my opinion on his company, especially its compensation plan. I sent him some training material provided by Mentoring For Free that allowed him to do his own assessments of his company.
Here is part of his letter to me after he had gone through the training materials and saw for himself what he was in for…
Hi Wayne,
Thank you so much for your assistance. What an eye opener! Here I am wondering if the company has a good compensation plan when I should have been more concerned with how the company could discard me. Although I believe in the product, and the need for the product, I no longer believe in the company. Especially with clause X on page 2 of their “Terms and Conditions” policy, that’s about as straight forward and simple an “out clause” as you can get.
The information you are providing should be mandatory for anyone considering investing their time and money into any MLM offering. Hopefully as your word grows it will become increasingly difficult for crappy companies to con people into joining them. The public (myself definitely included) are way to trusting, or (like me) looking at the wrong thing. As you covered with your first recorded call, if the foundation is sand – my house will always be in trouble.
[click to continue…]
Whether you like it or not, you can’t have long term residual income, which is the big promise of MLM, without an autoship program. Long term residual income starts with autoship.The reason why autoship programs are so important is very simple. See, the vast majority of businesses make money from the small purchases of many customers.
Retail stores such as Walmart make their money from the small, regular purchases of their shoppers. Banks make a ton of money by charging you regular, hardly noticeable monthly fees. Utility companies, insurance companies, telecommunications companies all charge you by the month for their services. In fact, a business that relies on the custom of just one client is in a very risky situation.
Network marketing works exactly the same way, it is just a different form of distribution. In MLM, your money is not made from one hot shot who’s able to sell massive volumes of product. Your money is made by the regular, small efforts of your group of people. [click to continue…]
On a recent training call, one of my mentors spoke of a gentleman whose business keeps falling apart. He builds it up, then it falls away. He builds it up, then it falls away. He was baffled as to why this was happening. The company had a great product, and he a great marketing and training system that allowed him to work with targeted prospects.
He couldn’t understand why the people who had dreams of become of being financially free would quit the business. So he picked up the phone and asked each of his former distributors about why they quit. The number one answer he got from his people was, the product is too expensive.
Hardly anybody in his downline could sell the product to end consumers, or break even on their own autoship orders. It’s pretty hard to retain people when they’re not making money. Understanding what the problem was, he expressed his concerns about the price of the product to the company. [click to continue…]
Is it better to be a distributor for a publicly traded MLM company? Some people intuitively think so. Some companies like to spin the fact that they are a public company in their favour, touting their advantages over a privately held company. What’s the truth?
The truth is, being publicly traded does not mean anything if you don’t know how to assess a company. It’s is not a selling point. Your prospects don’t really care. The number one thing that prospects care about is who gave the presentation.
The bottomline is, if you want long term success, you first need to learn how to choose wisely. You need to not get caught up in the hype and see an opportunity for what it is. Once you are able distinguish between a good and a bad network marketing company, you need to choose one company and marry that company. [click to continue…]
It really angers me that some MLM companies have their entire legal ground covered without giving an inch to you, the hard working distributor who builds the company. There are very few companies that have policies that both protect the company are are fair to the distributor.
If an MLM company says in its policies and procedures that they can terminate you, for any reason, with or without cause, is there anything you can do if they decide to enforce that policy against you? Unfortunately for you, no. There is very little you can do if a company terminates for reasons that are totally unfair to you, because you agreed that they could do it when you signed your contract.
If they terminate you, can you take your downline with you? In most cases, no. The company gets to keep the downline that you worked hard to build with non-compete clauses saying you can’t talk to anybody about another business opportunity for 6 to 12 months. If you do, they can sue you, because again, you agreed to the policy.
So taking them to court for unfair dismissal would be a big waste of time and money. And some companies have themselves well covered there too. They are taking away your right to take them to court. They are just too clever for the unsuspecting distributor. That’s why you absolutely must know your rights before you sign up as distributor. [click to continue…]
It never ceases to amaze me that some network marketing companies distrust their distributors so much that they want to control aspects of a distributor’s life that have nothing to do with the company. They want control that is far beyond reasonable.
They want to control their distributors far more than any employer would control their employees. Controlling your actions is not enough. Some MLM companies even want to control the actions of your family. It’s truly amazing – companies actually want to control people who are not even in the business.
Not only that, some of them want to control your actions after you have left them too! They actually have policies that govern your interactions with other distributors after you leave. They want to suppress your right of free speech. My question is WHY?! Why would you want to work with a company can limit your rights in such a way? [click to continue…]
What’s your responsiblity as a network marketer? Our goal, long term residual income, is our reward for helping other people become financially independent. It’s the result of us developing leaders in our downline organisations who in turn, foster leaders in their own downline organisations.
Network marketing is a leadership driven business. As such, you can only succeed when you lead by example. You cannot make your downline members do anything, as they are not your employees – they are independent entrepreneurs of their own accord. You cannot motivate anybody. That has to come from within others themselves. But you can lead people by teaching other people how to play the game.
Your responsibility is to develop yourself into a leader and lead. Period. However, some MLM companies want you to be the babysitter. They don’t want to take on any responsibility in training their distributors or be accountable for their distributors’ actions so they put all of that responsibility on you. And if you don’t fully engage in your role as a babysitter, they can terminate you or steal your bonus check.
Again, the proof is in the policies and procedures. Many companies have the following clauses in their policies and procedures word verbatim. You’d think they all hired exactly the same lawyers to write their contracts. In fact, they do… [click to continue…]
You know, many network marketing companies, especially the old, large institutions all try to hook you with something like “the freedom of owning your own business.” Is this true? Do you really own your own business?
When you really delve into the opportunity and understand it, you’ll realise that you don’t own your own business at all. It again, comes down to the company’s policies and procedures – the legally binding contract between you, the distributor, and the company. These policies and procedures are living proof that you DO NOT own your own business.
If a network marketing company can terminate your distributorship for any reason, is that owning your own business? Of course not. If a network marketing company can choose not to renew your annual contract, is that owning your own company? Again, absolutely not.
So without further ado, let’s dig right into the “funky” termination and renewal clauses. Some of these are quite unbelievable… and entertaining… but it’s serious stuff! [click to continue…]
"I've been in MLM since 1972. I've written and published several MLM books that people have used to build a good income from home. I've read all the great books this industry has produced. And yet, I've never seen a book that has produced as many strong network marketing leaders as fast as 'Success In 10 Steps.' If you're serious about avoiding the pitfalls and creating a successful future in MLM. THIS is the book you need to read!" Tom "Big Al" Schreiter, MLM Trainer & Legend
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