In part 1 of MLM Due Diligence, we set the criteria for assessing a company from the outside. If a company fails on any of those tests, it’s best to leave it and move on. Now we really get into the meat and potatoes…
First of all, why is it so important to pick a good company to build with?
Simple. The reason why Warren Buffett is so wealthy is because he is very, very careful with his investment decisions.
Only when he is absolutely confident that a company will continue to grow and be profitable long into the future, will he put his money into it.
I heard that of the thousands of potential investments he studies every year, he is happy to make just ONE good investment decision. That’s just amazing! [click to continue…]
If you want to build a solid network marketing business that will pay you a lifetime of income and that you can pass on to the next generation, you must choose a good network marketing company.
In my opinion, the company you choose to build with will account for as much as 40% of your long term success. The other 60% comes from YOU.
There are big, brash leaders in network marketing who will tell you that your success is all up to you. It’s all your fault if you’re not successful. “If it is to be, it is up to me!”
That’s a half-truth.
Sure, you can become the most highly developed individual, have a super positive mental attitude, have a magnetic personality and still end up in an illegal pyramid scheme that gets shut down by the Federal Government, and gets you sent to jail.
The company you choose WILL have a major bearing on your long term success. You must choose wisely. [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…]
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…]
The relationship you have with your MLM company should be one of mutual respect and support, right? After all, you can’t be successful without your company and they can’t be successful without you. On that basis you would expect your company to trust you to promote them ethically and you would trust them to provide you with the best products and marketing plan.
Some companies just don’t trust you. You can tell by the length of their policies and procedures that they don’t. The longer it is, the less they trust you and the less freedom you have as a distributor. It’s so ironic that this industry is all about freedom, yet some MLM policies and procedures are way more restrictive than employment contracts – beyond what you can imagine.
A fair network marketing company should have policies and procedures that are up to 10 to 15 pages long, according to Rod Cook of MLM Watchdog. Any longer than that and I would the question the motives of the company. I used to think that all MLM company policies and procedures were the same – just some legal flotsam where you would tick “I accept” when downloading some free software, but they’re not… [click to continue…]
