Whenever I hear someone say “This is a business of duplication”, I cringe, because it reminds me so much of my early days as a struggling newbie.
In my first MLM company, what I and everybody else was taught to duplicate was…
- Make a list of friends and family
- Invite them to a business preview meeting
- Follow up and give them a CD and other business tools
- Hope they get really excited…
That was the “duplicable” system they had in this company (an MLM giant, mind you). It just didn’t duplicate too well for most people involved. [click to continue…]
What does it mean when a company does away with its play plan? It’s an absolute kick in the guts to the hard working reps who built the company from the ground up. All that hard work inviting people, talking to them on the phone, meeting people in cafes, restaurants and homes, doing presentations, the “no shows”, follow ups and coaching calls all of a sudden means nothing – a complete waste!
That’s what happened to the distributors of XELR8, makers of the Bazi nutrition beverage. Their company, a publicly traded company, just did away with their compensation plan. The three top distributors who had all reached the 250K Diamond level literally lost their livelihood over night and now they have to rebuild it all over again.
On January 19 2010, the chairman of XELR8, sent a letter all distributors telling them they are getting rid of their Multi-Level Marketing pay plan by the end of February 2010. Replacing the MLM compensation plan is a direct sales model where distributors earn a commission only from the retail sales of the product. [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…]
Efusjon, often spelt with a lower case ‘e’, launched in early 2009 with great hype and fanfare. The opportunity to make enormous amounts of money with efusjon was forcefully marketed on the social network, Facebook. Indeed, some members who used Facebook literally became efusjon extremists.
Well right now, efusjon is being sued in California for operating as an illegal pyramid scheme. The reason for that is the only way for distributors to make money in efusjon is to recruit people into the network.
See, a network marketing business model is sustainable because there is the constant movement of a quality product to the end consumer who’s happy to pay for it. A pyramid scheme is a non-sustainable business model that impoverishes 9 people for every 1 that gets rich.
This case demonstrates that just because a company has a tangible product and is using a multi-level marketing distribution channel to get it into the hands of consumers, it does NOT mean that the company is not running an illegal pyramid scheme. [click to continue…]
A few days ago, I had a conversation with a lady who reached a very significant pin level in one of the largest MLM companies. She is no longer with this company, but her story is one that’s not too uncommon within the MLM industry and should serve as a lesson to all of those who really want to live the MLM “Dream”.
From the outside she and her husband had what you could call “success”. They were always on stage, speaking and telling inspirational stories at company events. Every week they trained their downline on how to promote the business and its products.
What was missing?… The Money! [click to continue…]
