Anyone Can Do This Business: My Struggles In Network Marketing

How many times have you heard the words, “Anyone can do this business.” Did you get excited at the sound of those words? Did your mind shift to the I can do this attitude? Or did you sit non-pulsed in your seat and think that statement is a lie. Not everyone can do this business: MLM. I have been in several MLM businesses from soap products, long distance and electricity providers, travel, fuel formulators and health and wellness. Take my word for it; none of them have been easy to do. No matter the product, the work to build a business is very difficult.

Multi Level Marketing is a business model where every participant builds his/her downline according to a given set of rules which are defined by each business. The ideal situation is when all participants duplicate, i.e. achieve the same maximum result as their sponsor and upline. Traditionally MLM trainers tell you the same thing: go and find two or three people and show them how to find two or three people and so on and so on. Hearing that for the first time will always sound simple and achievable. However, results of MLM businesses show: it’s not as simple as you think because the business has a 90 to 95% drop out rate within a 12 month period.

Yes, people go out and find two or three people…but will those people be able to do the same? For all intensive purposes they are capable of doing it, but can they or most importantly, will they do it? If results are not achieved within a given time frame, say within three months, the momentum one had at the start of their business dies and the whole venture will be at a standstill or possibly never develop. Networking is a matter of momentum: YOU MUST BUILD FAST.

Most people have trouble duplicating the success enjoyed by others. There is always the human tendency of doing it differently than what is suggested, being able to transition or step out of one’s comfort zone or better yet, being able to change their mindset from employee to entrepreneur or business owner.

When first joining a MLM or affiliate business the tendency is to do it your way because it fits your comfort zone or level interaction you want to share with another. Additionally, you may doubt the company if their method really works because you’re hot having any success out of doing it their way. So, let’s re-invent that wheel.

Quite a few people who are not the gregarious, social types join MLM businesses only to fail because of their lack of being able to give up their comfort zone in order to enjoy a life of financial freedom. Try as they might, they hang on to their comfort zone in hopes that their prospects will come to them out of need for their product. It has been my experience that prospects won’t be able to find you because they are not aware that you are in the business! In other words, you are a secret agent as the veteran MLMers like to jokingly say.

The mindset of an employee is one in which you rely on others do the big thinking and ensuring you have all the items you need to begin your day. Basically, all you have to do is show up for work, take your seat at your desk and then do the same mundane tasks you done for the last fifteen years. Collect that paycheck, pay your bills and then wish for more money. The mindset becomes, I have a job with a steady income. I can work my business anytime. At this point, the business becomes a hobby and really not very worthwhile as it was designed.

Instead of making things happen, one sits on the sidelines because that steady paycheck is coming in despite that it is not enough to cover all the bills or to allow you to live a life that you love and to be financially independent. You’ve taken the first step to change your life, all that is needed now is the same commitment to your business that you have for working your job.

I think to make it in MLM or Internet marketing, you need the following:

1. Posture. Posture is how others perceive you. Mindset is how you perceive yourself. If you would carry yourself with confidence and courage you come across to others as that leader you envision yourself to be. Basically, it’s all about attitude.

2. Training. Always attend training sessions. Successful leaders train their downline in how to work the business and be successful at it. Normally, members obtain written instructions or for a few minutes someone within the business may explain how they make a sale or introduce a prospect to the business. Leaders should say goodbye to the large cheerleading rallies given during the week and on weekends. Work one-on-one or in smaller groups to develop the leaders within your downline. The effects would be enormous and not to mention rewarding.

3. Importance of the sponsor. The sponsor is a very important piece of the pie. Your sponsor can either make or break you. You have some sponsors that after they get their bonus for signing you up leave you flailing in the wind or do to the fact they don’t know enough about the business to be of help to anyone. Then there are those sponsors who take their responsibility serious. These sponsors work with you and show you the steps to success and don’t leave your side until you’re profitable and able to show your team members how to do the same. Additionally, if they are not knowledgeable of the business they can point you to someone who is, they take your desire to be financially independent as serious as their own.

4. Be focused. This not only means being focused on your business, but also having tenacity. You don’t MLM hop because the business is not working for you, take time to see what you are not doing to make your business work. Most times, it is the business owner and not necessarily the business that fails. I think the most important piece of advice to pass on is to be persistent and don’t give up on yourself. Keep your goals in sight as far as what you want for yourself and your family.

5. Develop a sense of urgency. This is defined as an urgent situation calling for prompt action. No one explained this concept to me, they just kept repeating it and for me it kept meaning nothing.

Because of my employee mindset, I took my time developing a downline. I was approaching the magic number to advance within my company. However, that employee mindset held me back because I felt I had all the time in the world to build my business. I mean, c’mon I was receiving a salary every two weeks. Instead of advancing within my business, I began going backwards, in other words I was slow to action and my downline quit on me.

When you recognize momentum is occurring in your business, the idea is to maintain it and not take the lackadaisical approach to working your business. I think a sense of urgency can be summed up as a focused approach to working your business at a pace of dogged persistence, determination with pressing necessity and imperativeness and most importantly with self-assuredness and trusting in yourself.

Personally, I really think most people can do MLM and Internet marketing and be successful at it. Sometimes, people are their own worse enemies; they are stuck in their comfort zone and guilty of the employee mindset. That job has us fooled that it is our stability without much room for anything else. If we remain inactive (playing the game from the sidelines) we are destined to remain part of the 9 to 5er population if we do not take action and get in the game.

Anyone can do this business. However, one should take into consideration that when they fail and point the finger at the company, their sponsor or upline, they don’t realize there are three fingers pointing back at them.

Janice Willingham is an experienced network marketer who is [art of the MLM 95%. Several sources on the Internet can increase your success at network marketing. To learn more visit the following websites: No pressure or hyped up claims… just real information you can use.

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The Age Old Question: Is This One Of Those Pyramid Things?

How many times have network marketers heard this question? Most people are unaware of the differences between a true pyramid and the popular belief that anything that appears to multi-level marketing is actually a Ponzi or pyramid scheme. Basically, most people assume any business that promotes recruiting others and in doing so the person is compensated is usually seen as a pyramid scheme. A legitimate network marketing or multi-level marketing (MLM) pyramid has the distinction of being a business that involves a product, compensation for the use of the product and commissions for building a team of distributors.

A pyramid is an organizational structure in the shape of a pyramid which shows where the people at the top make more money than those at the bottom. Basically, this definition describes every business in the world which includes the church and the armed forces for example. The problem with the company concept as we understand it, is that the CEO or owner of the company makes the most money from the efforts of each employee in the company. However, the kicker is that the employees do not have the same opportunity to earn as much or more than the CEO. Thus, the top of the pyramid consists of the people who are paid the most, whereas the bottom of the pyramid consists of those who are paid a set wage in exchange for their time.

In Network Marketing, one builds an income from the production of everyone in their organization. It’s a team concept with the sponsor and sometimes the upline act as coach. When everyone works together, it’s like a sports team that wins when they effectively play together as one, but where everyone benefits. One builds an income from the efforts of everyone in their organization or team whether you sponsor your team members personally or not.

Each person in the network marketing organization can do the same as their sponsor (CEO in a conventional business), but in this example, the recruit can make the same or more money than their sponsor or upline based on their own efforts and the work from their team members who happen to be part of their organization. This creates a situation where everyone has the same opportunity to make a lot of money. Network marketing is a fair and honest system because people are compensated on their efforts and not their ranking within an organization.

Ponzi or Pyramid schemes come in many forms that at times are difficult to recognize from the legitimate network marketing model. In some cases the pyramid scheme attempts to imitate network marketing in that distributors are compensated on a multilevel structure to market the business opportunity to prospects. However, the difference is that pyramids focus primarily on recruiting new distributors, not on selling products or services. In fact, in most cases there usually is no product or service. Some schemes purport having a product or service, but they simply use this to hide their pyramid structure.

The most obvious way to discover a Ponzi or pyramid schemes is to study the purpose of recruiting others into the business. If the focus is solely on recruiting for the collection of fees, get rich quick promises with no product or service in sight and most importantly, the sponsor of these people is not compensated for their recruitment efforts…then you have a true Ponzi or pyramid scheme. In the typical Ponzi scheme, no real business opportunity exists. The owner uses the money collected from new recruits to pay members already in the program. The expression robbing Peter to pay Paul sums up the intent of the Ponzi or pyramid scheme.

There are two ways to determine if a product or service is being used to disguise a pyramid scheme: First, when distributors have to buy products that cannot be reasonably sold. Secondly, if the company lacks retail sales because the only people buying the product are the distributors and maybe a few of their friends and family members.

Network marketing works. The foundation of a MLM business model is that the investor share their products and services within the marketplace and the business opportunity with others. This is not only being down with one on one contacts, but through the Internet, conference calling and online business overviews to name a few in an effort to spread the network to more people instead of the business owners circle of influence.
Network marketing or MLM is a legitimate business model. It is a proven system that works where distributors provide products and services at competitive prices in the marketplace, bring others into their organization and teach them how to create wealth for themselves and those they bring into their organization. In other words, a network marketer can be successful if they can effectively duplicate themselves.

Janice Willingham is an experienced network marketer who is part of the MLM 95%.

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Failure Is An Option In Network Marketing

People fail in network marketing for a number of reasons. Sometimes, it is not the program, but the person. Most of the articles involving network marketing focus on the failures in network marketing with the business and not the participant. People that get involved in network marketing are looking to make big money for a small investment quickly. In network marketing, that is not the case. Working a network marketing business can be very difficult, but that is something anyone investing in these types of businesses should know up front before they get started. Most people are just not up to the challenge. People fail in network marketing not because of the product, compensation plan, but sometimes themselves.

People fail in network marketing, in my opinion for the following reasons: They are totally blown away by the business presentation given by one of the network marketing millionaires. Most people are looking for financial success without breaking the bank. Network marketing has been touted to be the easiest way to do this. However, most meetings and business presentations are like a pep rally. They get you pumped up and the prospect lives the meeting feeling that, “Anyone can do this business and be successful.” This is not the case. People shouldn’t focus so much on the hype, but the probability of whether they could actually work the business and see a profit. So, instead of the blame of not succeeding being placed on the meeting facilitator it’s all about the prospect and whether they are prepared for network marketing.

When instant success doesn’t come, the recruit begins to blame the company, the product, the marketing plan, lack of support from their upline and sponsor. Sometimes the sponsor and upline are lax in training their new recruits, but anyone that wants to succeed will find someone else within the business that is successful and latch onto them. Where there is a will, there is a way. The new recruit needs to understand, once they invest in a business money exchanges hands and sometimes depending on their sponsor and upline that is the goal. Unfortunately, some upline and sponsors do not realize it would be more beneficial for them to slow down and train their downline how to be successful instead of only looking for the quick fix of adding to their downline and collecting the bonus off of the new recruit.

No commitment to the business which means working the business on a consistent basis. Most network marketers do not put forth the effort necessary to succeed. However, the new network marketer should not have to shoulder sole responsibility. Sometimes, the sponsors is also at fault because they do not have the experience, understand the business and are unable to coach the new recruit on how to be successful in the business. The recruit is basically left flailing in the wind. What happens with most people is that apathy begins to creep in and at that point the business that they were so excited about starting begins to suffer.

Another reason for failure that goes hand in hand with no commitment is the network marketer’s mindset. For example, if the recruit invests in a business and still has a job, the job is the focus. It is very difficult to change the mindset of a recruit if their main focus is their paycheck. Let’s look at this, for years one has worked in a system where their time is exchanged for money. Their paycheck is a constant; they show up for work, the paycheck is there. The recruit’s network marketing business in their mind it is not really a sure thing. A recruit doesn’t miss income they’ve never had from the start. So, their business remains stagnate until the recruit basically gets around to working their business. So, not only is there a problem with commitment, but also changing one’s mindset when it comes to being in business for you.

Most new recruits are impatient. The expectation is that they make a profit from the business immediately. When it doesn’t come, they become apathetic not wanting to put forth the time and effort into their business to make money. Once the recruit becomes apathetic, they become resigned which leads to them quitting the business within 90 to 180 days after their involvement. Some call on their sponsors who themselves may be in the same boat or do not have a working knowledge of network marketing and what it entails to be successful. Usually, the upline is very difficult to talk to because they are busy building their own businesses.

One of the most serious reasons people fail in network marketing is being rejected by friends and family. Their circle of influence becomes small and they may begin to avoid the recruit because they don’t want to hear about the latest and greatest network marketing business. Rejection from friends and family members can easily set the tone and convince the new recruit that maybe this is not the business for them. They drop out for lack of support from those closest to them.

Last, but not least the recruit that practices company jumping. The recruit jumps from company to company looking for the quick financial fix. They don’t understand that network marketing if you don’t have the support of family or friends where they are not willing to be a part of your business that you have to pursue other avenues which will take time. Most people, blinded by the get rich quick soul stirring speeches during business meetings are not open to working a business long enough to realize the fruits of their efforts. So, they jump companies in an effort to continue chasing the belief of the easy profit and success.

No pressure or hyped up claims… just real information you can use.

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http://www.u2canhavesuccess.com//hotmlmproducts.htm