Network Marketing

[brendogs]

Hi,

I have been doing some intense due diligence on my property investing and have gotten to the point where my head is close to imploding on the amount of information in which I have consumed over the past 8-12 months, I have no problem with this I am just preparing myself for when I am ready to pull the trigger I will make a far more intelligent decision than I would of 8 months ago!

Anyway, as the topic states "Network Marketing" this is something that has been pushed forward to me from a not so close friend, but a friend nevertheless. He is currently operating a business under the Amway Network Marketing scheme, one which has been around for quite a while. I had heard of Network Marketing through Robert Kiyosaki and Donald Trump but never really looked into it. Following the trend of my intense property investing due diligence I pretty much went into overdrive with looking into the Network Marketing side of business as a secondary cash flow idea.

What I would like to ask is anyone else out there in the forums who is currently running a Network Marketing business and would like to share some knowledge with me, also maybe a few devil's advocate counter arguments. I do know that a lot of people believe it to be a pyramid scheme but it can't be considering these companies are registered businesses across Australia and the World, so please keep the pyramid comments aside and work on the facts here.

I'm really interested to here about peoples experiences with these organisations! Good or Bad!

Regards Brendon

 

[Propertunity]

Hi brendon,

If you do a google search on: site:somersoft.com "amway" you'll get 400+ threads to have a read of on just this topic

 

[brendogs]

And there's my Aha! moment

 

[Aaron_C]

We've all had our friends who've tried to do the whole Amway/Usana/other Pyrami-oops-I mean multi-level-marketing thing. Stay away.

 

[Rolf Latham]

Hi Bren

As with many things, speak first and foremost that have been successful with what it it that you are looking into...............

In all life things there are those that have not succeeded, or not tried, that will tell you the earth is flat. They, and their tools of spreading that news, are to be treated with appropriate caution. Not to be discarded, just to be treated with the appropriate measure of their success in X or other areas of life.

If you are into IP, dont take ONLY the advice of the doomsayers, those that have lost money, and those that have never walked the path. Spend time with those that have made it work, and have evidence of same.

If you are into shares, dont only ask a bunch of IP investors about shares, you will possible get an answer thats less than useful to even start in share investing.

I am blessed that I have association to a large group of people that have exposure to all and sundry businesses and investments, inc MLM.

I am fortunate enough to personally know folks that have made a nice business ( and helped thousands of others do the same) from many forms of MLM including Amway with various support platforms, as I know people in SOC, Neways, Usana, Mannatech, isogenix, malelueca, young living oil, etc etc


Continue your own discovery..........you may be surprised that the teaching systems of many MLM companies will equip you for other things in your life.

The scary thing with MLM for many is that the focussed, "uneducated" and hard working "close to broke" person with a real desire can show up the MBA or business owner , who has power, money and position to theoretically outperform all others but can not "unlearn" and "fails" when brought back to the same level as all starters in a new biz.

What if ?

And remember to not get in the way of those that are doing what we say cant be done

ta
rolf

 

[lizzie]

Personally I am not a fan of Amway - mainly because it has a bad rap stigma in Australia ... however ... I have a friend who does very very nicely out of Mary Kay cosmetics (which surprised me - but I'm not a makeup girl).

However, to be successful it appears you have to be at the top of your own personal tree. She works really hard, but also has a team of reps that work under her so she gets some kickback from their sales too.

Her job is defaintely NOT part time.

 

[StefanA]

also maybe a few devil's advocate counter arguments.

Brendon, ask yourself

- if you needed a heart transplant, which heart surgeon do you think would provide the better outcome? one who markets himself several hours a month via Amway and has Amway member testimonials, or one who doesn't market himself via Amway and has an equal number of non Amway member testimonials?

- do you think there would be an advantage to buying PBS pharmaceuticals via MLM?

- which product endorsement would you trust more? an Amway endorsement of a product it markets, or a best of class review by Choice magazine?

- why aren't fresh fruit and veges marketed by Amway?

The point of the questions? -> Is MLM success in large part due to members' perception of better value, when they don't have the knowledge or education to objectively determine value for a large range of products deliberately selected by MLM companies.

I am not against MLM carte blanche, and in fact think it would be a great antidote to Australia's current Coles/Woolies duopoly and their concentration of wealth into the hands of a few senior executives, and the distribution of ever lower quality third world home brands to us poor consumers. Though who's to say if MLM business models are not having the same effect?

Would I buy from a MLM business? Well, in my view I do all the time. This year I've spent over $3000 with offshore online stores. I read the "word of mouth" product reviews left by knowledgeable users from all over the world, and the experience of others on a "network" of independent enthusiast forums, and that empowers me to trust the products and the online store. The advantage of shopping this way is I pay less compensation to fewer MLM 'levels'.

And isn't the mark of a great MLM company to reduce the number of levels requiring compensation, to the benefit of the end user?

 

[Perp]

i do know that a lot of people believe it to be a pyramid scheme but it can't be considering these companies are registered businesses across australia and the world

hahahahahahahahahaha

 

[Aaron_C]

The definition of pyramid scheme was found in the Trade Practices Act and was defined as a scheme where a fee was paid just for the referral of other people, without any actual goods or services changing hands.

In many ways Amway et al meet that definition but they distinguish it because they are running a 'business'. Problem with these MLM schemes is that you start at the bottom of the food chain...and the prices of the products they sell are so expensive because of all the commission that has to be paid to the 1000s of people who are involved. Out of curiosity, I checked Amway's website (to compare prices) and it's far beyond what Coles/Woolworths charge for equivalent products. Who's going to buy it?

I'm not going to be politically correct here and say 'it all depends blah blah'. It is a waste of your time and money, and you are better of thinking of better things to do.

 

[Deltaberry]

Last time some broker tricked me in to going to one of these things. Never responded to calls from him any more.

 

[Melbournian]

my aunt is heavily in usana. last time we went for dinner - had a 2.5 hour lecture on how great usana was.

didn't even manage to finish my meal.

 

[wylie]

For me, personally, I don't like the way a couple of times in my past people starting out in (for example) Amway try to recruit friends, kindy parents, school parents... anybody really. I have been on the receiving end of it and unfortunately, they get a "name" for being a bit pushy and people tend to avoid them.

I also dislike the way the actual company name wasn't mentioned until we agreed to both sit down at a table and get the full spiel. This couple tried to get us interested in the company, but I was turned off completely when they wouldn't tell us why they were coming over to sit down with us and run through the business. We had already guessed, but let them come over. They had lost us before they even started due to the secrecy.

I know a couple who (I believe) are quite successful at this. They also are very secretive and never discuss the business. I believe it is because they are very aware of keeping business and school parents completely separate.

Perhaps that is the secret. Don't mix business with pleasure, especially when you are wanting to sell something or recruit someone to make money for you.

 

[Aaron_C]

I was conned to go to a few of those sessions last time. They kept telling me it was a 'business' with the potential to make big $$$. Of course they never mentioned the name because as soon as you found out, you wouldn't bother going!

 

[pennyk]

We have tried various MLM over the years. Our most successful was GNLD (vitamins).

Some of them (network21) just seem to be selling the "concept", but not actually selling anything tangible. I really disliked the attitude and focus of Network 21. I had had enough MLM at that stage, and my husband signed up to them, but I didnt. It put a significant strain on our relationship. I just hated listening to him ringing around trying to find people to "share the story" with.. it was soul destroying. He is so not a sales person, and there seemed to be so much pressure on him to sign people up. Unless you are confident in putting yourself out there, and getting rejected time and time again, (ie you can manage sales) MLM is not something you should get into.

In terms of maintaining relationships with friends, its much easier to be selling tangible products. Then you can invite people up front to something and its less about getting them then to sign up to sell themselves than it is providing a product/service that they might find useful. People will end up signing up to get product discounts etc, and a few of them will then also end up selling... at least you dont need to be secretive!

But all MLM that we did demanded a great deal of time and energy, and unless you get in early in the process, I think its difficult to make money. It is also very very easy to spend a great deal of your own money on all the products/ marketing/ education materials.

For me, the effort was never really rewarded. Someone is making alot of money in these companies....... but for the most part, its not the people out there selling!

 

[Deltaberry]

Some people sell to their friends in a very obtrusive way.

Eg this person my mum knows never calls her out except when she wants to market these pyramid scheme products to my mum and ask her to join in and market it to her friends.

 

[Lamingtons]

Not MLM but the referral business network meetings. Hubby was asked to join as they needed someone in his industry for the area. There can only be one person in that region from each industry. He get to go to 2 meetings for free and then you had to pay up. The fees were $1,200 a year or something in that region (i have forgotten) and they kept saying oh we gave away $30,000 worth of work to someone else in another region as we had nobody in ours. He did not go back to attend but you stand up and gave a spiel about yourself at these meets. I said that is fine you can join but what happens to the $1,200 or thereabouts that they collect from each person? There would be at least 20 of them there right? He could not tell me.

By coincidence, someone else asked me to see if hubby was interested in something as above. She said omg we gave away $15,000 worth of work to someone else. Exact same thing. I said erm do you know person x from business y? He told my husband to attend the meet, you were probably there. And I asked her again, so exactly what happens to the money? She did not answer me but said oh we desperately need someone like him. But i kept asking about the money and she just did not respond.

I went back and told him about it. He said he cannot fit anyone else into his schedule to recoup that money spent on membership anyway. And he don't understand how they are quoting $15K-30K jobs that they gave away. Then he told me at each meeting that you have to attend, it costs $10 each for room hire. What? They meet at a cafe before business hours?!

This would work for someone else whose business leads genuinely generate that much money but not his small business. I still don't understand where all the money goes and what about the $10 each week they have to pay?

 

[Tom84]

It's definitely a viable business model, But not for everyone.. and I feel the industry has been burn't to much in Australia.

You will also see in Wall Street Journal all the major MLM's topping the charts for growth http://www.slideshare.net/mdnc100/w...-news-2011-the-ultimate-social-business-model

I've been making money with USANA which was recently tipped by Forbes as the best stock to invest in http://www.forbes.com/sites/investor/2011/12/07/whats-the-best-sector-buffett-walmart-unilever-coke/

However I run a recruitment agency so my skill set is more towards MLM for your average person without networks or online marketing experience I think it would be very difficult.

If you're going to get involved be prepared to sacrifice a lot of time for the return on investment and get involved with a company where you really need / want the products.

A good idea is to also recruit people from emerging markets I do a lot from my website http://onlinereview.usana.com to attract people from Philippines where the upper-middle class population is almost the whole size of our country so a lot of room for growth - people tend to overlook countries that are not classed as fortunate as our own but that is where you will find the most hungry and hardworking.

It's difficult to attract people locally with high influence due to stigma attached but overseas it's common to recruit successful business owners, professors and senior managers. The alternative is to wait for your investments to grow or expand traditional business/seek promotions at work, why not a combination of all the above?

If not for anything I would recommend MLM for the skills you will learn that can be transferred into traditional business if you go down that path.

 

[Aaron_C]

If not for anything I would recommend MLM for the skills you will learn that can be transferred into traditional business if you go down that path.

The skills of being an annoying pain in the *** so no one wants to deal with you? That's not how you do business...

 

[Tom84]

Marketing, Advertising, Building Rapport and Sales, most MLM's will encourage their associates to read books such as Dale Carnegie, Napoleon Hill the classics that studied the most successful people of the past and present and teaches you how to imitate it.

When I got into MLM at 20yrs old at a 30kpa Clerk salary (Even though the MLM didn't work out for me) My sponsor who held an MBA got me into self-development and taught me how he built his 500k pa business.. Within a few years I took everything he taught me and was making 150k a year (Even though it wasn't MLM producing that income it was from what I had learnt in the business that gave me the skills to land a better job and entrepreneurial spirit to move up quickly) so whilst I was living the good life and my friends were still studying at Uni or in dead end jobs I had already bought my first property. I am absolutely certain that if I didn't get into MLM I would still be living in housing commission struggling to get into the property market and on a low unskilled salary.

I understand how people have bad experience with it and were pestered by friends/relatives but we were never taught to build the business that way which is why I re-joined many years later. My experience was great! So everyone should be allowed the opportunity to explore their options and not judge off the sour grapes of past peoples experiences. Everyone isn't the same and everything can evolve over time.. I will admit though a lot of people take it overboard to almost a cult mentality ...peoples beliefs are a touchy subject >.<

 

[Rolf Latham]

When I got into MLM at 20yrs old at a 30kpa Clerk salary (Even though the MLM didn't work out for me) My sponsor who held an MBA got me into self-development and taught me how he built his 500k pa business.. Within a few years I took everything he taught me and was making 150k a year (Even though it wasn't MLM producing that income it was from what I had learnt in the business that gave me the skills to land a better job and entrepreneurial spirit to move up quickly) so whilst I was living the good life and my friends were still studying at Uni or in dead end jobs I had already bought my first property. I am absolutely certain that if I didn't get into MLM I would still be living in housing commission struggling to get into the property market and on a low unskilled salary.

Hi Tom

This is exactly why I say to people on all facets of such things and not just MLM, do your own research...................you dont know what you dont know.

Where we run into trouble is where we take advice from people that We think they might know, but in reality they dont know, that they dont know.

Your story is actually not uncommon.

Imagine if some well meaning person had talked you out of your journey because of what they assessed to be "fact" but was actually based on "false judgement".

An example is, if I wanted to become an MPA 100 ( or better) broker from scratch, I would spend time with folks that have achieved to that level. I would not spend a whole lot of time with the one deal a month rebate broker around the corner..............or the "tried that" didnt work for me 1000s of ex brokers.


Do we take a survey amongst our friends and relos when you get married ? Maybe we should



ta
rolf