Network marketing is not easy. If it was, we would all be billionaires. Network marketing, like all businesses, requires hard work, dedication, and an investment of time and money.
The advantages of network marketing over traditional businesses is it’s low start up cost and its ability to produce continuous income. Most businesses require an investment of many thousands of dollars in inventory and equipment before you even open your doors. Even starting a lawn care business is more expensive because you have to buy the lawn mower, fuel, oil, and maybe a vehicle to carry it all in.
Because it is so inexpensive to get started in network marketing, network marketing tends to attract a lot of people who should not be in any kind of business. People who are looking to get rich quick, without investing the resources to make it work.
Statistics show that 95% of all business fail. This is true for the network marketing industry as well. Although the losses in network marketing are usually much smaller than in traditional businesses, I did not get involved with network marketing just so I could lose less money. I don’t think you did either.
With traditional businesses you often make a sale to a customer, and then have to advertise to bring in the next customer to make a purchase. With network marketing, your customers return month after month to make purchases without you having to invest additional funds into advertising.
With network marketing you are in business for yourself for less than a couple hundred dollars. But, being in business for yourself does not mean anything unless you can create profits for yourself. Marketing is the area of network marketing where you will spend your money and invest your time.
Initially, you will contact those people you already know. This is called your circle of influence. Almost all network marketing companies promote contacting your circle of influence as your first step. The reasons your circle of influence should be your first contact are very simple.
With your circle of influence, you do not have to spend any money in advertising to come up with the leads. You already have their contact information. By being people you know, or that know you, these people are more likely to listen to what you have to offer than strangers.
If you properly work your circle of influence you should be able to come up with a least a few recruits to begin providing you some form of income. This will motivate you to continue trying and not give up. Once you have exhausted your circle of influence, the real work, and expense, begins.
After exhausting your circle of influence, you will need to come up with some additional leads. You can do this a number of different ways. You can advertise for them, you can buy them, or you can collect them from your day-to-day activities.
Collecting leads from your day-to-day activities involves handing business cards or drop cards to everyone you meet, sending letters to people you meet, collecting names from others advertising alternative business opportunities, and asking friends for referrals.
Buying leads is simple. There are a number of companies on-line that offer leads, and some that offer mailing lists with phone numbers. To purchase a mailing list you will pay about ten cents to fifteen cents per name, address, and phone number. To purchase leads of opportunity seekers you will usually pay between one dollar and two dollars per lead. If you do not have on-line access, look in your phone book under “Mailing Lists.” In many cases, it is less expensive and much less time consuming to purchase your leads than to advertise for them.
Advertising for your leads is expensive. Success is based on trial and error. If you hit it right the first time, you could have more qualified leads than you can handle contact you from a very inexpensive advertisement. But, you probably won’t. The odds are that you will try a number of different ways of marketing and invest a fair amount of money before you find something that works.
Things you might want to consider include classified advertisements, magnetic signs for your vehicle, circulars to hand out, direct mail, telephone soliciting, cable television scroll ads, small radio station ads, magazine ads, and even television commercials. As you can see, advertising can get expensive.
Another way to grow your business is product sales. You can do this by setting up a booth in a local flea market or mall. You can also visit retailers who carry similar products and sell to them wholesale. For example, if you are selling weight loss products, you may wish to visit the exercise clubs in your area. If you are selling personal care products, a good prospect to call on would be the smaller, non-franchised, hair salons in your area.
A great number of people have done very well marketing their products and opportunities on-line with very little expense. Major on-line service providers such as America On-Line, Prodigy, Compuserve, and Microsoft Network are great places to develop relationships quickly. There are literally thousands of free or inexpensive places to advertise on the internet, and opportunity seekers abound. However, remember that the Internet has been compared to one huge commercial. So, people on-line are inundated with business opportunity offers. Due to their high exposure to offers, distributors obtained on-line are also more likely to give up and swap to a different opportunity before giving yours a reasonable chance.
The purpose of this article is not to discourage you. Rather it is to encourage you. It is intended to make sure your eyes are open and you know what is required to be a success in network marketing. I feel that if you know what is required going in, you are more likely to do what it takes to succeed.
Brande and Chris Bradford are active participants in a home based business opportunity and are the publishers of GREAT HEIGHTS, a monthly newsletter focused on home based business issues. To subscribe to their newsletter, send a blank e-mail to: Great-Heights-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com or visit: http://www.brandebradford.com
