Everyday more & more people are realizing the insecurity of working for someone else. Businesses are laying off workers, shutting down, & cutting back. With this realization comes the idea of starting your own business but should you go it alone or join some “business in a box” concept?
If you listen to the hundreds of junk mail solicitations & classified ads promising more money in one month than you make all year they will tell you to pick the “box” concept. However the problem is listening to those Multi-level Marketers (MLM) you believe that all you have to do is buy into their program, place a few ads, and buy their sales aids & the orders will roll in! All they sell you is the “dream”. If you do everything exactly as they say you will have some success if the product is a viable one. What most people do not realize are the risks involved and that is what we are going to try to spell out here.
Risk #1
Most MLM programs will let anyone with money in hand join the program. This opens up the whole entire MLM force to serious sabotage.
Say Joe signs up with XYZ company & invests his life savings & really gives it his all. Joe follows all the rules, buys company supplied sales aids, attends the monthly meetings, screens his recruits, etc.
At the same time Steve joins. Now Steve’s goals are not to build a nice secure, steady client base. He wants to get rich quick! He throws his own flyers together promising the world (false advertising) and starts “head-hunting” for new recruits. His head is filled with visions of the day he can kick back & collect his checks from the beach. He tries every dirty trick in the book to get people to join. He shows them false commission statements, outrageous projections of future income, etc. Soon word gets out around town that this business is a hoax. People have been taken by Steve & even the evening news features a story on how to avoid “Steve” & his scams.
Joe continues his honest campaign but nobody is answering his advertisements any more. People he approaches with his opportunity laugh in his face saying it’s a scam. “I heard about this scam on the evening news” they tell him. Regular consumers of the product are no longer interested & Joe is out of business!
Risk #2
Again Joe spends his life savings on his new business opportunity. He buys all the company approved sales aids, creates his business on all the concepts & promises of the company, etc.
Joe wakes up one morning to find that the “company” has changed it’s marketing plan. All new sales aid materials have been developed to promote this new & improved plan. And no, the old sales aids are not returnable Joe learns. Joe bites the bullet one more time investing even more money to keep his “dream” alive.
Joe wakes up another morning to find that the company has yet again changed it’s marketing plan. This time the entire product & concept of the company has changed. Joe’s not even sure where he fits into this new structure. “I joined as an associate” Joe remembers, “I don’t even see that category in this new plan”. Calls to the company go unanswered for a while & then he is informed he will have to buy a whole new sales kit. His is obsolete & again Joe is out of business.
RISK #3
Joe invests his life savings into a brand new business venture. It sounds superb & promises the world. “Get in at the bottom” they tell him, “before this takes off!” The company is great to work with. They are providing Joe with constant one-on-one training. Joe is quickly moving up & has over 50 people in his organization. Sales of the actual product are minimal right now but “that’s because it’s so new” Joe tells himself. “As soon as all 50 people in this organization are making the $500/month in sales the company says is the minimum I will be making thousands a month for doing nothing!” Joe waits patiently. . . . .
Joe wakes up one morning to find that 10 people quit his organization yesterday. “I thought I would be rich by now”, they say. Joe gets on the phone to do damage control & convince the rest of his staff to hang in there. “The company has a major advertising campaign underway that is bound to make sales pick up”, he tells them.
Another month or two passes & Joe is down to a few recruits. He has made a profit from all of the “dreams” he sold but doesn’t have the “retirement income” sales force he dreamed of. Joe tries to contact the company to see what he can do to pick up sales. They are out of business and so is Joe!
Those are just 3 examples of what can & does happen everyday in the MLM world. It’s not that Joe didn’t have the drive to run a successful business. Most failed MLM business owners do have the drive, that’s not the problem. The problem lies with putting all your hopes & dreams into someone else’s hands.
Why would you be so eger to quit your regular 9-5 job to go into business for yourself only to join a program sponsored by another company? Where is the security in that? If you want absolute & total security from one day waking up & being fired, laid off, or forced out of business then you must start your own business. Your own product, materials, & policies. You won’t wake up some morning to find that you are now selling tomatoes instead of oranges. You make the decisions & call the shots. If you decide to add or drop a product from your line it’s your decision. It’s the only true way to be in control & that’s what being in business for yourself is all about!
When you decide to take the first important step in getting your own business off the ground let LRS Marketing help you market it on the Internet. We can design, host & promote your website for you & let you tend to all of the other business details. We’re experienced & can help you every step of the way! Visit our website to learn more about what we can do for you as you plan your new business. Fill out our online Website Interview questionnaire to receive your FREE Website Consultation.
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*This article written by Lisa Schmeckpeper of LRS Marketing and published in their free newsletter, Website Success Monthly. To receive a free copy of this informative e-zine just send email to subscribe@lrsmarketing.com or visit their website at www.lrsmarketing.com. Copyright 2000 [LRS Marketing]. All rights reserved.
