Sunday, October 4, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Is Network Marketing Just a Scam?
One of people’s major worries with joining a MLM company is that it will be a scam. We have all heard about network marketing companies that may have seemed legitimate, but in fact turned out to be a scam. People invested hundreds or thousands of dollars in what they thought was a legitimate business and the business turned out to be a scam causing them to lose all their money. Rather than helping their financial situation which was the reason for joining the company in the first place, they ended up losing what little money they did have.
Network marketing itself, is a legitimate business. It is based on providing people with real, legitimate products or services that they need and want at a fair price. It is NOT about taking advantage of a person’s friends and family. Unfortunately, while network marketing is a legitimate business, many pyramid schemes try to present themselves as legitimate MLM businesses.
One major difference between legitimate MLM businesses and pyramid schemes is that in a pyramid scheme there is either no sale of product or services, or the value of the product or service that is sold does not justify its price. The sale of the product or service is merely a disguise to portray the company as legal. If participants in the company are paid primarily from money received from new recruits, or if they are required to buy more product than they are likely able to sell, than the company may be a pyramid scheme. In a pyramid scheme new salespeople may be asked to pay for their own training and marketing materials, or to buy a significant amount of inventory. For a company to be legitimate the majority of commissions should come from products or services sold to customers, these customers should not be participants in the business. The main emphasis in a pyramid scheme is the recruitment of new associates. The result of this is that there is only a one-way flow of wealth, from bottom to top; there is no corresponding value flow from top to bottom. As a result, only the people on the top of the pyramid make the most money; the people on the bottom struggle to break even.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Network Marketing: What is it?
With the economy being what it is, many people are finding themselves looking at other ways to make money. Many are turning to network marketing either as a way to supplement their current income or replace it. Maybe they have been laid-off or their hours have been cut back due to the financial struggles of the company they work for. Maybe they have to work long hours or more than one job just to provide for their family. Network marketing can provide a solution to their financial struggles. It can offer freedom – financial freedom; freedom to leave the job where they are underpaid, underappreciated, and unsatisfied; freedom to spend time with their family or doing what they love most. But what exactly is network marketing?
Network marketing, more commonly referred to as Multi-level marketing (MLM), is a type of marketing structure. It is designed to create a marketing and sales force by compensating people who promote the company products not only for sales they personally generate, but also for the sales of other people that they introduce to the company. By introducing people to the company, they create a downline of distributors and a hierarchy of multiple levels of compensation, thus the name multi-level marketing. The products and company are marketed directly to consumers and potential business partners through relationship referrals and word of mouth marketing. All of us promote businesses through relationship referrals and word of mouth marketing every day. The only difference is that we don’t get paid for doing so. For example when a person goes to a restaurant and they have a good meal, they tell their friends about it; their friends then go to the restaurant. This is relationship referrals and word of mouth marketing. By promoting the business and products in this manner, the company does not have to pay for advertising such as TV, radio, or newspaper ads, which can be quite expensive. Instead, money that would otherwise have to go to pay for advertisement of the product can be given directly back to the people in the company.
The majority of multi-level marketing companies are made of independent, unsalaried salespeople, which are referred to as distributors or associates. They represent the company that produces the products or provides the services they sell. They are awarded a commission based upon the volume of product sold through their own sales efforts as well as that of those they recruit. Independent distributors develop their business by either building an active customer base, who buy direct from the company, or by recruiting other independent distributors who also build a customer base. Distributors also earn a profit by retailing products that they purchased from a company at wholesale price. Wholesale price is the price at which an individual or company buys a product from a manufacturer. Retail price is the price at which the individual or company then sells the product to customers. The difference between the wholesale price and retail price is equal to the amount of profit that is made.
Network marketing is all about leverage. A person can leverage their time and increase the number of hours of work effort on which they can be paid by sponsoring other people and earning a small income on their efforts. The basis behind the idea of leverage is that a person makes 1 percent on the efforts of 100 people rather than 100 percent of their own efforts. Most network marketers work a few dedicated hours each work. They sponsor other people and teach those people how to sell the company product and sponsor others. This process is duplicated by those they sponsor. A person leverages their time by helping others be successful and earn an income from their efforts. As this process continues, compounded growth is created and can lead to hundreds or even thousands of people coming into the business.
Network marketing is a legitimate business. It is based on providing people with real, legitimate products they need and want at a fair price, but it is not a get-rich-quick scheme. For many, network marketing can be the solution to financial struggles. It can allow a person to obtain their dreams and goals, which previously seemed unattainable; however, the financial benefit is dependent upon a person’s dedicated efforts to build their business.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Successful People
The important thing is not that we can live on hope alone, but that life is not worth living without it. - Harvey Milk
Act on your own initiative, but be prepared to assume full responsibility for your acts.
One of the primary differences between those who achieve greatness in their lives and those who manage only to "get by" is that successful people learned early in life that they were responsible for their own actions.
No other person can make you successful or keep you from achieving your goals.
Taking the initiative means assuming a leadership role, a position that singles you out for praise-and for criticism.
The good leader is the one who shares the credit for success with others and assumes full responsibility for failures or temporary setbacks.
When you accept responsibility for your actions, you gain the respect of others and are well on the way to creating your own future.
10 of the most important two letter words – EVER ! “ If it is to be, it is up to me !”
Make this a Positive Day...unless you've made other plans!
What is Your Dream?
All of us start out in life with a dream. Maybe as a kid you wanted to be a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher, a CEO, a firefighter, a nurse, an astronaut ect. Whatever it was, you had a dream. You knew you would be great one day, that you would change the world, bedazzle it with your excellence.
However, as we get older, the reality of life sets in. For some of us, we're lucky enough for this reality not to set in until we're 18 and legally adults. For all too many of us, this reality hits at a young age, obliterating our innocence of the world. At 18, many of us go on to college. Or even if we don't, we move out on our own, have our own bills to pay, face the challenge of getting and keeping a job, finding the necessary means to make money to support ourselves.
As we grow even older into adulthood, we may become parents, have families. For the majority of Americans, we wake up extremely early. We all know that the alarm goes off far too early and we beg for 5 more minutes of precious sleep before starting the day. If we have children, we rush to get them ready - off to school, off to a babysitters, off to daycare. We rush in traffic to get to work. And we work, and we work, and we work some more. We rush, rush, rush, barely having time to stop and think. That 40 hour work week somehow turns into 50, 60, even 80+ hours. At the end of the day, exhausted and spent, we rush home to our family, put food on the table, and try to spend a few valuable moments with our family before it's off to bed. Years with our children fly by. Our spouse may work one shift and us another. Even if we do work the same shift, it may seem as if we never see each other, always working, off in two different direction to get needs met. Time together is a thing of the past, never mind a romantic dinner. We are under appreciated, underpaid, and plain exhausted from the rigors of the work week. Even with working so many hours, we barely make ends meet. We are left wishing and asking for more. Where will the money for the mortgage come from? What about the new pair of shoes that Johnathan needs, he's grown out of everything he owns? The car needs fixing, it can barely run? It takes a toll on us emotionally, physically, spiritually. We are left wanting, wanting for more. We may miss out on key events in our child's lives - a play that we miss because we can't rearrange a meeting our get time off from work. We try to balance it all, meet the needs of everyone and yet to do that we would have to be superman. But we are not superman, we are only human.
At those times, it seems as if those dreams, those dreams of our childhood, are but a dream themselves. We ask ourselves, how could we have been so naive? We wish for those days back, those days that we see in our child's eyes, days of wonder and possibility, when everything seemed possible.
But what if we could have those dreams back? What if we could find a job that not only met our needs financially, but in fact made things we didn't think possible, possible. What if we could afford that sports camp for Johnathan, or science camp for Suzie. What if we could send Charlie to the special school that he needs, or pay for Sara's braces. What if we didn't have to worry about our kids getting sick because we didn't know how we could afford the doctor or the medicine. What if we could pay off our house, our debt, save money to put away for our children to go to college. What if we could take that family vacation that we have been meaning to take since the children were little, take time and enjoy the little nuances of our child's' lives, things that too often are taken for granted. What if we could find a job in which we were appreciated and loved, a job in which getting up and going to work was exciting and something we looked forward to rather than dreaded. What if... What if...
Too often as adults we give up our dreams. We dare to hope, we dare to dream, we fear being hurt and having our dreams be crushed. But I am here to say that dreams are possible. Do NOT give up your dreams. Do NOT give up your hopes. They ARE still possible. The opportunities are out there. Often they come in the most unexpected of ways.
Do not let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.
So I say to you, Dare to dream. Dare to make your dreams come true. Dreams do come true and they are possible.
One well-loved and very important person in my life once said to me, "Reach for the stars, and maybe you'll land on the moon." We all have the potential to land on the moon. Find that dream within you, the one that you had as a child, reach for it. But whatever you do, DON'T STOP DREAMING!!!
