The New Year is fast approaching. It is one of my favorite times of the year. A time where we all get to wipe the slate clean and start fresh. I’ve learned from experience to keep my New Year’s goals simple and achievable. Foremost for my mlm and network marketing business is to have a rational mix between my action and learning plans.
Taking action is paramount to success in any business, but you really need to have time to learn and evaluate. Most mentors suggest a ratio of 90-10. But I think a start-up in the industry needs a bit more learning time. So I recommend 70-30 for the first few months and a shift to the 90-10 as you gain experience.
Setting up effectively on your social media sites is crucial for your new business. But a word of warning: be careful not to get so immersed in these sites that you don’t leave time for critical marketing and other efforts. I limit myself to no more than an hour in the morning and another hour later in the day to make sure I stay in touch with my followers and friends. Now to some specifics:
I really didn’t see the value of Twitter at first. The 140 character limitation to my tweets and the text of other peoples tweets impressed me as pretty dumb and useless. I was wrong.
Why Twitter? It’s your billboard. It’s quick and easy to join and build, and you can point it anywhere. And it’s growing FAST. Alexa.com currently ranks it 14th among the top websites and I think it boasts around 7 million users. It’s a perfect place to get started. Just go to Twitter.com and join up – it’s free and you can set up your account easily.
Remember that your profile is key. Use your own name and brand yourself. Get a quality smiling picture of you – and keep in mind that you probably want to use the same photo throughout your social media sites. Your Twitter profile description is limited to 160 characters, so you need to keep it short, informative and focused. A key is that you can link Twitter to your other social media accounts – but be a bit careful because if you really tweet a lot and you’ve linked Twitter to Facebook, you can really annoy people and run the risk of being deemed a spammer. Mine is linked to Facebook, but I use Twitter carefully.
What about a background for your Twitter page? Twitter offers several free backgrounds that you can use, or you can develop a customized background. I opted for customization and used a private designer to create my page - it cost me about $100 but I really liked the way they executed what I wanted.
Start tweeting (remember your limit is 140 characters). Keep in mind that Twitter is a social media site, so focus on getting personal information out that shows your personality and interests – and get some humor in too. People really do enjoy laughing.
Ok. That’s it for just getting started. My next blog will focus on some basic tools and building followers. Stay tuned.
…and a Happy New Year to all – may we all enjoy success!
Many years ago, when I first heard about this industry, my initial thoughts were, “Oh no, I don’t like network marketing.” But something inside of me prompted me to take a really good look, to investigate exactly what the industry is all about.
There has been and still is a LOT of stigma and negative perception around the industry. Typically, network marketing, in many people’s minds is synonymous with, “multi-level marketing” which is synonymous with any or all of the following. “Pyramid scheme”, “scam”, “selling”, or worse still, “selling to friends and family”.
As with any other business, we want to be mindful of who we’re doing business with. There are businesses that are less than white, that’s for sure. Enron is a good example, even though they were a mainstream large corporate that most of us would never have questioned or thought of questioning. So, yes, scams do exist. But what makes it a scam or a “pyramid scheme”?
I’m just going to take a little side-trip here and point out that it’s not the “pyramid” that makes it bad. After all, every business and/or organization is pretty much shaped that way. There’s the chief executive at the top, then the few Board Directors just below, then a larger number of Senior Managers or Presidents, then an even larger number of Middle Managers or Vice-Presidents, and so the size of the organization grows as the business grows and it gets down to the “lower” levels. Distinctly shaped like a pyramid with people at the lower levels being paid far less each than the Chief Executive. So, it’s not the idea of the pyramid at all in that sense.
What makes it a “scheme” is when the investor is promised huge returns for their investment, usually a single investment, and then they recruit and fill up their downline. There are no products or services involved, merely the recruitment of people to join in and pay their investment fees too. The money is usually siphoned up to the person at the top and you have to keep on recruiting until you have enough people to reach the point where you are then siphoned the money from that group. There isn’t any value created at all. These schemes are illegal.
The unfortunate thing is that network marketing has been generalized and associated with this for those people who are mis-informed or not fully informed. So if those of us who are in the industry can be successful, then we can help to dispel those incorrect perceptions. This will make it easier to sponsor others in the long-run too, as the industry becomes more acceptable in their perception.
So what is network marketing? It’s simply a business model where the selling and distribution of the company’s products or services are outsourced to a network of people, like you and me. Those who enrol with the company as an associate or distributor then build their own organization or team of distributors that sell the companies products or services, all of whom are also independent business-owners. Each associate recruits or sponsors their own team of distributors and then helps the person they’ve sponsored to do the same. Essentially, it’s a direct sales network and the role of the company is to provide back-up and support in relation to product fulfilment and delivery, providing training and administrative support.
As best-selling author, David Bach, says in his book, The Automatic Millionaire, “The beauty of this industry is that it’s all done for you. The only thing you need to do is find a reputable company — one that you trust, that offers a product or service you believe in and can get passionate about.”
With “normal” companies, they pay for their own advertising – this is usually the most expensive part of their marketing budget. They also recruit and pay their own salesforce. But with network marketing, all this is decentralized, with the individual distributor doing the marketing themselves. The reach that a network marketing company can achieve can far exceed what another company can do with a traditional salesforce. The idea is that the wider the network, the more product you can move through those networks, for the benefit of all.
Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad says, “You’re actually building an income-generating asset. Direct selling gives people the opportunity, with very low risk and very low financial commitment, to build their own income-generating asset and acquire great wealth.”
If you have 11 minutes, you can see and hear what Robert Kiyosaki has to say about the industry and why he thinks it’s the “perfect business”.
In exactly the same way as many companies pay their salesforce on a commission basis, networking marketing companies do the same. You earn through your own retail sales as well as a percentage of the income generated by the associates you’ve enrolled into your team (referred to as your downline). You can’t really take offence with that because this happens in “normal” companies too. The salesperson gets paid on commission, and their manager often gets an override too, based on that person’s performance, not to mention the bonuses that are then also paid to the sales director and eventually to the chief executive.
I think part of the challenge with network marketing’s image is that so many people fail at it. They try for a time and put in some money at the beginning but then they stop before they become successful. Running a network marketing business is no different to running any other business. Unfortunately, and I suspect this comes from the history of the industry, there are many people who decide to get into network marketing as a hobby. A hobby may help to generate some additional cash on the side, but the key here is that it is a hobby. If you want to create a successful livelihood out of network marketing, then you must treat it as a business and run it as a business.
It can provide you with the flexibility to choose your own hours and like any other business-owner, you choose who works with you in your team. So you become your own boss. For some people, that’s ironically part of the challenge!
One of the reasons for this, as I see it, is because of the low barriers to entry. It doesn’t cost much to become a business owner in the network marketing industry.
Contrast this with a franchise, as an example. The initial franchise fee to own a Subway location is $15,000, which one must pay at the time the franchise agreement is signed. The parent company estimates that one’s initial investment will run between $80,000 and $240,000, plus there is an annual royalty fee of 8%, which is based on each store’s gross sales volume.
Wow! With numbers like this, is it more likely that one thinks long and hard before buying into a franchise, and even longer and harder before giving up, but not with a network marketing business? I think so.
The good news is that it IS possible to be successful in a network marketing business and the perception is also changing for the better.
In August 2004, Fortune magazine referred to Network Marketing as, “The best-kept secret of the business world,” while in May 2005, T Harv Eker, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, said, “The unusual and wonderful thing about network marketing is that everyone around you is working to help you grow, instead of trying to keep you down! In what other business do you have people making $50,000 and more a month – and they’re willing to tell you exactly how they did it?”
Finally, Paul Zane Pilzer on network marketing – “More than any other business, network marketing starts with the core: not with the product or the service, but with helping other people by teaching them how to be a success, regardless of their education or what business or field they’ve been in. What’s so exciting about network marketing is that you can offer this opportunity to anyone, and people can maximize the value of their life experiences instead of having those life experiences limit their opportunity.”
And get this… In his most recent book, The Next Millionaires, Paul Zane Pilzer forecasts 10 million new millionaires in the U.S. over the next 10 years, and predicts many of them will be people who are getting involved in their own Network Marketing business now.
How many across the world? And will you be one of them?
It’s challenging enough to survive on two incomes in this day and age. When the difficult (and of course rewarding) decision is made to stay at home with your children, what can you do to fill the income void in your household?
Your children are the most important things in the world to you. They deserve your full attention and you have gladly chosen to stay home and care for them. You know that you have made the right decision.
Your choice to be a stay at home mother has come with a price though. Careful budgeting alone cannot offset that missing second income. Yes, you and your husband are getting by and your family is enjoying quality time together, but you have sacrificed income and benefits to raise your children.
Depending on your profession, your financial sacrifice can be very significant after a few years. In Ann Crittenden’s book “The Price of Motherhood,” she calculated that a couple that once earned over $80,000 annually could lose over $1 million dollars in lifetime earnings after they have a child and the woman leaves work and stays at home.
Your retirement is in jeopardy as well.
No matter what level your previous earnings were, there are long term consequences on your finances for the years spent raising children instead of earning a paycheck. Aside from salary, you are not earning any pension benefits from an employer or medical insurance, both of which are quite valuable.
And few women when they decide to stay home consider that they will cease to accrue any social security benefits from the federal government. No income for you means that your benefit rating with social security is stagnating.
It’s a shame that there has to be such a cost for you to stay at home with your children. You certainly value your work as a mom. It’s nice having time to nurture your children’s education and interests. You even get to have fun, and you do not envy the scheduling hassles that working mothers face as they juggle job commitments and children’s appointments.
You are not alone either. More women are deciding to leave the career track and stay at home with their children. There is a growing trend for families to decide to make it with only one person working outside the home. A report from the U.S. Census Bureau in 2001 showed that in 1998 59% of mothers with infants worked at a full time job, but that had dropped to 55% in 2000, only 2 years later. The appeal of actually being the one to raise your children is undeniable and more families are pursuing this important goal.
Being a stay at home mom has many positive points, but you still miss being able to earn an income. You want to continue developing your skills and creativity. Maintaining your professional skills that you worked hard to get before motherhood nags at the back of your mind. You wish you had a way to transform your time into money without compromising your need to be at home.
You can enjoy the security of a second income again.
There is a revolution starting in our society. People are deciding that they don’t want to struggle through a traffic jam every day and spend 10 hours at an office away from their families in order to live. It’s time for you to start learning how people are earning a comfortable living from their homes. You can start a home based business, raise your children, and have a profitable professional existence at the same time.
Bringing in a second income and avoiding childcare costs would be doubly profitable. Think of all the important things in your financial life that you won’t have to put off anymore.
Taking nicer vacations
Getting that bigger house your growing family needs
Saving for retirement
Funding your children’s college education
After starting your home based business you won’t have to scrimp and save so much. Yes, you will still bargain hunt because it’s smart and you’re good at it, but you won’t have to feel guilty about that occasional dinner out.
There is no arguing that the work you do as a mother is exceedingly valuable. The salary research company Salary.com even attempted to calculate what a salary for a stay at home mother should be. After factoring in everything from childcare, transportation services, accounting, laundry, cooking, management, and much more, Salary.com came up with a figure of $90,000 a year. This sounds like a lot but it was based on a 90 hour work week.
As nice as it is to know that your work as a mother is worth nearly six figures, there is no salary fairy out there that is magically going to start writing you checks. You need to take action and earn money your own way. The way to do this is with your own home based business. As your own boss, you will be able to integrate earning an income into your other valuable and important duties.
With the income from your home based business, you will be able to enjoy the benefits of financial security. You won’t have to worry so much if your husband loses his job. With your business income you could even give him the freedom to pursue a career change that he has been dreaming of.
To start earning money for today, for your retirement, and to give your children every advantage, fill out the questionnaire below. You will then receive information about a home based business opportunity that will let you start supporting your family in every way.
“I don’t have the time to listen to this call”
I have to watch “American Idol”
“I have to read my emails”
“I can’t read a script”
“I cannot talk to people”
“I am not sure about this working for me”
“I can’t pick up the phone”
“People won’t listen to me”
“It won’t work”
“I don’t know what to say”
“My mom says this is crazy”
“I’m too tired.”
“I have to go bowling tonight”
“I’m too busy”
“I have to help other people”
“My kids need me”
“My husband needs me”
“I cannot learn to read a script”
“I have to answer my emails”
“I have to go to the mall”
“It’s not for her”
“Not right now, it is not the right time”
“I ran out of time and I had to do this…”
“I don’t have the money”
“I have to think it over”
“It’s too hard”
“I have a good solid reason why I can’t build my business”
“I can’t afford it”
“I will wait till next month”
“I have to organize my office”
“I have to clean my house”
“I will get to the BLAST next year”
An EXCUSE is just a well planned LIE! Who are you lying to? Are you settling for less? Are you giving up? What is your excuse?
Jonathan Livingston Seagull ~by Richard Bach. The book is simply awesome ….small little story with good message in it….freedom. Its an attitude to never give up inspite of numerous failure…to try something different than ordinary life …and to achieve perfection even in the smallest possible task that we undertake.
For most gulls, it is not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight. Most gulls don’t bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight — how to get from shore to food and back again.
We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill.
Jonathan Seagull discovered that boredom and fear and anger are the reasons that a gull’s life is so short, and with these gone from his thoughts, he lived a long fine life indeed.
The gull sees farthest who flies highest. Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding.
But the speed was power, and the speed was joy, and the speed was pure beauty.
If our friendship depends on things like space and time, then when we finally overcome space and time, we’ve destroyed our own brotherhood! But overcome space, and all we have left is Here. Overcome time, and all we have left is Now. And in the middle of Here and Now, don’t you think that we might see each other once or twice?
The gulls who scorn perfection for the sake of travel go nowhere, slowly. Those who put aside travel for the sake of perfection go anywhere, instantly.
You will begin to touch heaven, Jonathan, in the moment that you touch perfect speed. And that isn’t flying a thousand miles an hour, or a million, or flying at the speed of light. Because any number is a limit, and perfection doesn’t have limits. Perfect speed, my son, is being there.
“The only true law is that which leads to freedom,” Jonathan said. “There is no other.”
“Such promises are only for the gulls that accept the ordinary. One who has touched excellence in his learning has no need of that kind of promise.”
~ Never give up on your dreams and goals. Don’t let the “flock” pull you down into their negative world. Leave the flock of naysayers. ”If you can imagine it, you can achieve it; if you can dream it, you can become it.”
The New Year is fast approaching. It is one of my favorite times of the year. A time where we all get to wipe the slate clean and start fresh. I’ve learned from experience to keep my New Year’s goals simple and achievable. Foremost for my mlm and network marketing business is to have a rational mix between my action and learning plans.
