What is NetworkMarketing and MLM?

It is my hope and desire to explain the good, the bad and the ugly about the NetworkMarketing and MLM (multi level marketing) industries so you can make an informed decision on whether this is the right working from home business for you. Are you skeptical? you may have heard both good and bad comments about MLM, that is fine, after reading through my web site your suspicions may disappear or you may be convinced that MLM is not the easy home based business for you-what ever the case, you will have a better understanding of how the NetworkMarketing Industry works.

Actually NetworkMarketing and MLM are one and the same, different sides of the same coin. MLM the acronym for "Multi Level Marketing", started receiving a bad name because of the way some companies were running their businesses, these MLM companies were over stating the size of the checks, over estimating the benefits of the products, telling people they would get rich quick, burning $100.00 bills, new prospects, leads were inexpensive and easy to find, all kinds of hype.

Some of these companies had made such a bad name for themselves that they actually had to change their name. This way of doing business is from the "Old School". It is unfortunate that some companies still use this type of promotion and probably always will. Your job is to find the bad MLM's and stay away from them.

Most of the "New School" of entrepreneurs working from home using NetworkMarketing use a different business model one of honesty and integrity.

This is a business of building relationships with people, making friends. If the company and its products provide value, they will not need to resort to unsubstantiated claims. In fact these claims could loose these companies their membership in the DSA (Direct Selling Association) in Washington D.C., if they are members, they could also end up in court.

The DSA is a group of over 200 MLM companies that regulate their members to strive for ethics, trust and confidence in the networkmarketing industry. To have a look at their code of ethics "click here". NetworkMarketing is legal, it is not a "ponzi" scheme, MLM has been used to market products for over 50 years in the United States. This business model has repeatedly been approved and upheld in the court systems of the United States. This is a legal and ethical business as long as the company and its members follow these guidelines.

1. You are not paid for the act of enrolling new people.

2. A product or service is sold to the end consumer.

3. The company must have a guarantee in place for refunding the products that were sold and the enrollment kits.

NetworkMarketing companies market over $50 billion dollars worth of Goods and Services a year with over 1000 companies (only just over 200 belong to the DSA).

These companies are either privately owned or they are public companies that trade on one of the stock exchanges. Warren Buffett and Charles Munger, considered to be two of the most honest and ethical business men in the United States own at least one (I have heard three) MLM companies in their holding company Berkshire Hathaway which is traded on the New York Stock Exchange. I do not believe these two men would own a company that was not run with honesty, integrity and ethics.

There are some MLM companies that have been is business for over fifty years and many many more that have gone out of business within five years. 85% of all businesses including NetworkMarketing companies go out of business within five years. Don't fall for the claim "We are at the ground floor, get in before every one else does".According to these statistics, being on the ground floor is not the place to be.

Statistics show that the top income earners in NetworkMarketing, joined their company after their NetworkMarketing company had been in business for at least five years. The companies that have gone out of business have done so for a variety of reasons, under capitalized, poor products, dishonesty, ect. They have left their distributors with broken dreams, bad feelings toward MLM companies and no income. This is what happened to the first MLM company I was involved with, a great product but the company was under capitalized and could not keep up with its rapid growth, so it went out of business.

When is the best time to join a working from home MLM business? The best time is when the time is right for you; to be successful you must believe in the industry, the product, the company and most important, in your self, the timing has to be right for you.

Which ever home based business you look at enrolling with, remember the New School way of doing business works better, it is more profitable and you will be building your business with honesty and integrity. If you are in business for the long term, this is the only way to build a business which will have a higher retention rate with your customers and business partners, which will make your business more profitable.

There are many distributors who join a NetworkMarketing company for no other reason than to buy the goods or services at wholesale with no intention of earning an income. Then there are people who are interested in earning a part time income of a couple hundred dollars, a thousand, five thousand a month and then there are other distributors who earn well over a million dollars a year. There are even more people who have quit in disgust and have lost money.

The great thing about MLM is that you can earn what ever you want; it depends on how hard you work and how interested you are learning how to build your business are you coachable. The people who earn the most money in MLM are the people who find, enroll and train the most and the best business partners. I have heard it before, "The only way you can fail at MLM is if you quit" This is probably true as there are many people who have become very successful in this type of work at home business that were complete failures for the first year or two in business while they were learning.

NetworkMarketing is a legitimate business, Robert Kiyosaki has called NetworkMarketing " The Perfect Business", if you treat it like a business you will be successful, if you treat it like a hobby you will not reach the level of success you could or you may like to.

MLM does offer you the opportunity for personal development , you need to invest time and money into your self, mostly time, read and listen to educational tools, practice, listen to your up line, learn from your coach. Follow the training systems in place that your MLM Company offers.

You do not need to hound your friends and relatives with your home based business opportunity, you would not likely try to get them to come work with you at your job that you have now would you? why should you try to entice them into the same MLM business as you.

Your job is just to show your business opportunity, have a mind set to serve people, to give them what they need and want. If they are not interested respect their decision, this is nothing personal, they are not rejecting you, they are just not interested in your business at this time in their life. I have hardly even discussed my NetworkMarketing Company with most of my relatives and friends, I tell them what I am up to and if they express an interest, then I will show them, some have joined my business and some have not, it does not matter; I don't take it personal.

There are many ways to expand your business with referrals, paid leads , advertising, the internet, expanding your warm market, I will help you with this on another web page.

One of the nicest benefits of your home based business is that you will not need to be working from home, you can work your MLM business from any where or any place in the world you want, well all most. As long as you have a phone and/or a computer you are in business, actually you can build the business with out either if you want.

Most of the MLM companies are licensed to operate in many different countries, you can build your business as you travel and you can also deduct a portion of these expenses against your income.

Another huge benefit in NetworkMarketing is the ability to build a source of residual income that will last you for the rest of your life, you can also will this income to your heirs. Residual Income is the collecting of income from work you have already done on an ongoing basis. This is like an author who writes a book or a song writer who writes a song, they earn a residual income every time a book or CD is sold.

You build your residual income by introducing your business and product to other people, you will then receive a portion of the sale price as commission for every product or service sold in the organization that you worked so hard to build, this will continue for as long as the customer orders products or services, unless of coarse the company goes out of business, so choose your home based business wisely.

This home based business is not for every one, some people would not enjoy making their living this way. I hope this information will help you make your decision on whether you are interested or not in starting your home based business with a NetworkMarketing company. If you would like more information to help you make your decision please read this free e-Book. This e-book goes into more detail then what their is room or time for here. "click here for more information on NetworkMarketing"

If you would like to have a look at my business click here This business or umbrella of businesses provides training, web sites, leads and income.