Think As If It Really Were Your Business

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One of the things that I find most interesting that people say about MLM or Network Marketing is that "Most people fail!" They say, "I don't want to do MLM because the failure rate is too high and most people lose money." In today's article, I am going to address these things because I believe that fact is stranger than fiction.

Let's look at "most" network marketers under a magnifying glass. The statistics I have kept over the years indicate that most network marketers aren't marketers at all. They tend to be network wholesale consumers instead. In other words, the reason they join is because they like the product or service you are offering and they want to buy it at the lowest price possible.

We once had a couple as part of our organization that, for this article, we'll call Bill and Sally. Bill and Sally loved our product line and used many of our nutritional products everyday. Now, Bill and Sally weren't your typical retired couple in that they had enough money set aside to do pretty much any thing they wanted to. One of the things they wanted to do was have their favorite products shipped to them each month automatically. Bill and Sally had a standing autoship order of about $700 per month. They bought and used $700 per month worth of products every month for years. Best I can remember, they never got a generational bonus for sponsoring anyone during that whole time. They were simply very happy wholesale consumers.

Some would call Bill and Sally MLM failures. Most MLM antagonists would say they lost thousands and thousands of dollars in MLM. Frankly, neither one of those statements are true. Bill and Sally were winners by every definition of the word. They found products they liked. They requested and received their products by their delivery method of choice. AND --- they paid the price for those products that they felt represented a fair value for their dollar. They won on all counts. My statistics show that Bill and Sally are part of the 85%ers club. The club is made up of those 85% of the people who participate in MLM who are simply wholesale MLM product consumers. Not business failures, just honest consumers! Calling them MLM business failures is as ridicules as calling someone who buys a gallon of milk and doesn't get a check back from Safeway, a grocery business failure. So some say most lose at MLM, I say, 85% overwhelmingly win!

Let's talk about the other 15%. Of those, over half see the business as a way to retail a product that they enthusiastically like and personally use. These people too, rarely get an over-ride or generational bonus check. The money they earn is made from the margins between wholesale and the suggested retail price. Let me give you another example. Mary, not her real name, became a part of our organization to consume our weight loss product and to lose weight. She was successful at both. In a few short months her before and after pictures looked like something out of a TV commercial.

Mary became very excited about the "MLM Opportunity." Which in her mind was the opportunity to retail the weight loss product. All of her over- weight friends, relatives and co-workers immediately started buying from her. Yes, I agree, that was a no- brainer. Then she made up flyers and posters with her before and after pictures on them, posted them all over town, and her retail customer base expanded even further. Then she started participating in trade shows, garden shows, home shows, any place that would let her set up a booth, and, you guessed it, her customer base grew even more dramatically. Mary never got a generational bonus either. Yes, even though she replaced her full time job with her new found passion, those MLM antagonists would again say, Mary was a failure.

The last group I will talk about makes up only 5% or so of the people who sign-up to be MLM distributors. These are the people who sign-up to build a business. Many of these people fail. When they do, most of the time their reason for failure is obvious to everyone except them.

Let me ask you some questions. If you had just paid a million dollars to buy a McDonald's franchise, would you ---

1. Quit to buy a Burger King franchise two weeks after you started with McDonalds?

2. Quit because you didn't get rich in your McDonald's business after two months?

3. Quit McDonald's to join Burger King because BK introduced a revolutionary new food product that was going to change how Americans eat?

4. Would you, in addition to buying a McDonald's, buy a Burger King franchise because you don't want to put all your Egg McMuffins in one basket?

5. Last but not least, would you not go into your million dollar franchise because your favorite soap is on, or you want to watch Monday Night Football or you don't feel like working this week?

From what I've seen, the only two reasons there are for people to fail in MLM is they either, quit too soon or they never really get started. If they were to treat their MLM business like the business it is and If they were to develop and work a plan consistently and persistently, then they will win in their business. I know, these are old fashion, out dated ideas. High tech, too many, means we no longer have to put any effort into anything we do. Well, call me a MLM Dinosaur if you wish, but if you want to build a full- time income from your MLM business, it seems to me that you should try working at it for more than a few days. Think as if you had just paid a million dollars to buy your MLM business. What would you do to make it successful? Go do that, and I'll guarantee, you'll win big!

Greg Arnold can be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.