If you're considering starting a network marketing business, I'd like you to know something about those of us that have failed in our home based business, and call it a scam. You see, if we were really honest with ourselves... we really just didn't know what we're doing... at all.
I was having a conversation with a friend when she dropped a pen from her purse. The pen said the name of a network marketing company on it.
Immediately I asked, "Are you a distributor?"
"No" she replied, "My Mom is... or was, she's always signing up for these "work at home" businesses thinking she's going to make money online but it never works out. So she just buys the products now."
"Network Marketing is a scam!" kept ringing through my head. "This poor woman is just a customer now, stuck with all these products!"
Hmm, poor Woman... Probably not, see, I'm sure that she was never told how to build her business successfully. In the back of her mind, she's probably thinking, "I wish I could figure this out!"
Just like me! We never go into these things thinking that if it doesn't work out, we'll be happy just becoming a customer... No matter how great the products are. We go into this wanting to make money!
I also failed at building my home based business with such brilliance and embarrassment... I quit the network marketing business completely. I walked around like a zombie saying to myself, "network marketing is a scam!" For awhile... that is until I discovered something I wish I had known while I was desperately trying to build my business.
See, today I actually think the company I was involved with is a great company. I still have some of the product from when I was attempting to build my business, and then became just a customer... I like it, a lot. Sure, the cleaning products may be a little overly concentrated and never run out. But the stuff really works.
First, please indulge me, and hear my experience with attempting to build my network marketing business. How I began to feel that it was a scam and what made me change my mind. It may be similar to your past or current experience.
My Network Marketing Experience:
I was flipping through a magazine and an advertisement for "work at home" caught my attention, typical. I mean it really sucked me in though. It was at a time in my life that I was desperate for something, anything that would help me change my financial situation. It was talking about financial & personal time freedom... a great laptop business lifestyle, all the trappings of working from home, etc. It told me to go check out a website... so I did. It continued to suck me in; it was doing exactly what it was supposed to do!
It had the standard laptop on a beach motif setting the scene for a business you can do from anywhere. "I WANT THAT!" So I entered all my info into the opt-in form on the page eagerly anticipating a new page to open with a great presentation on how this business would... um, "could" transform my life!
Instead, I got a confirmation page saying, "Thank you, we will be in contact with you shortly."
"Huh!?" I thought with some sadness. Then, I realized what I had just done... I gave them my telephone number! No! I didn't want phone a call!
Then, not even a minute later... it rang! On the other end of the telephone, a sweet, soft, female voice answered my hesitant and kind of gruff, greeting. Quickly, I was at ease.
The woman on the other end of the telephone was so very sincere and understanding of my situation and desperation to create financial security and a new lifestyle, I didn't realize I had just signed up. Well, I did know, but she was a great closer none the less! I was going to be a ROCKSTAR at this!
So, we started talking about my "warm" market. I quickly decided that I wasn't going to go there because eyes were starting to glaze over and the full body cringe had become very noticeable when I brought up new "business opportunities" in the recent past to friends and family. So, without telling my new sponsor, I just eliminated that idea from my business plan immediately.
I live in a large city, Minneapolis, so I decided I was going to go downtown and try to engage complete strangers with my new business opportunity.
It was winter in Minneapolis but at least I was able to stay dry and warm. If you know Minneapolis, we have skyways here, enclosed bridges crossing over the streets from building to building. So I was able to walk, stalk most of downtown from the inside...
I quickly found that these strangers had things other than starting a new network marketing business on their minds. They were busy hustling from one important business meeting to another, shopping, site-seeing or simply trying to enjoy their lunch hour. I really had no business interrupting them. As one fellow told me, "Buzz off a-hole, I'm trying to eat here, not start a business." Embarrassed, I quickly put an end to that approach.
Next, I decided to take my newly acquired, awesome $100 MLM drop cards (looks like a $100 bill but has a message on the flip-side, we've all been tricked by them) and liberally distribute them around town. I thought I was so clever and would tuck them into books and magazines at the bookstores around town and... even drop them in restrooms.
Eventually, and to my surprise, I started to get phone calls from those drop cards. I really was surprised too; who picks up a fake $100 bill in a bathroom and calls the number on the back after realizing it was a setup?
I wasn't looking forward to these calls. Why? Because I had no idea what to say... all I was trying to do was get them on a 3-way call with my sponsor who had reassured me with, "Oh, because you're new, just get them on with me and I'll do the selling."
If the person didn't just hang up on me right away, they would go through the hour long presentation with my sponsor, say "I'll think it over" and we'd never hear back from them again. Poor people... It got bad, I was wasting so much of my time, my sponsors' time and the people who would calls' time. I quickly realized I was not producing results, I was getting no where, I was bad at this, I was just losing money and time, I was embarrassed... so I quit.
"I failed, you failed, we all failed... " Because Network Marketing is a scam, right?
That's exactly what I thought and so for a couple years I tried to keep it out of sight, out of mind while at my JOB, where they tell me how much I'm worth and when I can come and go. I hated that, wasn't diggin' that at all; but I stuck in there until one day this little, yet loud voice in my head started saying, "Keep the dream alive!" I knew immediately what dream that voice was referring to.
So, I took a peek... I peeked online to see if anything new was going on in the world of network marketing. What could it hurt? Sure, then it hit me... hard. I couldn't believe it. All these new people, people I hadn't heard of before were now big names in the network marketing world, just killing it, making money... LOTS OF MONEY! All I could keep saying to myself was, "Wait, what the... ? How can these new people figure this out but for the life of me, I can't!?"
Well, these people weren't necessarily "new"; many of them had the same story of failure or struggle in their network marketing businesses for years. Many of them have remarkable stories of desperation... bankruptcy, foreclosure, heavy substance abuse, one even being told they had cancer.
Then it hit me, their stories are even more similar than I first thought... All of these people looked for, and found the same thing to assist them in creating success with their online business. They all found a tried & true, proven method, or system and they all found people who have mastered it; to show them step by step how to acquire the results they desired. They all needed mentors...
It was my "Ah-Ha" moment! So I simply followed in the footsteps of these people and found that system, and the mentors that teach people how to use it.
What I soon discovered, was that it was in front of me the whole time I was floundering about, failing at my dream, creating the perception in my mind, that network marketing is a scam. I had even previously met some of the mentors but I was too closed minded to see what they were trying to show me. So they continued to create success, some of them massive success and I just kept doing everything that didn't work.
But no more... I'm now using the exact system with my new online business that they are, I'm listening to my new mentors and I'm creating MY OWN SUCCESS.
The first thing I learned when I started using the system and listening to my new mentors, was that I had no clue how to generate qualified prospects for my business, or any business for that matter This was the first thing I learned, and when I started to implement the new tools I now have, the light of success came flooding through.
Then, while I was building my list of qualified prospects, the system started flooding my new prospects with valuable marketing training on my behalf. My prospects started to want to use this system too because they could see how valuable it would be to creating success in their business either offline or online. This started to put money in my pockets...
They started to watch and learn from the mentors I had introduced them to and started implementing the same techniques to their marketing strategies and they started to experience success too. Some have turned their businesses around from complete failure and some, who had just started a business; experienced success much sooner and easier than they had ever imagined.
So, back to the question...
Is network marketing a scam? In my opinion, I really don't think so, not at all. Like so many people before me, I just had no clue how to make my home based business successful; and when I failed... I blamed it on the network marketing industry as a whole. I blamed it on everything, but my lack of having the proper tools and mentoring. I never wanted to be just a customer, I wanted to be a ROCKSTAR network marketer and make serious money.
Now I can.
And now... you can too.
I Am... Daniel James!
If you are tired of all the gimmicks, and just want to get down to fixing your struggling business or starting your business off in the RIGHT direction. There is one... just one program that I can recommend. Find it here: The Mentorship Club. It is the "REAL"... tried, true & proven system that gives you all the tools needed to drive traffic to your website, generate quality leads on demand and promote your business like a pro. You'll also get amazing mentoring from the insiders who have mastered the art of this wonderful profession of network marketing. They'll even guide you into making serious money quickly so you can start to enjoy immediate profit - even if your prospect doesn't join your primary business. Plus, you'll be able to provide your team with the perfect solution to get them started in the right direction and enjoying profit regardless of your skill level.
