Archive for September, 2009
Not Everything Is A Scam
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009I was reading this article in my local paper this past Sunday. The article was about how someone was looking for a job online and came across an advertisement for a Google work-at-home business. Apparently the ad had used the name of a very prominent newspaper in order to make it look legitimate.
It would seem that there are some unscrupulous people that are part of a growing trend on the Internet where they use fake stories and the names of respected news entities so that they seem like they are legitimate work at home opportunities.
Honestly, I don’t know why this would come as a surprise to anyone that they thought it warranted an article in my newspaper. I mean, I get at least 3 emails a week offering me some amazing work at home opportunity where I can make a ton of money. I don’t believe it for a second.
I really appreciate that there are people exposing these scams because I think that it’s important to know that there are people out there willing to take advantage of others in the name of making a dollar. However, what I don’t like is when these good intentioned people go on to make a totally ridiculous statement like: “If someone asks you to pay to learn how to make money, that’s the tip-off to the rip-off” That’s what was quoted as having been said by Bernas (I’m assuming they were with Google but it wasn’t very clear).
How ridiculous is it to think that someone is going to teach you something for free. In the same paper that I was reading this article in there was an ad for Bartending School. The ad clearly stated that they would show you now to make money (as much at $35hr). When you check out the website, it’s pretty clear to me that you will have to pay to learn how to become a bartender and make that money.
There was another ad for Real Estate School where you can get your license FAST. And there is the implied reference to making a lot of money with a real estate license. And by-the-way, you have to pay for the education.
The point is that you have to know what it is that you are looking for. If you are looking for a JOB, why would you click on a work at home business? Being a business owner is definitely going to cost you money, whereas, being an employee usually doesn’t.
I also believe in the saying that you get what you pay for. If someone is going to teach me something (like: mlm sales), I want to be sure that I get what I pay for. Learning is not free; you have to pay for it one way or another. That being said, even some of the high priced network marketing training programs out there are very expensive and don’t really deliver on their promise of showing you how to make money from home. Do your homework folks. It’s a dog eat dog world out there and there are those that will take advantage of you and still sleep soundly at night.
Network Marketing Jobs – Employer vs. Employee
Monday, September 21st, 2009A lot of us join a network marketing program because we want to be our own boss. I know that was the case for me. After I was let go from a job that I had for more than 10 years, I wanted to be able to take control of my career. There is, however, one problem with being your own boss – you are also your own employee. How to you balance being the employer and the employee? Who wins?
The Art Of Compromise
When you are a part of a network marketing program, you have to wear many different hats. You have to be the boss, the office manager, the accountant, the gofer, and everything else in between. One of the things you have to be able to do is compromise.
As an owner of a business, you want to get the most out of your employees. The problem is – YOU are the employees. One of the things that you can do to help you compromise is to sit down first as the employer (the boss) and list all of the things that you would like to have accomplished. Make sure that you give priority to the MLM income producing activities.
For example, you know that your most of your MLM income starts with prospecting. So as the boss, you would like your employee to spend as much time as possible prospecting.
As the employee, you don’t like prospecting so much. It’s tiring and can be stressful, because of that you don’t really want to do any prospecting at all. You would much rather do other things. Unfortunately, there isn’t anyone else that can do the prospecting for you. What do you do?
Meet in the Middle
The boss wants 6 hours of prospecting every day. The employee wants 1 hour a day. Why not do 3 hours a day and make sure to give your employee a reward for doing anything over 3 hours of prospecting.
I know this may sound kind of funny having a conversation with yourself about how to run your network marketing business but believe me, it works.
In order to be able to create the MLM income that you are looking for you have to be able to do all of the jobs that come with owning your own business. And one of those jobs is making a realistic schedule that the network marketing boss and the employee can both live with.
Running Up The Network Marketing Hill
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009As you may know, I am training to run a half marathon in about 6 weeks. While I was on my run this morning, I was thinking that the best part of running up a hill is reaching the top and seeing an area that you can coast down for awhile. This got me to thinking that your first year network marketing is a little like running up a hill.
I know for me, my first year was tough. I didn’t know anything about multilevel marketing. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I just knew that I wanted to be able to earn money from home and take control of my career.
The thing is that being in a network marketing program isn’t like every other business. I mean – it is and it isn’t. Let me see if I can clear it up a little. I ran a half marathon a few years ago in Florida. I had never ran more than 3 miles before signing up for that half marathon and I didn’t really know what was going to be involved. It was hard and there was a lot of training that I had to do in order to be able to run 13.1 miles but I did it and I was very proud of myself.
I wanted to be able to feel that sense of accomplishment again so I decided that I would run the same half marathon in Florida again this year. No problem, right? Well, my husband talked me into running a second half marathon here in Raleigh, NC. His reasoning for me running the race here was – I was going to be training here with him anyway (he signed up for the race long before I did) it’s just one more month of training and when I cross the finish line is will be great. This went on for a while and I finally decided that I would do the race too.
I figured that running a half marathon here in Raleigh would be the same as running the one in Florida. Here’s the thing. These two races will be nothing alike accept in the number of miles that will be ran. The race here will have hills, lots of hills vs. the race in Florida that will be very flat. And the temperature in NC in early November is very nice for running whereas the temperature in FL in early December can still be rather warm. Last time I ran it, the temperature went to 80+ degrees. Even the elite runners were feeling the heat.
Here’s my point (I know you were probably wondering where I was going with this). No two network marketing programs are alike. No two network marketing products are the same. And no two marketers will work their business the same either. But if you can make it to the top of hill, you will feel like you accomplished something special in your life. There is no feeling like making it to the top of a hill or reaching the finish line.
Whatever MLM program you are with, set yourself a goal to reach and do whatever it takes to reach that goal.
What Makes A Good Prospect
Monday, September 14th, 2009Whether you are in your first year network marketing or you are a seasoned MLM’er, you have to be able to sell your network marketing product if you want to succeed in business. A common mistake that many network marketers make is believing that everyone wants or already uses something like their MLM product. I don’t want to burst your bubble but that just isn’t true. Not everyone wants your product. I don’t care how great it is.
If I had a dollar for everytime a marketer told me “it practically sells itself”, I would be as rich as Oprah.
Network marketing is just like every other business there is in at least one area – you have to make sales if you want to make mlm income. I’m going to let you in on a little MLM secret – if you want to make mlm sales, you have to know what makes a good prospect. Here’s why:
Knowing what a Good Prospect is will save you TIME and MONEY
The best way to know who will make a good prospect is to know who your target market is. There are two key things to know to determine if someone is a good prospect for your network marketing product:
1. Your prospect has a WANT or a NEED for your network marketing product. You can have the best product in the world but if no one wants it or needs it, you won’t be making very many sales.
For example, I was talking to this network marketing not too long ago that was looking for more information about how to make more MLM sales and they were in Enagic. Enagic is in the business of filtering water. The marketer that I was speaking to (the one that was looking for more information on how to make more MLM sales) tried to tell me that their business was about to take off because everyone drinks water and needs to filter it. Obviously, this network marketing was notready to hear about my MLM training program. My guess would be that this marketer hasn’t been with Enagic for very long and they don’t have very much experience in sales either. If they did, they would know that not everyone cares about the water they drink, in fact, I know quite a few people that just don’t like to drink water at all.
I know, I know, it’s because they aren’t drinking the right kind of water. If they tried the water after it’s had all the harmful chemicals filter out, they would definately want to drink more water. Yeah, my husband also knows that he shouldn’t drink so much diet soda either but he does it anyway. Which brings me to the second thing that a good prospect has:
2. The prospect has to want a solution. I’m sure that you know people that, for whatever reason, don’t see the answer to their problem even when it’s right there in front of them. If your prospect has given up all hope of fixing their problem, then there isn’t anything that you can do for them.
Let’s say that your network marketing product is the water fitration system like what Enagic offers. Everyone may NEED water but not everyone knows or even cares about all of the chemicals that can be found in ordinary tap water. There are some that may care but found their solution in bottled water or in one of those simple little water filters.
If you have a network marketing product that you want to sell, go find people that have a WANT or a NEED for your product and (this is important) also WANT a solution. It’s much easier to help someone that wants help than it is to try to force someone to look at a solution to a problem they don’t even know they have.
