A lot of people have been recently asking me about network marketing companies. What are they and is it worth signing up to a network marketing company. Well there are pros and cons and it takes a certain type of person to be successful in Network marketing. I have personally been involved in two in the past and I’m no longer involved in network marketing, Therefore I have experience in this, but I’m not trying to recruit you! I hope that you find this information useful. Remember not to take advice off people who want to make money from you, but off people who are neutral but whose financial position is appealing.
What is the Network Marketing Model?
You’ve heard of Avon. There’s a knock at the door, in walks Mrs Pickles from down the road. She uses Avon cosmetics. She loves Avon. She has a suitcase full of products for you. She walks away with a commission, and you get make up. She trains people in her team who want to work with her. That’s network marketing.
Have you ever received a WhatsApp charity appeal that’s gone WhatsApp viral? I have. That’s called network marketing – except that one is for charity and the other is for your summer hols in Tahiti.
Whilst the model has evolved, the basic principles are the same. A business recruits ordinary people to sell their products to their nearest and dearest and call up others to tell them how much they love using tupperware – buy some from me. Today this often takes the form of blog posts with external links or youtubers recommending products to you.
It’s like nagging your friends but making money from it.
Network marketing can either be single tiered – which means that you sell eco friendly nuclear bunkers for polar bears, and you earn a commission from it- or multi tiered known as MLM, multilevel marketing. MLM is when you recruit others to sell for the company. You then earn commission off their sales and in turn give a commission to your recruiter who may give a commission to his recruit. This is called an upline.
Network marketing has lots of fancy names; MLM, cellular marketing, affiliate marketing, consumer direct marketing, referral marketing or home based business franchising – whew.
Network Marketing Companies
Apart from the aforementioned Avon, which is still going strong, there are several big companies that run on the MLM system; Arbonne, Amway, Mary Kay, tupperware, Excel companies and
Plexus to name a few. LuLaRoe, Magnetic Sponsoring and Amway, all run on 5 tiers!
Pros of Cons of Network Marketing
You don’t need much skill or a lot of capital.
While often seen as get rich quick schemes, you won’t become Richard Branson overnight.You can nicely supplement your income.
You’re eligible for tax write offs because you’re classified as a business owner, not an employee.
Multi tier network marketing companies are often not reputable. The FCC of America advises that people look to work for single tiered network marketing companies. Multi Tiered networking companies may be scams known as pyramid schemes. No, that doesn’t mean they’re going to enslave you to build them pyramids and you’ll have to escape by smiting them with ten plagues. A pyramid scheme is when you are paid to recruit more recruits who are paid to recruit more recruits ad infinitum. The money comes from selling starter kits to new recruits. How do I know if an MLM is a pyramid scam? If it’s selling real, legitimate products at a fair price you’re ok.
It’s an easy way to make extra cash.
Only 6% of all network marketing is online, most sales occur face to face so if you’re shy, this is not the job for you.
Network marketing can be a wonderful opportunity to share something you’re passionate about – like Julie, your super annoying friend who’s on a holy mission to convince you to juice cleanse
You can work from home work and set your own hours – flex that flex!
The company’s core sales team will tell you how to sell – if it aint broke don’t fix it so you’ll benefit from the experience and expertise of others. This also means you’re being trained for free.
The company itself spends less on advertising and ends up with more convincing adverts – real live testimonials.
What kind of person is good at Network Marketing?
Someone ruthless! An extrovert. If you freeze up at the thought of socialising, this is not for you. But if you love talking to people and you have drive, determination and grit, you may have what it takes to make it all the way to the top.You must be able to brush off negativity, rejection is very common. You may have 99 “get lost”s and only 1 sale out of every 100 phone calls. You must be able to persevere and keep going relentlessly to make it to the top, which few people do.
If you have high energy and sales skills and you fancy extra cash or even the possibility of a full-time career from the comfort of your own couch- network marketing may be the opportunity you’ve been waiting for.
If you enjoyed this blog you might also like to read about the best network marketing companies.