Is the company properly funded?
This is a big one. It’s been said that 95% of all companies fail in the first 3 to 5 years. Most Network Marketing companies typically fail in this category for one of two reasons.
The first reason is because they don’t have enough money to properly launch the company and handle all the typical problems that plague startup companies.
The second reason is that the company makes it through the tough early years and then they hit what is called the momentum phase.
This is where a company experiences exponential growth – which can be a very exciting time. However, even well financed companies with a strong management team can have difficulty getting through this phase of business. There is a well known figure in the Network Marketing industry who used to offer to help you start your own Network Marketing company for just a $100,000. I don’t know about you, but I would not want anything to do with a company like that.
The bottom line is that if a company has good capitol, a minimum of 3 to 5 million dollars is a good start, combined with an experienced and strong management team, then they can typically weather the storms that come along.
Does the company have a relatively low cost to get started?
This of course is relative to where you are in your own personal and financial life. I would say that you can get started in the majority of Network Marketing companies for about $300 to $500 which makes them affordable to most people.
You just want to make certain that the company is not charging you an over inflated price and then paying commissions to the person who sponsored you into the business. This is extremely important because it is illegal for a company to pay commissions out for just signing someone up in the business, and where no real product is provided in exchange for your investment.
Also make sure that if there is product being exchanged for money that it has a fair value in relation to the cost you will be paying. Most people are pretty smart now days, and they are also very cost conscious. They are not going to pay an over inflated price for a product or service just because it pays out big dollars in commissions.
Is the compensation plan fair and easy to understand?
You want a compensation plan to be fair across the board for anyone who gets involved – from the person with little or no Network Marketing experience to the seasoned veteran.
It should also be fairly easy to understand and explain, as well as simple for the average person to be able to achieve the highest levels within the compensation plan.
It should also pay well enough that the professional or experienced Network Marketer finds the compensation plan rewarding to them as well. I have seen some compensation plans that have so many requirements and difficult language that hardly anyone can explain it except the one math whiz that created the plan. I was working for a company not too long ago as their Director of Global Marketing and they had one of those difficult to understand compensation plans.
They would continually make changes that always made it even more difficult to understand. Plus, every time we made a change, recruiting would substantially drop off. One day, the owners sold the company to this group of investors. One of the investors (who had little Network Marketing experience had this “great idea” about implementing a completely new compensation plan.
After reviewing it I highly recommended they not implement it as it was designed to pay more money to the average person and REALLY hurt the leaders who were making a lot of money (shortly after this conversion I left the company). Of course this person did not listen, and had to have things his way, and went ahead and put his new compensation plan in place.
End result? Every leader’s commission check was instantly cut by about 70%! Long story short, all the leaders took their people, went to another company, and there is little left of the company except for a few thousand customers.
In closing, do your due diligence when making a decision on what Network Marketing company you are going to invest your hard earned time and money with. There are thousands of them out there with more starting every day. Some of them are started by frustrated former distributors who have no formal education or experience in running a large successful company.
If you can afford it, and have the time to get away from work, I highly recommend you visit the company you plan on joining. Schedule an appointment to visit with the company and meet the CEO, Finance person. Do a little digging on the internet by typing their names in Google with quotes on both sides of their name. If the person you are searching on does not have a common name then you might be able to find a little information about the owners and management team.
You should make your decision on which company you want to join like you were looking to purchase a $500,000 franchise – not $300 to $500 Network Marketing business. If you do this properly, and put in some hard work, you could see your business take off and pay you a substantial income.
By: Blake Warrington
Archive for December, 2009
6 “must Ask” Questions to Ask of Any Home-based Business Network Marketing Company – Part 2
December 30th, 2009Why Affiliate Business Internet Marketing is the Perfect Place to Start Out
December 29th, 2009Affiliate Business Internet Marketing is the perfect way for a person who is unfamiliar with marketing, or for that matter being in business for themselves.
The reason an affiliate business is easy to start is that the program you join will provide many of the resources and tools you need for internet marketing.
An affiliate business internet marketing program is a great exchange. The way the concept works, you become a member and receive an affiliate link that includes your personal ID number.
The affiliate business program gives you the right to advertise their program, products and services and to earn commissions if you make a sale for them.
In turn, they receive free advertising that you as their member perform for them in exchange for the commission for referrals to their affiliate business.
This is good for you because being new, you really do not have the skill or expertise yet to create your own products or internet marketing documents. Of course you can and will learn anything that you set your mind to, eventually.
With the proper guidance and some basic training, internet marketing is not difficult. It does however, take a lot of dedication and determination to put forth the continual effort to build and sustain the momentum required to succeed with an internet marketing business.
In a way you can say that an affiliate business gives you a chance to earn while you learn. Without any guide lines at all you can waste a lot of time and money and become easily discouraged and just quit before you have really given it a chance.
There is a famous saying, ‘Winners Never Quit and Quitters Never Win”. A person who quits, is one who will never know what would have happened right around the corner, had they continued to try.
Another saying that you hear is that only 5% do not fail at internet marketing. You want to know why? It is because 95% quit. Think about that for a moment.
Most affiliate programs do not require a contract. So it is possible to start out with a few of them and use the resources and tools provided to learn as much as possible about internet marketing and to really give it a good try over time.
If after a reasonable period you are not making money, or are beginning to lose money, then maybe you want to try some other affiliate programs – you can add them on or replace the ones that are not working for you.
By: Satya Das
Is Drop Shipping A Legitimate Home Business Money Maker?
December 28th, 2009There are hundreds of ways to make money online, but some just don’t make you the money you’re probably hoping for. Drop shipping is, fortunately, not under that category. Drop shipping is a legitimate home business money maker for more reasons than you would think. Before you make drop shipping a home business, shouldn’t you know what it is?
Drop shipping is a type of retailing where you pass the order and shipping details to a wholesaler. From there, the wholesaler dispatches the product and complete order to the customer directly. This saves you the hassle of having to store products at your house or in a building, and it also saves you the hassle of shipping things out.
The way you can make this a home business money maker is by collecting the difference between the wholesale price you are billed and the retail price you sell it for. This can be tricky determining what to set your retail price at because the internet is a very competitive industry. If you set the pricing too high, your potential customers will likely go elsewhere to do business. If you set them too low, your overall profit will be minimal.
While it is important to come up with a price to sell your product for, first you have to select a product that will create a home business money maker. Obviously, the more intrigued you are the better chances you will have of having success. Therefore, look into public appeal for products that you yourself have interest in.
There are several websites on the internet that allow you to see how many times a keyword phrase is being searched. This will help you determine what products can legitimately make money and which ones will fail you.
After you find the product you want to promote, you have to find a place to provide the products. This is where you want to search the major search engines to find a quality affiliate program to sell the products from. Once you find an affiliate program for a wholesale company, they will take it from there. They will handle the products, deal with the money and drop ship all products.
What you have to do is market the product(s) and generate a traffic volume using various marketing techniques. Without any customers you have no business, but with an extensive marketing campaign you can truly make a decent profit from drop shipping.
By: Paul Jesse
