Brick & Mortar Business vs. Multi-Level Marketing Business
A brief confession, a couple of months ago, I was asked to speak on a
tele-seminar and I was asked Why did I decide to buy a brick and mortar
business when if I was looking for a proven business model, I wouldn’t
just buy into a Multi-Level Marketing Business or MLM. Sometimes
they are called Direct Sales businesses. Such as AMWAY, Pre-Paid
Legal, AVN, World Ventures, YTB, Warm Spirit, Noni Juice, Metaluca…
and the list goes on and on. How it works – you recruit people under
you to sell the business too and you receive a portion of their sales.
Sounds good? In a perfect world, this works, however, most of the
time, making sure that the recruits continue to sell is difficult.
Many buy the dream but never deliver the goods. The ones at the top,
make lots of money and the ones at the bottom hope to make lots of money.
I like some of the sales strategies – I wrote a whole article about what
I love about the MLM businesses however, they do not teach you to create
a target market or a niche and focus on the niche. Instead, they
teach , make a list of all of your friends and relatives and send them
a DVD of the opportunity. Next, get a sign for your car and then,
talk to people in the grocery store, bank line and even people on the street.
This program is for everyone. AND basically it is not. BUT
– before I digress, here’s what happened.
Well, my answer kinda shocked the facilitator of the call because apparently
my audience was full of MLM business owners. I happen to think that
you can make more money following a traditional model than using the “proven”
MLM model
Here’s what I know: When I was still working for the telephone company,
my account was Maxxis Telecom. The top level guys with Excel (MLM
long distance company) left to start their own telephone company.
They brought over their downline (all of the people attached to them, that
they received a portion of the profits from) and we built a $1million dollar
a month business very quickly.& My company provided all of the back
office. We carried all the calls, built a special switch and helped
with billing customers. My staff processed new orders and took customer
service calls. I also traveled with the owners to help at “opportunity
meetings”. I attended and talked about the telecom side of the business.
The business folded in 18 months. Not enough money to go around.
I know a great Direct Sales Manager – she brings in a great living about
$11,000 per month. She has 1500 in her downline. She receives
so many emails, she hates them. She constantly has to coach, counsel,
listen, answer and help her downline. Her husband, he too is involved
in a Direct Sales company where he quickly was bringing home $3,000 per
month and a few months ago, the company folded. No more checks. All
that work for nothing. My friend Susie was a manager for Weekenders,
she saw her monthly commission check dwindle from $11,000 to $3,000 then
to nothing. Weekenders also filed for bankruptcy.
I spent the same energy building my business and with 1500 customers,
I was generating $1.5 million per year. Same effort, different money.
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