by George Dodge
MLM, which is an acronym for Multi Level Marketing, is an amazing success formula for working from home, using the POWER of the Internet and achieving your personal and financial dreams!
My goal in this article is to briefly explain what this business model is and what it is not since it is used by hundreds of companies to move their goods and services from production to the end consumer.
With the information I will provide here, you will be able to make an informed, educated decision as to whether or not this business model is right for you.
Simply put, MLM (as we’ll call it here) is simply a business system for moving products and services from the factory to the marketplace and using a multi level commission payout plan (that’s where the term “Multi Level” comes in)! Another term commonly associated with MLM is Network Marketing due to the nature of the program members working together as a team.
Some people believe that Multi Level Marketing companies are nothing more than scams or illegal pyramid schemes. However, for true MLM companies, nothing could be further from the truth. These people simply do not understand how Multi Level Marketing companies work.
The first thing that you need to know is that MLM is not illegal and it is not a pyramid scheme. While the organizational structure resembles a pyramid in shape, this is true of almost all businesses. There are far more workers in the lower ranks of any business then at the top, if not, the business would collapse. Not everyone in the company can be CEO or Vice President. If fact, Multi Level Marketing companies are one hundred percent legal and many multi-million dollar companies use this business model to market their products.
Some well known Multi Level Marketing companies include Herbalife, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Shaklee, Amway, Tupperware, Princess house (a subsidiary of Colgate Palmolive), A. L. Williams (Insurance), Melaleuca, U.S. Sprint, MCI, and NSA. Companies such as these have been around for decades.
MLM is an explosive growth field and there are hundreds more MLM companies that, just like other companies, include some that are good and some that are not so good. Today, more and more Fortune 500 companies are even embracing Network Marketing for a portion of their marketing portfolio!
No matter what some MLM recruiters would like you to believe, Multi Level Marketing is not a get rich quick scheme and work is certainly involved if you want to build a long-term stable business. So, why are MLM companies and programs so popular? It is because the Multi Level Marketing business model presents an excellent opportunity for the “little guy” to start, on a part-time basis, a business that has a large residual income potential.
The magic of MLM is that independent distributors earn commissions not only for their own efforts, but also on the efforts of other distributors that they recruit into the business. Earning 1% of a hundred peoples efforts is always better than earning 100% on your own efforts, as John Paul Getty noted.
As each distributor recruits others to become distributors, they create what is known as a downline and in addition to their own retail sales commissions, they earn a wholesale commission on the amount of products their downline distributors move to consumers. This process goes on for some designated number of levels and is where the term “multi level” originates.
The more recruits a distributor can get under them, the larger their downline and therefore the larger their total commissions. How many levels a distributor can earn commissions from in their depends upon the particular company’s compensation plan. Five to seven or more levels is not unusual.
A strong incentive is thus created not only for a distributor to recruit more distributors for their downline, but also to train them to move products as well. Thus a successful distributor will want to duplicate their success by teaching their downline members how to be successful. By making their downline members successful, they make themselves more successful.
Building large stable residual income is therefore the result of successfully recruiting, training, and retaining others. The better one is at doing these things, the larger their income will become. While it is not necessarily easy, it can be very rewarding.
Millions of people are discovering the advantages of being their own boss and working from home with the MLM business model. A basic computer, telephone, fax machine, a HUGE ambition, and the knowledge of how to proceed to grow your business are all it really takes! To learn how to properly build a MLM business online and learn some of the common Multi Level Marketing myths that cause people to fail in their Network Marketing businesses, click the links in the resource box below.
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