The laptop lifestyle is great, but it takes a lot of work to make it work.
I have a friend who moves from network marketing company to network marketing company like a slightly crazy single girl going from bad boyfriend to bad boyfriend. Each time she falls in love, she thinks this is the one.
Many of those companies are selling are incompatible highlights packaged together into what becomes essentially a lie. They talk about all the money that can be made and how little you can work. Both of those things are true, but they are generally not true for the same person at the same time – at least not until that person has spent many many years working to build a base of customers who are buying and downline team members who are selling.
A great joke that was repeated to me once I'd gotten into the top 2% of my network marketing company is that someone in my role should “dress like a lady, think like a man, and work like a dog,” which is offensive in more than one way, but at least true in terms of the work ethic required to really be successful. We did not mention this to the rank and file of the company who had not yet really committed to the cause.
Yes, absolutely, there are top people in network marketing companies who get big paychecks. But many of them are using employee thinking against their potential recruits. They show you a monthly paycheck for $10,000, and so you assume their claims of six figure income must be true. But what you don't see is that the month after the $10,000 paycheck they may have received no paycheck at all, but instead a bill. Depending upon how that person built their business, if they don't have a stable base of people actually selling the product beneath them, their income may fluctuate wildly.
When I was in the top 2% of a network marketing company driving a “free” car, there were months when my “team” production wasn't enough to cover the quota I had to make for the company to make my lease payment for me. So instead of a paycheck, I received a bill for the lease payment on my “free” car.
And let me be clear, when we talk about “team” production, what that really meant was the wholesale packages the people I personally recruited purchased to start their businesses. So if I got busy training my people or decided to take advantage of that flexibility that gets talked about so much, I didn't get paid that month.
Now yes, I did have team members who sold and recruited, so there were moments when the business did produce on its own. But the truth is that if you bring people in with the promise of getting rich quick, they catch on quick and are gone. The team I built was like a sandcastle, constantly having to be rebuilt due to the lack of a firm foundation.
It's a shame that so many hustlers find their way into these organizations and that they go unchecked, because IN THEORY network marketing businesses are a great halfway point between being an employee and being a completely independent entrepreneur. So much of the branding (logo, cards, website, mission statement, product development) that soaks up so much of a company's start up capital and time is already done. If you find a product you want to sell and the market is not saturated with other people selling it, why not take advantage of some economies of scale?
But the fact is if you've started one of these businesses and it didn't work out, the problem likely is not the company, the product, or your upline (although those are all important factors you should research before signing up). The problem likely is that you have not taken the MASSIVE ACTION required to get the cargo plane off the ground. And most likely your upline isn't going to be completely honest about how much work it took them to get going, because they don't want to overwhelm or discourage you.
While every now and then there is a unicorn who comes in with the correct energy, support network around them, or other magical juju to get them up and running fast, even those folks eventually hit a wall where they realize to grow beyond their original network is going to take time, money, and effort.
This is the point where the drama usually comes out (if it has not already). Something about the process of asking people not just to believe in us but to hand over their hard won cash just stirs up any insecurity a person might have. And honestly, it is easier to walk away than to look at all that sh!t.
So if you've joined several network marketing companies and not had success, I'd suggest before you sign up for the next business you ask yourself
1) am I ok with this being a hobby and losing money/not making much money?
2) if not, am I willing to work my A$$ off more than 8 hours a day and more than 5 days a week in exchange for building something that is flexible and allows me to have repeat/residual business?
3)if my work ethic matches my ambitions, am I willing to work through the emotional “stuff” that this business brings to the surface? Is my upline going to give me the emotional support I need, or should I work with a therapist or coach?
If you can answer yes to those questions, I'd say go for it. Just make sure you are learning about business finance and understanding whether or not your efforts are profitable. Network marketing done right can be a great entrepreneurial and sales training ground. But done wrong, it can clean out your bank accounts and mess up your relationships, including the one with yourself.
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