“If it works, it works” as the ancient saying goes. That is, unless of course, it does’nt. Network Marketing & MLM opportunities look excellent on paper. We’ve all seen the presentations, wether via an online video presentation or at our kitchen table. We hear impressive terminology like “forced matrix”, “hybrid networking model” and “direct response networking” to get us salivating over potential for a quick net profit, and a long-term residual income. A distributor gets involved, spends time and money hoping to beat the staggering odds stacked against them. And, as with 99% of all network or multi-level marketer, the distributor fails. They lose money, motivation and inevitably drop out of the program.

This begs the question; “Why do people, knowing full well that statistically they will indeed fail, even get involved in the first place?” They bought into the myth, or illusion of MLM success.

Do we suggest that MLM and Network Marketing business models are a scam? Of course not. There are in fact legitimate opportunities out there that offer new and unique products or services to the market. After all, on paper, the math works out. But, in reality, the vast majority will fail within the first three months, regardless of the product or market appetite.

We will now summarize 5 of the most common myths attributed to MLM & Network Marketing in attempt to clarify the massive failure rate that networkers seem destined to endure.

Myth #1: MLM offers a better business opportunity than any other conventional model for amassing a large fortune.

Reality: 99% everyone who invests in MLM ends up losing money. That means that fewer than 1% of all MLM representatives ever earn a profit. With aproximately 13. 3 MLM and network marketing distributors in the US alone, only 130,000 ever make money. And those “gurus” earning a sustainable income at this business are an even smaller percentage still. The fact is that mathematics inevitably limit every MLM opportunity. The MLM Business model itself allows for only a small number of successful distributors. Continuous growth of an MLM company is in fact usually due to the constant number of new enrollees, most of which drop out by the third month. It takes an army of failures to make just one successful distributor.

Myth #2: MLM is simple. Recruiting Friends and relatives ensures you have Life-Time distributors & customers.

Reality: Capitalizing upon personal relationships like friends and family members to build your organization can hinder and even ruin social standing. Simply place, people don’t like being pressured by friends or relatives to buy products or join a business. Naturally, people tend to avoid them and identify them as a salesman, not a friend. This is jokingly referred to as the “NFL” or “No Friends Left” club in MLM & network marketing circles.

Myth #3: MLM & network marketing can be done successfully in your spare time. A few hours of time invested every week can earn a significant supplemental income and will grow exponentially, making further effort unnecessary.

Reality: Earning an income in MLM & network marketing requires extraordinary time commitment. “A few hours a week” inevitably leads to dominating people’s entire life. In MLM, because everyone with a heart beat is a prospect, every waking moment is a potential time for marketing and recruiting. Talent, dedication and salesmanship all require one key element to hone and enhance: time. This is one of the reasons why so many MLM ‘ers jump from program to program, hoping to catch the next wave. They have spent so much time on the phone and keeping up with changing company guidelines that it has really become their life.

Myth #4: MLM & network marketing are the best option for owning your own business and achieving financial independence.

Reality: Distributorship in MLM is not “owning a business”. Most MLM contracts have termination of the distributorship clauses in their Terms & Conditions Agreement. This makes it simple, and perfectly legal, to cancel your distributorship at will, commissions can be withheld and down lines can be taken away arbitrarily. MLM distributors are not “business owners”, but joiners in a rigid duplication system over which they have virtually no control and must adhere to.

Myth #5: Network marketing & MLM’s are the most effective after building a large down line, thus leading to long-term residual income.

Reality: Most assume that success with MLM depends on reselling the opportunity to sign up more distributors and building a massive organization. As a matter of fact, long term residual income lies in a loyal customer base, NOT from the organizations efforts. Translation: in the long term, money can be made from the customers using your product, not from that 99% failure rate we discussed earlier. Personal retailing is where the potential for long term income, not building huge down lines destined to collapse. So of course, the question arises, why even place any more money or effort into recruiting distributors, when the real money is on the retail side?

Is there an alternative? Is there a business model that can turn a 99% Failure Rate into a 99% Success Rate?

If you have just place up a website, you probably all ready have heard words like: keywords, Google Adwords, Google Adsense, and SEO. Adwords, Adsense, SEO have one thing in common – Keywords. How vital are keywords? Very Vital.

Google Adwords

Adwords, be it through Google, Miva, or any pay-per-click search engines, you need keywords. With Adwords, you make a three-line ad – 25 word title, with two 35 word lines of ad copy – then you make your keywords. To get the hits, you have to brainstorm for different keywords that are different but relevant to your target audience. Sound simple? It’s not. It takes time, patience, constant tweaking, and hoping that the product you are selling is not already saturated — to much competition, makes it a small more hard for the novice to make a profit.

Google Adsense

Google Adsense is an advertising program made by Google, and which is beginning to be explored by other search engines, such as Yahoo and MSN – that allows you to place targeted ads on your website. If someone clicks on the ad, you earn a small amount of money. These ads are keyword driven and are relevant to your webpage or website.

Sounds simple? Well, not really. There is more to it than just putting an ad on your website and expecting someone to click on it. What’s involved? Let’s see – color, position, style, to name just a few.

SEO

Search engine optimization – this for me has been a time-consuming process – since I am still learning. SEO is keyword driven – the search engines pull the keywords from your web copy – not, to my surprise, from the meta keywords tag. Granted, I still use the meta keywords tag, but maybe in the near future, I will slowly eliminate the tag from my WebPages…

The search engines do, but, pull information from Meta Description, Meta Title, and the content of your WebPages. Thus, content does reign supreme.

Since content reigns supreme, each page should contain useful content and most importantly, you’re most relevant keywords that you want to emphasize. Secondly, it is best to try and base your keywords around a central theme. I have found that when the keywords diverts away from the main theme – that sends a red flag to search engines. So, if you want to look at your keywords and the density of the keywords on your webpage or WebPages – You can get a quick rundown at: http://www. ranks. nl/tools/spider. html . It’s a free tool, and very helpful.

To conclude, keywords is one of the main ingredients that leads people to your website, product, service and/or ad. …AND, keywords based around your quality content will help with your positioning on your website.

A home based business is a fantastic way a person can make an extra income on the side or just get out of the normal grind on the average 9 to 5 job. Millions of people in this country already have an at home at one level or another and are generating billions into the economy. It is no wonder why thousands more a day are getting into the home based business game using informative sites such as happilyhomebased. comHowever not everyone is success full at home based business than others. Sites like happily home based makes getting stated simple, but it still up to each individual owner to ensure their own success. Studies have found a few key mistakes that first time home based business owners make. A few of them are the following:Never get into a home based business on a mere compulsionDo your research. Make excellent use of at home business finders like Happily Home BasedChoose a starter business that you can easily know. If you have small or business experience choose a home business that is cheap to start and simple control to start with. Happily Home Based has a wide selection of Home Based Business Opportunities at many different levels of budget and commitment. If you feel hesitant to take on a home business all by yourself find a partner, a friend, family member, colleague, whatever, to help spread the risk and responsibility out. Don’t bite off more than you can chew, sums it up. Don’t give up so soon. Making home based business from scratch takes time, and you may not get a return on your investment in a matter of weeks. You have to build up reputation and the cliental and money will eventually come in. There’s nothing incorrect with buying an existing business or franchise that can be based at home, in fact, there may be less risk involved if it already has a track record of being successful. But, it can be hard to track down those for sale that can be done from home, if that’s where your heart is, that’s why websites like Home Based Business for Sale are useful. This is one of the most well loved directory sites of its type, featuring home franchise and other home business listings; while providing advice, resources and tools for fledging entrepreneurs. And finally… Yes unfortunately some business will fail. Always remember that a home based business is a business NOT a leisure activity, and if you treat it so you will lose money. But, if you do it properly, research your business at sites like happilyhomebased. com, and you will join the millions of American cashing in on at home businesses.

Team building is what you make of it. You can work well with your co-workers or not. As you build a team in the work place, you will notice how this well oiled machine works.
I remember early in my career when my best friend and I were dishwashers in a country club and we worked so well together that we saved hours worth of payroll. Yes, it was income that we lost, but due to our speed we were paid an hourly wage that was higher than most employees there! We were able to end the night with time left to have fun before curfew.
If you are looking for a way to develop team team work skills, there are a couple of thoughts that have been proven successful time and time again.
It is up to you to choose what kind of team work project you need to incorporate, and how much time, effort, and money you are willing to place into the project. Building team work capacity is one sure fire way to get better production for your employees.
In the past few years, team building has taken off to become one of the largest trends in the business sector–and there are plenty of people who are willing to write about it, including business psychologists and professional consultants. One fantastic book to check out if you are interested in team building is Quick Team Building Activities for Busy Managers: 50 Exercises that get Results in Just 15 Minutes by Brian Cole Miller.
This book offers team building activities to busy managers that do not have time to waste an entire day shaping his or her team. As the title says, this book offers 50 unique exercises that only take 15 minutes to complete. This is a fantastic book if you just want to incorporate one exercise a day.
You may also want to check out Team Building Activities for Every Group by Alanna Jones. This book will help you to find the team work activity that is appropriate for your company.
There are activities that will suit the needs of every type of group. Overall, team work is an essential topic for any company that is looking to expand. By purchasing one of these books you will be taking a step in the right direction. Check out your local bookstore today.
If you would rather teach your employees yourself you may want to pick up a book to read before starting. A fantastic book to start with is The Huge Book of Team Building Games: Trust-Building Activities, Team Spirit Exercises, and Other Fun Things to Do by John Newstrom. This book is among one of the best sellers for people who are looking for an effective corporate team building exercise.

by Philip Yaffe “I know that half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. The problem is, I don’t know which half. ” This succinct resume of the advertiser’s dilemma is often attributed to John Wanamaker, the department store pioneer. Some people prefer to give the credit to Henry Ford, the automobile pioneer, or other favorite business giants. Whoever said it first, it is certain that it has been said thousand and thousand of times since. The significance of the observation is nothing small of astounding. These are people whose business is investing and harvesting financial assets, yet when it comes to advertising, they freely admit to wasting at least half of their money! But the observation can be turned on its head. Viewed from this perspective, it means that these same extremely clever and resourceful marketers believe that the power of advertising is so fantastic, even at only 50% effectiveness they still get their money’s worth. This is equally astounding! The value of advertising can most easily be seen with mass marketed products. For example, a breakfast cereal launches a major advertising campaign; within a few days to weeks the sales figures will reflect the impact of the campaign. With technical and industrial products, the picture is not quite so clear. Few people buy a car or a piece of industrial equipment on impulse. They build up to it over a long period of time, so that the cause-and-effect relationship between advertising and sales is virtually impossible to evaluate. Nevertheless, advertising is indispensable. So the question is, can you construct advertising campaigns that will assure the best return on investment (ROI), even when that return cannot be directly measured? The answer is both yes and no. It is “no” if you believe that advertising by nature is more of an art than a science. It is “yes” if you believe that advertising is a combination of both art and science. It is certainly right that advertising has a major “art” component, i. e. that people who have a “feel” for it are likely to produce better, more effective advertising than people who don’t. Unfortunately, this verity has led to the fake conclusion that advertising is predominantly art, i. e. a matter of taste. When advertising is viewed as largely a question of personal preference, the rational component of the exercise takes second importance. Worse, it often degenerates into a kind of pseudoscience of rules and regulations with no scientific justification: — Be positive: no one likes negative advertising — Avoid simple, straightforward headlines; headlines should “tease” readers into the advert — Use huge, bold visuals; people are impressed by pictures — Show the solution, not the problem: this is reassuring to potential buyers — Never write more than 15 – 20 words of body copy; no one reads body copy anyhow — Make payoff lines (slogans) clever and memorable, not explicit and to the point The summation seems to be: Advertising is entertainment. If you can attract attention and give a show, then you will sell. One writer on the subject bluntly stated: “Advertising consists of first hitting people in the face with a pie, then delivering your message. ” It is of course right that you must attract attention before you can deliver your message. But just how seriously is anyone like to take your message while he is wiping whipped cream off his face? Advertising may have elements of show business. But if it is only show business, it will fail. On the other hand, if we are more detached in our analysis — i. e. if we place the art of advertising and the science of advertising into better balance — we many learn some valuable lesions. And gain some valuable commercial leverage. I have done considerably work in pharmaceutical marketing. Doctors are perhaps the most hard targets in the world, because what you “sell” them is thoughts and information, which later on they may or may not turn into prescriptions for their patients. Thus, while the following examples relate specifically to doctors and medicines, the underlying principles are universally valid. Throughout this article, wherever you see the word “doctor”, mentally substitute the name of your potential technical and/or industrial customer and see how well these thoughts fit. Facing the Facts David Ogilvy, one of the most highly regarded gurus of consumer advertising, asserts: “Very few advertisements contain enough factual information to sell the product. There is a ludicrous tradition among copywriters that consumers aren’t interested in facts. Northing could be farther from the truth. ” If this contention is valid for housewives, how much more valid must it be for doctors! Medicine is a serious business. When a doctor reads a medical journal, he is looking for medical information. Otherwise, he would be reading something else. It therefore follows: Advertising in medical journals that gives real medical information is likely to attract more attention and achieve better results than advertising which doesn’t. If this seems self-evident, medical journals bear witness to the opposite. The majority of adverts tend to fall into two categories: 1. Lots of words, but small real information (lack of a focused message). 2. A clever headline, a pleasing picture—and no information at all. The excuse for the first kind of advert is often: “It is a new product; we need to make a personality for it. ” It is hard to imagine how an empty personality, based solely on errant prose, will result in positive promotion. The excuse for the second category of adverts often is: “It is a well known product; this is simply a reminder advert. ” Certainly it makes sense to remind the doctor that a medicine exists. But it makes even more sense to remind him of why he is using it, if he is already using it. Or why he should be using it, if he isn’t. The 80/20 Rule The objection will now be raised: Doesn’t this “art + science” concept of advertising necessitate long body copy? Does it make sense to write long body copy when no one reads it anyhow? Let’s examine this contention in reverse order. For every 100 doctors who read the headline and look at the visual of an advert, let’s say only 20 will really read the body. Does this represent an 80% wastage? Emphatically no. The 80/20 rule is a fundamental tenet of technical and industrial marketing, i. e. in general 80% of sales come from 20% of customers. The same principle applies to advertising. Readers who just look at the headline and visual, then turn the page, at that moment are not the real customers for the product. Those who remain to read the body copy are the real customers for the product. This is the ideal moment to tell them bout it, because this is when they want to know about it. Otherwise, they too are likely to turn the page and an brilliant selling opportunity will be lost. Body is vital, in fact vital, because it is your only real chance to make the sale. But how long should that body copy be? This is like asking how long is a piece of string. You don’t answer this question by counting the number of words. Rather, you consider the value of the words. The best guide is: If the body copy contains one word more than needed to deliver the message, it is probably too long; if it contains one word less than need to deliver the message, it is certainly too small, regardless of how many words are used! Of course, it makes no sense to simply print the prescribing information. As Bill Bernbach, a legendary practitioner of consumer advertising, has written: “Be certain that your advertisement says something to the consumer; that it informs and renders a service. Then be certain that it says what it has to say in a way no one has ever said it before. ” Notice the balance in this advice. First: “Be certain that your advertisement says something to the consumer. ” This is advertising as a science. Determining what you want to say about your product and what you ought to say about it are two different things. This is why most excellent advertising starts with market research. And never lets anything go to press before it has been thoroughly tested. Second: “Be certain that your advertisement says what it has to say in a way that no one has ever said it before. ” This is advertising as an art. How the advert expresses its message, both visually and verbally, can vary dramatically depending on who is saying it. The total impact the advert will achieve intimately depends on the talents of the art director and the copywriter, the so-called “makes” of the business. The Use and Abuse of Creativity Introducing the copywriter and art director into the discussion raises the vexing question of creativity in advertising. “Creativity” is probably one of the most abused and misused words in English or any other language. As we have seen, some people reckon it means hitting people in the face with a pie. We have also seen the dangers of this approach. Surprising and shocking people in order to gain their attention can: — Undermine the credibility of the serious message you are trying to deliver. — Lead to rapid advertising “wear-out”. You can surprise and shock people only once; after that, you are likely to have no effect. Worse, you may have a negative effect! Stripped of mythology, saying what you have to say in a way that it has never before been said simply means: Putting forward the essentials of the message in such a way that they cannot be ignored — on the first exposure and on subsequent exposures. So much emphasis is placed on attracting attention and conveying a message on the first exposure (“pie in the face”), very small thought seems to be given to what will happen, if anything, on the second, third and subsequent exposures. This is the concept of “wear-out”; after how many exposures does the advert stop having any useful impact? The concept of wear-out is closely allied to the thought of repetition. Unlike supermarket adverts, adverts for prescription pharmaceuticals seldom appear only once (“Buy now before supplies run out; Special discount prices, stock up now”). Instead, they usually run for at least several months, and often a year or longer. Right, few doctors read the same advert more than once, but they cannot help seeing it more than once. They will certainly see it much more often than they will see the pharmaceutical representative who visits them. Advertising is the most frequent and most consistent point of contact between the doctor and the company. A truly efficient advert should have impact each and every time it is seen — whether it is read each time or not. This is why the fundamental structure is so vital. And why it is well worth spending the time and energy to get it right, i. e. concept development not only for journal adverts, but also for brochures, mailings, oral presentations, symposia, etc. How do you make advertising with such power and longevity? In general, any advert that communicates the product name and main sell proposition in a flash should continue to work as long as the underlying strategy remains the same. The assumption is, each exposure — even if it is only as long as it takes to turn the page — reinforces previous impressions of the message in the journals, mailings, etc. Adverts that rely on “teaser” headlines or other indirect approaches are more problematical. It is far more likely that the doctor will perceive this kind of advertising as promotion rather than information, and will turn the page with no reinforcement of the selling message. Courage and Conviction A truly effective long-life advert may not always appear smashingly striking at first sight; but, if it is well constructed it will grow and gain strength over time. By contrast, an advert that is extremely striking at first sight — this being its major attribute — may in fact lose power over time. Sometimes overnight. Developing advertisements that sell on first and subsequent exposures admits of no hard and quick rules. Some times it may mean an extremely factual advert that looks nearly like editorial copy; other time it may be an advert with a highly emotional content. It all depends on the nature of the product; the nature of the market, and what thoughts, right or fake, are already in the doctor’s mind. There is more to excellent technical and industrial advertising than meets the eye. Indeed, a superficial analysis is likely to be very misleading, with very expensive consequences. To properly evaluate an advertising campaign, it is necessary to know the underlying strategy and the objectives that strategy is designed to achieve. By way of example, here are the descriptions of three advertising campaigns I produced when I was creative director of a specialized medical advertising agency. You may not fully know the products, but look closely at the description of each advert. 1. Product: Vasodilator Objective: Increase prescriptions by repositioning it as the first product of a new, more effective therapeutic class Headline: “6 Actions on the Blood and the Vessels to Combat Claudication and its Premonitory Symptoms” Visual: 6 symbols in the form of a rectangle representing the 6 modes of action Body copy: factual, moderate length 2. Product: Benzodiazepine Objective: Stabilize leadership position/market share in an anti-benzodiazepine marketing environment Headline: “My Conditions for Prescribing an Anxiolytic to My Patients” Visual: Intelligent, serious-looking general practitioner speaking the headline Body copy: factual, small 3. Beta-2 mimetic bronchodilator Objective: Maximize sales potential by overcoming market prejudice to using oral beta-2 mimetics in the treatment of nocturnal asthma Headline: “Asthma: Night Is the Enemy” Visual: Artist’s impression of the experience of a night-time asthma attack, painted by an asthmatic artist who really suffers such attacks. Body copy: factual; extremely small At first glance the vasodilator and benzodiazepine adverts might appear uninspired, even banal. They are unlikely to win any awards for advertising “creativity”. On the other hand, the asthma advert is exactly the type that could win a creativity award. Despite their superficial differences, fundamentally they are quire similar. All three adverts had very high awareness and credibility scores. One of the so-called “banal” adverts was so well received — and had such an impact on sales — that when we proposed a more “imaginative” version, the product manager, originally unconvinced by it, growled: “If you touch my advert, I will break your arm. ” Conclusion: All three adverts were extremely creative in the real sense of the word, because they: 1. Clearly reflected the nature of the product 2. Precisely addressed the needs of the market 3. Elicited the desired response (won prescriptions) The serious advertiser would do well to bear this functional definition of creativity uppermost in mind. It takes courage to reject an advertising campaign proposal that is striking, cute, amusing, artistic, etc. , in favor of one that doesn’t seem to possess these desirable characteristics. A so-called “unimaginative” campaign that clearly responds to the needs of the market and has the innate capacity to grow and develop (i. e. continue generating sales) is considerably more creative, in the right sense of the word, than one that flashes like a meteor, then dissipates its energy and loses impact before it has had a chance to do its job. Philip Yaffe is a former writer with The Wall Street Journal and international marketing communication consultant. He now teaches courses in persuasive communication in Brussels, Belgium. Because his clients use English as a second or third language, his approach to writing and public speaking is somewhat different from other communication coaches. He is the author of In the “I” of the Storm: the Simple Secrets of Writing & Speaking (Nearly) like a Professional, available from the publisher (storypublishers. be) and Amazon (amazon. com). Contact: phil. yaffe@yahoo. com, phil. yaffe@gmail. com

If you wish to be a successful Internet marketer you will want to avoid these 8 mistakes: 1. Failure to prepare properly. Many Internet marketers are simply bone idle and will not make the effort to prepare properly. Refrain from being overly nervous as if you’ll miss the boat if you do not market your website immediately. Use but many days it takes to setup all the appropriate advertising accounts and advertisements properly. This will make your administration more efficient and enable you to glide through your schedule tasks effortlessly each day. The net result is that your marketing efforts will be far more productive than if you were to take a haphazard approach. 2. Failure to implement an advertising strategy. You must have a plot with well defined goals if you wish to have positive marketing results. Normal 0 fake fake fake MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Do not try to recreate the wheel. Find out what successful people are doing and do the same. Regarding goals, write them down. When you achieve a goal mark it as “completed” and replace it with another. By doing this very simple step you can monitor your effectiveness and progress. 3. Failure to be professional. Some of the ads on the Internet are of embarrassingly poor quality. Be professional in your business approach and in the design of your ads. If you lack the ability to produce professional ads then find a resource that can. The quality of your website and advertisements is a reflection on you. Also, when dealing with customers always be courteous and professional even when they are not. If you are professional you will shine above the rest and earn customer confidence. 4. Failure to implement and adhere to a disciplined schedule. If you don’t have a realistic schedule in place then you will not be disciplined in marketing your ads properly. Consistency not volume is the key to success in marketing on the Internet. A schedule allows you to be consistent and also forces you to be disciplined. The Internet is not a “get rich quick” environment. It takes hours of dedicated and consistent work. You must be committed to putting in the time if you wish to have excellent marketing results. 5. Failure to utilize the right tools. There are some very innovative tools on the Internet to make the operation of your business more efficient. Many of them are very affordable and they will save you from having fantastic frustration. Some marketers take the approach of being a “penny wise and a pound foolish. ” In saving their pennies they are losing out on making the larger dollars. Don’t ignore the many tools which are available. 6. Failure to build a downline. Your downline is the cornerstone of your business. A downline is your customer list or they can be referrals that join certain advetising programs through you serving as an affiliate. Verious advertising sites offer you some type of compensation for bringing them referrals. Don’t ignore the value of these referrals. Some Internet marketers are so nervous to advertise their product they fail to have an understanding of the larger picture. A huge downline can save you money in your advertising and enbable you to advertise more effectively. When soliciting always get the email address of your customer for future solicitations and sales. 7. Failure to track ads. Much time is wasted on unproductive sites and ads. If you’re not tracking them you will continually work in ignorance. You must have a measure of what is working and what is not. Is the program that you are participating in yielding the desired results? Are your ads well written and effective in drawing customers? You will never have the answers to these vital questions unless you track your ads. You can waste a fantastic deal of time on poor advertising programs and terrible ads if you never track the results. 8. Failure to know the advertising medium. You must know how each type of advertising program works if you’re going to be an effective marketer. Whether you use pay-per-click advertising or membership driven sites like safelists, traffic exchanges and text ad exchanges all have their own personality. Not only do you need to know the mechanics of each but also the general personality of their membership.

“If it works, it works” as the ancient saying goes. That is, unless of course, it does’nt. Network Marketing & MLM opportunities look excellent on paper. We’ve all seen the presentations, wether via an online video presentation or at our kitchen table. We hear impressive terminology like “forced matrix”, “hybrid networking model” and “direct response networking” to get us salivating over potential for a quick net profit, and a long-term residual income. A distributor gets involved, spends time and money hoping to beat the staggering odds stacked against them. And, as with 99% of all network or multi-level marketer, the distributor fails. They lose money, motivation and inevitably drop out of the program.

This begs the question; “Why do people, knowing full well that statistically they will indeed fail, even get involved in the first place?” They bought into the myth, or illusion of MLM success.

Do we suggest that MLM and Network Marketing business models are a scam? Of course not. There are in fact legitimate opportunities out there that offer new and unique products or services to the market. After all, on paper, the math works out. But, in reality, the vast majority will fail within the first three months, regardless of the product or market appetite.

We will now summarize 5 of the most common myths attributed to MLM & Network Marketing in attempt to clarify the massive failure rate that networkers seem destined to endure.

Myth #1: MLM offers a better business opportunity than any other conventional model for amassing a large fortune.

Reality: 99% everyone who invests in MLM ends up losing money. That means that fewer than 1% of all MLM representatives ever earn a profit. With aproximately 13. 3 MLM and network marketing distributors in the US alone, only 130,000 ever make money. And those “gurus” earning a sustainable income at this business are an even smaller percentage still. The fact is that mathematics inevitably limit every MLM opportunity. The MLM Business model itself allows for only a small number of successful distributors. Continuous growth of an MLM company is in fact usually due to the constant number of new enrollees, most of which drop out by the third month. It takes an army of failures to make just one successful distributor.

Myth #2: MLM is simple. Recruiting Friends and relatives ensures you have Life-Time distributors & customers.

Reality: Capitalizing upon personal relationships like friends and family members to build your organization can hinder and even ruin social standing. Simply place, people don’t like being pressured by friends or relatives to buy products or join a business. Naturally, people tend to avoid them and identify them as a salesman, not a friend. This is jokingly referred to as the “NFL” or “No Friends Left” club in MLM & network marketing circles.

Myth #3: MLM & network marketing can be done successfully in your spare time. A few hours of time invested every week can earn a significant supplemental income and will grow exponentially, making further effort unnecessary.

Reality: Earning an income in MLM & network marketing requires extraordinary time commitment. “A few hours a week” inevitably leads to dominating people’s entire life. In MLM, because everyone with a heart beat is a prospect, every waking moment is a potential time for marketing and recruiting. Talent, dedication and salesmanship all require one key element to hone and enhance: time. This is one of the reasons why so many MLM ‘ers jump from program to program, hoping to catch the next wave. They have spent so much time on the phone and keeping up with changing company guidelines that it has really become their life.

Myth #4: MLM & network marketing are the best option for owning your own business and achieving financial independence.

Reality: Distributorship in MLM is not “owning a business”. Most MLM contracts have termination of the distributorship clauses in their Terms & Conditions Agreement. This makes it simple, and perfectly legal, to cancel your distributorship at will, commissions can be withheld and down lines can be taken away arbitrarily. MLM distributors are not “business owners”, but joiners in a rigid duplication system over which they have virtually no control and must adhere to.

Myth #5: Network marketing & MLM’s are the most effective after building a large down line, thus leading to long-term residual income.

Reality: Most assume that success with MLM depends on reselling the opportunity to sign up more distributors and building a massive organization. As a matter of fact, long term residual income lies in a loyal customer base, NOT from the organizations efforts. Translation: in the long term, money can be made from the customers using your product, not from that 99% failure rate we discussed earlier. Personal retailing is where the potential for long term income, not building huge down lines destined to collapse. So of course, the question arises, why even place any more money or effort into recruiting distributors, when the real money is on the retail side?

Is there an alternative? Is there a business model that can turn a 99% Failure Rate into a 99% Success Rate?

Despite best team building efforts, many organizations are still operating on low power when it comes to producing desired results. They’ve invested time and dollars in events that supposedly help team members bond and function coherently, yet results are small term at best.
So what’s the problem? Every situation is unique, but here are a few possibilities:
• Some or all members don’t want to function as a team. They’ve become accustomed to operating independently and don’t see the value of operating as a whole.
• Team building isn’t linked to business results. Instead the team experienced artificial feel excellent exercises. Although the team has learned about each other’s behavioral styles, motivational profiles, individual strengths, etc. , they have failed to connect their efforts to desired business outcomes.
• There’s no follow-up beyond a one-time event. A successful team building process should be approached strategically, not as a one-time event hoping for the best. It should result in actionable thoughts to help the team and organization achieve their goals. Continued learning, action and reinforcement are critical.
Of all of the potential issues that can negatively affect teambuilding, here are some of the most common impediments to team success in my experience and ways to
overcome them.
Team Building Impediment #1: Fuzzy focus.
In this situation, the team doesn’t really know how to function. Either the team has lost focus on results or members have never been clear of their goals in the first place. Instead, they’ve become too internally fixated on other team members—judging what they’re doing, making assumptions, speculating, back stabbing, finger pointing, etc. Without a clear focus, team members frequently react to events in their immediate environment. They become distracted by other team members or simply respond to whatever issue lands in their lap. There’s no strategic team focus or energy to go forward.
Suggestion: As the leader, you must step in and clarify huge picture goals and expectations. In order to do complete this task effectively, you must communicate the goals in a number ways that appeal to a variety of team members. Some may need a visual representation (e. g. , a roadmap); others may need to know the “why” behind the goals to buy in. Check for clarity. Question the team to articulate their understanding of the overall goals in their own words. Then clarify or right as needed.
Team Building Impediment #2: Lack of leadership.
Leadership is critical to help the team succeed. Without it, team members will resort to their own methods. Some will run as far and quick as they can to prove themselves, pushing boundaries and taking on too much risk. Others will sit idle for as long as they can, performing as small as possible, yet complaining about how much work needs to get done. Some leaders are too busy concentrating on their own political or career agenda. Other leaders just don’t know their role or possess excellent leadership skills.
Suggestion: Conduct regular strategic focus sessions. Strong leaders will help the team focus on the goal (the what) and key strategies (the how). Hold consistent informal one-on-one development meetings with direct reports to gain feedback, uncover distress spots and leverage opportunities. If you need to build leadership skills yourself, make that a priority. If you value your career, find a coach or mentor to help you. Remember, in order to develop others – you must first develop yourself.
Team Building Impediment #3: Stuck in sameness.
The team is stuck in practices that may have been established years ago. They’ve gotten bone idle or stopped trying new approaches. New team members may be frustrated by the apparent lack of openness to new thoughts or ways of operating. Experienced team members defend the way things have always been done.
Suggestion: Identify one aspect of the team that you would be excited to see change come about. Talk with your team to make sure everyone agrees it would be worth it to affect change in that area. Determine what the best possible outcome could be if the team made the change, adopted a new procedure, tried a new approach or do whatever it is you’re suggesting. Then call for thoughts from the team on how to make it happen. Generating excitement about new possibilities makes it simpler for the team to get unstuck.

The most effective teams can maintain best practices while adapting to new environments or organizational changes. They are not content with sameness or status quo. Their best practices include constantly seeking new and better ways to perform their job. They are not content with going through the motions or frivolous exercises that may help increase awareness, but stop there.
Final Thoughts:
It doesn’t matter if Bob is a blue, green or yellow if he can’t connect his self-awareness to results. The same applies at the team level. Team members may find it fascinating to learn more about team members, but be sure to help translate learning into results.
Fantastic team leaders spend time clarifying goals, cultivating their own leadership skills and identifying new ways to achieve fantastic results. Not to be confused with micromanaging, an effective leader will check in from time to time to make sure the organization’s goals and strategies remain clear. At the same time, they help build capability of individual team members versus taking on the work of the team themselves.
Simply opening productive and constructive communication to a greater degree will help leaders increase their effectiveness and their teams function most effectively. Leaders often feel unnecessary pressure to tell everyone on the team what to do. Focus on influencing versus doing.
Team building is a means to an end, not an end in itself. What do you want your team to achieve?

As an organizational development consultant, executive coach, and Founder of WorkMatters

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