Network Marketing – Is It Right For You?

As far as legitimate home based businesses go, perhaps none has been vilified more than network marketing (aka multi level marketing, aka MLM).

It seems like just about every article you find on article marketing is either from someone who wants you to join their “opportunity” or from someone who feels like they were burned and now they have an axe to grind and they’ll tell anyone who will listen about the evils of network marketing.

I’m rather neutral to network marketing myself.  I don’t actively promote any network marketing companies, so I’m going to try to give you the honest truth about network marketing.

Part time, yes – Sometimes, no!

First of all, understand that a network marketing business is in fact a business.  That means just doing a little work on building your business here and there or when you have time isn’t going to work.   If you had a part time job and just showed up when you felt like it, how long do you think you’d keep that job?   You wouldn’t, right?  While network marketing businesses do have the advantage of being a business you can do part time, you still need to commit to putting in time consistently if you’d like to build a business.

Are you a people person?

This is a big one.  Remember that this isn’t like selling a vacuum cleaner or set of encyclopedias.  Your success is directly tied to the success of others.  If you are able to help others reach their goals, you’ll reach yours.  That means you need to be ready, willing, and able to work with people.  You can’t just set up some automated system to do all the work for you.  Network marketing requires a human touch.  You’ll find all the most successful distributors don’t mind talking to people.  If you don’t like people that much, then find a different business (don’t worry, there are plenty of other business models out there that will better suit your talents).

A business for everyone – HELL NO!

I remember back when I was actively looking to promote my network marketing business, my upline would tell me how this business was for everyone and that I should contact all my friends and family and try to get them involved.

This is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard.  First, let’s remember what I just said – you need to be a people person.  Network marketing is a relationship business.  I could immediately disqualify a huge portion of my friends and family based off that one fact alone.

Instead of taking the shotgun approach to network marketing, you need to be carefully selecting the type of person who would be successful in this type of business.  First of all, by only working with people predisposed to doing well, you’ll have fewer dropouts and the people you brought in will do better.  You’re also a lot less likely to alienate all your friends to the point of joining the N.F.L. club (No Friends Left).

Also, you’ll be doing the entire industry a favor by not setting up people to fail.  Think about that for a second.  When you try to recruit every person desperate to make a dollar even though they have no business being in a network marketing business, all you’re doing is setting them up to fail and become another failed distributor who will be happy to tell everyone they know that network marketing is a pyramid scheme and that it’s all just a scam.

Conclusion

Joining an MLM company is something you need to carefully consider.  Make sure you believe in the company’s products and feel that you will be able to do well based on your own talents and motivation.

I don’t have any specific companies to recommend to you because I don’t know you, and it’s really a decision you need to make yourself.
Keep in mind the three points I made above and if you still think that multi level marketing is the right opportunity for you, then by all means, go for it.  Many people have gone on to become millionaires with network marketing.

But if you realize now that you’d only be kidding yourself if you tried to do network marketing, then take a look at some of the other suggestions on this site for starting a home based business – perhaps you’ll find something better suited to your unique talents.

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