Three things you need to know about MLMs
1. They aren’t evil.
There seems to be two schools of thought when it comes to MLMs. One is: They’re great. The other is: all MLMs are evil, pyramid schemes and anyone who buys into them is either stupid or lacks morals. Except the second school of though isn’t an educated opinion.
The popular MLMs you’ve probably heard of (Arbonne, BeautyCounter, YoungLiving, BeachBody, ZYIA Active, ItWorks, etc.) are not pyramid schemes. Are you scoffing? Well here’s the definition of a pyramid scheme: “A pyramid scheme is a business model that recruits members via a promise of payments or services for enrolling others into the scheme, rather than supplying investments or sale of products.” Every company I listed above sells products. Oh, and they compensate their representatives/distributors/team members for selling said products.
Do these companies incentivize their members to sign up other members? Yes. Here’s what I want you to remember though: These reps make a commission when they sell products, very similar to a car dealer making a commission on a car, or a stockbroker making a commission on selling stocks. The difference is that these MLMs don’t require you to go to their office building to work there. These companies aren’t evil for having people sell products, they are giving anyone the opportunity to work a nontraditional job and compensate you based on your performance. A novel idea for some, I’m sure.
The amount you are compensated and what you sell may differ company to company, and that brings me to my second point. . .
2. They aren’t all created equal.
They are different companies. They have different compensation plans. They sell different products. On some level I think this is obvious, but then again, I felt the need to spell it out for the folks in the back.
3. They work if you do
Let’s be clear – If you want to make money through an MLM you have just signed up for a job. If you don’t want a job, and you sign up, you will likely not be that person who makes $30,000/month doing it. These companies compensate based on your performance, so if you aren’t making any sales, you aren’t making any money. It’s as simple as that. Lately I’ve seen a lot of negativity about how these programs don’t work and they just scam people out of money by promising them paycheck. Hold up. Every one of these companies have their compensation plan, and “how to get paid” available to the public so you can do your research before you sign up. Spoiler Alert: There is no such thing as getting rich quick. Just like any other job, these take time if you want to get the value out of them.
Maybe network marketing isn’t for you. This is fine. Maybe it’s something you’re interested in. This is also fine. Maybe you get a little annoyed by getting those cold messages in your DM’s, and I can understand that. Just do me a favor and remember that they are trying to make a living income, you can politely tell them you aren’t interested the same way you wave off the car salesman or product sample person in the mall. Leave the name calling to the elementary school kids, shall we?
Disclaimer: The companies mentioned above are linked to pages where you can learn more or shop their products. These are links for representatives or distributors for people I know personally, or run run myself.
