Building Your Buckets

I recently read a post at the MLM.com forum about a marketing technique called funded proposals. Basically, a funded proposal involves selling some type of product (usually information) as a lead in to developing a relationship and eventually exposing your business (product and/or opportunity) to the person that purchased your information product.

The MLM.com poster basically suggested that these programs are bad because they take away the focus of building the primary business.

This type of thinking makes me wonder whether Network Marketers are really cut out to be entrepreneurs.

Let’s logically think about this. If I can make money that will pay for more advertising while I am creating targeted leads for my business, why in the world wouldn’t I want to do that? I think the illogical reasoning mostly comes from the hero-worship of an “upline” mentor who probably has no clue about marketing on the Internet.

This is the year 2007 and I am all about buckets. My income today comes from a number of different buckets. Think about this, if you can create a marketing system in a particular niche that allows you to earn $500 a month on the Internet without talking to anyone, that is a pretty nice deal, right?

Well, what if you could duplicate that system with 20 other niche markets or companies or affiliates? All of a sudden, you are making $10,000 a month before you pick up the phone and make a prospecting phone call. Keep in mind, 20 - $50 buckets is not a bad deal either.

Some top industry leaders have voiced their concern about these programs and for good reason. Their income is directly related to the people in their group staying focused on their particular company. But many of these leaders also talk about J. Paul Getty in their business presentations, siting Getty’s quote, “I’d rather have 1% of the effort of 100 men than 100% of my own effort.”.

In the same manner, I would rather have 1% of 100 different income buckets than 100% of 1 bucket.

It’s called diversification. I will never again put all of my eggs in one basket, no matter how good the basket is.