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[Rasheed Bustamam Company: Numis Network Contribution Level: 2]

Hi all, my name's Rasheed (I primarily post from my mobile device so I do not have much on my BN profile yet) and so far, I love this site and the association. Its full of amazing leaders. I've been running nowhere with the "old school" methods of prospecting, so I bought the BoaB course and read it in one night. Last night actually. And I wasn't able to sleep at all. I'm currently paying the price by dozing off during class, but I really think I got my dollar's worth with that product.

I'm not sure if I'm postting in the right place; if I'm not, I apologize. I'll repost it in the correct place, wherever that may be.

I really love the MLM business model, however, I've come across this article: http://www.amquix.info/tosp/tosp23.html which, in summary, says that most of a distributor's earnings must come from sales and not recruiting distributors. Basically says that relying on other distributors to make your wealth makes it a pyramid. Here are the FTC guidelines on MLM's: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consume ... /inv08.sht

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to share my company's name, so I won't, but there's a lot of controversy about it. So I'm actually thinking of leaving my company, and joining another one. However, I want to see you experts' opinions first. We build in a binary structure and my support team always encourages to build the bbusiness, not make sales. They say that making sales puts you into a self-employed business and does not leverage your time or money. That made sense... but in light of the new guidelines I've come across, I'm a skeptic on the MLM model, so I was hoping someone could shed some light on this, and perhaps provide a reputable company I could join. My company isn't even on this site, despite claims of being the fastest growing company in the world at this moment. That alone sends off red flags.

So thank you for your time, I hope to hear from you soon!

EDIT: My primary concern isn't the MLM model, it's more on the unethical practices that both my company and my support group have. I go into detail about this in my next reply.

[Hugo Fortin Company: WorldVentures Contribution Level: 2]

Hi,

Welcome in this forum!

When we read good information, usually we can't sleep. Maybe, you should check this website npros.com. There are a lot of info on this web site. You should check if your company is there.

Hugo

[Ben Fitts Company: SendOutCards Contribution Level: 3]

Hi Rasheed,

Thank you for writing.

Yes there are companies where the top distributors make more money selling tools to their team than they do from the actual MLM business. This is a dirty secret of MLM. Even the companies themselves make a lot of money selling tools to their distributors. They charge $24.95 a month for a web site that costs them pennies to run. They charge them several dollars per DVD that costs them pennies to create.

I'm with a company that does not believe in this. The web sites are free. The DVDs are free (you only pay 17 cents for shipping.) Basically we believe that if everyone has the tools they need to succeed then we'll all make more money. We could charge for these tools but we don't. I even have a couple thousand people using web sites I created and host for FREE for ANYONE in my company to use.

This a new belief. It is a 21st century philosophy to network marketing.

If we all have the tools to succeed then we'll all make more money.

I know there are other people out their that believe differently but I have a feeling that old school selling stuff to your team will go away as more people come to believe in giving away the tools.

[Michelle Smith Company: Free Life International Contribution Level: 2]

Welcome Rasheed! It's great to have you as part of our network here.

So good to see you doing your research. It's people like you that go far in the business.

I agree with Cesar, it really does depend on the company you choose and their model. For example, the company I am with has 10 ways to get paid and also has an ability to get paid daily pay. You then work the model for what is best for you.

Have fun!
Michelle

[Daniel Attard Company: Neways Worldwide Contribution Level: 3]

Hey Rasheed...and welcome to BN!

Regards choosing an MLM...I heavily recommend on a company that gives you a lot of freedom when it comes to marketing. Make sure it allows internet marketing and that it has a fair, decent compensation plan that allows its distributors to make enough money.

Daniel Attard

[Eileen Burns Contribution Level: 3]

Welcome Rasheed
This BN community is a wealth of information. Since this is your first foray into the world of network marketing, I would suggest you continue to do your due diligence. I suggest you explore compensation plans from many different companies to see how your company pays out. Although you did not mention the company's name, I read it in your profile. I believe your company requires you to purchase product for a certain amount monthly. Other companies do not.

Although you wish to work from home to be with your family, you will soon discover that working from home requires a certain discipline of set office hours, written business plan, marketing budget and so forth to see weekly and monthly results.

You are young and eager and are also a student not yet graduated. Some people who enter this world say they will do the business part time and bridge in to full time. Yet the reality is part time becomes some time real soon and life gets in the way.

We all need mentors to emulate and keep on course for our clearly defined goals. Before investing any more money into your current company, may I suggest you mentor with the top level people in your upline who have a vested interest in your success. Building a business takes time. Becoming a leader is tied to personal development.

You are on the right track Rasheed......there are 4.5 million mobile users in 2010 and growing. What type of mobile advertising are you implementing?

[Ilka Flood Company: Isagenix Corporation Contribution Level: 4]

Rasheed,

First, welcome to BN! You are definitely on the right track. You started educating yourself reading BoaB and are now asking questions. Way to go!

From what you write it sounds like you are having serious doubts about your company. Do some research. The internet provides a world of information at your fingertips. Check out compensation plans.

As a rule of thumb...If a company pays its distributors solely for recruiting, that is illegal and indeed a pyramid. There has to be a product and customers involved.

Of course recruiting is important as you want to leverage yourself eventually, but it should NOT be the main focus of the pay plan.

MLM is a great and absolutely legal business model. There is no other business model out there, where the average person can start from scratch and earn an extraordinary income. Provided of course they put in the work.

Here's a list of the Top 100 Direct Selling companies. They are all legal MLM or Network Marketing companies. Check out their comp plans maybe you find something you like there

http://www.directsellingnews.com/index. ... _the_world

Good Luck to you!

[Adam Taha Contribution Level: 8]

Rasheed, Welcome to BN..

You'll be alright mate.

Just follow your heart.You know, the answer isn't going from one company to another. The answer is really getting the sales skills and marketing.

Sure, you may find a company somewhere else, fine but the problem will persist always.

Getting the sales skills doesn't put you as a self employed. It makes you valuable and one day, your distributors, will want to know how to sell. They will want to know how to make money from products they have.

It's a valuable skill Rasheed which most do not have, or invest in.

I'm not sure what company or business you're in, although you mentioned it's structure.

All I know is, if the person doesn't know how to sell, how to market, then they are not going to make money. It's in their benefit you sponsor but what about you? What you making money instead of waiting for some leg to break and you make money.

What about your team you sponsor who need help in selling, marketing?

So take your time mate, study your business, make a clear decision and do yourself a great favour. Educate your self in marketing, sales.

You're going to need it mate no matter what business you are in.

Adam Taha

[Rasheed Bustamam Company: Numis Network Contribution Level: 2]

Sorry guys I had login issues, everything's fine now though

Thanks for all the replies! I really appreciate it. I definitely feel welcome in this community.

Hugo, thank you for the warm welcome. My company is on npros, but it doesn't seem to be very well-known.

Benfitts, thank you for your post

With the high prices of the tools in my support group, and the high price of the events, and how the speakers always promote the TOOLS and not the product or opportunity, I feel like I'd have become a tools salesperson to my imaginary downline (I only managed to sponsor one of my friends and my brother. My friend adheres more to the system than I do and my brother sort of phased out.) The books were good; they were all written by third party entities. Like Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence people. Excellent books. The CDs were all by speakers on my support team, and since I did not have a CD player in my car, I did not listen to many CDs. I had a CD player in my car before for a few months so I was able to listen to a handful of CDs, but my car sort of exploded internally later and had to be junked. The car I got to replace it did not have a Cd player.

The thing is, I don't believe that things should be free, per se... a person will find more value in something he spent money on than something he just managed to get for free. But on the flip side... I don't believe the CDs really helped. They were just regurgitating information from the open meetings and seminars (actually, the CDs were merely recordings of seminars anyway) so I couldn't help but feel like it was more like a waste of money rather than a valid investment. Even the seminars, they got me motivated, but they didn't teach me much. "Show the plan, show the plan, show the plan. Make a list. Call all of them. Show them the plan. Here's the script." That's how every single seminar went. That's how every single CD went (except the basic "how to get started" CDs). So when you're paying a lot of money for information you already know, how is that a valid investment? I think your company is spot-on with giving away the tools.

I like BoaB and the MS system because you're not paying for information you already know. You buy the books once and you're done. It's a training system that gives you the mentality to succeed in building a successful MLM business. It lists out the things you need to know and tells you once. You can always refer back to it. When you're in school, you don't buy a new book every week to learn the material. You buy a single book and refer to it, read over chapters multiple times, go back and refer to it. Teachers generally don't lecture about the same thing twice. You take notes on it and refer to the notes. So I found that the system my support team was offering was more or less pointless. Different speakers, yes. Different information, no.

Cesar, we're already talking on Facebook thank you for writing!

Michelle, thank you for the welcome and the reply! The company I'm with has 9 ways of making money... I don't understand how most of them work, nor are they focused on in my support team... the only one that is focused on is the building of the downline.

Daniel, thanks for the welcome and the reply! I agree with you, marketing freedom is good. It was very difficult to market the products of this company because they were vastly overpriced and there was just a lot of negative sources on the internet that cited research that the products were simply not worth the price as there were better alternatives that were healthier and cheaper. So that was the issue...

Maverick! Thanks for your reply! My company does require me to buy like, a case of product per month in order to be "active," and one must be "active" to receive commissions. So I'll look into companies that do not require a certain amount of product monthly.

Yes, I understand I'm young and probably naive... but I never had any intention of doing the business "part-time." Part-time automatically implies "job," and I figure if I treat this business like a job, the business will pay like a job.

Though I like to say I'm really busy now, I highly doubt I will be any less busy when I graduate and begin working. So I just want to put as much time as I can into building my knowledge of businesses and wealth thinking, and build the business as I can. I know that I will be able to reap benefits earlier in my life and be able to live a peaceful life in the near future, as long as I stay committed to this endeavor now.

I stopped investing money into my current company and the support system a few months ago (I lost my job at that time and could not afford any monthly commitments). The issue with the top level people in my upline... is that I no longer trust them, for reasons I will state in my reply to ilkaflood. I understand building a business takes time, and I am willing to take the time to build my business, because I know that I will be grateful that I did in the future. And currently, though I'm not doing much with my life, I try to make time to read 10-20 minutes per day and grow personally, so that way I can step into the shoes of a leader. My mother helps a lot with this... she reads these books too, and goes out of her way to let me know when I violate a principle. Sometimes she tells me too many times so it becomes nagging, but I know she has good intentions, and I appreciate it. She is my mother after all.

Sorry for the misunderstanding. I'm not implementing mobile advertising right now, it's just that I'm hardly at a computer except at nights, so I use my Android cell phone to visit BN during the day to post. Though mobile advertising does seem like a good idea... I will look into Admob. Thanks a lot!

ilkaflood, thank you very much for your reply!

Yes, I am a very analytical person (I'm studying to be an engineer ... or a lawyer... both careers that require analytical people) so when I learned these things of course I wanted to ask questions. And it seems I've found the place to ask questions!

I'm not doubting my company for being illegal. After all, it is in the top 25 Direct Selling companies list. I'm doubting my support team for being immoral and unethical for lying to everyone. Until a couple of days ago, I was under the impression that my company had reached $1 billion in revenue in its first three years, and $2 billion two years after that. These statistics were on the flip charts for showing the plan. On the flip charts it also shows that my company was on the Inc 500 magazine; number 1 in food and beverage, number 18 overall (in growth)... however, when I checked the website, it was indeed in these positions. However, its revenue was cited to be $800 million. That is blatant dishonesty on my support team's side. The ironic part is that my support team was the one that taught me principles of integrity and honesty, yet these very principles that they taught me are the ones that make me not like this company.

There are a few other instances in which my support team's morals and ethics get called into question. However, it does not stop at my support team. It branches off into the MLM company itself. The CEO of the company and the founder of my support team, as well as the top earners in the team, are very close with one another. And the CEO of the company does not say anything about the lies that the support team are spreading. So basically, everything about this MLM company and support team go against everything that I have learned from the support team. Talk about irony!

Again, thank you for your reply ilkaflood

Adam, thanks for the reply and welcome. First I just want to ask, are you Muslim?

Second, it's not my company's compensation plan. It's not that their product isn't great (though I have my doubts). It's not about the business model. It's their ethics (my reply to ilkaflood goes into this in detail). Even if I can earn the residual income I desire to have by working with this company, I won't do it. It goes against my values and principles. I don't want to earn this residual income by lying to other people or by supporting other people who lie to people to earn their income. It's just plain wrong.

I don't mind selling, but when my company sells products that cost almost $40 per bottle which lasts a week, and its nutritional value in a serving is compared to a single apple and LOSES (in various research studies, whereas the only ones that tout the product as being a highly nutritional product only comes from my company's science team), I would call my own ethics into question if I sold this product that even I am having trouble believing in to other people at such an outrageous price. I want to sell a product that I personally believe in; that way I can be sure that I am adding value to the other person's life when I sell.

My sales skills are not amazing, but I can sell a product--given that I believe in it. After the research I've done over the past few days on my company and their product, I can no longer believe in it. When distributors of the product are left and right violating the Policies and Procedures of my company, and my company does nothing about it, I feel like there is a better company that has a great product that I can believe in and whose ethics and morals match mine. I will continue to hone my selling skills because I know that it will be valuable, even as I am in limbo between companies.

Again, thank you all for the warm welcome and for taking the time to reply to me. Hopefully I can find a good company to get involved in soon

Rasheed

[Timothy Feuling Company: Tahitian Noni International Contribution Level: 2]

Mastering MLM is a life-long journey. There are many great teachers, coaches, mentors, leaders out in our field that are teaching great techniques, strategies, relationship marketing, selling, etc.

The fact is mlm everyone has different feelings as of what mlm is. I personally don't believe you have to persay SELL anything to anyone but instead SHARE the product with as many people as you can every day and let them know where they can go to get information on the product - give them a brochure and lead them to a website with videos on the products. Sure we should have a great mix of preferred customers and distributors in our business. They both add value to your business and you add value to both of them.

I find that if you focus on bringing value to everyone you SHARE the product and/or business opportunity with then you will eventually win with the laws of numbers. Look for the most ambitious people you can find, look for those that desire the products and services you have. Be sure you believe in your product or service and decide why you value it and why others would value it and then go out and share that set of values with anyone you can. Yes or No is Yes or No to the products and/or opportunity, not to you. It is not personal.

We are branding partners who choose which company's products and/or services we are going to promote, recommend and share. The power of mlm is learning how to build a network of individuals through prospecting (connecting), then learning how to help every one of them become a better prospector (from first point of contact through enrollment or purchase), then becoming a leader that helps lead all of them to higher and higher levels of success. Your leadership recognition will be based on your ability to help thousands succeed at building thier own networks.

You have lots of support Rasheed.