Cooking up the Perfect MLM Business

For any business, the product is foundational. You must have a product that you feel passionate about. But, that’s not enough! The real test of your product choice is in how others react to the product. If it practically sells itself without long sales efforts or difficult objections to overcome, then you have the first ingredient for your MLM business. Here’s the point–as you would expect, representing a product that requires significant effort to get someone just to try it becomes self-defeating over time, not to mention time consuming. That’s time you simply don’t have. Your product of choice is a critical factor in how fast your business will grow and the income potential it provides for you and your family.

Consider the following–is your product:

• Simple – Little explanation required; prospective customers quickly get it.

• Unique and not a basic commodity – Buying considerations are not made primarily on the price of your product versus others.

• Consumable – Get customers once, keep them for life!

• Of great value and quality that is readily visible – No explanation needed.

2. COMPANY

There are lots of companies that provide a great work from home opportunity, especially those associated with the network marketing or direct sales industry. One of the important aspects of a direct sales business is that you can add an element of passive income to your business as it grows and matures over time. You typically won’t get that with any other form of company. What you want to watch out for, however, are those companies that derive a good portion of their revenues and profits from sign-up and reoccurring fees that you will have to pay. The emphasis needs to be on providing valued products that people want to buy.

Consider this–is the company you are looking to join one whose values, ideals, and integrity are readily apparent at the very top and pervade the entire organization? Can you feel it in the valuable products being offered? Do you feel like the company would follow through with these same priorities in dealing with you, and ultimately, the team you would be working with to develop your business? At the end of the day, you have to feel that you are dealing with an organization that can earn your trust and, importantly, can engender the trust of those you will be working with to join your business on your team. As you will discover here in a moment, it is “your team” that is the key to building passive income growth into your business.

3. GROWTH

How quickly your business grows will be indirectly linked to the growth rate of the parent organization of the product(s) you choose to represent. Is the company experiencing: 1) stagnant or declining growth rates, or 2) consistently high rates of growth? Either way, there is typically an underlying reason that may have a rather profound impact on your business’ upside potential. Whether related to market saturation, product line-up and competition, or any number of other factors, your best chance of achieving high levels of growth with your business is to be involved with a business opportunity that is sustaining high levels of growth.

4. TEAM

Getting off on the right foot, maintaining momentum, and learning from others who have already “been there and done that” is a must if you and those who join you are going to quickly achieve high-levels of success within your business of choice. This is the one aspect that is most often overlooked. We are all easily blinded by the hype that we hear, rather than the realities of building and growing a viable direct sales enterprise. Especially in today’s Internet age, if built correctly, your team can and will be the greatest asset to your success. Besides, being on the right team can change the dynamics of your efforts and those who join your team as you learn, collaborate, and share with others who are focused on the same goals as you.

This is, by far, the greatest key to building a lasting and growing stream of income for you and your family. When you build your team properly, you can have a business that provides you with control over your time, combined with great upside income potential from your same effort month to month, year after year.

5. COMPENSATION PLAN

As you look at various compensation programs in the direct sales industry, you will quickly learn that well defined compensation plans reward everyone for everyone’s success. You are rewarded for your personal product sales and for the leadership you provide in building and growing your team by helping team members generate their product sales and grow their teams. This is where your passive income growth comes from and it is key to the upside potential of any home-based direct sales business.

6. NOMINAL START-UP COSTS

Getting started with any direct sales business opportunity should require no more than a nominal fee to help pay for the start-up supplies you will need to get your business up and going. Think about this—if you are paying fees that you are uncomfortable with, how are you going to justify that to those you are working to add to your team? If someone is making money off of your fees, how does that make you feel? Will you be paying someone your hard earned money for the “privilege” to work really hard to sell their products for them?

Guess what—that is how others will feel when you try to get them to join your team. How sustainable is that for your business and for those you are able to convince to join your team? How quickly can you grow your team with that obstacle in your way?

Here’s the key–money should only be made when customers buy the high-quality and valuable products you represent–the kind of product where your customers don’t even question the value they receive from the products they want to buy. You should feel the integrity of the business you represent as well as experience it in the support you get from your parent organization, your team, and the quality of the products you proudly represent.

7. FUN

Finally, don’t underestimate the fun factor! If you’re not having some fun with your direct sales business, it will wear you down over time. Is your product fun to sell? Is your team fun to work with? What does your parent organization do that makes your business a joy to build and grow each and every day? You’ll know you are on the right path when you look forward to your work each and every day!

So, there you have them—the seven essential MLM ingredients—product, company, growth, team, compensation plan, nominal start-up costs, and fun. Put all of them together and you have one great recipe for the perfect home-based, network marketing business.