Mother Led Marketing...

Or Why MLM is a Great Business for Wives, Mothers, Homeschoolers and Women who Just Want to Stay Home

I am a very big fan of network marketing as a means of supplementing the family income. Let me say that this was not always the case. It used to be that I would run a mile in tight shoes to get away from network marketers. I remember being invited over to someone's home for what I thought was going to be a social evening, only to find a group of others there, and people drawing circles at me. (Needless to say, I don't do that!)

Several years ago my dh, desperate because of the emotional upheaval that raging hormones was causing in our home, heard a radio program about a set of supplements that had a great deal of scientific and clinical work behind them and he decided to get some for me. The products worked like a charm, and he decided that this might be a good way to supplement the family income. When I found out they were an mlm (multi-level marketing, or network marketing) company, I quickly dug in my heels. I had heard about illegal pyramid schemes and thought that this was one of them. A Christian friend, who was not in mlm but who understood the business, explained that there is a huge difference between illegal pyramid scams and legitimate businesses that use the MLM business model. On the strength of that, we decided to give it a try. (For the difference between an illegal pyramid scheme and a legitimate MLM business, please go to this article)

After several years of hard work we are beginning to reap the benefits of this form of business. Many people are experiencing a level of health they thought could never be theirs again and some are finding a level they thought they would never know. Families are supplementing and even making this their primary source of income. Many are receiving their products (and consequently their good health) free of charge. This has been one of the most rewarding and satisfying ventures of my life.

I am going to keep this information generic so that I just cover some of the benefits about the industry itself that may be of interest to women.

~ You can do this business from home either part time or full time. This enables you to remain with your babies and children and actually raise and teach them yourself instead of going out of the home to work and hiring others to do it for you.

~ Start up costs for an MLM business are minimal. You can own your own business in most MLM companies for an investment of only $1000 or so (and sometimes less than that). Most franchises will cost several million.

~You can write off a portion of your home expenses as legitimate business expenses. This includes things like your phone bill, part of the mortgage or rent, gas money, groceries or meals at restaurants (if you entertain business clients), even vacations. (I have travelled back home to visit the parents and been able to claim it as a business expense since I have downline that I did work with when I was there).

~Technological advances have changed the face of and made MLM much easier to do. There is a minimum of paperwork involved, you don't have to manage employees, shipments are sent directly to the customer so that you have no need to stockpile inventory in your garage, and the headquarters of the company keeps track of your organization for you.

~Instead of being in business for yourself, by yourself, you have a business that is for yourself with help from others. This is a cooperative business model that appeals to women especially, since most women don't like the cut-throat competitiveness needed to make it in the traditional business model. To illustrate what I mean: if you were a hairdresser and someone comes to you wanting training, you could train that person, but if they set up shop somewhere else, you have essentially trained your competition. In the MLM model, when you help someone become successful, it helps YOU. I have to tell you, I LOVE THIS! I don't know any other form of business that allows me to enjoy helping others be successful without fearing that I am undercutting my own business. Robert Kiyosaki of "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" fame has said that MLM is one of the best low risk ways of learning how to run a business that there is. In no other business model do you have available to you either free or for minimal cost, the amount of training that is necessary in order to make a go of it.

~Many companies do business not only in Canada and the US, but have developed international markets. The HQ of MLM companies paves the way for their associates by handling all the customs and legal requirements for them and makes doing business overseas extremely easy.

There are several things to consider (from a business perspective) when deciding which company you should work with:

~Does the company offer something unique and proprietary in nature that can't be bought anywhere else? Most people will not want to pay premium prices for tea tree oil products if they can buy the same thing that will do the job at the local health food store.

~Is the product consumable? Some companies offer excellent products that are non-consumable. This makes it more difficult to build a business since you need to constantly search for new clients in order to keep the money coming in. From a business perspective, it is easier to build a successful business if you have a product that people will need to replenish. If you have a quality product that does the job, this won't be a problem.

~Does the company have credibility? Are they striving to maintain high ethical standards in what they produce and how they run their business? What kind of evidence do they have to support any claims they may make?

~Is the business model one that encourages a high retention rate of loyal customers? If you need to get a hundred people buying product from you in order to cover your own product useage, it makes it very difficult to retain people. If, however, a minimal number is needed to pay for your products, the rate of growth is generally faster, sustainable and steady.

~What is the market potential for this company? Are they only in your country or are they international, thus broadening your potential base of customers?

The company I work with does all of the above, but I am not going to use this post to promote them. You can email me privately ( cheryl@grenon.org) if you want to know which company I am with or visit the Free Products Forever website. I just wanted to use this opportunity to promote what has become the answer for our family in meeting the financial challenges of being quiverfull.