Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I have just signed up as a consultant for a mlm called Thirty-One, to help a friend.  I was told that they are new to the New York area.  They have some nice products that are relatively inexpensive and practical.

I want to try and make this work, since times are tough and some extra cash would be extremely helpful.

Does anyone have any useful info on mlm's (good or bad).  I get the whole pyramid thing, but am curious if this is just a waste of my time.

Thanks

Jenn

www.mythirtyone.com/longisland

It's essentially only as good or as bad as you are. Lots of people lose friends from going too far with these programs. The key will be to find a balance between being a good salesman and being a good friend. Don't let money corrupt you. It happens a lot. You enroll a few of your friends and family under you, and suddenly you change roles from friend/family to boss. Do they perform well? You make more money. Do they not care as much as you do? How do you handle it? Are you going to constantly hit up your friends and family for sales? It'll be important to separate business from pleasure. Most people assume friends and family are quick and easy money, but you only lose in the end. Stick to soliciting strangers, I say. You can get money with any job. You can't buy friends and family. If you do MLM carefully, there's no problem. It's easy to be corrupted. Just be careful.

MLM are sometimes really profitable for people that sign up and are willing to put in the required time of "dummy work." I know someone that did this kind of work for 2 years, and now he's making good money doing it.

If you focus on finding people who want to build a business first and get your first 3 business workers under you, rather than a whole lot of customers just doing you a favor it can be quite rewarding.

Networking both online and offline is important. Having your own website you can get into the search engines with for your main keywords rather than the company name is critical. You need to be able to control this site, have a newsletter and way of capturing people's email addresses.

You also need to be active in forums where people are looking to make money, Facebook and other online communities so you can be exposed to lots of people who might be interested in building a business with you.

I am in MLM as well and have been for almost 5 years. I do quite well at it but I also work very hard and I'm always looking for a few good people. I also market and lead with myself and not just with my companies products. So yes it is a viable business model but you have to work at it, stick with it and choose good mentors.