Looooonnngg Weekend Giggles

There was a time in my life where I would LIVE for the weekend to roll around, and believe me it didn’t EVER come fast enough. The thought of a 4 day weekend was like Christmas to me. It was what I looked forward to the most. As I sit here and write this, I ask myself why this was the way I felt?  Because I hated my job, I hated my commute to work, I hated where I was living, and I was in the complete WRONG place in my life. I did not enjoy living in the big city where everyone fends for themself.   I am a person who feels that if you are unhappy with your life, it is your responsibility to change it. So I did.  I moved from a city of 1 million people, to 60,000. I spend my days helping people realize their full potential in life.  I help them see their dreams and understand that they deserve them. I also provide for them a method of achieving those dreams. It’s called Oxyfresh and it has changed my entire life, as well as many others. I don’t dream about long weekends anymore. Truth is, I can take a long weekend whenever I feel like.  I think I’ll spend this long weekend planning my move to Mexico! 

The Face of MLM is Changing – Social Networking and Web 2.0

Let’s face it. Network marketing has been around for years. Decades even. I bet you can’t go through a single day without being faced with an MLM situation. Either someone you know approaches you, you see an ad, you buy a product, or you see that Pink Mary Kay car drive by you house. Network Market is an industry that will not be going away anytime soon, however, the face of the MLM industry is changing.

Gone are the days of the names list, the 3 foot rule, and hounding your best friends and family to take a look at the business that you KNOW will change their lives. Enter Web 2.0 and Social Networking sites. Facebook, Myspace, Squidoo.. you name it, it’s out there and chances are you have been exposed to any one, if not all of these sites at some point or another.

Social Networking is an incredible way to meet new friends, hook up with old contacts, advertise your opportunity, or research others. It’s easy, it’s efficient and the best part is, it continues working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week even while you sleep.

Imagine being able to show your business to thousands of people when you are off in la la land dreaming the night away. It sounds great, I know and it is the future of MLM. People no longer need to spend their hard earned money renting tables at tradeshows and running ads in their local newspapers.

Log into a social networking site, make friends, ad value to their lives and watch your MLM business soar. These business’ are thriving in cyberspace and will only continue to grow exponentially. It takes drive, determination, and extremely potent web copy to really make an impact on web surfers all over the world. This is the future of the reinvented MLM and the industry is on the brink of a major upheaval… for the better!

Jill Chandler “It’s not what we make, it’s what we make possible” http://www.todayissomeday.ca For the real inside scoop on who Jill Chandler really is, visithttp://jillchandler.wordpress.com

 

The Real Problem with Network Marketing

HINT: It’s not the business model itself

It never ceases to amaze me the extreme polar views on the topic of network marketing and MLM. Some people are passionate about it in the extreme, and there are even top celebrity authors like Robert Allen, Mark Victor Hansen, and Robert Kiyosaki doing it and advocating it. Yet, in many circles, you might as well declare yourself a leper as admit to being in network marketing.So, what is the problem with MLM and network marketing?Maybe it’s the pyramid structure? But you can’t really take issue with the tiered compensation structure—almost every large sales organization in the world has that. Salespeople get commission, and sales managers get overrides or bonuses on top of that, and sales directors on top of that, and VPs on top of that.Or maybe it’s the fact that you have to pay to participate in it? But that can’t be it—that’s a standard franchising model.

But those same things that make it attractive make it attractive to many who are NOT really qualified or prepared to become business owners. The salient characteristics of MLM make it attractive to people who:

• have not done well in their business or profession and have little money saved up to invest
• have no previous experience owning or running a business
• have no previous experience in sales
• have little or no experience developing business relationships other than that of employer/employee/co-worker
• are not satisfied with their current level of income
• have unrealistic expectations of the amount of work involved compared to the revenue realized

Don’t get me wrong—I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with any of these things, or that this describes even a majority of network marketers—only that it describes a disproportionate number of network marketers, and that many of them never do anything about it.As a result, many network marketers end up:

• over-selling the opportunity
• inappropriately discussing business in social situations
• coming across as desperate
• over-focused on new recruits and neglecting existing customers as a result
• being either inaccurate or deceptive when talking about their business

Again, I’m certainly not saying that this describes a majority of network marketers, but itdoes describe enough of them to tarnish the reputation of the rest. To pre-judge someone based on the basis of a small minority of people in that group is horribly unfair, but we must realize that most prejudices have some basis in reality, even if it has been distorted.So what’s the solution?There’s a first time for everything. And network marketing/MLM is a great opportunity for people to have their first business, their first sales role, etc. My point is this—recognize it for what it is: it’s a business, and you are a business owner. And if you’ve never owned a business before, if you’ve never done sales before, if you’ve never networked before, you need to learn about how to do so, not just from the network marketing/MLM experts, but from established experts in those fields.Network marketers who are serious about building a business should be reading and learning about business fundamentals, the latest sales and marketing techniques, strategies for networking and business development, etc., not just swapping tips at your team’s weekly or monthly meeting. Act like a small business owner, and people will treat you like one.