How Network Marketing can Benefit You

Some of you may know that I am currently focusing my study on network marketing business. The question is, why network marketing?

In the business world, there are 4 groups of people: Employee, Self-Employed (a.k.a. Specialist, Small Business, Superstar), Business Owner, and Investor.

The characteristics of the 4 groups are as follows:
EMPLOYEE: You WORK a job, and you work in a system someone else built.
SELF-EMPLOYED: You OWN a job, and you ARE the system.
BUSINESS OWNER: You OWN a system and the system works for you!
INVESTOR: Your MONEY works for you!

And here is the unfair advantage: For the E and S, the more successful they become, the more they have to work, whereas for B and I, the more successful they are, the less they work! For E and S, if they stop working, money stops going into their pockets. For B and I, however, they don't have to work and money would still flow into their pockets!

In this case, it is pretty clear that financial freedom is MORE EASILY found in the B and I. You can still get financial freedom being E and S, it's just the chance is stacked against the E and S, because for E and S, money = work (not to mention taxation and inflation are NOT in your favor).

Out of B and I, I chose B to be my game.

Why B?

I am actually most interested in the I game. However, even though B and I are different games, there are actually a lot of things in common between these 2 groups. In fact, you will find that a lot of professional I's are in fact B's possessing I's skills. Instead of just OWNING investments, they run businesses that make investments. For example, if you are a professional real estate investor, you likely need to build a team consists of real estate broker, mortgage broker, accountant, attorney, property management team, and so on. If you are a professional stock investor, you likely will have a research and analysis team that will help you find the next gold mine. Sounds like running a business? You bet it is!

Also, in most cases business skills are required to run successful investments. For instance, in real estate, properties need to be managed like a business to be profitable. In stocks, you need to determine if a business is good before you put your precious money in the company's stocks. There is a lot of transferable skills from B to I.

Why network marketing?

This boils down to the complication in business.

To put it short, to be successful in B, you need to have a good business system, and the right people. If you lack one of the two or both, your business would ultimately fail.
And in general, there are 3 ways you can enter the B arena:

1. Start from scratch and build your own. This is probably the most satisfying and the most challenging path, since in this case, you need to take care of BOTH the system AND the people factor to be successful. If one fails, your business is doomed.
2. Join a franchise business. This approach allows you to purchase the right to use a proven system, so all you need to worry about is the people factor. If you want to be an entrepreneur without building a system from scratch, this is a good approach, as the franchise seller will give you training necessary to be successful in the business. The down-side of joining a franchise is usually the cost (usually quite high, ranging from $10,000s to $100,000s initial cost).
3. Network marketing business. In network marketing, you earn money by selling products to customers AND by recruiting people to join in your team to sell the product. Like in franchise, you will use a system that someone else built so you only have to worry about the people factor. Unlike franchise, however, the start-up cost is usually only in the range of $10s to $100s, and if the company is good, they will be patient in training you and preparing you with the skills necessary to succeed as a B!

In short, I found myself most lacking in sales skills and people/leadership skills to be successful in B or I. A network marketing business would allow me to acquire these skills at a very low cost, and give me a chance to build a business that will put money into my pocket every month!

The problem is, if you want to succeed in network marketing, you need to start by finding a good company! Network marketing has a bad reputation because of its pyramid compensation structure, which reminds people of a pyramid scheme. And it's true! There are a lot of legitimate network marketing company, but at the same time there are also a lot of fraud which their sole purpose is to scam the innocence and grab their money! It is, however, very simple to distinguish a legit network marketing company from a fraud. A pyramid structure is common among businesses. In most business's profit structure, customers always pay the money and the profit moves up the "pyramid" to retailer, up to wholesaler, and up to producer. The bottom of this "pyramid" provides money to their "upline", and the "uplines" earn most of the money. However, this is NOT a pyramid scheme or a ponzi scheme, because there are values flowing back from the top of the pyramid back to the bottom! In general, a legitimate network marketing company provides products of value, and a fraud DOES NOT, hence the fraud is not sustainable, because once there are no new people joining the scheme, the stack of cards collapses on its own weight.

This is a brief introduction on why network marketing could be beneficial for you and why it could be for you! I have found and join a network marketing company and am focused in studying how this business works. Stay tuned and I will share more of things I learn! Who knows, maybe you will find it interesting and want to join the business too!

Questions or comments on business or network marketing? Leave a comment!