NETWORK MARKETING A PERSONAL VIEW

By no stretch of the imagination am I a natural networker. Nor indeed am I a salesperson. In fact, I’ve worked with children’s books for my entire adult life, first as Editorial Director of a nationwide children’s book club, then as a full-time author – a reclusive profession if ever there was one. I fell into network marketing by accident, and had no idea what I had got my hands on. I earned a pretty healthy income from my books (some 140 published to date), but gradually the wheels were beginning to wobble. I was a single parent to three very talented sportsmen, and spent significant amounts of time and money trekking up and down the country to squash and tennis tournaments, in which they played at county, regional and national level. There were also school fees to be found for the twins, who were highly prized for their prowess in all disciplines, and copious amounts of money for the associated kit. Cash flow became a recurring problem. As an author you are effectively paid twice a year, when your royalties come out (apart from mostly insignificant advances on new projects). With increasing outgoings as university loomed for all three boys at the same time, most of my royalties had been spent by the time I received them! So when I found a card on my car inviting me to look at an opportunity to earn an extra income, I rang the number on it – something I would never normally have done. I met up with the owner of the card, who explained the business opportunity to me, I didn’t understand it, but the products sounded good, and given that the start-up cost was small, I thought I had nothing to lose. I managed to sell quite a few products, in spite of myself, by talking to people about their undoubted health benefits, and earned myself a small amount of extra income each month. But, frankly, that wasn’t going to cut it long-term. I had begun to look at my overall financial situation, realised that the pension fund I had built from my days at the book club wouldn’t provide me with much of a lifestyle, knew that the publishing industry was being hit like everything else by the economic downturn, and worried that my future income would become less and less reliable and could, potentially, dry up. I started to take my network marketing business more seriously and to shift my main focus from the products to the networking part of it. I could see that people around me were moving up the undeniably attractive marketing plan – some of them at a rate of knots – and understood that if I applied what I was told, there was no reason why it couldn’t work for me too. What it boils down to is talking to people, lots of people, about the business opportunity and the products.  It’s nothing to do with trying to persuade people to come on board, it’s about being a messenger and allowing people to decide for themselves whether or not they would like to become involved. One of the biggest problems is that network marketing (team marketing, multi-level marketing – call it what you will) has had a bad name in the past because of some similarity to illegal pyramid schemes.  There are, in fact, major differences, and network marketing is very highly regulated by its governing body, the Direct Selling Association, and the Office of Fair Trading, both of which report directly to the government.  Unfortunately, many people persist in linking the two, but what I’ve found is that the company I’m involved in operates in a far more ethical way than most traditional companies, and is resolutely determined to help all of its nine million or so distributors worldwide to be successful.  That many fall by the wayside is because there is work involved, lots of it, and because not everyone is suited to such a business in the first place.  It is by no means easy, and it requires dogged persistence to keep pressing forward against a tide of negativity.  The rewards, however, in terms of recognition, self-development, friendships gained, helping people with their health, and, of course, significant incomes, are worth the time, effort and sacrifices. On a day-to-day basis, what’s involved is marketing the products, talking to people who might be interested about the extra income/global business opportunity, and working closely with team members – coaching and mentoring them to success.  The latter is of huge importance, and good leaders will work tirelessly for their teams.  As a leader myself, nothing gives me greater delight than seeing members of my team move up the marketing plan.  I don’t deny that I benefit myself from bonuses paid direct to me by the company on my team turnover, but I earn that money many times over through the efforts I make on my team members’ behalf, and I don’t take anything away from them: they are paid directly by the company themselves.  We’re a close-knit group, who are all thrilled by each other’s achievements, and always happy to share successes, however big or small. As I said at the beginning, I am not a natural networker, and here are some of the challenges I’ve encountered: it’s hard work – not in terms of long hours, since I work when I choose – but this is a business like any other, not a get-rich-quick scheme, and it takes time, effort and commitment; there is a steep learning curve and I had eat humble pie and be coachable, read a lot and attend the relevant trainings; there may be little financial gain in the first few months, but most people vastly underestimate what they can achieve in a three-to-five year period – I did. I wasn’t lacking in self-motivation, but many people are, more so than they think.  In this arena, you are the boss and you alone decide when (and whether) you are going to work.  Persistence and consistency are crucial keys to success, and not to be under-estimated. Notwithstanding the challenges, I have built a good, solid business around my work as a children’s author.  As I continue to grow it, it will provide for me in the future in a way that my pension certainly won’t.  More than that, I’m on a journey of self-discovery, one without borders: that’s something I didn’t expect, and it’s really exciting. Network marketing has been called ‘The Business of the 21st Century’ (Robert Kyosaki), and figures show that it turns over well in excess of >00 billion worldwide and involves over 50 million distributors.  It offers a realistic, part-time, low-cost means of running your own business, initially alongside a current job – so no leap of financial faith is required. It can then be developed, at whatever pace an individual chooses, into a full-time, lucrative career. There are many benefits to developing your own network marketing business, but here are just a few:     * You work from home, with minimal overheads     * No product development or research costs     * Superior products to those found in the high street     * People to ‘hold your hand’ and help you get established     * Company trainings, plus books, DVDs, web sites etc to tap in to.  The company I work with has the top level Investor in People accreditation for its superb training and support     * No previous experience or qualifications required – a complete level playing field     * You choose the income you want – if you want more, you work more     * Completely flexible hours to fit around other commitments     * Low start-up cost (max £200) – try setting up as a window cleaner for that!     * Real tax advantages  Could network marketing be the future for you too? If so, be careful when choosing a network marketing company to make sure of the following: that the company has been operational for at least five years (95% of NM companies do not survive beyond their fifth year; that it is a member of the Direct Selling Association; that its products have a good reputation and you’re able to feel passionate about them; and that the products are, preferably, consumable – repeat sales are far easier than finding new customers. Network marketing draws people from all walks of life, from all age groups and from all ethnicities. In the company I work with, we have vets, doctors, lawyers, teachers, salespeople, carers, caterers, tradesmen, long-distance lorry-drivers, engineers, and so on. Our youngest distributors are 18, our oldest, 94! It’s an opportunity open to all, but to survive you need to be a people person, to be positive, to change, to develop a rhino skin and be willing to come out of your comfort zone, to be persistent and consistent, to like a challenge, to think big and dream big - and you must make a decision not to quit. If you can embrace the opportunity and run with it, the world really will be your oyster.   Sally Grindley       NETWORK MARKETING – A PERSONAL VIEW