Posts Tagged ‘pyramid’

Taking the MLM Plunge

Saturday, April 26th, 2008

Now there is a new breed, which normally refers to them as network marketers. I guess to get past the defenses of people like me who found the term MLM distasteful. I’d hear about “those people” and run into “those folks”. But it was really background noise.

Two or three years ago, I heard John Di Lemme speak. He’s a powerful speaker, motivator and success coach. He made his millions in multi-level marketing. At that point I was neutral about MLMs and even respected some of the people I knew in them. Then there was the onslaught of the YTBs – a travel MLM. But since I rarely take luxury vacations anymore, that had no appeal. But recently an old friend has a very upscale professional approach to YTB. Much more palatable, but still didn’t move me.

I think I’ve found an MLM that is different. No ordering, no inventory, no deliveries, no collections, no customer contracts, no customer risk. Sounds good to me. So, I’ve decided to let down my defenses and my disdain about network marketing income opportunities.

Sandra Noble
NOBLE FINANCES
NOBLE & ASSOCIATES CONSULTING, INC

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The Problem With MLMs

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008

My first intro to multi-level marketing was for Amway, about 30 years ago. I was living in Ohio, but went to Philadelphia to visit. I was invited to the presentation. I only remember one thing about the presentation. They either demonstrated or described their drain cleaner product. Then Barbara who invited me, turned to me and said “Aren’t you excited”. I thought it was ludicrous for me to be excited about drain cleaner.

I didn’t write them off altogether, since the benefit part was intriguing. Stories of writing off vacations and travel appealed to me. Not to mention the possibility of a big boost in my finances and financial situation. I even did a light weight query of some of my friends. All the ones who I thought would be good at it had already heard about it and or tried it.

At that time, MLMs were structure as the infamous “pyramid” structure. What that meant was that new people coming in could never make more than those above. Organizations with that structure were deemed illegal. And thus, they went away or were restructured.

One problem with MLMs is that the product costs are inflated to fuel the payouts to the independent marketers. And then there were the personal disasters I heard about. There was the scenario of people with garages full of product inventory that they could not sell. For couples (meaning married people) in the business, when the business failed, the marriages generally failed also.

But, there are people who swear by MLMs or network marketing. Not sure I have the personality for it.

Sandra Noble
NOBLE FINANCES
NOBLE & ASSOCIATES CONSULTING, INC

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