About

My Views And Experiences With Network Marketing

First off, let me just say that I know what the majority of people out there think about network marketing. They think it’s a pyramid scheme, a scam, a ripoff, a money-pit, and so on…

Well, just like any business, it can be all of those things if you get involved with the wrong people or company. I’ve been in business for myself for over 15 years now, mostly in traditional businesses – and let me tell you, I’ve been scammed in the traditional business world more than I have in network marketing. A lot more…

However, where network marketing is concerned I contend that the risks are actually lower than in traditional business models (and I speak from years of experience as a small business owner,  coach, and mentor to other small business owners in my own consulting business).

Here’s why:

• Lower start-up costs – For example, one of the opportunities I am familiar with costs just $49 to get started*. I don’t know of any traditional business franchise or licensing program that you can get started with for just $49. (*Plus the cost of product – remember, you have to be a product of your product – don’t think you can do this business without choosing a company and product you would actually use even if you didn’t sell it.)
• High earning potential - That same business I mentioned above that costs just $49 to get started? I know of people who stuck with it and worked it hard for a few years who are making six-figure and seven-figure incomes now. Think about it… they got started for $49 and are making six and seven figures a year. Try that in a traditional business.
• Low overhead - Most network marketing businesses can be run from a home office… or even with nothing more than a cell phone and laptop (or smart phone). Even with advertising costs, phone, and internet, the operating costs are minuscule compared to what it costs to run a traditional storefront business.
• No employees - In a traditional business, payroll for your employees typically ends up becoming your biggest expense. But in a network marketing business, you don’t have employees – you have business partners and associates (your upline and downline). These people help you build your business and you help them build theirs – through proper teamwork, everyone helps each other to grow their business and succeed.
• Portability - In my traditional businesses, I was married to my customers since I delivered a service that required face-to-face interaction. If I ever decided to move or change business locations, I’d have to start all over creating a new clientele from scratch. Not so with a network marketing business – your business and income are portable, allowing you to live and work where you want at any given time.
• Residual income - In traditional business models, your income is based on continually attracting new business and customers. If you don’t go to work, your paycheck stops coming. But in the network marketing model, after the first few years you have the potential to earn a paycheck for life, based on the business and customers your organization acquired during the start-up and business building phase. Few other traditional business models or career paths offer this type of residual income.

And, I’m not the only one who has become a believer in the network marketing business model.

Nework Marketing Taught At A Major University?

Dr. Charles King is a professor of managerial studies at the University of Illinois in Chicago. With a PhD from Harvard and decades of academic experience, he is perhaps the most reliable proponent of network marketing as a business model for the masses.

Yet, when Dr. King first began studying network marketing, he was actually firmly against the idea of his students pursuing it as a valid business model.

Now, he teaches courses on network marketing at UIC, and says many of the university’s business graduates pursue network marketing as a “second business” after entering the workforce.

How I Got Involved in Network Marketing…

I’ve been fascinated with the field of network marketing since I was first exposed to it as a young man fresh out of the service. I had a buddy in the Guard unit I drilled with who worked for a physician that owned a minor emergency clinic on South Padre Island.

The guy kept telling me about this network marketing company he was getting involved with, and how the doctor he worked for was selling his clinic and retiring on the residual income from his network marketing business.

Now, I didn’t have two nickels to rub together at the time, so I didn’t get involved with the company. However, the fact that a highly paid professional was retiring from being self-employed at an age when most of his peers were working 80 hour weeks made quite an impression on me. So I tucked my curiosity about network marketing away in the back of my mind, knowing I would return to it later when my circumstances improved.

Seeing Is Believing…

In the ensuing years, I would come across people who were in the business again and again. Some were trying to recruit me, and some were just people I knew. However, it wasn’t until I witnessed lives being changed by this business that I actually started pursuing it in earnest.

Seeing really is believing… and I saw for myself what the business could do for the average person with an above-average work ethic.

The Dark Side

But, I also witnessed another side to the business… the side that no one wants to discuss. Upline sponsors encouraging their downline to front-load so they could get big bonus checks… company “leaders” making most of their income from selling “tickets and tools”… and good, honest people being misled about what it really takes to succeed in the network marketing industry.

And people wonder why so many of their friends and family are turned off when they tell them about their business.

Becoming a “Maverick Networker”

After recently returning to the industry in earnest after several years of just fiddling around with some miscellaneous products and companies, I decided that this time around I would build a business from home and do it by following a few simple principles:

1. Always act in the best interests of my customers and team…
2. Instead of following the herd, going with my heart and following what I know to be right…
3. Doing what is proven to work (knowing what to do, and following through…)

This is what I call being a “Maverick networker”. (For more on Maverick Networking, read this post…)

If Sense Were Common…

But if you think about it, it’s just common sense.

The average person shouldn’t have to mortgage their house to join an opportunity.

And, if you can find a way to build more than one income stream at once, why wouldn’t you?

Furthermore, if you can duplicate a system using technology, then give it to your team to help them build their businesses as well, why not?

To some, it may seem contrary. But to me, it’s just the right way to do things. Honest talk, honest work, and honest rewards for both.

If you’re interested in partnering with me in my business, feel free to contact me here.

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Michael Massie
“Maverick Networker”