Before the recession came along, earning extra income from home was something that was often used for extras or non-essentials or was optional because the primary incomes of the household were enough to cover the essentials.

With the recession, and the layoffs, cutbacks and downsizing accompanying it, extra income from a home business or . . . → Read More: How The Recession Is Causing A Tsunami In Working From Home]]>

Fallout From The Recession

Before the recession came along, earning extra income from home was something that was often used for extras or non-essentials or was optional because the primary incomes of the household were enough to cover the essentials.

With the recession, and the layoffs, cutbacks and downsizing accompanying it, extra income from a home business or working from home often means the difference between getting by and going without in one or more areas.

Working from home or running your own home based business could be the best way to keep your family afloat during tough times; taking a second job may not be much of an option when first jobs are so hard to come by.

Why Work From Home

You may be one of those who can change their workplace without changing your employer. In a poll of more than 3,500 employees in France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain and the UK, the average commute time was 70 minutes per day. That would be a significant time savings if the type of work you do can be done partially or completely from home.

Asked how they use the time saved by not commuting, the largest proportion (56 per cent) said they spent time with their family; followed by 45 per cent who just ‘relax’; and 42 per cent who do tasks or attend appointments they otherwise wouldn’t have time for.

In the U.S. the nationwide average drive-time is 24.3 minutes, which means that Americans now spend more than 100 hours a year commuting to work, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.

Even if your first job can’t be done from home, extra income is still the biggest reason for working from home, and may provide savings in other areas.

Working from home, you minimize or eliminate travel time and expenses such as fuel and wear & tear on the car getting to and from the 2^nd job.

Working from home, you minimize your time away from the family, or possibly even increase your family time.

When you work from home, you don’t have to dress for work, saving money on clothing.

The option is there of not having to pay for childcare since you are at home.

Since you’re at home, you don’t have to buy lunch, coffee, and snacks from the vending machine.

How To Work From Home

Whole books could be and have been written about how to pick a home-based business or a work-from-home job.

If you’ve never considered network marketing as a business before, I urge you to watch Tim Sales’ video called Brilliant Compensation where he outlines the beauty of this method of business.

I also recommend that you sign up for the “7 Days, 7 Insider Secrets” email newsletter at www.AlansMLMTips.com, for some important pointers for any type of business.

It’s All In How You Look At It

Many years ago two salesmen were sent by a British shoe manufacturer to Africa to investigate and report back on market potential.

The first salesman reported back, “There is no potential here – nobody wears shoes.”

The second salesman reported back, “There is massive potential here – nobody wears shoes.”

I want to wish all my friends the best Independence Day ever. Before I move on to the topic of network marketing and working from home, I want to remind everyone why we celebrate this day, so bear with me for a small demonstration of my love for the good old . . . → Read More: Happy 4th of July!]]>

Celebrate The Reason For The Day

I want to wish all my friends the best Independence Day ever. Before I move on to the topic of network marketing and working from home, I want to remind everyone why we celebrate this day, so bear with me for a small demonstration of my love for the good old USA.

The Declaration of Independence

“When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. …”

Thus began the grand experiment in self governance that is the United States of America.

Begin Your Own Grand Experiment

Network marketing can provide you your own personal declaration of independence. Lest you jump into network marketing thinking you’re going to get wealthy overnight, let me  remind you that there was a long road to hoe between the Declaration of Independence and actual independence. This little thing called the Revolutionary War, or the War for Independence, came before actual independence, and so did the intra-colony squabbling over what type of government we should have. There were many heartbreaks, heartaches, losses and setbacks between the Declaration and the reality of Independence.

Do you think you’re going to go from where ever you are right now to where you want to be overnight? The odds are against you. But, are you willing to suffer through your own war for independence? Are you willing to suffer the slings and arrows of loved ones who don’t believe in you? Are you willing to search for the right mentors who will help you learn what you need to learn to achieve your independence?

Do you know what independence means to you? What type of freedom are you looking for? The Declaration was a statement of where we wanted to go as a country. Have you stated where you want to go with your independence? What  do you want independence from? Independence from the 9 to 5? Independence from having a boss? Independence from a job you hate? From a job that you think makes no difference in the larger scope of things?

Are you willing to fight for your independence? Are you willing to work and learn and fail and work and learn and work some more to make your dreams come true?

Your Why

You may have noticed from all my questions in the previous section that being willing to start on your path to independence and success, and stick with it till you reach it has a lot to do with your why. Why do you want what you want? Is it strong enough to keep you motivated through whatever self-imposed barriers you’ve created or the doubts of others, or the rejections you might get. To help you figure out your why and locate what will drive you to success, see my earlier blog “Why, Oh Why.”

Once I Know Why, What’s Next?

Once you know why you’re going into business, you have to figure out what you’re going to do and who you’re going to do it with. In other words what home business or opportunity are you going to go to work with. You should find a company to work with or a business to do that aligns well with your why for doing it and thus increase or maximize your chances for success.

To get assistance on this, go now and sign up for the free newsletter 7 Days – 7 Insider Secrets newsletter. It gives you some tips on things to look for and think about before jumping in with a company on your road to independence. Good luck and may the force be with you!

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“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”  – from A Return to Love, by Marianne Williamson ©1992

Whether you’re a network marketing veteran or you just signed up with your first opportunity, you’ve probably been told that the big money comes from duplication or that everything we do has to be duplicatable.

Duplication gives you leverage which multiplies your time, effort and money (instead of your blood, sweat and tears). For . . . → Read More: Duplication]]>

Who Wants To Duplicate

Whether you’re a network marketing veteran or you just signed up with your first opportunity, you’ve probably been told that the big money comes from duplication or that everything we do has to be duplicatable.

Duplication gives you leverage which multiplies your time, effort and money (instead of your blood, sweat and tears). For more on leverage, see my earlier post “What Else Do I Need To Know.”

Too many people, I think, believe this means to do everything exactly as your sponsor, mentor or trainer does everything. Even though I can already feel the slings and arrows headed my way, I disagree.

But I Don’t Want To Be Like ______

I spent several years trying to figure out why it seemed like I was doing everything that my sponsor asked me to, but it just didn’t seem to be happening for me. Of course, there were all those things that they told me to do that I just wouldn’t do; like harassing, haranguing and hassling my friends and family to come to a meeting or let me give them a presentation.

I would have rather failed than do that. I didn’t do that with my earlier electronics business, why would I do that with my network marketing business. With my electronics business, I told all my friends and family that I was in business and what I was doing and they came to me when they needed something I had. Why wouldn’t I do the same thing with my network marketing business?

You can probably see why I didn’t want to be like _______ because ­­­­_______. Fill in the blank with whoever you didn’t want to be like; with whatever reason you didn’t want to be like them. Mine was chasing friends and family, what’s your “I don’t want to do that?”

The first key to understanding this for me was watching all the successful people up on stage giving their stories; some of them did chase their friends, some started there and moved on, some never did chase anyone. Hmmm, what’s that all about?

So, if duplication is not “duplicating everything your sponsor or mentor is doing,” what is it? Let’s kick off from there.

Definition

Duplication, according to the dictionary means the process of making an exact copy of something, or identically copied from an original.  It comes from the Latin duplicare “to double.”

So, if it’s not your mentor or sponsor you’re supposed to duplicate, what are we supposed to duplicate?

What Do Most People Mean When They Say Duplication

I get the feeling sometimes that too many people in this business actually think we should duplicate our mentor or sponsor. I’ve met people who started talking and acting like their mentor to the point that I started wondering where did Bill go, this guy looks like Bill, but he sounds like Mr. Mentor.

Just because Mr. Mentor has a spiel that works for him, doesn’t necessarily mean it will work for everyone else. It might, but if it’s out of character for you to the point where people wonder when and how you got possessed, it probably isn’t going to work for you. People like to feel like they’re talking to someone that cares about them; that they can know, like and trust. If you’re not being you, they’re not going to know, like and trust you.

What IS The Big Deal About Duplication

The big deal about duplication is that more so than any other business model, network marketing depends on duplication. What is network marketing? It’s the movement of goods or services to people via person-to-person or word-of-mouth marketing. It requires customers and it requires customer finders.

When I say that network marketing depends on duplication, I don’t mean can they duplicate you or duplicate exactly what you did or duplicate what the latest trainer on stage said or what the company literature says to do.

You want to find people who can find a few customers and a few more customer finders. That is what you want to duplicate, and that is the big deal about duplication. HOW you do that is not as important as whether you do that.

Michael Clouse says duplication is the ability to get someone to do something, whether you’re there or not.

So, to wrap up, can you train your recruits in a way that’s realistic with their current skills to talk to people about their business in a way that they will do whether you are there or not? In a way that people will get interested in the product or the opportunity?

Duplication and The Company You Work With

Aligning with my continuing theme of how to select a company to work with, you might ask “What does the company I’m working with have to do with the duplication that occurs under me?” Remember, to be successful, you have to have your team duplicating success. Or, in the words of Zig Ziglar, “If you help enough people get what they want, you will get what you want.”

If the company violates or doesn’t meet any one or more of the 12 critical success factors™, the likelihood that the company will be there to allow you to have duplication goes down with each missing factor. If your company survives and thrives, this allows the duplication to continue and grow. And we’re back to leverage and that long-term, stable, residual income.

Another point that enters in here is the training that your company makes available. Does it really teach you all about the product? Does you it make you aware of all the ways that others are using to make their business grow? Or does the training raise more questions than it answers?

To find out more on what questions to ask, go to www.AlansMLMTips.com and sign up for the “7 Days, 7 Insider Secrets” email newsletter. (It’s still free… )

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People prefer to do business with those they know, like and trust. You can’t get that through mindless duplication! You’ve got to leave room for the personal in your system. You’ve got to establish yourself as someone who’s likable and trustworthy. And you’ve got to teach your downline to do likewise.  – Joan Linwood

I sometimes wonder why there is any confusion on these terms as they apply to working from home, but then other times I think it’s just par for the course. There seem to be people on this planet who enjoy denigrating, confusing and muddling up the issues. . . . → Read More: Pyramid, Scam, or For Real]]>

What Are They and What’s The Difference?

I sometimes wonder why there is any confusion on these terms as they apply to working from home, but then other times I think it’s just par for the course. There seem to be people on this planet who enjoy denigrating, confusing and muddling up the issues. So, to piss off those types of people (who like to denigrate, confuse and muddle up things), I am going to inject some clarity into the subject. All right?

I guess being the unserious type; I should inject my humorous look at it first. The difference is in who gets screwed: with a scam everyone gets screwed (except the guy who thought it up); with a pyramid, the latecomers get screwed; and with a real business or opportunity – no one gets screwed.

Definitions

Scam – A fraudulent business scheme; a swindle. An illegal plan for making money. A scheme for making money by dishonest means.

Pyramid – An illegal scheme in which participants give money or other valuables in exchange for the opportunity to receive payment for recruiting others to participate in the scheme.     A fraudulent money-making scheme in which people are recruited to make payments to others above them in a hierarchy while expecting to receive payments from people recruited below them. Eventually the number of new recruits fails to sustain the payment structure, the scheme collapses with most people losing the money they paid in.              From the Federal Trade Commission – “Pyramid schemes now come in so many forms that they may be difficult to recognize immediately. However, they all share one overriding characteristic. They promise consumers or investors large profits based primarily on recruiting others to join their program, not based on profits from any real investment or real sale of goods to the public. Some schemes may purport to sell a product, but they often simply use the product to hide their pyramid structure.”  – http://www.ftc.gov/speeches/other/dvimf16.shtm, paragraph 4

Network marketing – Most definitions of network marketing get way too complicated; here’s my favorite simple definition: “Any method of marketing that allows independent sales representatives to recruit other sales representatives and to draw commissions from the sales of those recruits.”  – Wave 3  The New Era in Network Marketing by Richard Poe ©1995  “Network marketing is a form of distribution of products and services that, through word of mouth promotion, uses the power of duplication  of effort.”  –  The New Entrepreneurs by Rene Reid Yarnell ©1999                                           “Some people confuse pyramid … schemes with legitimate multilevel marketing. Multilevel marketing programs are known as MLM’s (or network marketing) and unlike pyramid … schemes, MLM’s have a real product to sell. More importantly, MLM’s actually sell their product to members of the general public, without requiring these consumers to pay anything extra or to join the MLM system. MLM’s may pay commissions to a long string of distributors, but these commission(s) are paid for real retail sales, not for new recruits.”  –  http://www.ftc.gov/speeches/other/dvimf16.shtm, paragraph 7

Another way to define it is who gets paid; in a scam, the originator gets paid; in a pyramid, the early birds get paid; in network marketing, anyone who makes a sale gets paid.

Examples of Scams

If you get an email from Nigeria wanting you to send money to prove you’re worthy of helping them transfer money into the U.S.; delete immediately, it’s a scam.

If you get a check from anywhere that you weren’t expecting, and when you call to verify, they ask you to send them the cash in exchange for the check; call the authorities – it’s illegal and is called bank fraud & mail fraud; and yes it’s a scam.

Examples of Pyramid Schemes

If there is a one-time fee to buy into the program or “business,” and there are no ongoing product sales, it’s most likely a pyramid. If all recruiting stopped today, where would the commission payments come from?

If most of the money comes from recruiting someone and the actual residual income comes from a tiny percentage of an ongoing purchase of a product or service, that is probably a pyramid even though it is well disguised.

If the ad says “One-time fee, no buying, no selling, no recruiting, we build your organization for you.” RUN quick like a bunny! If they don’t need you to sell or recruit or buy anything, why do they need you? (Hint – it’s your money) Your money/cash/commissions are only coming from the people that join after you. It is a pyramid.

If the start-up fee is your cost to purchase a report, and you make money by selling others the report to get them started; look out Martha, it’s a pyramid.

Examples of Network Marketing

Okay, I’ll admit I’m only going to pick obvious companies here that have stood the test of time. The whole point of this series of blogs is to teach you how to pick a good and worthwhile company that you can use as your vehicle to create that stable, long-term, leveraged, residual income.

Disclaimer: I am not recommending any of these companies as your home business opportunity, if you are looking at joining any of them, it is up to you to research them and do your due diligence and figure out if it’s the right company for you.

Amway, Herbalife, Mannatech, NuSkin, Pre-Paid Legal, Shaklee, Visalus, Xango are all network marketing companies.

Mary Kay Cosmetics and Melaleuca are not network marketing companies, but if they were, I would put them on the list too.

If you want to be amused, check out how many company names are on a reasonably current list of network marketing companies at: http://www.mlmconsultant.com/mlm_company_list_directory.htm

Now That You Know The Difference

You have learned one more of the basics, for more info, go to www.AlansMLMTips.com and sign up for the “7 Days, 7 Insider Secrets” email newsletter. (No money down, no obligation, it’s freeeeeeee…)

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“If I had to do it all over again, rather than build an old style type of business, I would have started building a network marketing business.”  – Robert T. Kiyosaki, entrepreneur and author