Day 1: MLM Boot Camp

Today is day one of my 7-day MLM Boot Camp. I hope are here with an open mind and you are ready to learn how to succeed in network marketing.

You should know upfront that I am a No B.S. and no hype kind of guy. I’m going to speak to you as if you were my best friend. I don’t sugarcoat things. I’d rather tell you the truth, as I see it, then tell you what I think you want to hear. Some of you will dislike me for that, but that’s okay with me.

I’d like to start this boot camp by telling you the good, the bad, and the ugly about the network marketing industry. I’ll be the first to admit that no industry is PERFECT. Nothing is perfect.

There are many things I LOVE about this industry, but there are also things that drive me borderline crazy. All of these things are important to understand, if nothing else, so you have realistic expectations. Listed below, we’ll briefly cover each area.

The Good Things About the MLM Industry

There are many great things about the network marketing industry. To keep things on point, I’ll just focus on my top 10 favorite things.

# 1: Low Start-Up Cost

What I love the most about the network marketing industry is that you can start your own business for less than $300, and normally much less than that. In the traditional business world, that’s almost impossible to do.

Many people who want to start a business of their own can’t afford to do it, because of the high start-up costs. Our industry has leveled the playing field so anyone who wants to start their own business can afford to do it.

Furthermore, most traditional business owners invest minimum $10k to $100k just to START a business, plus they have a huge monthly overhead cost, and they must work 60-80 hours a week or more just keep the business going. Despite the huge capital investment and hard work, most traditional businesses still fail. With network marketing there is practically ZERO financial risk.

# 2: Leverage

Another thing I really love about network marketing is the LEVERAGE. You can leverage yourself and build a huge sales organization of independent reps and customers. You can earn a small commission from each person’s efforts. That is much better than just getting paid from your own efforts.

In most traditional businesses, you need a TON of CAPITAL and EMPLOYEES if you want any kind of leverage. Not so in network marketing.

I would rather earn 1% of the effort of a 100 people’s efforts than 100% of my own efforts. ~ Jean Paul Getty

# 3: No Geographical Restrictions

You can work your network marketing business from anywhere in the world. As long as you have a phone and internet connection, you can build your business. You can sit on the beach in the Caribbean sipping on a cold drink while you build your business. You can have a mobile business. You can even work from home in your pajamas if you choose to. In addition, you aren’t restricted to a territory, a state, or even your home country.

Compare that to a traditional business where you are typically stuck in a physical location. No thank you!

# 4: No Income Ceilings

With network marketing, the sky is the limit. While there is no guarantee you will succeed, or make any money at all, you have the potential to make as much money as you want to. There is no prejudice against your race, religion, gender, political views, or age. It doesn’t matter what your education level is. There are no office politics or butt kissing. It doesn’t matter if you grew up on the right side of the tracks.

This is true MERIT-BASED pay. You get paid based off you and your team’s production. That’s it. You might make millions. You might make nothing at all. For anyone who is a producer, it’s awesome to have no income ceilings.

# 5: Residual Income

You have residual bills. That’s why you need residual income. This is money that comes in month-after-month for something you did a long time ago. Everyone needs residual income. It gives you options and helps you sleep better at night. This is much better than linear income where you have to keep trading hours for dollars.

What’s best about network marketing is that you can earn a LEVERAGED, residual income!

# 6: Low Monthly Overhead

Most businesses are expensive just to keep in business. Most businesses spend THOUSANDS of dollars per month just to stay in business. They have huge monthly overheads, which includes payroll, rent, insurance, utilities, inventory, etc.

Not so in our industry. In most cases, your monthly overhead will be less than $200 per month to maintain your business, and that includes products you purchase for your own personal consumption. If you think that’s a lot of money, you probably shouldn’t be in business.

# 7: No Employees

If you’ve ever dealt with employees before, you will be THRILLED to know that you won’t need any employees to grow and manage a successful network marketing business. I would rather pull out my fingernails than have employees. For most companies, employees are an asset, but they are also a huge liability, with tons of headaches.

# 8: The People

One of the things I love most about this industry is the association. You get to spend time with other people who want to create a better life for themselves. You get to hang around people who have dreams. You get to hang around people who uplift you, encourage you, and bring out the best in you. Even better, you get to choose who you sponsor, sell products to, and work with. You can’t say that about your co-workers at your job.

# 9: Personal Development

This is the best thing about the network marketing industry. The personal development, and the skills you will learn, will help you in many areas of your life. You’ll learn how to set goals, how to lead people, how to communicate effectively, how to sell, how to inspire others, how to manage your time, how to run a business; and countless other things.  These skills will benefit your business, your relationships, and your career. Some people say that our industry is nothing more than personal development with a compensation plan attached to it.

# 10: Time Freedom

Let me be honest with you. During the first few years of your network marketing business, you will work your ass off.  You will put in a LOT of work, and you might not make a lot of money during that time. That’s normal in any business. That being said, if you build your business right, it will be much easier to maintain in the years to come.

Many top earners in our industry only work their business a few hours per week, just to provide training and stay in touch with a few of their key people. Most people who own a traditional business have no exit plan. They have to keep working harder and harder, year after year. Of all the successful entrepreneurs I know personally, the successful network marketers live the best lifestyle!

The Bad Things About the MLM Industry

Our industry is only bad if you’re looking to get rich quick, or if you have unrealistic expectations about what it takes to build a successful business. To be honest, there is no such thing as get rich quick in ANY legitimate business. Most businesses in the real world take a couple of years just to get profitable, and five or more years to build a solid and stable income.

Our industry is simple, but it’s not easy. Don’t confuse the two. The steps to success are clear. They are easy to do. But, they are easy not to do.

Chances are, this industry will be the HARDEST thing you have ever done in your life. That’s the way it’s been for me anyway. Even though it can be hard, it will be worth it.

The reason it’s so hard for most people is because:

• They’ve never owned a business before.
• They haven’t mastered their people skills.
• They’re comfortable enough financially that they won’t step out of their comfort zone and risk failing.
• People struggle to deal with delayed gratification.
• They don’t have sales or marketing training.
• They have unrealistic expectations.
• They don’t have the discipline to work for themselves.
• They don’t have much money invested in their business, so they don’t treat it seriously.

These things don’t make the industry bad. Instead, they help explain why so many people struggle.

What’s really bad about our industry is the low cost to join. This means ANYONE can join. That is a blessing and a curse. Because it is so inexpensive to join, we attract a lot of non-qualified people. Even worse, there is no screening process to eliminate non-serious candidates like there is in the traditional business world. For example, if you wanted to buy into a franchise, they would do a background check, a credit check, and you would need to come up with a substantial amount of money. Not so with network marketing.

The Ugly Things About Our Industry

Our industry is really misunderstood. I would argue that 100% of the people NOT involved in our industry don’t really understand it, or they would be involved. And, at least 98% of the people IN our industry do not understand it, or they would take it seriously.

The worst things you will hear about this industry are posted by anonymous people on the internet. Anyone can set up a website and write whatever they want, even if it’s just their opinion, and not a fact. While some of these stories might be true, you have to question the validity of something when it is 100% anonymous and not justified with any data. Or, if the person has an agenda to write something negative about our industry, just to get website traffic to promote an affiliate product or sell their own anti-MLM book.

We are the ONLY industry in the world that I know of, where people start a business, quit in less than 90-days, say they were scammed, and then set up a blog to talk about it. Could you imagine someone owning any other type of business quitting in 90-days or less, let alone create a negative website about it? I didn’t think so. No real businessperson quits a business in 90-days.

You must realize a few things.

First off, most people you will talk to have never even had even one hour of instruction about owning their own business. It isn’t taught in most homes, schools, or universities. Most people have simply been taught to be an employee.

You know the deal. Get good grades, go to college, and get a secure job with the government, or with a big company, and retire when you are 65! When you talk to prospects about becoming their own boss, you need to understand this. People are hardwired to be employees.

You also must realize that our industry does not spend money in the media to advertise (not normally anyway). That means the media has no incentive to endorse our industry. Hopefully, that makes sense to you.

Next, you must understand that most businesses of any kind fail. Depending upon what source you cite, nearly 90% of all businesses fail within their first five to ten years. Keep in mind the people who own these businesses have invested an INCREDIBLE amount of money, and they were building their business FULL-TIME. Despite that, they still failed!

It’s true, most people who join our industry will not make profit in their business. Don’t let that scare you though. Most traditional business owners don’t make a PENNY of profit their first several years in business. The truth is, it normally takes several years to build a successful business of any kind.

With network marketing you could lose money, but it wouldn’t be much compared to a traditional business owner. Even better, the sky is the limit with how much money you could make in network marketing! You might make millions, but you might not make anything at all. Individual results will always vary.

You might even hear stories about people getting divorced because of their MLM Business, losing their health, and ruining relationships with friends. Some of these stories might be true.  Anything is possible, but I would argue that there is probably much MORE to the story than what you hear. And, you could argue those same points about any type of business.

I’d like to close out this section on a final note. The major reason our industry has a bad reputation is because of uneducated and ignorant distributors. We’ve ruined it for ourselves. We’ve had so many people join our industry with unrealistic expectations. We’ve had a small group of people do shady and dumb things that ruined it for everyone else.

In essence, it’s our own fault. That’s why YOU have to take the responsibility to be a network marketing professional and build your business the right way!

Final Thoughts

When I look at all these statements, I personally think the good things about network marketing easily outweigh the bad and the ugly things. In fact, for the average person, I am 100% convinced that network marketing is the best chance they’ve got to become financially independent.

But, I’ll be the first to admit that network marketing is not for everyone. It takes a person with a big vision, a strong work ethic, and lots of self-discipline to succeed in a big way. If at some point you decide network marketing isn’t for you, that’s perfectly okay. There are many other ways to earn money and have your own business.

Don’t think that just because you couldn’t get your MLM business to work that you can’t succeed in another business model. Failing in MLM does not make YOU a failure.

I should also let you know that most top earners in our industry failed in several companies before they eventually succeeded. In addition, most traditional entrepreneurs failed in several ventures before making it big.

Failure is a normal part of becoming successful. You will fail in life a lot more than you succeed. Even the best baseball players in the world fail 7 out of every 10 at bats. If you can bat .300 in this industry you can become a millionaire.

If you’re one of those people who has a burning desire to succeed, a willingness to work hard, and a commitment to keep on keeping on, I’d like to say welcome home! I believe this might just be the perfect business for you. If not, use the products as a wholesale customer and do something else with your life. Life is too short not to do something that you love.

• Go to Day 2 of the MLM Boot Camp
• Return to the Overview Page

Sincerely,

Chuck Holmes
Network Marketing Professional (21+ years)
Top Recruiter & Top Rep
mrchuckholmes@gmail.com

Suggested Resources

1. Best Places to Advertise Your Business
2. Suggested MLM Tools & Resources
3. My Primary Business
4. Recommended Training, Links & About Me