Today, I want to educate you about creating your own MLM Business Plan.
Most network marketers do not have a written business plan for their business. Personally, I think that’s a huge mistake. Ask any 100 network marketers to show you their written MLM Business Plan and they will look at you like a deer staring in the headlights.
I’m not sure why people don’t create one. Maybe it’s because they haven’t been taught how to write a business plan before. Or, maybe they don’t understand how important business plans are.
Truth be told, all businesses need a written business plan. I’ve never met a successful business owner in any industry that did not have a written business plan. Sure, there might be a few successful business owners out there without a business plan, but they are few and far between.
I learned in the Army that failing to plan is planning to fail.
Whenever you want to accomplish ANYTHING of importance you need a game-plan. Even if you have to deviate from your plan at some point in the future, the most important part of having a plan is the THINKING and PLANNING you put into it when you created it.
Business plans are no different. Your business plan is your road-map. It will help keep you focused and on point. It will show you where you want to go and how you will get there.
A business plan does not have to be long or overly complicated, nor should it be. In fact, something short and sweet is much better than having a twenty or thirty page business plan that sits on the shelf and collects dust.
I like to keep my business plan to one or two pages at most, because it keeps things simple and easy to understand. One page is ideal.
How to Create Your Own MLM Business Plan
My goal today is to help you create your own MLM Business Plan. I’m going to go through the step-by-step process that I use to create my own MLM Business Plan. I encourage you to follow these steps in order and to use this as a template to create your own custom business plan. After we go through these steps, I will share my actual MLM Business Plan.
Step # 1: Write Down Your Why & Goals
Your first step to creating your own MLM Business Plan is to determine your why. Ultimately, you want a why that makes you cry. You need something that moves you to do take massive action, even when you don’t feel like it. You need something that keeps you motivated, even when nothing is going right in your business.
It should be one or two sentences and clearly identify WHY you are doing the business. If you think your why is just to make extra money, that won’t work. It’s what you would do with the money that matters most. That is your why.
Next, you need to to write down your goals. These goals are the destinations you want to arrive at in the future. Your short-term goals are stepping stones toward your long-term goals.
Please keep in mind that your goals must be very specific. They should discuss how many people you want to sponsor, how big you want your team to be, what titles you want to achieve in your company and how much money you want to make. Here is an example:
Five Year Goals: In five years from now (date) I will have a team of 2,000 distributors on auto-ship. I will personally sponsor 200 people. I will be an Emerald with my company and I will have an $8,000 per month residual check.
One Year Goals: In one year from now (date) I will have a team of 200 distributors on auto-ship. I will personally sponsor 40 people. I will be a Platinum with my company and I will have a $1,000 per month residual check.
Six Month Goals: In six months from now (date) I will have a team of 100 distributors on auto-ship. I will personally sponsor 20 people. I will be a Ruby with my company and I will have a $400 per month residual check.
90-Day Goals: In three months from now (date) I will have a team of 50 distributors on auto-ship. I will personally sponsor 10 people. I will be a Sapphire with my company and I will have a $200 per month residual check.
One Month Goals: In one month from now (date) I will have a team of 15 distributors on auto-ship. I will personally sponsor 10 people. I will be a Onyx with company and I will have a $100 per month residual check.
These are just examples, but you can see how specific they are. Please note how each one is a stepping stone for the next goal. What I did was start with the big goal (five-year goal) and then work backwards, identifying what I would need to do each month to get to my big goal. I hope that makes sense.
Also, keep in mind that I wrote all of these goals in the PRESENT tense. Make sure you do the same thing.
Step # 2: Develop Your Own Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
Your USP is a short one or two sentence statement that clearly identifies what makes you different from the competition and why people should do business with you, and not someone else. Here is an example USP.
What makes me different from my competition is that I educate other network marketers about the industry. I don’t use hype or pressure. I am always honest and to the point. My primary goal is to educate network marketers about how to be successful in the industry, to be an ambassador to the industry and to give our industry a good reputation. Building my team is a byproduct of me doing that.
You need to know your USP, so you know WHY people should do business with you. In other words, what do you bring to the table? Why should a prospect join you and not someone else?
Step # 3: Identify Your Overall Business Building Strategy
All businesses have some type of overall strategy. Let’s face it, there are many ways to build a successful network marketing business.
Ideally, you need to identify what strategy makes sense to you and determine what you are good at. You might want to build your business online. You might want to build your business via home parties, trade shows, events, or one-on-one presentations.
The strategy you choose is totally up to you. Don’t think you have to use your upline’s system. Here’s my strategy for building my MLM Business (as an example).
My Business Building Strategy: I build my MLM Business by blogging. I will create a blog for other network marketers (my target market). I will blog three times per week and provide lots of valuable content to help other network marketers solve their problems. I will share my knowledge with others by writing educational blog posts. My blog will build my email list and will also introduce people to my business opportunity. My blog will also provide multiple streams of income.
Put some thought into your strategy. Come up with something that works for you.
Step # 4: Your Action Plan
Other than your why and goals, this is the most important part of your MLM Business Plan. It’s where the rubber meets the road. Your action plan will identify what you must do each month, each week and each day to grow your MLM Business. Here is an example action plan.
Monthly
- Publish 15 blog posts
- Publish 12 videos on YouTube
- Publish 12 podcasts
- Enroll 8 new distributors
- Leave 30 blog comments
- Send 30 handwritten notes
- Send out 8 solo ads
Weekly
- Publish 3 blog posts
- Publish 3 videos on YouTube
- Publish 3 podcasts
- Enroll 2 new distributors
- Leave 7 blog comments
- Send 7 handwritten notes
- Send out 2 solo ads
- Email team 3x week
- Conduct weekly training webinar
Daily
- Publish 1 blog post (every Monday, Wednesday and Friday)
- Publish 1 video on YouTube (every Monday, Wednesday and Friday)
- Publish 1 podcast (every Monday, Wednesday and Friday)
- Leave 1 blog comment
- Send 1 handwritten note
- Send out solo ad (every Tuesday and Friday)
What’s great about this action plan is that I can look at it every day and know exactly what I need to do to grow my network marketing business. Best of all, I can do this in about two hours per day. It helps keep me focused and on point, so I do the MOST important things to grow my business.
Chuck’s HB Naturals Business Plan
What you will see below is my actual business plan. Feel free to use this as a template in your own business.
Date: As of January 1, 2020
Unique Selling Proposition
People want to work with me because I am a No B.S. Network Marketing Professional. I provide great training and support to my team and I always lead by example.
Vision
By December 31, 2025, I will be a Diamond with 100 downline Diamonds. I will have a team of more than 2 million total people and I will earn more than $3 million per year.
Mission Statement
To help people get healthy and wealthy.
My Strategy
I build my business 100% online via my blog, videos, podcasts, email marketing and paid advertising. I lead with the business, recruit lots of people, and let the serious people identify themselves.
This Year’s Business Goals (2020)
- I will enroll 7,320 PEMs in HB Naturals (20 per day)
- I will reach Diamond
- I will earn $400,000 or more and achieve the title of 500k earner
- I will add 144,000 new team members
- I will attend the company event in February
My Daily Mode of Operations (Monday through Friday)
I will work my business Monday through Friday and take the weekends off to relax and spend time with my wife.
Morning
_____ Take Vitamins & drink shake
_____ Mail 5 postcards and 1 handwritten note
_____ Send daily Herculist Email
_____ Send daily Top Surfer Email
_____ Send daily List Joe Email
_____ Leave 2 blog comments
_____ Follow 100 people, respond to replies and post a question on Wealthy Affiliate
_____ Send 30 connection requests on LinkedIn
_____ Email MLM list (Monday, Wednesday, Friday)
_____ Email HBN list every Thursday
_____ Update my two Facebook groups
_____ Share links on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook
_____ Respond to emails and questions
_____ Edit two posts
_____ Publish one post (2x week)
_____ Monitor CO-OP Daily (add/remove people and place new ads)
_____ Monitor ads on MLM Gateway, Bing PPC and Solo Ads
Afternoon
_____ Quality time with wife
_____ Walk one hour and exercise
_____ Read for 20-30 minutes
_____ Facebook Live (3x per week)
_____ Team Webinar (Thursdays)
**** End of business plan. Once again, these are just my goals and plan. Do not compare yourself to me. Instead, come up with something that will work for you.
Putting It All Together
In review, your MLM Business Plan is a very important document. It will guide you to where you want to go with your business. Keep in mind it is a living, breathing document and it will change from time-to-time. Refer to it often, make sure you stay on track, and update it when needed.
What are your thoughts? What do you think about having a MLM Business Plan? Leave a comment below to share your thoughts. I look forward to hearing from you.
Chuck Holmes
20+ Year Network Marketing Professional
Top Earner & Top Recruiter
Email: mrchuckholmes@gmail.com
P.S. Learn how to grow a successful network marketing business. Secret tips, training, and practical ideas. Free training delivered by email.
What you posted here should be common sense, but so many people neglect to make a business plan. You provided a simple way to do it. I like how you explained that it needs to be short and too the point. By doing that, you will be willing to read it often. If you make a long and hard-to-read business plan, the odds of you following it are low.
Having your goals broke down is important. By knowing what you need to do daily, you will have the inspiration to do it.
Every business owner needs a business plan. Failing to plan is planning to fail.
I am currently taking a business and management course and we recently highlighted the importance of planning. Planning is the foundation upon which everything else will grow. If you have no plan or a weak plan, you can expect the rest of the process to be pretty rocky. Plans help you to clarify your goals and create a step-by-step guide that you can later reference for how you will achieve them.
I agree. Having a written business plan is vital for any business. It’s not the plan itself that is all the that important. What really matters is that you “thought through” your business and brainstormed different courses of action and different alternatives.
You said a mouthful in this response to a comment. So many people try to manage their business without any kind of plan. They fly haphazardly and wonder why they have so many difficulties. When you just sit down to develop a plan, you are considering the what ifs and what fors that some people do not look at. The creation of a business plan helps you to see the bigger picture.
You are providing a great service here Chuck. If planning is not your Forte, I strongly recommend that you visit his services page, and Chuck can create the plan for you at a reasonable cost.
Without a written plan, people will fail.
I think that a plan/strategy is essential to any endeavor that has the potential for failure, i.e. everything! If there is possibility of failure, you should do everything you can to preempt it. Sports, military, business, academics, relationships…all of these things have the potential to fail, which is why all of them require some kind of strategy, tactics, or plan to keep your aspirations from disappearing before your eyes. What do you hope to accomplish? What numbers do you hope to attain? How are you going to strive for these goals? Who is going to help you? What will you do when confronted with obstacles? A quality business plan will help you answer all these questions.
As I learned in the Army, failing to plan is planning to fail. All businesses need some type of plan.
Your point-by-point tasks list is very helpful and easily accomplished by even the most novice marketer. Many network marketers rely on the marketing plans provided by bigger MLM companies and fail to branch out and set their own business goals. Investing time and funds into long term goals is never wasted.
All business owners need a business plan.