On Thursday 03 April 2008, tpm782001 wrote:
> I can definitely appreciate other's view points, even in opposition.
>
> My main point was that it is possible to conduct business and make
> money by the end of the first month. For a 20 year old, it would be
> a good place to start. And this is not in a service industry, which
> requires moderate to large amounts of specialized skill (neither of
> which I have).
That is true about some businesses but not about others. When starting
mine, I was told by many "experts" to not count on having an income for
myself for at least 1-2 years. It depends on the business, but it can
take time before there is an income. In my case, I had to have the
software working before I got any income. In the case of a store, it
can take time to get the merchandise, get a storefront, prep the
building, and so on. A grand opening sale will delay profits but,
still a store should see an income soon after the doors are opened.
Other businesses can take a significant time before seeing a profit, but
it's also important to note the difference between profit and income
and, unfortunately, MLM businesses do show income early, just no profit
since the money is spent on tools.
I bring this up because there are some key points MLMs play on, such
as, "It takes money to make money," and other truisms that aren't
always true, as well as expectations of different business models.
When I was dating my ex-gf, one issue that made it hard to bring up the
problems with the QS business model was that my business was based on
work up front with replication and more returns with less work down the
road.
> The 30% is just a general rule that I personally use when selling
> capital assets. And it is a minimum ROI. The more the merrier. My
> favorite and best ROI number was approximately 33,000%. I had $100
> in a deal (which actually I borrowed, so I don't know if that really
> counts) and walked away with over $33,000 in profit (after all
> expenses, except capital gains tax).
>
> I never had that kind of result in any MLM. I remember some of the
> products that you got "points" or whatever stupid term was used. The
> profit margin was like 3-5%. And that was for the products that were
> terrible. The decent products had profit margins of about .5%.
That's one thing I also noticed: When QS members were talking about how
well they were doing, they never mentioned income, they mentioned
points. It's just another form of obfuscation.
> I do get your point about entrepreneuriship as well. I never lasted
> that long in any MLM, so maybe your point about the aversion to
> groups is more accurate.
I'm not sure where the disconnect is, but I do think those whom I have
seen doing well with their own businesses would not last 6 weeks in
most MLMs because they'd be bursting at the seams to do things their
own way or to do things they could see would produce income that the
MLM prevents.
On the other hand, there are a lot of creative people here who have been
in MLMs, so it's also possible that someone without business experience
might willingly concede to someone who represents themselves to be an
expert. As a parallel, when I started learning ballroom dancing, I
basically repressed my desire to do it all my way and learned what was
taught because I was keenly aware I knew nothing of the field and
needed to learn from those who did.
> Perhaps, he just wants a business card to
> hand out.
I think that summarizes the reasons a lot of people get into MLMs.
Someone comes up to them and says, "Hey, by joining and signing a few
forms, you can say you own your own business and are all these other
important things." And, while they're a member, they do meet the
criteria (in their own minds) for a bunch of important sounding
positions.
> The only plus I can say, is that hopefully this kid is
> taking advantage of any tax write-offs allowed to him (assuming his
> income is high enough for tax write-offs to be of assistance).
I don't think he can successfully write off MLM expenses on his taxes.
> I always hated the team meetings. A bunch of people sitting around
> getting all hyped up about this money they were "going" to make. And
> none of it ever panned out.
It reminds me of a time, way back (so long ago I was sappily married at
the time) when we went to visit her brother in Texas who had recently
divorced and was dating a woman much younger than he was and suddenly
he was into a party scene. Not a wild party thing, but the "up and
coming" group, almost a 20-something cocktail crowd in a way. This one
guy was going to be an architect and had a lot of good ideas. This
woman was going to be... Yep, all "going to be."
> I can say that I had a friendship
> dissolve over the Nexgen thing. My up-line was a friend of mine.
> After they collapsed, I never associated with him again. And I
> didn't really cause the dissolution of friendship. He just kind of
> disappeared. He was really gung-ho with the whole thing, and I think
> he was ashamed when he finally realized it was a scam.
I'd say there's a good chance of that.
> The only thing I believe I gained with the MLM is fairly tough skin.
> You get pretty used to rejection, lol.
Many people say they learned a lot about motivation and self worth, but
there are better ways to learn those things. I also question what gain
there is when one builds one's self up, then learns they're part of a
fraud. That undermines the gains in ways most people don't see.
Hal
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe
__,_._,___
No comments:
Post a Comment