The following is an illustration of why, when I took one of those career tests in the past, I was best suited for "Bank Examiner". Not very sexy, but there it is. I was so astounded by the amounts of money involved that I thought some of you might be interested and bear with me to the end...
Once upon a time, when my friend was joining Market America, I started thinking about this very subject of paying for trainings, conferences, etc. After doing some research, I began to do the math in my head - then on a calculator. I tried to lowball things as much as possible, even to the point of being silly, and this is what I came up with:
Market America International Conference, held every year:
Approximately 20,000 attendees/distributors at $195 per ticket = $3.9 million
Approximately 20,000 attendees/distributors spending at least $20 each (this number may be very low) each on marketing materials, books, tapes, CDs, t-shirts, bumper stickers, etc. = $400,000
I read a newspaper article that described how, in 2004, Market America signed a deal with the coliseum (I forget its exact name) in Greensboro, NC to keep its yearly convention there for the next three years at a rental cost of approximately $75K per year, so that's the cost of renting the building for the event. The coliseum even threw in some free marketing.
The Distributors pay for their own travel, food and lodging. Many of the speakers are Market America founders and higher-ups; I have no idea what, if anything, they are paid for their time. I have to imagine that the celebrities that are brought in are paid somewhere in the neighborhood of tens of thousands, 100K tops?
I think it's fair to say that the annual convention brings in at least $3.5 million annually from the Distributors. Other than the building rental cost and guest appearances, there may be other costs but I don't know what they are and can't hazard a guess.
Market America Leadership Training, held every year:
I'm much less firm about the number of attendees for this, but I have to guess it's at least half of the International Convention. It's probably much more. Tickets are again $195 per distributor, and if they all spend $20 on materials, that's over $2 million coming in each February. Again, less the costs of celebrity appearances, guest speakers, etc.
Market America Regional Conventions, held at regular intervals throughout the year:
Tickets = approximately $65.
I don't know how many people attend each one in each region, but the number of 5000 is sticking in my head. Suppose it were lowballed into only 1000 distributors per Regional. That's $65,000 for tickets. Maybe each person spends only $10 on accessory material. $75,000 per weekend coming in from Distributors throughout the year, less costs of renting a local conference center and paying guest speakers, if any. Again, all food, travel and lodging is paid for by Distributors.
Monthly income from Distributors:
Market America claims over 150,000 Distributors worldwide on its web site. Assuming around 125,000 of those people are in the U.S. and taking only them into account, and using Market America's "Costs of Owning an Unfranchise" at the Coordinator level as a guide, guaranteed monthly income from required Distributor product buying alone exceeds $20 million per month. Some distributors pay more per month for product purchase than Coordinators, and some pay less - I'm assuming the middle ground. Market America doesn't manufacture anything itself, so their costs would be whatever they've negotiated with the actual manufacturers of the vitamins, makeup, etc. that they sell under the Market America umbrella. The non-product payments made by Distributors break down as follows:
$3.75 million per month for email, voicemail, etc.
$3.125 million per month for web portals (recommended) (there was also a one-time $150 set up fee per Distributor; if they all paid it, over time it would be >$16 million)
If even half of the Distributors attended the recommended number of monthly meetings, it amounts to $2.8 million per month.
This is a page copied from a Market America web site detailing the costs of being a Market America Distributor (I didn't include the web site link because I didn't want it to be promotional).
Costs of Owning an UnFranchise
START UP COSTS
Distributorship - $99.95
UFMS (UnFranchise Management System) - $60, which covers first 3 months of running your business
Product Cost – 300 BV – approx $450, depending on what you choose, plus shipping (7.5%), administrative fee (2% of retail value) and tax.
Supplies - $200 for UFO Kit code #1526
Brochures and other supplies – optional
Ticket to the next event – range from $25 (Local Seminar) - $195 (Leadership School or Int'l Convention) ($260 Gala ticket at Int'l Convention is optional)
This section shows monthly costs (most of which are products and things that you would be buying anyway from grocery stores and malls). These do not go higher than what you see here, not matter how much money you are making.
UNFRANCHISE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND VOICEMAIL
$29.95 monthly ($20 for UFMS and $9.95 for the 800# voicemail system called PatLive) .
E-COMMERCE (optional but highly recommended) - $150 set up fee, then $25 monthly thereafter. 2.37% interest rate per transaction & $.55-$.65 authorization fee per transaction (subject to change).
TRANSFER BUY - BV
Ranges from 50 BV – 150 BV per month depending on your income status in the BV plan:
Distributor – 50 BV per month – Approx $70/month
Coordinator – 100 BV per month – Approx $140/month
Executive Coordinator and higher – 150 BV per month - Approx $210/month. BV requirements do not increase beyond 150 BV per month.
TRANSFER BUY – IBV
Ranges from 10 IBV – 30 IBV per month depending on your income status in the IBV plan:
Distributor – 10 IBV per month – Approx $15/month
Coordinator – 20 IBV per month – Approx $30/month
Executive Coordinator and higher – 30 IBV per month - Approx $45/month. BV requirements do not increase beyond 150 BV per month.
"TUITION" – NMTSS (National Meeting Training & Seminar System) –Ongoing educational costs incurred over time and are very affordable. This is an "earn while you learn" process (almost like an internship).
Second Looks (2L's) - $5.00 (recommended 2 kick-offs or 2L's per month)
Basic 5 (B5) and New Distributor Training (NDT) - $10.00 ($15.00 for the first time only to get certificate) - Recommended once per month
Executive Coordinator Certification Training (ECCT) - $50.00 first time only, $25.00 for retakes – Recommended 2-4 times per year
Local Seminars (Sat/Sun 9-5) - $25.00 – Recommended 1X per month when there is no other seminar
District Rally (Sat 9-5) - $40.00 – Recommended once per year
Regional Convention (Fri, Sat, 1/2 day Sun) - $65 – Recommended once per year
Leadership School (Thurs, Fri, Sat in Miami, FL) - $195 plus expenses (hotel, airfare, gas, food, etc)
International Convention (Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun in Greensboro, NC) ) - $195/$260 Gala Dinner (optional) plus expenses (hotel, airfare, gas, food, etc)
OPTIONAL SPECIALIZED TRAININGS
Motives Cosmetics
Motives 2Ls - $5.00
Motives Day 1 and Day 2 - $50.00 each full day (plus supplies needed)
Beauty Basics trainings - $15.00 each
· Internet Trainings
§ Internet Certification Training (ICT) - $50.00 full day
§ WebCenter Training (WCT) and Advanced WebCenter Training (AWCT) - $50.00 full day
· Product Symposium - $200.00 for 3 full days in Greensboro, NC – occurs annually
SUPPLIES - Replenished as needed.
Obviously in my little summary here I've left costs out, like if you want to do specialized trainings on one product or another and the startup costs (150,000 Distributors at approx. $850 each = >$127 million). The company, in turn, pays no wages to Distributors, no medical or dental benefits to Distributors, there is no 401K for Distributors, no workman's comp to be paid, no payroll tax to be paid for Distributors, etc.
One of my Holy S***!!! moments came while many pages deep into a Securities and Exchange Commission filing from a few years back. The land that Market America corporate headquarters sits on was owned by the founder of Market America and the company, which is funded by its Distributors, was paying him rent on that land every month. Same goes for property in Florida, same goes for the yacht. The company was taken private since, so there are no more SEC filings to read, alas. That's not company income, of course, but went directly to the founder every month. I'm betting it still does. Also in the SEC filings, I think in the merger section, is the statement that all the higher-ups, including the founder, are considered plain old Distributors. I am assuming that when I see the figures for annual Distributor commissions, it includes theirs and accounts for a rather, um, sizable percentage of the whole. I can't bear the thought of reading through all
the Market America SEC filings again, but here's a link to start with if you answered the same way I did when you took your career test:
http://www.secinfo.com/$/SEC/Registrant.asp?CIK=880121.
So there's a good likelihood of more than $360 million a year flowing in from Distributors to a private company that's owned by, I think, fewer than 10 people. All of which made me think "Man - you can make a LOT of money in network marketing! Just don't be a Distributor."
Nicole
Nicole A. Waldron
Reverse Mortgage Specialist
GIA Mortgage Corp.
www.nicolewaldron.com
207.332.9998 Mobile
866.442.4245 Toll Free
nicole@nicolewaldron.com
----- Original Message ----
From: jacie3146 <jacie3146@yahoo.com>
To: mlmsurvivorsclub@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, April 5, 2008 1:37:44 AM
Subject: [MLM Survivors Club] Re: Quixtar/Worldwide Group
>
> On Thursday 03 April 2008, jacie3146 wrote:
> > Hi Jenna,
> > Just wondering if Matt went to the conference this weekend in
> > Louieville, KY? My son did. I asked him a few questions about how
> > much it costs for the weekend. Between renting a van, gas, hotel,
and
> > the admission ticket it's about 230.00$. He will have to pay for
> > meals and he'll probably buy an IBO t-shirt.
>In mlmsurviveorsclub @yahoogroups. com Hal Vaughn <hal@...> wrote:
> He should get one that says, "I'm a AW IBO and work my butt off and
all
> I get is this lousy t-shirt -- and they made ME pay for it!"
Hal, LOL!!! This was the first time that I could laugh about anything
that has to do with QS. Thanks.
> I did the math on conventions before. On a smaller one my ex-gf
went to
> the tickets were $100 each and they had 5,000 - 8,000 IBOs going.
If
> you figure 6,000, then take $25,000 to rent the coliseum (based on
> actual figures -- I checked) and $5,000 (based on someone else here
who
> checked) for insurance, figure that most of the grunt work was done
by
> IBOs who were given positions of honor as a reward and that the
> advertising was done through their network and voicemail (which the
> IBOs pay for each month), then there would basically be few other
> expenses or costs. That means they take in $600,000 from IBOs or,
as I
> prefer, IBDrones, and pay less than $50,000 in costs and still have
a
> profit of over half a million.
>
> Not bad for something they don't make money on.
I agree!!! How do QS uplines convince the downlines that the
conference center and the guest speakers make ALL the money from the
sale of all those tickets at 100$ each?
> > He will miss a days pay
> > from his full-time job and 2 nights from his part-time job. Sounds
> > like a lot of money to spend for a weekend to just hear more of
the
> > same-old, same-old (which to me adds up to more brainwashing) . I
wish
> > I could think of a way to get him to miss some of these weekends.
>
> It makes me wonder how I, or many other business owners, ever got
> started without hearing from cheerleaders about how great our
> opportunity was!
> Hal
jacie
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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