Deb Frey: Over the past 34 years I have signed up for several MLM businesses. Working a 9-5 job, the MLMs gave me a chance to feel like I had a possible path to something much bigger.
The dangling carrot of money that was always just beyond my grasp, constantly haunted me as I started to view myself as a failure on so many fronts.
I heard constant stories of the millionaires, people bringing home giant paychecks. But I never actually met these people. They were always a friend of a friend, or more often, a friend of a friend of a friend.
My best month in all the years of doing an MLM business was a net income of around $300. To get to that income I had to sell almost $3,000 in product. Most people look at what they can earn, which is usually 25% on sales commissions and 2 or 3% on down line (provided the down line is producing sales as well), but what they forget to mention is the $100+ per month on marketing tools and all of your personal time involved in making the sale.
The first big lie in MLMs is that your upline people do not know anything about business. No one in the real business world would take on a product line that tens of thousands or even millions of people are already selling. Business is all about finding an unusual competitive advantage, and there simply is not one in an MLM whose primary goal is to line up more distributors.
The second big lie in MLMs is that your time has no value. We live in a fast paced society with time being one of our most precious commodities. MLMs always take up far more time than they let on, and the sales flows are far less. In an MLM, the vast majority of distributors can only claim a profit if they value their time at zero.
The third big lie about MLMs is that your place in society drops to some place below used car salesman and septic tank guy. You are no longer a well respected member of society. Instead, your friends and family dread having you come over because your latest MLM has you talking like a born-again preacher, abusing your friendships, and abusing all levels of the accepted social norm.
In my next entry I will talk about the industry churn rates, the tremendous toll these firms are exacting on society, and exactly who ends up with the bulk of the money in this $30 billion industry. Hint: Its never the distributors.
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