I’m going to be BRUTALLY honest with you guys.

Sometimes managing a team of people can be a real pain. As I mentioned I have over 420 people on my team.

I still work a job for 35 hours a week (until next year). I have my wife at home. I have some personal things I like to do occasionally too.

My business consists of not only building my own business and attracting new customers and distributors but it also includes helping my other team members build their business.

I’m a leader. I put myself out there. I host web sites for everyone on the team (free). I run a weekly training call. This puts my name out in front of everyone. It doesn’t matter if they were personally sponsored by me or if they are 10 levels below me.

Sometimes this makes life difficult. Especially after one of these training calls, the next 2 or 3 days I’ll be busy fielding calls from people who aren’t being properly trained. They don’t know who to go to for help and they see me as being a successful leader so they contact me. I might be at my job. I might be at home having dinner or watching a movie. I might even be asleep. They don’t always know I live on the east coast so they think it is 9 PM there when it is really midnight in Boston.

It can be annoying at times… I just have to remind myself that this is actually so much easier than going to work a job 35 hours a week! A home business gives me freedom! I can turn off the phone for two hours while I watch a movie. I can wait until the morning to call someone back (unless it is an emergency). I can take a week off (or a month!)

Right now I make pretty decent money, however my team is still at that odd phase. Let me see if I can diagram this out for you guys so you can see what I’m talking about.

Hmm. I can’t diagram it out here. I’ll add the diagram after I get home.

Basically when you start out in network marketing (the most common home business) you start out like this.

Home Business Phase One
Its just you, and a couple of people. You put in a lot of work at first for very little reward. It looks like an upside down pyramid. It is you at the top with a bunch of people under you, not many on level 2, less on level 3, one or two on level 4, etc.

You put in BIG EFFORT = small reward (so far.)

Home Business Phase Two
After a few years (for some of you it may be faster, for others it may take longer) your team grows. You have not only you, but you’ve sponsored quite a few people. These people have in turn sponsored a few more. You’ve got a growing base of customers. Your downline now looks like a diamond. You are at the top and you have a growing base of distributors 3 and 4 levels deep however your lower levels are kind of small. only a few on level 5, 6, 7 etc.

Your efforts = your rewards. So if you continue to put in big effort you’ll start to see rewards that are more in line with the amount of time you work.

Home Business Phase Three (this is the phase I am entering)
This will probably take you a few years and might even take you 10 years or more of hard work. At this point you’ll have a HUGE team. It will be in the shape of a pyramid. You’ll have personally sponsored a bunch of people, but they in tern will have sponsored more and more people. Every level you’ve got more and more distributors and customers.

At this point it is a snowball. You couldn’t stop it if you wanted to. You have a bunch of solid successful leaders making excellent money. You’ve got a downline of thousands. At this point you have so many leaders that even if you get sick, retire, etc. your business will still continue to grow.

continued effort = BIG REWARDS!

Your reward is phenomenal compared to the effort you put in. You might put in 20 hours a week but you make more than you did in your job even only working part-time. Some network marketers are among the highest paid people in the world. I think the statistics are that more millionaires come from network marketing than any other business, much less any other home based business! This is why. You just have to stick it out!

If I didn’t have my 35 hour a week job, the amount of time I put in and the amount of work I put in managing my team would be minimal Soon my business will be generating enough income that I can leave that job! That is going to be a GREAT DAY!

MLM Training > Home Business Blogs > Managing a Team