You are a network marketing professional.

Your upline just called to you to tell you that your about to be wealthy. MLM IPO.

That stands for MLM company filing for an “Initial public offering” or IPO.  This means that your company is going public. Your network marketing company is now going to sell their stock to the general public. They’re going to be listed on one of the stock exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange.  This is great news, right?

Your MLM IPO may be great news. It may be a good thing or maybe not.

Here are some of the pros and cons of your MLM company filing for initial public offering.

PROS

• Publicity – Mainstream media is going to be covering your company. You’ll have a chance to appear on the various television news shows related to the stock market.
• Credibility – Not only the fact that mainstream media is covering you but the fact that your company is listed on a stock exchange besides other companies everyone has heard of gives you a ton of credibility.
• Wealth – Yes it’s true. If your company allows you to buy shares of the IPO you could get wealthy.
• Expansion – One of the main reasons company’s file for initial public offering is to raise money. They sell a percentage of their stock to the public to raise money for expansion. This isn’t necessarily true in the MLM industry but the extra income could help your company launch new products or expand globally.

That’s a lot of really positive stuff.

But what about the negatives?  When I mentioned a well known MLM start up filing for IPO on a network marketing group that has a lot of leaders and experts with 10-20 years (or more) of experience… a lot of them had negative things to say about it.  Here are some of the negatives they listed.

CONS

• Publicity – It’s a two edged sword. You’re company is now public. Unfortunately that means all your financial records are public. If you had a bad quarter you have to disclose it. Private companies don’t have to do that. If you have problems with manufacturing you have to disclose it. If you lose a chunk of distributors suddenly (maybe they go to a competitor) you’re going to have to disclose it.
• Regulations – Privately held companies deal with different federal regulations. When you go public you are asking the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) to come in and look over your company with a fine toothed comb. This means they’re going to look at all  your bookkeeping and accounting but also all your marketing practices, testimonials, your web sites, your videos, your compensation plan, your percentage of customers to distributors, etc.
• Wealth – Again a two edged sword. If you’re company stock price continues to go up all the people that bought in early will continue to make money. Typically a lot of people get excited when a stock first goes public. But it doesn’t always last.  For every Google there are stocks that go public and instantly go down, down, down. If that happens then most people lose money.
• TWO Masters – This is the biggest problem with a company going public. When a company is private they basically reserve most of their profits to pay back to the distributors. That’s one reason why we love network marketing. We love the fact that our companies don’t pay out big profits to investors. When a MLM company goes public they now have to pay out profits to their stockholders as well as their distributors.

Let’s talk about that last issue a little bit further.

When your MLM company is private you have the original investors and owners.  Their goal is to make distributors profitable. They want to pay out as much money as possible to the distributors. The original investors usually make money through what’s called “breakage”.  That is distributors that don’t meet the payout qualifications for some reason. Maybe their volume dipped below the number they needed so they got paid a little less. They can also make money selling tools, back office web sites, etc.

Keep in mind that most profits are paid back to distributors.  They want distributors to succeed.

When your MLM company goes public you now have to show profits for a new master. You now have to show profits for people who invested in you. You have to show profits for Wall Street and your investors.  If you don’t show profits then all that positive publicity turns negative. All that positive credibility you got now works against you.  It’s easy to point to your stock price or your earnings statements to show how bad your company is doing. Your private competitors don’t have to show that stuff and they love to tear you down.

If your company doesn’t show profitability then they won’t attract new investors. It’s that simple.

So how does your company show profitability? Essentially they take money that could be paid out to distributors to show profitability to investors. Would you rather have a company that shows a $25 million profit for investors, or a company that has $5 million in profits but paid out that extra $20 million back to distributors like you?

On the facebook group of MLM leaders, I heard several scary examples.  Examples of companies that terminated some of their top distributors after going public.  Companies that changed the compensation plan after going public. SURE these are just examples. There are just as many examples of successful MLM and direct sales companies. There are plenty of leaders in our industry that have successfully gone public.

Successful direct sales and networking companies that are publicly traded include:  Avon, Natura, Herbalife, Tupperware, Oriflame, Nu Skin, Primerica, USANA, Avon, Telecom Plus, Blyth, and many more.

Back to the original point. Is a MLM IPO a good thing for your company? In most cases, yes!

In some cases however you want to be cautious. I myself was involved in a company years ago that had gone public to pay for expansion. Since then it had taken a nose dive and had become a penny stock. Another company came in and took over and changed our comp plan from a 7 level unilevel to a 2 level affiliate program.

I think there were a lot of problems with that company.  The fact that the company was publicly traded wasn’t the only issue.

If my company was going public today you can bet I’d be buying a bunch of shares.  However I’d also set some limit (sell) orders so that I don’t hold the stock too long. I would treat it like a business investment. I wouldn’t hold on to it just because I was involved in the company.

MLM Training > Home Business Blogs > Network Marketing

Are you using an automatic phone dialer, yet?

If not you should be!

A few years ago my friend Dean Mitzel introduced me to the concept. I had sort of heard of phone burners and voicemail broadcasts.  I wasn’t really a fan because I got so many of those automated voicemails calling me and trying to pitch me on the latest MLM.

What  I didn’t realize was a phone dialer can be much more than just a voicemail broadcast system!

As my business grew and I began to have more and more and more prospects (as well as distributors and customers) in my system. I wanted an easier way. I don’t like wasting time leaving messages. I prefer to speak to people. I like to do it in batches and make a bunch of calls at once. So this system sounded perfect for me.

I decided to try the FastDialing (Citalink) phone dialer.  It’s not really a phone burner. It doesn’t just leave voicemails.  It’s much more than that. FastDialing calls it a “Live Caller”.

Here is how the system works.

• You upload a list of contacts into the system. My buddy Dean (the guy that does the tutorials) recommends you batch them into groups of 250 contacts.
• You configure the dialer with your caller id number… an email address if you want to send email followup… and preconfigure up to two pre-recorded voicemail messages.
• Then you star the dialer. You pick the list you want to dial. You pick the voicemail you want to leave. You set how many seconds to ring before answering. All that stuff.
• The system then calls you. You stay on the phone while the system dials. When it reaches a person the name and contact info pops up on your computer screen. If you got a voicemail you can either click a button to leave an automated message or leave a personal message, then click the hangup button.
• When you hang up you have 10 seconds to respond and tell the system the “disposition” of the call. Was it a wrong number? Did you leave a voicemail? Do they want more info? Did you setup a follow up appointment?

So basically I started the automatic phone dialer dialing two lines at once… and waited.

Within a few seconds I had my first voicemail. I waited for the tone and clicked the button to leave my pre-recorded voicemail. Next.

10-15 seconds later I had another voicemail… this went on while I watched the system dial. After about 10 I got my first person.

I spent 55 minutes in total in my first session and dialed 55 people.  I spoke to a half dozen. The rest were mostly voicemails and one wrong number.

Now if i was sitting at home dialing 55 numbers it would probably take me at least twice as long. I would have to leave all those voicemail messages. With the Fast Dialing Live Caller I’m just dialing. When someone answers it puts them on the phone with me.  When I get a voicemail i can leave the automated message (or record a personal message if I want.) So much easier.

Tomorrow (or maybe even tonight) I’m going to be calling a list of 240. We’ll see how it goes, but so far I’m really impressed.

- Ben Fitts

PS. A couple questions about pricing.

You get 8 hours of calling with rollover for $49.95 a month. If you only use 6 hours 2 rollover…

You get 20 hours of calling with rollover for $99 a month.

You get unlimited calling for $135 a month.  And you can try Fast Dialing Live Caller for free!

MLM Training > Home Business Blogs > Network Marketing

Here’s another great lesson from Tom Big Al Schreiter’s newsletter:

“When bad things happen, don’t lose the lesson.”

* I ate a bad meal once, but even though I had a bad experience, I decided to continue eating in the future.

* I ate another bad meal once (I attempted to cook), but even though the experience permanently scarred my attitude toward food, I decided to eat again.

* I saw a boring movie once, but even though I wasted my ticket money, I decided to go to other movies.

* I exercised once, and quit (okay, maybe this is a bad example).

* One of my friends bought a lottery ticket and lost. Yet, my friend continues to buy more tickets in the hope of eventually winning.

* Your prospect went bowling once and had a bad score. Yet, your prospect continues to bowl and he continues to enjoy the Tuesday nights out with friends.

* Your prospect had a bad date once, but continued to date new people.

* And your prospect may have failed or had a bad experience in network marketing once, twice, or even three times . . .

See the trend?

Just because your prospect had one bad experience, your prospect can still choose to take advantage of network marketing.

Don’t let the failures of our past dictate our future. We can change and improve our results.

MLM Training > Home Business Blogs > Network Marketing

Call Time: 7:30 pm PST / 10:30 pm EST  

This Week: Attracting Quality People

1. Your net worth is proportionate to your network

2. How to Attract

3. How to change what you attract

4. Begin with you. Would you follow you?

5. Self-Esteem – The key to who & what you attract

6. Changing your vibration

7. Where do I find highly productive self starters

8. Keys to attracting:

A. Articulate

B. Competitive

9. A consistent plan to attract

This a call you can not afford to miss!

MLM Training > Home Business Blogs > Network Marketing

Today I read a great article from Perry Marshall in his newsletter which was so good I had to repost.

Perry is an e-business guru. He was one of the first big name Google Adwords guys. He taught people how to buy PPC advertising on Google’s Adwords program. He has become more of a general internet/e-business expert.

You might be wondering what this has to do with MLM and home business? Read on and find out. He even has an example from Amway.

Benjamin,

Yesterday I was talking to Matt Gillogly and he said to me, “If I have another conversation with a guy who thinks he’s gonna go out and do marketing for local plumbers and flower shops, I think I’m gonna scream! People are thinking WAY TOO SMALL.”

Disqualifier Numero Uno for *any* business deal you ever get into is this:

DO THEY HAVE THE MONEY?

How much money does the local plumber or flower shop have? How much do they spend on marketing and advertising – right now?

If you have this idea that you’re going to hopefully someday get them to $15,000/month and giving you $5,000… but right now they’re spending $1500 a month….

You’re safer betting the Chicago Cubs will win the World Series.

Why do people entertain fantasies like this?

I call it Rainmaker Head Trash. It’s the mental garbage that people who CAN be rainmakers, and who aspire to kick royal ass out there in the marketplace, sabotage themselves with.

I did this all the time when I was in Amway. Here’s a for-instance:

I sponsor this guy Jose who works at the Post Office. He sponsors his sister who also works at the Post Office. She sponsors this couple named Pamela and Gonzalo who live up the street. Gonzalo is a college student and they live in a ghetto in this tiny apartment that smells like urine. She’s “looking for work” and I think they’re living on a thousand bucks a month.

Guess what kind of people they’re putting on their names list?

Meanwhile I’m thinking, “Man, I’m going to HELP Pamela and Gonzalo escape this grinding poverty and someday it’s gonna be so great…”

Here Pamela, let me buy those tickets so you can go to the next seminar and learn how to get rich.

One chance in a million, baby. Might as well play the lottery.

Who SHOULD I be talking to?

A cardiologist.

Was I comfortable talking to a cardiologist?

Of course not.

Did I feel like I could help him?

Of course not.

But if Amway actually worked (it didn’t, but that’s beside the point) I would get the farthest the fastest by not trying to steer a parked car.

Lesson Numero Uno about your life as an entrepreneur is this:

If you’re thinking big, then you’re always tackling things that are bigger than you, and you’re taking on clients with BIG businesses not little ones. You’re ALWAYS feeling that queasy feeling in your stomach. You’re always stretching your brain.

If you’re a copywriter, there’s 100,000 BIG websites and 90,000 of them have lousy copy.

If you’re a PPC manager, there’s 100,000 BIG Google accounts and 90,000 of them are a complete mess.

If you’re a business strategist, there’s a 100,000 decent sized companies and 90% have a crappy strategy.

You can make the flower shop $1,000 per month or you can make a medical device manufacturer $50,000 per month. With the same amount of work.

Which way do you want it?

The irony is, you are exponentially MORE valuable to a big business than a little one. Even though you question your own value.

As my own business has grown, I have ALWAYS had to set my own head straight on how much value I deliver. Is $25,000 a lot of money to charge for Private Client Group? It’s one half of one percent of annual revenue for a $5 million company. One guy, whose business is much smaller than that, earned back his dinero in our first 30 minute phone call.

When tiny hinges swing big doors, $25,000 ain’t much at all.

There is a place where your skills are worth five figures a month. It’s just a question of where.

What a really great sensation when you stop driving parked cars and finally head down the expressway, full speed. Eventually you come to love that queasy, “Think Big” feeling. You embrace it ‘cuz it keeps paying off.

Perry Marshall

(I’m leaving this in tact because Perry’s purpose of this email was to sign people up for consulting. )

P.S.: We have a new 6 payment option for Consulting Accelerator and you’ve only missed the first week. If you want to earn a 5-figure monthly income as a rainmaker, we can show you how:

http://www.perrymarshall.com/consulting/

MLM Training > Home Business Blogs > Network Marketing