So, while i was ‘giving up’ (for whatever reason) and moving on to pastures new, there were always others that stuck with it and went on to great success. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not an advocate of trying to move forward while looking back over your shoulder. What I do want to convey to you today is the importance of being decided about your business and your commitment to it.

See, the root of the word decided, literally means “To cut off”. In other words, once you make your decision that you are going to do something, you literally “cut-off” your mind from any other possibilities other than getting success from that situation. That way, you will not get distracted or lose focus every time something new comes along (which is just about every day!).

In the days when I first went to high school in England, my dad gave me a dictionary (in those days, you couldn’t attend class without one) In the front of the book, he wrote a synopsis of a quote from Rudyard Kipling:

“Whatsoever you find to do,

Do it with all your might,

For there is nothing so lost,

As lost opportunity”

Now, the may not be the exact words but is definitely the exact sentiment of the message.

In closing today, I encourage you to look at whatever opportunities you have at your finger tips and ask yourself this question: “Am I doing this with All My Might”? That literally means to put all of your thought, power and energy into it. To put your faith and your prayers behind it. Are you doing that? Really?

If you can’t get like that about what you are doing, find something else to do! Once you find “The one”, be decided. From that moment on, you have to “cut-off” the possibility that something better will come along. Take it from one who has found out the hard way. The grass is definitely not always greener somewhere else. Stick with your decision, do it “With all your Might” and you will be on your way to the success you deserve.

Many people have dabbled in network marketing, not achieved any success and then added to the daunting ‘statistics’ that assert that 90% of the people that get started in Network Marketing as their home based business of choice fail!

This writer submits to you that the reality of that statistic lies more in the fabric of ‘urban legend’ than fact. In reality the majority of people that get involved in Network Marketing companies could be better described as ‘ambitious customers’. Their motivation is usually to do just enough of the business side to reduce or eliminate the costs of the products they wish to purchase for their own use. Most succeed in that aim to some degree. Their life cycle with the company will usually continue as long as they are achieving their goal OR until they spot what is perceived to be a ‘better product offering’ somewhere else.

It is important therefore to make a valid distinction. These are at best ‘hobbyists’, they are not business people and they are certainly not professional Network Marketers.

Those that are deserving of the title ‘ professional network marketer’ have a substantially higher success rate. Now, they may well change the company they represent from time to time. That is no different to any business deciding to change their product supplier.

On the whole even those that change regularly are still staying within the industry so they cannot be labeled as failures. If you are a network marketer, be encouraged. You are part of a flourishing business model that will continue to provide you with the potential of financial independence if you persist in learning your industry and developing your home based businesses.

Just like any other kind of business, if a network marketer bases the development of the enterprise on sound business principals, they can create spectacular success. It is a common occurrence for those using the right tools and strategies to turn, what used to be their annual income, into their monthly income. That is why, contrary urban legend, Network Marketing is definitely a viable and profitable form of home based business.

Today we are blessed to be able to teach others how to achieve that same level of success.

Secondly they need to commit to being a student and a ‘servant leader’. The student mindset creates space for them to learn what they need to know about the company, its products, and the industry and of course themselves, in order to have any hope of success. “Fake it till you make it” does not work!

The servant-leader mindset helps you create success by creating success with others. This makes it both rewarding (financially and emotionally) and sustainable.

Then I tell them the truth about finances. That they will need to access to some funding to get their business moving and growing. My minimum recommendation is that a person has access to $2,500 to $5,000. This could be from savings, retirement funds, raised by the sale of some assets (or some junk), a gift from family or as a last resort access to a credit line of some kind.

That is the meaning behind the title of this article. Network marketing is a great industry which sells some amazing products. You can ‘join’ most companies for a $50 or less. But listen, ‘joining’ a company and starting a business are light-years apart from each other and definitely NOT the same thing.

Just because you join a company, order some products and agree to buy some every month (which reduces your cost) DOES NOT equate to starting a business.

If I can just emphasize this enough, it will save you a lot of frustration and disappointment and probably a substantial amount of money.

Let us go back to the example of my company. A person can ‘join’ for $29.95. They pay that subscription every month for a website system with which they can run their entire business. In fact, in our company they do not even have to buy something every month, so they are ‘in business’ for $29.99. Well technically, ‘yes’, but in reality? Oh Please! Listen to me; you will go bust if you buy into this garbage. Slowly and painfully you will add a little more there into your ship that has a gaping hole in it before you even weighed anchor!

Why do I tell people $2,500 to $5,000? Well, first of all they have to be a product of the product. I am not even going to bother with someone who is trying to sell a product that they do not even believe in enough to get for themselves! Of course, legally there can be no prerequisite to purchase product in order to participate in an opportunity. However on the other side of that coin, in 30 years of Network Marketing I have never personally met anyone who got into a company didn’t buy the products and then succeeded with the business. I am sure there is the rare exception, but it is VERY rare!

Then they need tools and resources for marketing themselves and their company and its products the right way and a way that can be taught to others.

Finally, they need a workable business budget for their first 60 to 90 days.
Trying to find this money out of any cash-flow coming into the business is just not effective. For every one person that has pulled it off, there are a 1000 or more that failed.

Look, this is not doom and gloom but it is common sense. If you do not have access to $2,500 to $ 5,000 in either assets or credit, you do not need a business. You need an extra job, so that you can make the money needed to give yourself a chance to succeed.

In business terms, you can start a network marketing business for a fraction of the cost of a franchise or a traditional business. BUT it is still a business and you will go bust in network marketing if you do not set it up correctly.

Do not JOIN a company, start a business.

If you are a networker today and you are NOT being real with people regarding what it actually takes to start getting success, you might want to give this some thought. You may end up recruiting lower numbers but you will have a more sustainable and ultimately much more powerful business.

It was immediately evident that this new and exciting territory would be a wonderful resource for generating network marketing leads, that is prospective new customers and business partners for people involved in network marketing or MLM (multi level marketing)

Problem: The problem was that it required marketers to acquire a new skill in a fast moving rapidly changing environment in which no one had any past experience and most could not keep up. They wasted a lot of time and money trying!
Enter the ‘network marketing lead generation’ business. Initially this appeared to provide a much needed solution. People that did know how to do what was necessary would generate the leads and then sell them at a profit to the hungry marketplace. This worked well for a brief time but unfortunately the voracious appetite of the marketplace caused further problems for itself.

Realizing the increased demand, savvy ( but largely unscrupulous) marketers were ready to take advantage. Using the ability of the internet to create the ‘illusion’ of authenticity, these wolves would simply buy leads from company ‘A’, tell a different or better story about them, and then re-sell them at a profit. Thus the same leads were often sold from company to company multiple times. Not to mention the fact that the originator of the leads often sells the same lead to 3 to 5 different people.

Consequence: The outcome of this has been that a huge number of people are extremely disappointed with their experience of purchasing network marketing leads and by association, their experience of being involved in network marketing.
Listen up! If you are still buying network marketing leads as the main way of trying to build your business (I say ‘trying’ because it will not work as a long term strategy) you need to know this fact.

Internet marketing has all but killed the network marketing leads business and so now you too can get yourself free from your reliance on other peoples leads. More importantly you will be able to hand to your team a system that will allow them to become self sufficient in lead generation which will give them a far greater chance of success.

How are you going to achieve this? Become an Internet Marketer! That’s right, but not what most people perceive from that title. You are not going to necessarily try to sell your companies products over the internet. Network marketing product retail sales still work best on a face to face ‘people telling people’ basis. BUT, and this is massive; there is a whole new category of internet marketer in town. These are guys and gals who are learning to tap into the massive power of the internet to attract droves of leads. People who are potentially interested in their business AND once the skill set has been learned, these leads are generated for free. That’s right. Zip, zero, nada per lead! Now that price is definitely right. So now, instead of becoming enslaved by the lead companies, you spend a bit of cash up front to get some tools training and resources and then you can generate your own, highly targeted high quality network marketing leads for pennies on the dollar or even free. In fact and here is the silver bullet which will finally see internet marketing killing off the last of the lead companies. If you learn to do it right, you will actually turn your lead generation cost into an additional profit stream for your business. Now that’s what I am talking about!