Network Marketing - The Path to Financial Freedom

At first glance, most people will most likely think that this is an article to sell the good points of "network marketing/MLM/direct sales" companies, but please read on before you judge.  I admit that I am a distributor for an MLM company called Elken Sdn Bhd, but this is not what this article is about.  Just for your information, I am not from business/marketing background and my social skill is definitely among the poorest. To be honest, network marketing, MLM or direct sales (no matter which term you prefer to use, they all meant the same from my point of view), is definitely not my strong virtue. In fact, it is my weakness. I am a very shy and quiet person so I hardly approach people. I still made a lot of friends from school, college, university and work place because I am friendly and easily approachable. I am not a good chatter box so when I go out with new friends, I am mostly the listener. Most of the time I only hang out with friends for sport activities such as badminton and basketball because I won't have to worry about chat topics during these activities. During one of my job as a sales engineer, I was told by my sales manager, who was the top salesperson of the company, that I am not suitable to be a salesperson because I do not know how to entertain customers (in terms of satisfying their non business related needs, if you get what I mean), I do not know how to bribe customers, I do not know how to sugarcoat to persuade customers, and I am too honest about the products that I sell.  In other words, being a salesman is a mission impossible for me.

So why am I still trying to build my career through Network Marketing?

1. Working for others will never earn me financial freedom. No matter which company you work with, the higher position you earn, the more you are tied to the company. As your responsibilities grow, so does your stress level, but your salary doesn't always balance it off. One of the way to earn financial freedom is through a proper channel that does legal network marketing.

2. If I want to achieve my dreams to travel around the world to enjoy my retired life, I will need to be not only wealthy but also healthy. Almost all highly successful CEO died from some form of chronic diseases. What's the point of earning so much money when you can't even enjoy it with a healthy body? Money can buy many thing, but it is not everything.  When you lose your health, you lose almost everything.

3. Salary can NEVER catch up with the inflation rate. 20 years ago, fresh engineering graduates fetches an average starting salary of RM2000 a month. 20 years later, fresh engineering graduates are having hard time getting a starting salary of RM2000 a month! This is just insane. Prices of everything else already doubled, tripled or even quadrupled over these 20 years yet the average salary of fresh graduates remained the same.

4. No matter what you do and which field you are in, at the end of the day the most important asset that you need to build is, your network of friends. So from my point of view, you are either knowingly doing network marketing or unknowingly doing network marketing. I'll rather do it knowingly because I want to clearly know what I am doing.

5. No one is born a professional. You may be born with more talent or more weaknesses, but our ability to learn will allow us to eventually grow into someone we desired to be. Having weaknesses doesn't mean you will fail. It may take you longer time to success, but as long as you do not give up, success will follow.

What is the difference between Network Marketing and Pyramid Schemes?

Just as what I have mentioned above. Network marketing, MLM and direct sales meant the same thing to me, so I will just use the term "network marketing" to represent them all here. Pyramid schemes and other illegal get rich quick schemes are, on the other hand, totally different story. How are they different? To put it in simple terms. Imagine that network marketing is a tool (a vacuum cleaner for example) that is created to help people, while pyramid schemes and other illegal get rich quick schemes are tools that have been modified into a weapon (a vacuum cleaner that can be reassembled into a gun) to kill people. Would you ban the use of normal vacuum cleaner or seize the use of vacuum cleaner because someone committed murder with a customized version of it? This is how I view the differences between network marketing and pyramid schemes, so they really shouldn't be grouped together.

What is Network Marketing?

Network marketing is just a method of selling a product or service to the people that you are connected to directly or indirectly. Network marketing can be divided into 2 main categories, active network marketing (approaches your customers personally) and passive network marketing (waiting for customers to approach or approaches customers on behalf of company). For those who are doing active network marketing, they clearly know that they are doing network marketing. For those who are doing passive network marketing, i.e. those who owns a store, saloon, or business of their own,  most of them didn't realize that they are actually doing network marketing too.  Everyone else that work for a fixed salary are even worse because they are actually doing network marketing FOR someone else, their boss.

No matter what type of business you are doing, you need a network of customers in order for your business to grow or to sustain your job. So it doesn't matter whether you are business owner, a doctor, a lawyer, a shop attendant, a teacher, an office worker, an artist, a shop attendant, a blogger, an online company, a Forex trader, etc., you are actually a part of network marketing.  Network marketing is NOT something that is exclusively done by MLM or direct sales companies.  Everyone is doing network marketing, just that they are executing it in different forms.  Let's take swimming for example; it can be done in different form such as free style, backstroke, butterfly, diving and so on, but no matter which style you prefer, the bottom line is, you are swimming!  You are just using different technique to move around in the water.

How is Network Marketing carried out in different businesses?

For active type of network marketing companies, there are generally 2 ways to expand their network:

1. MLM Companies - company partner up with their members to increase their network together. Members will expand their own network and earn an income that matches their personal network size. As these member's network expands, company's network also expands, making it a win win situation for both the company and its members.

2. Traditional Companies - company will employ a team of people to help the company to grow the company's network. The employees receive a fixed income as long as they fulfilled the company's requirements, but only the company is reaping the benefits from the growing network.

For passive type of network marketing companies, there are also 2 ways to expand their network:

1. Advertising (attracts customers)

2. Words of mouth from satisfied customers (charity network marketers/free salesmen that are also customers)

Why are people so "afraid" of Network Marketing?

Back in the old days, many companies employed salesmen to advertise their products for them because it is so much cheaper than making advertisements. The salesmen marketing method is a type of network marketing strategy, whereby the salesmen will visit prospect's house one by one to provide demonstration and explanation on their products. As the salesmen became more and more greedy/desperate to achieve their sales target, their friendly sales demonstration service turns into pushy, hard-selling tactics, which lead to the growth of the sign that says "NO Salesmen Allowed". To make things worse, a lot of unethical companies came up with pyramid schemes to scam people. Since then, people became overly skeptical and afraid of any similar network marketing approaches. It is really unfair that the legitimate and proper MLM companies are being treated as a scam companies just because there were some illegal ones around.  There is really NO need to be "afraid" of network marketing.  Everyone is doing it!

Network Marketing - The Path to Financial Freedom

Hope that my blog will allow people to have a better understanding of network marketing. It is actually the path that could lead us to financial freedom. The only problem that we need to solve is to find a legitimate company that is doing legal network marketing. We shouldn't be skeptical or afraid of network marketing companies, particularly legitimate MLM companies. Do a bit of research and do not be blinded by the earning potentials. Always stick to these basic rules when you try to choose an MLM company:

1. How well established or stable is the company? Is it growing steadily?

2. What is the quality of their products?

3. Are their products effective, clinically proven and supported by an expert of that particular field? (e.g: If they are selling water purification system, do they have any certified WQA water specialists who acknowledged their product? If they are selling health food, do they have any experts who specialized in researching that particular health food?  Be extra careful with companies who uses other product's research and claim that their product has those benefits because it is listed in their ingredient.)

4. Is their marketing plan transparent and fair for all?

5. Does the company provide good education system?

6. How many successful people have the company trained and are they still with the company?

7. Does the company has the answer to what you are looking for?