69 Business Evaluation via MLM Example
b'Many of you out there want to be an entrepreneur, or you want to earn extra money, or find an easy path to the money that you need for new things, new stuff, and your future. One question. Many people right now and are also tempted or drawn into the idea of an MLM or network marketing. Is an MLM the answer, or your answer? I\\u2019m not going to give you an answer or the answer, because I want you to think about whether that particular opportunity or situation is good for you.\\n\\n\\n\\nBut wait a minute, this explanation is not just about MLM or network marketing, because I want you to think about any business in a similar vein. I want to give you the thoughts and questions that come to my mind, so that you can ask yourself whether it\\u2019s network marketing or whether it\\u2019s some business you want to do it on the side, whether it makes sense, whether it makes sense to you or whether it makes sense at all. If you\\u2019re going to be spending your evenings and weekends starting a business, in any case, be careful on how you do it.\\n\\nFirst of all: Can you make money? I don\\u2019t mean success in the sense that you\\u2019re bringing in income, but are you actually making money? Net revenue, that is, after expenses, are you actually bringing in money? If you\\u2019re talking about other people or other people\\u2019s examples, for example in network marketing you\\u2019ll hear the top earners and all the wonderful things they\\u2019re making. The first rule would be to ignore the income of the top earners, particularly if they come in early or they\\u2019re given a position. Many of them have sweetheart deals to help start the company up. You don\\u2019t have that deal. If you do, congratulations. I\\u2019ve been offered that a couple of times, but have turned it down for various reasons. Some of those you will specifically hear in a little while.\\n\\nYou need to find out, ask, and get the actually income that\\u2019s being generated by people. Not the people that you\\u2019re talking to there at some meeting, or that knocks on your door, or that you know is a friend or family member or something else, but rather, verifiable income printed and put out by the company. Why do I say the company? Because they have a legal liability to tell the truth. Those other people that tell you all kinds of things, generally, frequently lie. If you have to rely on somebody else\\u2019s income, get their annual income for a couple years, and I mean get it by either them showing it to you on the company website or the 1099s for a couple of years to show you that they really truly earned that money. Your income must come from the company in one way or the other, or some verifiable government document.\\n\\nThen, what about the income? How does the income come into the company? You\\u2019ll hear things like: \\u201cOh, you\\u2019re going to earn income five ways, or seven ways, or eight ways,\\u201d you\\u2019ll find all, but probably one or two, are all things that are only geared if you attain some supersonic level, which there is only a couple of people up there, and those are usually the people that started at the beginning of the company. Yes, there is always an exception someplace, but very rare, and those exceptions are people who come in with a lot of contacts from major players that have been in other companies.\\n\\nIgnore that, and then take a look at what you\\u2019re really doing. This is a business? Okay, then, does it make sense? What is the product or service that is being sold? If the video intro that you see focuses on the money\\u2026 I\\u2019ve actually seen where some friends of mine, and I looked at them only because they were long-term friends, and they never said what the thing was. They basically talked about: \\u201cOh, you\\u2019re going to make this, you\\u2019re going to make that,\\u201d etc., but they never made a case for whatever the product or the service was. Make sure it makes a case. It\\u2019s got to make an economic case to make this a \\u201cviable business,\\u201d not just a promise of a lottery ticket to you.\\n\\nAs I say this, what I also want to caution you about is the other side. Yes,'