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coreyjroman
Joined: 11 Jul 2005
Posts: 91
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# Posted: 4 Aug 2005 15:16
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I have been stumbling on several sites lately advertising starting your own MLM. Though I am not sure of what these sites are offering the prospect of being at the very pinnacle of a new mlm is intriguing. If handled properly with enough money invested to launch a good one the sky is the limit. Can anyone offer some input of how they would start a new one, what they would want in a new mlm, what types of products or services they think would be of great value to such an idea, etc. Any input would be highly appreciciated. I am considering looking into this very seriously. Thanx
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jones0
Member
Joined: 9 Aug 2005
Posts: 7
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# Posted: 10 Aug 2005 10:55
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Hello Corey,
Theoretically to startup an MLM or in general a company you need new products. Now physical products require manufacturing (virtual products like software require other things), marketing/advertising, packaging, distribution... and these are just some elements I can only think of.
I believe the key here is the type of contacts you have in place to start your own MLM. The good news, there are a lot of unknown manufacturers that are looking to promote their new products. The bad news is that you have to do plenty of research (on all major fields and build trust) before investing money and resources. For me the most difficult aspect of this concept are the marketing dynamics and associated risk factors.
Say for instance I will spend a year or so, researching and building a business in real-estate doing competition analysis, demographics research for investment, studying construction/build materials, creating field-associated contacts and so on. Now real-estate as business does not necessarily involve brand new products - does for new properties though - but has other difficult aspects. If the real-estate economy after a year (say at a time my investment is in full-throttle) goes up I make a lot but if it goes down maybe I lose a lot unless�.
I have seen successful agents making a profit even when the market is down because of the way they promote their business/services. Its not the same to do a standard open-house and newspaper property advertising... than going around looking for customers, creating construction & property investor contacts, identifying which house matches who, understanding the town requirements/restrictions, construction future growth and present elements/difficulties to build new properties as well as many other competition-associated details.
Balance of resources in such cases is also extremely important. I wouldn't want to get a loan to boost my business if the associated risk is too high especially if I cannot pay back.
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coreyjroman
Joined: 11 Jul 2005
Posts: 91
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# Posted: 10 Aug 2005 18:00 · Edited by: coreyjroman
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I currenlty own 3 companies here in my hometown. One is a distributary company designed for fast same day local delivery, one is a consulting company that I run by myself where I help people build structured business plans for new businesses and for expansions and show them the simplest and least expensive ways to get started and the third is a cleaning business that my wife now runs full time(she has 43 employees and most of her cleaning contracts are for area businesses and are commercial in nature). What we have been consumed with is an MLM that could help promote new inventions as well as offer services for inventors as we hold 3 patents on items that we have come up with to make our businesses run more efficient. I have a masters in business and an undergraduate in accounting and marketing. My wife has a masters in business with a consentrated undergraduate in management. I believe with the right input and some ideas as well as some outside constructive critisisms we could wade through the complications of starting an mlm. In this topic we are more interested in seeing how others have thought of mlms and what they think would be a product line or line of services that they would find of great value in an mlm opportunity. You sound as though you have some education and experience in business in your background as well. Although I appreciate the informative posting you have offered... I am very familiar with cost benefit analysis and preperatory interest research for business start-up and fanancial futures management. I have noticed a great rise in affiliatory product representation over the last 5 years as more and more I see people starting business and asking for me help that actually have no products or services of their own. They merely represent others services for a fee up-front and then a residual commision. You find this a lot in my area especially in the field of celluar service companies. Independant reps open their own store front and sell the services of other companies. I think that as you noted... if a person had enough "affiliatory contacts" alone he could start a mlm that would provide people with a single place to go to find a multitude of products and services. I wonder what others have thought of as an idea for starting their own mlm.
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jones0
Member
Joined: 9 Aug 2005
Posts: 7
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# Posted: 10 Aug 2005 20:24
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You sound like an excellent manager. I was thinking about the MLM company I represent why its so successful. That�s in the domain of wellness & nutrition. I don�t know if I have all the answers yet but here is what I believe to this day.
1. Compulsory customer service
The way we�re been trained, customer service was one of the top priorities. They do give demonstrations how to do a consultation and there are plenty of resources for the product details. Such info is presented in a way the general public can understand.
2. Products that bring results fast.
Ok now there is fierce competition in this domain. From pharmaceuticals to other nutrition companies and so forth. Yet the key element I realized are the results our products have with the appropriate customer service. So we have expertise in weight-management and a customer sees results within few days on his body. In contrast others they simply sell the products and that alone is hard to convince a client. In addition they may use say a scanner or similar equipment that measures say antioxidants in the body to prove as results. That�s good and legit but again hard to convince a client, as he has to feel or see the difference.
3. Retail vs Recruitment
I think the way this company is structured is extremely efficient. They do offer you royalties from your downline but they give a single digit percentage of what your downline generates. So if someone thinks he can live solely from the downline is up for a surprise. Unless you sponsor many thousands of people (good luck with that). Moreover you do need to have substantial retail to claim your royalties.
4. Timeline of business opportunities
Here we need to consider the available opportunities starting a company. For example in the 90s being in the IT field was advantageous. Today is difficult to perform this at least in North America. Now in my case, the last few years I see the obesity epidemic on the rise something that represents a good opportunity for related business. Another one is internet evolution as you mentioned, I see the local computers being replaced eventually by web sites. Also as miniaturization in technology improves there will be a lot of space for inventions and embedded hardware/software applications. Telecommunications another excellent field as voip takes over the ordinary lines. And I am sure there are plenty more. Just follow the market trends as closely as possible.
One element for the business opportunities I cannot visualize is the time; and time is critical. You see in the late 90s I was very confident the way the economy was booming it would last much longer (everyone seemed so happy) and was expecting what I mention on item 4 would happen sooner. Perhaps for the first time in my life then I saw capitalism in full throttle. And then everything went south. Now some people say it was just a bubble but my perception is this: We became greedy and we ruined something really good.
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coreyjroman
Joined: 11 Jul 2005
Posts: 91
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# Posted: 10 Aug 2005 22:00 · Edited by: coreyjroman
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Your absolutely right! Competition is fierce in the wellness and nutrition field. There is always another business trying to put out a competitive product and as in any industry... the company with the most advertising capital wins when combined with a good product. But a good product(if it provides proven results) does not need to compete. I find that in so many situations in business some companies focus too much on competition and devote little time to product improvement and promotion. The tough part is that "fad" companies make legitimate health products hard to sell. There are so many failure products that turn out "too good to be true" advertising that they give good products a bad name. That is why I believe as in your original post:
Theoretically to startup an MLM or in general a company you need new products.
that if we could corner into a new industry and start out with no "competition" we could utilize this advantage to create a nest egg in the beginning that would feed our families for years to come.
First... a good, high quality product that has no competition that everyone can use or will desire.
Second... a well structured, well advertized and powerfully motivated launch.
Last... a desire to add new products and services that follow the lead of the founding products which will continue to bolster the organizational success.
Basically... find, launch and re-organize on a regular basis.
The sky is the limit!
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coreyjroman
Joined: 11 Jul 2005
Posts: 91
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# Posted: 24 Aug 2005 23:45
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A buddy of mine told me his idea for a MLM and it sounds good. He suggested that an MLM that promotes advertising i.e.; radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, etc. I wonder how you would go about structuring an MLM of this nature. We know there are many good and reputable marketing firms out there that could benefit by being a part of something like this. It might even be interesting to broker these types of commodities to the general public. Just for curiosity... what is your ideas on starting an MLM that represents marketing services and companies?
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RotoPlay
Member
Joined: 17 Oct 2005
Posts: 1
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# Posted: 17 Oct 2005 19:25
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Hey guys. Great dialogue back and forth. I'm very impressed with the knowledge both of you have. It's very evident in the exchanges.
I found your posts while researching MLM ideas. I have recently started an MLM spin-off company and I beleive I'm on to something big. I own a fantasy sports company called [Link removed - Admin] For the past 4 years, we have had lots of feedback from members asking us how they could work in sports or get involved in the fantasy sports industry. This led me to 18 months of putting together a fantasy sports MLM opportunity. After extensive testing, we're ready to go-live. I have promoted the concept on a very small scale (through message boards & sports sites) and the results have exceeded my expectations. Most of the folks who have inquired all seem to be joining. The few customers we got back to regarding this opportunity have joined as well.
Since the interest has been well received on such a small scale, I believe the sky's the limit. We're the first company in our industry to offer a program like this. I want and need to make sure this is done right and is a success.
With that said, I want to make sure we have the infrastructure set-up properly to support the growth. Do any of you gentlemen have investor contacts that could help make that happen? I would like to hire some consulstants to help us with the training program. I know where I need help with this and I have never been good at raising capital. I built RotoPlay to where it is today with my own resources and money. If you do not have investor contacts, maybe I can interest you into being one of the first 100 people in the country to build this program.
I appreciate your time. If you would like to learn more about the program we developed, check out this link. [Link removed - Admin]
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mrcolj
Member
Joined: 19 Oct 2005
Posts: 1
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# Posted: 19 Oct 2005 21:06 · Edited by: mrcolj
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I actually receive a salary to design an MLM from scratch. We started this last March(ish) and now we've signed up close to 1000 people. So I can advise you on how to start your own MLM (not just join one.) DMRevolution is a videoconferencing MLM, selling various webservices. We are now the default provider of video for eBay! Because we do webservices, no one has to buy any inventory and the money is all handled by the computer so it's pretty quick and efficient, too. Anyway, if you have any questions, please holler...
Colin Jensen
VP, DMRevolution
(801) 368-1623
[email protected]
[Links removed - Admin]
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malibumentor
Joined: 27 Jun 2006
Posts: 317
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# Posted: 13 Aug 2006 13:40
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Here's a resource for those intersted in starting an mlm company.
http://mlmlegal.com
They are doing an mlm startup conference in October in Las Vegas.
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coreyjroman
Joined: 11 Jul 2005
Posts: 91
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# Posted: 10 Oct 2006 00:58
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An interesting concept of marketing that I recenlty had the privilege of being enlightened(best case scenario) of is whenever you are starting a business, such as an mlm, you should first shop for the demand for potential products and then shop for a supplier. It is not entirely necessary in todays society to come up with new products but rather to be competitive with one that already exist. A secondary concept of marketing for startup mlm's(harder to do than the first) is to generate demand for a new and existing product through creative sales techniques. Finally the third concept of marketing(this is the riskiest) is to create a new and useful product and then through creative sales techniques try to generate a demand for it. The first method listed above is the easiest of the 3.
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net4pay
Member
Joined: 31 Aug 2006
Posts: 35
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# Posted: 19 Nov 2006 01:22
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I would look at the marketability more than the product. Sure, the product shoud be decent but if you cant sell it what's the point. I would also make everything in the mlm online. Finally look at what the cost would be to start it up and how long you think it would take to at least get your investment back. I hope this helps a bit.
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WebGuru
Member
Joined: 3 Oct 2006
Posts: 36
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# Posted: 19 Nov 2006 06:35
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Quoting: net4pay I would look at the marketability more than the product. Sure, the product shoud be decent but if you cant sell it what's the point. I would also make everything in the mlm online. Finally look at what the cost would be to start it up and how long you think it would take to at least get your investment back. I hope this helps a bit.
Net4pay if you have good product out there you can sell it. It depend on how you market your product. The quality have to be good also.
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malibumentor
Joined: 27 Jun 2006
Posts: 317
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# Posted: 20 Nov 2006 03:04 · Edited by: malibumentor
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From the speakers I have heard that have owned MLM companies... its a big pain in the butt. Its much easier to get financially free as a skilled recruiter or trainer than it is working 18 hour days as a company owner, probably for years, in an industry where 90% of startups fail in the first year.
I would much rather promote myself as a trainer and resource than mess around with products, shipping, lawsuits, etc...
If you have a multi-million dollar idea that will only work with MLM, it may be an idea worth considering. But if its just another fruit juice I would think again, because the nutritional market tree is so heavy with fruit its about to fall over.
Starting an mlm doesn't interest me in the least... but I sure get a lot of people trying to recruit me as a distibutor. I like direct sales and find it much easier to market online. I think direct sales attracts a generally sharper, more serious crowd than mlm in general. I am sure people will disagree, but in my limited experience with mlm, few people have enough competence in the business to even recruit one other person. Direct Selling business owners often have a lot more $$$ invested in getting the business off the ground.
Most mlm startups spend way too much time working on an "attractive" compensation plan (ie. ITV's patented comp plan...) and far too little on creating and presenting a product and marketing plan that most distributors can run with.
Its a lot more costly to develop quality training than it is to develop a sexy comp plan... probably the reason most company provided training sucks.
Thats why I am a marketing trainer and education products distributor primarily. Its a real simple business for me.
Note: looks like DMRevolution, a startup refered to above, has tanked. At least the consultant who posted hasn't renewed his affiliate domain. A sobering lesson on what most startups can expect.
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chaichadt
Member
Joined: 17 Apr 2007
Posts: 1
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# Posted: 17 Apr 2007 06:32
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hi- i dont kow if anyone can help me on this but here goes. i work for a company that markets its product through a MLM System. The company has been doing it for the last 10 years but is still using the mouth to mouth only method. we have had many request to automate our systems in the past but are just reccently doing it.
- we are not in the final stages of the system and want to test it but found out that we cannot use paypal for our payment system because according to there policy they do not support any mlm companies. After getting some advice , we were informed that we need to apply for a merchant account with a bank ,which we have done. Though the bank informed us that it shouldn't take that long because we are one of there oldest accounts. this may take up to 6 weeks for approval which we do not want to waste the time so.
my question is does anyone know of a mlm friendly online systems provider that is save and reliable ?
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Omaha
Member
Joined: 11 May 2007
Posts: 3
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# Posted: 11 May 2007 18:14
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Well if the bank is FDIC insured and you have had an account with them for the passed 10 years I would hope the bank is a safe provider. You really should have talked with a consultant on this matter. If you have not gotten too far into the process I can talk you through some of it. I am an e-Business Management major and have worked with many start-ups and older businesses helping them move their operations online to automate orders/payments. Make sure the bank is capable of processing all major credit cards and their processing fee, per card, is low. Also be aware that the cards are all processed in batch at the end of the business day by the bank so the money is considered "spent" but it isn't actually debited to your account until the end of the day by the bank.
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