Have you considered going to shool, starting a business, joining a Network marketing company? (fit in)

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

Just wondering if you or someone you know has decided to go back to school, started a business or joined a network marketing organization. With the current economy many seem to be going back to school or want to do something that they can control, as in a business of their own or to be part of a business orgainzation such as multi level marketing. Have you noticed any trends with this?

[BennyPhoenix]

MLM is nothing but a glorified pyramid scheme.
I have a friend who is a very hard worker, a great salesman and a good marketer; Not even he could make money in his attempt at MLM. You have to be a liar and not care about people to succeed and shafting your prospects is part of the deal.
Find a legitimate business.

[Morphous01]

Sounds to me like you just asking about the MLM business... Yea, I agree with the above post in that it's nothing but a glorified pyramid scheme.


But to be honest it's really a pyramid scheme within a larger one as the society we live in only benefits a small group of people anyway; never forget that.


Anyhow, I speak with experience as few years back I was apart of pre paid legal and during my journey I met other people in PPL as well as others who were apart of Amway in the 90's and for the most part all of us were motivated by greed and early retirement.


We would get all these nice looking magazines in the mail with photographs of couples who supposedly made it rich; you know, one year they were a sales clerk at a department store at 30 then the next year they are driving a CLK droptop to there 10,000 square foot home... Sfff!


Now I do admit one thing that i do like about MLM and that is you LEARN how to sale and get out the comfort zone of being able to speak to people on the street... Ha, I remember I got all dressed up super sharp and went to sell at a mall and I had a hole crowd gather around me then wound up getting thrown out the mall from the mall cops!



More or less, I got out of that crap and I now have my own business where I work with my hands... I love what I do and I love the WOW factor I see in my customers when I'm done.. My heart is in the right place and when your heart is in the right place the money and everything else will flow right behind it...

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

My thoughts on the subject are all acedemic. A story I read stated that the top two growth industries even with the decline in the economy are Healthcare and education, more to the point, secondary education within the college or trade school for working adults. In another article I read that in a down economy the opportunity to start a business may be easier than when things are booming. Chances are commercial rentals will be cheaper, and service industries that the new business owner will need could also be cheaper now. The key point of the article was that if your business plan is sound and you can make a profit in a down economy then as things get better you should be even more successfull. With the MLM angle, I remember people jumping on that band wagon during our last downturn in the late 1980's early 1990's. I have to say that I have seen more MLM's pop up lately with this current economy that we live in.

Once again the real question is not if you are into going back to school, starting a business of your own, or joining a MLM. The question is do you see more people doing those things now then in the past?

[Winston Smith]

Originally Posted by SOON2BNSURPRISE

Just wondering if you or someone you know has decided to go back to school, started a business or joined a network marketing organization. With the current economy many seem to be going back to school or want to do something that they can control, as in a business of their own or to be part of a business orgainzation such as multi level marketing. Have you noticed any trends with this?

Left my former line of work of 18 years and went back to school 11 years ago. Graduated 7 years ago and have been self-employed with a home-based business since 2004. Staying very busy as it seems companies want to hire people/companies with the flexibility to carry out work piecemeal. I hate to make any predictions for the rest of the year given the economy. My survival DEPENDS on small and mid-sized companies staying in business. But I haven't had any real slowdowns for over two years.

[Lou82]

Originally Posted by SOON2BNSURPRISE

Once again the real question is not if you are into going back to school, starting a business of your own, or joining a MLM. The question is do you see more people doing those things now then in the past?

I definitely see MLM growing in popularity. Now that Donald Trump has jumped into the field and is starting his own MLM company (trumpnetwork) i can only imagine it's going to explode especially with the younger demographic. Being a MLMer doesnt require you to have any business or marketing skills so anybody can give it a go.

I was in Amway and quit right away. I am not going to trash the company, or industry. There is money to be made and I disagree with those who call it a pyramid scheme, but it's a very shaddy operation and cult like. Too many brainwashed sheep who worship their upline as if he God himself. I just never felt comfortable around it and I couldnt recruit people into a business I myself was not comfortable in and which had a 98% failure rate. So I bowed out.

Ill never forget during my recruiting visits with my upline, who happened to be a nice buy, he kept telling me how we'd build the business together and become "tight friends." After I decided to quit and told him he blew me off and boy did I give him an earful to the point where he was apologizing to me up and down.

Just gives you a sense of the people you'll deal with. They are good people but they are trained to treat and see everybody they come across as a prospect with a dollar sign over their head. If you are in the business you are their friend, if you're not you're worthless.

That's not how I wanted to live the rest of my life. And that's certainly not how I treat people.