Why did I describe network marketing as “Franchising without the capital investment” in last month’s column? I’ve had dozens of phone calls asking me to elaborate and explain myself so . . . . How would you like to spend £100 - £150 starting a business, which in 5 years grows to a turnover of £5,000,000 a year with 5000 outlets and gives you net profits in excess of £1,000,000 a year? What if I told you that you would never need to work more than 30 hours a week in your business? That it would expand into 12 or 15 countries at no expense to you? That you could take up to 16 weeks holiday a year? You could work your business anywhere in the world? You’d have me certified or call me a liar -- Correct?
Well I’m as sane as most people and I would be lying if I promised everyone would do it, but I know many people who’ve done what I described and much more. To understand how, we’ll have to look at a little Network Marketing (NWM) history and some recent developments in the USA that are just beginning to impact on Europe and the UK. When NWM started 50 years ago it was just a slight variation on the average direct sales operation. Some companies like Amway (the largest) have, over the last 38 years done a lot to improve peoples’ perceptions of its’ wealth creating abilities. However, and it’s a very big HOWEVER, there was, until 3 years ago, an invisible ceiling on the percentage of the profits that were actually paid to the distributors in virtually all the legitimate networks. Also a requirement of success was attendance at fairly awful, sometimes evangelical in flavour, ‘motivational’ meetings.
Three years ago things began to change in a big way when one American company, decided to rewrite the rule book on how NWM could be done from the distributors point of view. The radical changes that they made to the existing system, have created a revolution in networking that is just starting to affect us here in the UK.
Finally networking has come of age. And in the same way that franchising had its’ teething troubles, but went on to become a serious and safe way to build a profitable business of your own. Networking now offers a sensible and very lucrative opportunity to business people who enjoy the profits to be made from working in a developing industry. Starting the right network in the late 90’s is akin in many respected trend analysts minds to starting the right franchise thirty years ago. What would your bank balance be now if you’d been able to buy a McDonald’s or Body Shop franchise even 20 years ago, for £100?
One franchisee says, “After 11 years with 3 successful franchises, I stumbled across this new type of networking. I looked into it, decided I had nothing to lose. I’m netting more money after just 18 months, doing a third of the hours than I was after 5 years with my franchises. I’m just waiting to sell the last one now”
So what has made the sudden and enormous difference? Funnily enough, only two simple things. The company has devised a way to build and run a large, successful, international network totally from home. That means no meetings, no visits and all the products are sold to retail customers by mail order. So the distributors have much more time to spend on effectively building their businesses and living their lives. Secondly, and some think most importantly, thanks to a paradigm shift at the corporate level, they can pay a higher percentage than anyone ever has to the distributors for their efforts. Up to TEN TIMES more than some of the oldest companies!
It’s often said that a breakthrough only requires a couple of small and obvious changes to turn failure into success. We’ve heard about it for years in other contexts, but it’s certainly revolutionised NWM for ever.
The smart money is now on NWM being the income opportunity of the next century. It’s attracting business people and professionals who want to exchange their existing high incomes and 80 hour weeks for a higher income and a 10 to 30 hour week, 30 to 40 weeks a year! When many people want more free time, anything that produces solid, high incomes, without tying you to premises and business hours. And gives you more than three weeks holiday a year without you worrying about who’s looking after the business and how many customers they’ve lost you, has got to be worth looking into.
This article was originally published in the UK under the title “Millionaires for the Millennium” September 1997 ©ESG1997

• Beginners Index • The Future • Subscribe to our Free Newsletter • Fun Stuff • Main Index • Email