More than 30 million jobs may be lost as a result of the coronavirus crisis. That’s 30% up on the losses from the 2008 financial crisis. In other words, many people currently obliged to stay at home will never return to work. At the same time, many people have been obliged to work from home, finding ways to merge their family and professional lives. Some are struggling, but many are finding it empowering. The climate – and air quality – is greatly benefiting from reduced commutes and emissions.
But while many business sectors are coming to a standstill, there is one that continues to thrive: network marketing. I’ve studied the business model to learn why this is so. It’s actually pretty simple. One clue is in the name: your personal network of friends and family forms your primary target market. You will have to go prospecting more widely, but almost anyone can kick off their business to a good start. Secondly, you don’t need any particular skill or background. For the most part, network marketing organisations are very well set up in terms of training and marketing support. You just have to find ways to place a pre-packaged offer in front of prospects. And thirdly, it can be an extremely low cost of entry business opportunity compared with many other options (so long as you don’t have to stock up on physical inventory).
Of course there are objections, the most common being that it’s a pyramid scheme. Let’s knock that on the head. Nearly all organisations are pyramids. The man (or woman) at the top is able to take home vastly more money precisely because those at the lower levels don’t. True pyramid schemes are based on an unsustainable payout model and are illegal.
On the other hand, the big advantage of marketing to a network is that your customers become your partners and they sell on to other customers. In comparison, a conventional value chain is linear: your customers do not (usually) generate additional business for you. And many network marketers find a major attraction in being part of a community rather than simply holding a position or running a business. In terms of personal development, there are several network marketing organisations whose provision of learning opportunities are truly world class, beating most big companies hands down.
The key to success seems to be to think and act like an entrepreneurial business leader just as you would in any other venture you might choose to set up. But unlike in other business models, your job is to help others create their own successful businesses too. Successful network marketers find great satisfaction in this ability to share their success. Quite literally, they cannot succeed unless they help others to do so too.
The coming recession will be bigger, deeper and possibly longer lasting than that triggered by the financial collapse of 2008. There are some scary predictions being made about what will happen to society over the next few months which we don’t need to go into here. But while network marketing may not be a magic bullet, nor be everyone’s preferred solution, many people will be looking to get involved.
How may I help you?
Personally, I chose to join a global club which operates on a network marketing model in one of the world’s biggest industry sectors. We’re expecting a massive uptick in demand, during and after the present shutdown. Please get in touch if you’d like to know more: ss@steveshelley.org 0754 888 5576