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MLM or Network Marketing Schemes, Cringe, and More

Erica DSnap13

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MLM is simply a pyramid scheme that barely qualifies as legal.
Their whole business model is based on what you can convince and promise others, not actually a reliable transaction of services.
My incredibly biased opinion rejects anything similar to an MLM
So.. If someone promise that the foot lotion from Avon works: which it did for many.. You won't rely on that or good reviews of Avon which is a MLM. Is that what you are saying?
 
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Erica DSnap13

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Hmm, you don't find that odd that you need to hide something? If you need to hide something in your business dealings, you should NOT be in that business.


Sorry but you're at the wrong forum when it comes to MLM.

Our universal advice will be to create your own dream instead of hitching a ride on someone else
That must have came out wrong. I'm not hiding. What I'm trying to say is. People misunderstand MLM as a bad thing and I am interested in finding better terms or better ways to represent the business. Learning is a good thing. Meeting people with common interest is a good thing. I am okay here.
 

Erica DSnap13

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. Ha! I understand why you did this. Do you know anyone who signed under you and passed you? How can that be a pyramid?
 

Joshy

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Even if you cover it in chocolate and sugar coat it with candy, an MLM, will still be an MLM. No mater how you try and represent it, it will always be the same.
 
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Mineralogic

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That must have came out wrong. I'm not hiding. What I'm trying to say is. People misunderstand MLM as a bad thing and I am interested in finding better terms or better ways to represent the business. Learning is a good thing. Meeting people with common interest is a good thing. I am okay here.

they are not fans of MLM because you are hitchhiking someone else's dream in building a large, scaleable business. That said if you are great at sales , and generating leads they can work. Just pick one that really DOES have good products they can't just duplicate off the retail shelves or via another autoship centric site

You can learn a lot in MLM in sales and self development

as far as pyramid schemes, Corporate America is the biggest pyramid scheme of all time including the fact most if not all multinationals use depressed labor or slave labor in some regard today. MLM is simply not paying for advertising, the people in the network are doing that.
 

Erica DSnap13

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However...one thing.. I was looking at the title of the thread. "MLM Debate". So image the confused look on my face.
 

GreedyBGoode

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However...one thing.. I was looking at the title of the thread. "MLM Debate". So image the confused look on my face.

To summarise:
All you need to know and remember is joining MLM is for chumps and guppies
But don't worry... Your time in MLM isn't wasted, all the experience, positivity and optimism you learned and felt there, you can use it when starting your own MLM. Now go and grow into a shark already!
 

MJ DeMarco

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jazb

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Go on twitter and type in vemma. if that doesn't end the debate i don't know what will
 

Formless

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What great timing.

I literally just came back from an MLM seminar, from these F*cks. http://www.worldventures.com/

I only went because my mother was going as a 'social outing'. Just to make sure she doesn't start wanting to 'buy the dream'.

I was very polite, did not try to make waves or antagonize the guy. But when I started asking the guy basic question about the business model, and the 'multi level' aspect of the business. He started getting twitchy and saying random circular shit, anchors being

- Binary compensation model (I do not know what the F*ck that means, and he didn't either)
- We're not a pyramid, it's a team. Besides, everything is a pyramid
- If you do well, I get paid, so we look after each other etc.

All the buzzwords, emotional triggers etc were being used.

- Be an entrepreneur
- Travel with family and create memories
- Freedom
- Self sustaining
- 'I know some guys who work REALLY hard, and they're doing $170 000 per month' (OVER COFFEE, BEFORE THE OFFICIAL GATHERING, HE TOLD ME THAT IT WAS $120 000 PER MONTH.)
- (I was the only 19 year old there, rest were 40-50y/o women) So I got the 'Make an extra buck at university and be an entrepreneur' schtick.
- There's no risk with us, there's risk with 'normal business'.

etc etc. Guy was a pretty good storyteller, but I felt disgusted. And I don't mean that in the 'obnoxious customer with unrealistic expectations' way. I meant literally wanted to leave every time he made a point. But I thought it would reflect poorly on my mother, since her acquaintances were all there. When you consume books written by real value creators, watch seminars be real value creators, speak to real value creators, and lastly actually try to create some value in the world, seeing leechy 'business' models like this first hand is very infuriating.

I guess there is SOME degree of 'product'. But it's bullshit. You pay a subscription fee in order to be able to use their super duper magical price checker search engine which gives you access to MARVELOUS prices... meaning that you pay for the holiday... AND for your subscription to be able to use this super duper magical price checker search engine.

Compensation model is pyramidal, he was just evading it hard.
 

chrischapman

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I don't know too much about MLMs, but I've read a bit here and there.

The whole idea of the fastlane is to provide value to customers on a large scale. In my mind when I think about any sort of business idea or business model, I think: "Can this help a bunch of people with something important to them?"

If it's for selfish reasons, you're avoiding that whole goal of serving others. If you serve others on a large scale in a smart way then you can make a lot of money. Money is payment for good/services tendered. If you aren't giving something, it will be hard to get something.

The whole idea of joining an MLM appears to be an extremely selfish venture predicated on the self-interest of it's staff/people/recruits and NOT on providing value which is why it's not so good.

Then you've got people who say starting an MLM is fastlane. Maybe. Are you helping people and providing value? Is the MLM essential to the business model or is it just one of many possible marketing tools?

It's like any business, really it just creates further potential for scale.
 
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eqttrdr

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wish I could figure out how to start an MLM with my product
 

Drive2Riches

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Go on twitter and type in vemma. if that doesn't end the debate i don't know what will
I did just that, and I'm not sure what you mean by this. The debate continues...

Am I supposed to favor the MLM structure or concept because it's vemma?

Or am I supposed to see the chatter about vemma and recognize that it's not more than getting kids (by "kids" I mean young people between 16 and 22) signed up for subscriptions of product to be delivered to their homes (or to their parents' homes as the case may be).

In My Experience:

When my son was 16 a few years ago, I went ahead and ok'd a contract so that he could get started with vemma.

The only reason I granted his request to sign up as a 16-year old is because I also had experience with an MLM several years ago, and I knew very well what he would be learning. I knew it wouldn't be that he's learning how to make money. I knew that it was time for him to mature through some kind of personal growth. (Now that I look back, I'm glad he got MLM non-success out of his system.) He learned so much about presentations and public speaking that he was the star student in his English class and his History class as a high school senior. (Not really unsuccessful, is it?)

I believe he made $1000 in the course of 18 months, but I'm not deducting any costs he paid for the "product", which was primarily meant to be handed out at the business meetings / customer acquisition meetings (or whatever they were called). None of the money was residual income. All was due to new customer acquisitions and/or team building.

As far as I know his downline was only two people deep. His upline consisted of very impressive kids who spoke about their BMW or whatever awesome car they had "received" at the age of 18 because they had such a "successful business". This was the SHINY! stuff that my son was chasing.

Not long ago, when I last asked him about vemma, he said "that's done now." ... "Because now we've got a better opportunity with this thing that's like selling coupons to business owners, and you get your own website, and you order product off it and... and... and....."

Here's the Fastlane Twist:

I recognized what happened to him.

His "upline" had a great opportunity.

His upline was able to deliver all his loyal vemma followers to his SHINY NEW MLM OPPORTUNITY... and put them underneath his NEW organization. His upline had the right FASTLANE idea -- although I believe this is a very poor fastlane idea because it reeks of bad ethics.

I imagine this upline person (with questionable ethics) was able to CAPITALIZE on all the new customer acquisition bonuses he got just by moving his entire downline with him. He got some serious CASH from it, and continues living the rockstar life doing MLM prezzies and showing off his new... Lambo maybe?

~

ps: My son currently has a potential to capitalize on one of his personal talents as a guitarist for some explosive income. I'll have things to discuss with him at that time, iykwim. :rockon:
 
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Tony I

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ould you tell me if it is actually a MLM or not? It is hard to tell because we don't sell anything except ask people to join as members and get the benefits of being a member

"The main characteristic of a pyramid scheme is that participants only make money by recruiting more members."


if your only customers are employees, its a scam.


OP, read this thread below. might save you 6 months of lost money and time you can't get back.

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...om-3-separate-people.46829/page-2#post-286274
 
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obrian

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MLM is still alive and well. It's only in a more beautiful package with skill sales guys.
 

MJ DeMarco

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Awesome take down of MLM -- 30+ minutes worth! Was pleasantly surprised in the content.

MLM is still alive and well.

Yea, as long as there is poverty, ignorance, and swindlers, it will continue to make people rich, and make people poor. For MLM drones, the video won't change a thing.
 

AllenCrawley

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Awesome take down of MLM -- 30+ minutes worth! Was pleasantly surprised in the content.
I started watching it but thought to myself, "No way I'm going to watch 30 minutes of this.". But I couldn't stop, lol. I'd like to post this to facebook and tag the friends that bombard me daily with their MLM based posts but it just won't matter.
 
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MJ DeMarco

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G-Man

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This is going on FB for my cousins that constantly bombard my feed with Rodan + Fields and that shake thing.

Thanksgiving is already gonna be a clusterF**** trump/clinton argument. Might as well add this to the mix!
 

mbRichard

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Putting my 2 cents in for anyone new looking at the MLM opportunity.

I was suckered into joining an MLM - althought, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. The only thing I did wrong was because I did research AFTER I joined, not before. The person who introduced me to the business is one of my Bestfriends Cousins, and he was a person that I didn't think much of as an 'Entrepreneur' but had, had massive influence from his new Girlfriend, and as a result is now looking to become financially free.

Fast forward a month into the business. Start up cost is $495. Not a bad start up. In the first 30 days, the bonus for acquiring a certain amount of customers is $500, whilst in the second month is $1000, then onto the 3rd month in which you get your first Residual.

What is being sold is not a product, but a service. Essential services actually, Electricity, Gas, Internet, NBN (Australian), Voip etc.

While most MLM companies sell products of value, here in my company we are essentially 'helping people save money on their monthly bills'. So upon doing research, one problem that MLM companies have were they were not giving enough value to customers. I believe in my company that we have lived up to that expectation.

Although the problem I now see with MLM companies is the recruitment process. It is true that at times they can bring 'false hope', I learnt this by not studying the compensation plan as soon as I had joined, or even prior. What I did like, however, is the realism my upline gave me. To make it into this business, it does not take months, or even a year, it takes years upon years. I have always known that Traditional Business is the way I'd always wanted to go, and thus doing MLM and Tradition Business together would make quite the impact - especially being a 19 y/o such as myself. The benefits I see from an MLM company is the trainings offered (depending on the company you had joined) - and the training that is offered to me is of amazing value.

MLM's recruit people who have no prior business experience, and throws them into the world. My personal mentor and upline recruits by showing employees that staying in a job will not even let you be able to fulfill a 'comfortable' life when retired. She is able to change peoples perceptions on a job, and once that's all out of the way, introduces the opportunity.

Also another benefit is being surrounded by likeminded people. My mentor in the business is a Millionaire - having been a successful Property Investor and becoming financially free prior to joining, as well as at the top of the MLM.

In my personal opinion, any youngster who is looking to go into traditional business, has a great opportunity at joining an MLM. But to be that 1% bracket that make it, the work is cut out just as a traditional business. In order to succeed in such an opportunity, you must be an IBO that treats the opportunity as a tradition business, rather than just something on the side. For someone who has never experienced passive income, becoming an IBO is a great way to start, even if at the start it is small.

There are both negatives and positives for MLM, but like anything, you can make it work. For me, the opportunity to surround myself with powerful people, and learn sales is more than enough, especially when you can make the money back within the first 30 days. If it is aligned with your future goals (like having to sell a product, market etc) then MLM is an opportunity for you.
 
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masaldana2

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Last month I dated a chick that is part of ACN and it was very annoying. She started adding my fb friends to spam them and all she talked about was about MLM... It ended quick
 

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I think there are a few sides to look at with regards to MLM.

On the one side they're the ultimate easy escape for people who claim to want to be Entrepreneurs; but want everyting packaged and in a bow. They need the support network. They need to feel part of a family. They need everything to be the opposite of what a seasoned Entrepreneur experiences.

On the flip side, as a business, it's hard to argue they tick all the boxes (for the person running the business from the top)

Control? Yep - if they kept pushing their strategy, they can control rewards, the products, the supply chain and to a degree the end sales

Entry? Yep - it takes some doing to establish a brand and grab a foothold

Need? Yep on various levels. The products fulfil a need, or at worst, a want portrayed as a need (soft skin anyone?) The supposed lifestyle fulfils a need for (stereotypically in my experience) people who are big on empowerment and low on action.

Time? You'll rarely see the guys at the top still grinding out sales 9-5.

Scalable? It's in the nature of MLM.

From the bottom up I see them as the lazy man's choice. From the top down? Genius.

The real thing at the bottom of any MLM scheme, is that you have some drive and some balls, you can reap all the benefits, without any of the cons, restrictions or lack of control.

''surround yourself with likeminded people'' Stop and think ''why am I not doing that on my own terms?''

''experience your own business and working from home''. Stop and think ''why am I not doing or working towards doing that on my own terms"

"See life differently And work on (supposedly) your own terms". Stop and think "why am I not doing that myself".

There are no shortcuts to success; but that is what most MLM schemes promote in veiled manner.
 

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I've seen many MLM's come and go over the years. I even tried a few myself after my business was already up and running and making money. The bottom line is, unless your at the top your just making someone else more money than you are. I look at it as a glorified high paying job that masks itself into making you think your self employed. That is if you actually make money doing it. No offense to the ones who have done it or are doing and making money at it but if MLM is your thing then create the MLM don't become part of one.

Hey, MLM is being self-employed. You have your expenses and revenues and your required to file a small business income tax return at the end of the year. There is a real benefit working on an MLM even though you don't make any money. MLM is one of the best legal tax shelters in the world for the little guy/girl.. If you report a loss at the end of the year for your MLM business you can write off this loss against your regular income job. Of course different countries have different tax rules. One being that there is a limit to the number of years you can write off any successive yearly small business losses.
 
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Xeon

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I remember I took a Uber cab some months back, and this driver was trying to make me join his MLM team. What he did was to constantly put me down and keep belittling my job, then after which he would create all these vision of big houses, cars, girls and the usual enticing stuff to tempt me, even throwing me an offer that I just have to fork out $4000+ to get started and he will fork out the rest for me, telling me he'll be my mentor and guide me.

"Graphic designer? What kind of job is that!"

"Do you really want to work like this for the rest of your life?"

"Among the friends you know, any rich guys? No? That is why you're poor till now!"

"Ever step into a mansion before? No? Wow, pity you, sad."

...and so on.

And the product? He didn't go into detail but keep raving about how it will cure many illnesses, improve your rate of surviving cancer, cure male hair loss, so I assume it's one of those shady miracle vitamins product.

From looking at the way these MLM guys rave about their products, I suspect most of them got brainwashed and hence developed some sort of cult personality to the point it's creepy.

I gave him a big fat 1 star Uber rating after that.
 

Mr.Brandtastic

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I gave him a big fat 1 star Uber rating after that.

That's pretty funny. Yea let me tell you about "muh mansions" while I drive your Uber. I'd just laugh and probably think, "Guy if your program worked, you wouldn't be driving an Uber."
 

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