Today I read a very interesting article about people who are turning to direct sales and network marketing as a way to supplement their income. A lot of people are uncertain about their current jobs, others are just looking for a way to control their financial future. The article proceeded to describe how Mary Kay, Avon and other companies are beefing up their recruitment by doing commercials and infomercials on TV. I am fully aware that network marketing and direct sales have given many people the opportunity to be self sufficient and others to be filthy the rich. My experiencing in network marketing started in the late eighties early nineties with Mary Kay. I bought the inventory required and set out to sell makeup. The problem was that was not a sales person and found it difficult to convince people to allow me to sell to them. Most of them told me that they could get the same product cheaper at their local pharmacy. Fortunate for me my male coworkers bought my perfume inventory as gifts for Christmas. And that is how I made some money with Mary Kay. One or two years past and a decided to become a PrimeAmerica representative. I started by becoming certified in insurance and attended several meetings, trainings and again and found it difficult to sell because I was not a sales person. When I tried to sell insurance to family and friends I got response that were quite interesting and realized that people did not know the importance of having insurance or they just didn’t care. I didn’t make any money becomes the only insurance I sold generated a fee that went straight to my upline. About 3 years past and I decided to give it another try and I sold vitamins, sold travel for two different companies. Most recent was YTB. I join that network marketing because my husband complained that I never support him. So here I was again trying to sell something. I was not successful at it and think it was because travel is a very competitive market especially with the Internet and the ability that the travelers have to purchase their tickets directly. I sold in one air ticket and that was the extent of that. What impressed me most about YTB travel was that a lot of famous people were part of it. I was shocked to read that YTB was being sued in several states and that quite a few other top leaders had left the company. After the travel business and my complete failure I decided it to submerge myself real estate. I joined forces with my partner Camella Joseph to take the real estate business by storm. Part of our business model was to do short sales. We secured an investor and started marketing the service to local real estate agents. We did a presentation on an agent in Brooklyn, who after hearing us speak told us about another business that he was doing – Ambit Energy and he invited us to a business presentation. We went to the presentation as a formality because he wanted him to be our business partner but we had no intentions of doing network marketing again. Halfway through the presentation, partner looked at me and we both knew that we would be fools If we didn’t do Ambit Energy. It was a no brainer, the perfect product, people use it every single day. There is no inventory, no collections, no deliveries. All we do is educate people on the choices that energy deregulation has created in terms of saving on their electric and natural gas bill month after month. This is the first time in business that I have been able to recover the cost of my initial investment. We not only made back our money but was promoted to Regional Consultants within weeks of joining. I must say we did this with minimal time expenditure since we were focusing on real estate. Now that we are concentrating on 90% of your time to Ambit Energy I cannot wait to see was going to happen. We truly enjoy hearing how people from all walks of life have used this opportunity to change their financial life and create true financial freedom. We think this is a KEEPER!!! I have heard the following statement several times ” This recession is going to create the biggest transfer of wealth that we have every seen” you know I believe so .
Great Blog, I don't believe their is failure in network marketing , just another opportunity to grow, when you find your niche, the money will come. Plus, the right training a the right sponsor is also a big factor. Direct sales is now my choice, the networking marketing experience paved the way for this. Much success in your new business.
