During this time of Unemployment, you are going to be very financially vulnerable. This means that you need to watch every penny that you have saved and that you might receive in unemployment. The area of vulnerability I want to broach is that of the “Get Rich Quick” schemes. You may receive a Home Business magazine with many promises of rocketing wealth and because you are unemployed you may fall for the schemes in those magazines. Now, in those magazines are legitimate home businesses which require an investment. If your funds are low or are stretched through budgeting, then do not start a business.

If you want to start a home based business, you need to have more impetus than looking at a picture of a guy with his feet on the desk laughing into a telephone or looking at some attractive woman holding a large handful of money. These people are just models posing for pictures. They do not represent the truth. If you are interested in starting a home based business, you need to find a job first, then when you have re-budgeted yourself according to your new salary, then you will be able to see what kind of investment you are able to make. Never borrow money to start a new business since about 80% of new businesses go belly up in the first six months which means you will have to pay off those loans when you get a job or you may have to mortgage your house.

 

MLM - Multi-Level Marketing

If you become unemployed one of the first things you will be approached on is the promise of “unlimited income” through MLM. Now I am speaking from experience on this subject. I have been with Marine Minerals, Destiny Telecom, Excel, and International Teamworks. I am writing this addendum being unemployed for over 20 months and having just recently been with International Teamworks (ITI). I am no longer with ITI simply because I did not make one penny with them. This has nothing to do with the verity of the company, it is owned by two great Christians, but the problem is trying to convince people to buy into it. I bought in for $349 and made $46 meaning I lost $303. Actually I lost over $2250 because I made a website, did mailings, bought company literature, had a company website, and with all that, I could not convince anyone to buy into my business.

 

As I look back, all I really bought was promises and nothing else. The reality of MLM is that only those at the top make the money. If you need to have a downline of 500 people to give you a livable salary, then think of it, each of the 500 people under you will have to have 500 to maintain their dream of staying home and doing MLM. That means in your downline alone there would have to be 250,000 people to sign on so you and your downline of 500 will be able to stay home. Now what about those 250,000, where are they going to get 500 each which means that a total of 125,000,000 people are needed. Do you see the futility? How many MLM companies can sustain a customer base of over 125 million and what is the chances that 125 million people will sign on? MLM is a futile attempt to market riches that do not exist in your level.

 

Initial claims of substantial riches will be overwhelming but the majority of those I met in ITI couldn’t get three reps. In this economy, people are not going to pay hundreds of dollars for promises. Promises do not pay the bills nor does it put food on the table. If you can win the lottery then you can succeed in MLM.

 

At this juncture, I would ask that you visit the following article on my site and definitely download it for future reference. Everything this man says is 100% true because I experienced it.

 

The 10 Big Lies of Multi-Level Marketing

 

My personal experience with MLM

What I am about to say here is not necessarily a negative attitude toward either the company or the people I dealt with, it is the experience I had while in the plan.

 

Marine Minerals

Positive Aspect

I continue to use their products today as they are probably the best health products on the market. It only cost $10 to join the company and you didn’t have to recruit anyone if you didn’t want to. You sold product and made anywhere from 30-45% profit.

 

Negative Aspect

The problem I had with them was they were always changing their literature. You were throwing out the majority of literature and constantly buying updated literature. I had gone to a health food store to try and sell the product as they gave good discounts to retail establishments plus you received a commission on the sale of everything the store bought. I went to a health food store to try and sell the product and the lady who owned the establishment said that the ingredients sounded familiar. She took me over to a section where there was product by a company called Trace Minerals Research. Lo and behold, it was the same products I was trying to sell but under a different label. Needless to say, I stopped selling because their discounts were bigger, making the Network seller non-competitive.

 

Excel Telecommunications

Positive Aspect

I was able to help people save money on their phone bills and I was actually making enough to pay the yearly sign up fee which was $185. I had attained my required 21 customer points. Opportunity to meet many new people.

 

Negative Aspects

I received no help from my upline and I was trying to recruit others into a heavily saturated market. They did not put a decent amount of money into their pay plan. The founder set out to be a billionaire and achieved it, which meant that the money went to him and very little went back into the pay plan for the reps. Those at the top of the pyramid made the big money and those of us on the bottom received very little incentive. Recruiting customers away from the AT&T and MCI was almost impossible at that time (1995).

 

Destiny Telecom

Positive Aspects

None

 

Negative Aspects

The company went belly up and was under indictment by the Alameda County District Attorney’s office in Oakland, California. I lost about $800 from this failed venture. They sold calling cards which normally did not work.

 

International Teamworks

Positive Aspects

Company offers some excellent health products for sales. They put 83% of all income back into the pay plan to pay their reps. Management is paid as Reps and not management. They have increased the pay plan over 30 times. It is a financially stable company being in business well over 7 years.

 

Negative Aspects

Of all the marketing I did, could not get one rep. I had 2 reps, I paid for a friend of mine and one was given to me. Went to meetings and yielded nothing but a lot of worldly hype. People were not buying promises. All you ever heard from was the top money makers. Not that they were so good but they got in early. Majority of reps I associated with could do nothing to build their down line. Finally gave up trying to sell empty promises.

 

Conclusion

In all my MLM ventures, I have lost money and could not make a penny. During your time of unemployment, do not fall for the big lies of the MLM hucksters because by the time a company comes to you with their promises, that is all you will receives is promises. Continue to trust the Lord in your situation and don’t let Satan steal your peace through failed MLM.