By John Mielke

Just as you have to evaluate products and services, you have to evaluate the companies you intend to represent. There are things to look for in a promising company as well as red flags to look out for. Don’t let the visions of wealth and success blur your perspective. You must weigh these factors before you invest your time and money.

Focus is on Retail Sales

A good MLM will focus on retail sales as much or more than recruiting new distributors. If the products bring value, the company will be able to lead with the products and convert retail customers to distributors, not the other way around. If the focus is on recruiting and you have to buy a certain volume to be a distributor, this is not a good sign. This is more of a pyramid scheme than a legitimate business.

Free Training Materials Supplied By Upline

Your upline should be interested in our success after they sign you up. If you get the feeling that they persist in “suggesting” that you keep paying for training and business materials, a warning light should go off for you. Maybe they are interested in making money off of you through your retail purchases and not through your success in the program. You shouldn’t expect a free ride from your upline, but you should be very wary of high pressure pitches to get you to buy company materials in order for you to be successful.

Stable Company

While there may be something to be said for getting in on the ground floor, these ground floor opportunities are best left to the seasoned professional who is better qualified to assess the viability of a new company. Generally speaking, your are rolling the dice if the company hasn’t been in business for at least 3 years. Most unsuccessful MLM companies go defunct in less than three years. After all if it is a tremendous opportunity at startup, it’s still going to be a good opportunity after year 3 if it is a well run company.

Company Leadership

The upper management of the company must be accomplished and accessible. The bios of the CEO and his management team should give you an indication of the chances for success. Be on the lookout for teams who have been parts of several other MLM ventures. This usually means that they have failed at the other ventures and are trying to repackage themselves. Solid business experience in fields outside of MLM is better than several failed MLM attempts. The top management team must be accessible too. If you can’t at least get an executive to return an e mail, you should question their commitment to the representatives.

Availability of Mentors

You need to make sure that there is someone in your upline who enjoys that kind of success that you aspire - someone who is living your dream. Further, they must be willing to help you succeed. These people are important for two reasons. The most obvious reason is so you can learn from them and increase your chances of success. One of the most successful network marketers, Mark Yarnell, repeatedly emphasizes the fact that his first mentor was instrumental in his success in his latest book, Your Best Year in Network Marketing. The second reason that a mentor or role model is important is that they help you to recruit when you’re just getting started. When you first get started, you don’t have the five digit monthly income, expensive playthings, or notoriety to entice your prospects. You have to be able to demonstrate to your prospects that large scale success is possible and being able to point them to someone in your immediate upline will do wonders for your credibility.

Good Standing with Trade Groups

Trade associations like the Direct Selling Association make member directories available to the public. You should make sure that there haven’t been voluminous complaints filed with these organizations or the Federal Trade Commission. There are inevitably going to be some naysayers who post disparaging remarks because no business is going to please everyone. What you should look out for are patterns of complaints and pending cases filed by the FTC.

Personal Finance MLM

Copyright 2006 John Mielke

Author grants permission to reprint or redistribute as long as article is reprinted in its entirety and in its original format - including operable hyperlinks.

John Mielke is an MBA with over 20 years of experience in finance and marketing. His passion is helping others achieve their full potential for leading rewarding and exciting lives based on the pillars of financial abundance, nurturing relationships, and healthy bodies. Contact him at john@personal-finance-mlm.com or visit him at http://www.personal-finance-mlm.com

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