Network 21

With a few reservations I went ago to see the Network 21 "Business Opportunity" on Tuesday night. I've looked at some network marketing platforms before and I'm not overally convinced that the system can / does work for people. However, with the idea of a gaining a few extra dollars a month to divert to my investments I went along. The talk was pretty predictable as was the rolling out of people who have made the system work.
Basically if get 20 people in your team that sell the $300 of products a month you should earn between $1,500 and $2,500 a month.

I'm just wondering if anybody on the forum has had any success with the system or network marketing in general? As I'm thinking of signing up and if I can make even $250 a month extra from it to add to my investments it'll help get me to my financial goals sooner...

Any thoughts thoughts would be appreciated.

The thing with network marketing is that it is a business like any other business ... if you don't put the effort in, you won't get the benefit from it.

Unlike a retail business which relies on location, product, customer service, etc ... network marketing typically relies on your ability to recruit new downline sellers to do the work for you ... "build your network" ... actually selling the product alone is not going to make you much money, it's building a network that will - it's very much "people" oriented. This is a very different type of business activity - and it can work, but certain personalities get more out of it than others.

If you think you can approach it with a business-like manner and put in the hard yards to build up your network (and maintain it !!), then you should be able to increase your income. The question is - how much time do you have available to work on the business (working it part time will only achieve so much) ... and could you get better returns on your time doing something else ?

Personnaly I detest any network marketing schemes. Not that they aren't successful at making $$, they obviously do.

What I don't like is that fact that you are basically selling the goodwill you have with your friends and families to extract a buck out of them. It basically works because friends feel obligated to support their friends financial endeavours.

If a friend of mine wants me to buy something from them under a Network Marketing model, I woul rather just hand them 30% of the cash I would otherwise be paying to buy something from them that I don't really need. Cut out the middle men..

Amway is alive and well....

I looked at network marketing once, and was quite keen with all the amazing income promised.

But then I calculated that there were not enough people in the country to allow all the people downstream from me to achieve the same success.

eg. I only had to recruit 2 people who then recruited 2 people each and so on. Due to the amazing power of compounding, once you do the sums you come up with a staggering number of new people required to keep the thing going, and the folly becomes obvious. This is a classic pyramid type scheme I guess.

I could not bring myself to sell such a business (some type of overpriced product is often included) to people that did not live up to its promises. Silly old me felt responsible for the little people way down the line. Not everyone has such qualms and do make money, but at what cost?

Cheers
Seaview

How is the real money made? By recruiting people or by selling stuff? If the people you recruit are just going to recruit other people and they are not actually selling stuff, where is the money coming from?

Who buys Amway products? I would like to know what proportion of sales are purchased by people in the 'pipeline'. I strongly suspect the lions share of sales are by the sellers themselves. Every single person who has ever tried to talk me into Amway was more interested in me signing up than selling any of their products. Why? Because it isn't about selling product, it's a poorly disguised pyramid scheme.

You don't make any money directly from recruiting someone (which is the big difference between network marketing and pyramid schemes) - there has to actually be product sale for money to be made.

As a "distributor" you generally get a discount if you buy goods - many people sign up just to get the discount. Some of the product are actually quite good value for money.

It's not a pyramid scheme (they are illegal), it is a legitimate business.

I'm not currently involved in Amway or any of their other organisations but I was for a while back when I was in uni. I decided I wasn't interested in running that type of business, so I stopped. My parents still buy the products I think - they are quite happy with them.

There's a lot of stuff about Amway on the net that you can google. Not sure how much of it is correct but I recall reading that a guy in the States got very involved over a number of years and reached 'Diamond status'. But the big bucks still weren't eventuating and he found over time he and his wife had distanced themselves from anyone 'non-Amway'. He did some investigating and found that the largest income was being made from those at the top of the hierarchy who were pocketing the $30 or $60 door charge for some of the big rallies (where attendance numbered in the hundreds and perhaps thousands). Additionally, all the people being recruited were committing to spending $$$$ every month listening to motivational tapes and books. And it was the sales of those 'motivational tools' that were the real profit makers. The Amway products were simply the 'smoke screen' for the big money. And very very very few people would ever be able to make the big bucks as they could not access the profits of the books and rallies.

Like I said, not sure how much of the above is true. A friend of mine got heavily involved in the whole thing and when I pointed the article in question out to her she refused to read it. She severed all ties with me and only mixes with Amway people. I asked her to ask her 'upline' how much money they were generating from the business and she said that was a very rude question to ask them.

Hi Jess,

I asked a friend a similar question about how much each of those "names" have to earn to get their status. Nobody would tell me. I think if they won't tell you what the goalposts are it's a bit "smoke and mirrors". I definitely agree on the merchandising, whoever is selling it will be making a motza!

Cheers,

Dan

Yes, pyramid schemes are illegal, so they change the product to skate by the law. eg. Mannatech and Agel schemes involve recruiting 2 down link people and you get a portion of their sales/recruitment profits, and more from new people they recruit and so on (there is a limit of course). The way they slide by the law is by having a product and some of these may be quite good, but cost a motza, and again it is fascinating to do the maths for a few links down the line and see how many people the whole scheme needs.
We know people very high in Mannatech and they make lots of money but have to keep recruiting more people to fill in the holes created down the line by disenchanted people pulling out. These people do not seem to care about whether the little people down the line make any money, yet the sales spiel they give promises the magic of compounding at work to make lots of dough, but it is not sustainable.
Seaview