As much as I hate jumping on the bandwagon [I avoid doing so as much as possible to retain the very nature of this site], I can’t help but toss in a few pennies of thoughts on what has been a raging issue for such a long time. That is, the issue of soggy cornflakes invading our breakfast bowls.
Kidding.
What else would the title suggest, you dweebs? Of couse I’m gonna have a say about Multi Level Marketing [MLM in short]. It’s always been a very controversial issue ever since the very concept of MLM found its way here in Bolehland. Let’s take a look at how MLM has been perceived by the general public, shall we? I asked a few people I know pretty darn well…
Bob: MLM? No thanks.
JJ: MLM? Easy money, what?
Chuck: MLM? Like, is that M&M’s new product? Soft outside hard inside?
Ok, so that’s not quite public of an opinion [I'm too lazy to go out and interview people. I'm a hermit, you see.], but I’m sure you’ve heard those kinds of responses, more or less. MLM, sometimes known as Direct Selling, has not exactly been in good light for the past decade or so. What with all the pyramid schemes, Pak Man Telo or various other scams that were spun off of the MLM concept.
I’ll be outright honest with you. I, too, am part of an MLM business. However, I’m a hibernating member, as I don’t actively go out and make any sales, yet. Nor do I take pleasure in telling people that I do MLM or went out of my way to recruit any members [at least, not anymore]. I just registered as a member, and I plan only to make sales AFTER I graduate. Why? Because if I have the time to go out and sell stuff, I should be studying.
I have to admit that I kinda got suckered by the idea of making money, but I did take the time to consider the outcome and how it would affect my life. In the end, I decided to join, not because I wanted to make tonnes of money, but rather, to get an idea of how this sales business works, and learn a thing or two about, well, running and maintaining a business.
Before you start going postal about uplines, downlines, benefits, bonuses, blah blah blah… why don’t you throw those things out the window, first. There’s something a lot of people have missed out and misunderstood about MLM. Don’t think about earning money through methods that do not involve you going out and selling something. Now, do you see a similarity between MLM and other businesses? That’s right, it’s all about making a sale, and earning profit from the sale.
Take for example, a kedai runcit. You put your goods on display in your shop. A customer sees, oh a kedai runcit, walks in, looks around, maybe buy a canned drink and walk out. Simple right? Not quite. To run a kedai runcit requires a pretty big capital. You’ve got to invest in many things, the shoplot, your stock of goods, equipment, transport, insurance, etc.
Now, take a look at MLM. Instead of waiting in your shop for customers to come, you go out of your way to go and meet your potential customers, since you’re not sure if they’d even buy your product. Then you display your product, and attempt to convince them to buy from you. Your MLM investments would be pretty big, too. Membership, investing in your supply of products, transport to meet your customers, and the greatest of all assests, the time and effort you spent attempting to make a sale; which, if done wrongly, might not even convince a kid to buy a lollypop from you.
Both kedai runcit and MLM involve two things. Investing some money, and selling things to earn it back and maybe a little bit more. Both businesses involve effort, lots of it. However, MLM has something that a kedai runcit does not. When you run an MLM business, you have the opportunity to expand your business by having people work under you. Just as how a tauke would hire a cashier, so can an MLM-er [as in ML Marketer] recruit someone to work under his supervision.
Naturally, a cashier and downline both play very different roles. A cashier just helps the tauke to do business, while a downliner runs a business of his own. He also does this under the guidance of his upline, who is now seasoned with the ways of the business world. Nonetheless, both people have to work hard in order to reap in any profit at all. You don’t make a sale, you don’t make any profit. Simple as that.
So, if you’re angered about the Lampe-Berger crap, well, yeah, I’m angry about it, too. In fact, I believe I’m angrier about it than you are. Because it tarnishes the good name of other MLM companies that’s just trying to earn an honest buck, and encourage other people to do the same. For those who suggested a ban on MLM, here’s a big fat middle finger for you.
You have no idea how MLM works, and you also have no idea how many people have lead better lives because they’ve made use of the given opportunity to conduct a business that they can expand, even whitout the very basic of business knowledge or the need to invest in a shoplot and hire workers. Those are the very people who work very hard, put their faces up front, and tore down their pride just to make a sale so they can feed their families.
I’m very well aware of the many scams that were based off the MLM concept, but that doesn’t mean MLM is the bane of it all, is it? If your PC got pwned by a virus, if you know and understand that a virus is just a different form of program, would you say all programs are bad? Cool, I’d like to see how you want to hand in that annual report to your boss without using a modern PC. I suggest a typewriter, or a punchcard reader. The very same idea applies.
MLM is NOT about easy money.
MLM is NOT a method of making money without effort.
MLM is NOT about recruiting more and more people.
It’s about learning how to do business.
It’s about how to manage your resources.
It’s all about hard work.
Keep that in mind before you start another MLM-flaming bitch.
