MLM Horror Stories: Do You Have a MLM Horror Story?

• Bankruptcy and/or Financial Ruin - There are tons of MLM Horror Stories online about people who supposedly lost their homes to foreclosure or had to file for bankruptcy because of their failure (and poor decisions) with their MLM business.

• Failed Marriages - Many people claim to have ruined or lost their marriage because of their involvement in the MLM industry. This happens because their business consumed them and they didn’t have time to invest in their relationship. Or, they had a negative spouse who didn’t want them involved in network marketing in the first place.

• Destroyed Friendships - Countless people claim to have ruined relationships and life-long friendships because of their involvement in network marketing.

• Heart Attacks and Stress - Many people report anxiety and stress (even some heart attacks) because of their disappointment and failure in network marketing.

The real question we should be asking right now is “What causes all these MLM horror stories?” Is our industry that bad? I don’t think so. In fact, I think most of these situations could be avoided. For every horror story, I could provide a real-world example of how they could have avoided it. But, I’ve found that people don’t like that. People need something to blame for their failures. It’s the American way of doing things.

If people followed the advice I have listed below, they could turn their MLM Horror Story into a MLM Success Story. I’m going to share seven simple ideas to help prevent you from failing in MLM. My goal is to help you avoid having a MLM horror story. In fact, my goal is to help you achieve success in the MLM industry. Let’s get started.

1) Keep Things in Perspective: First and foremost, your family and friends, your health, your personal finances and your spiritual life are more important than your MLM business (or any business). Don’t ever forget this. Don’t let your MLM business consume your life. It is not your life. It is only a part of your life. The day your business becomes more important than your spouse, your kids, your finances, your health or your spiritual well-being, is the day you are doomed for failure. I’m not saying your MLM business shouldn’t be a priority. It should. It simply shouldn’t be your number one priority.

2)Treat Your MLM Business like a Real Business: The number one reason businesses fail or succeed is cash-flow (or lack of it). If there is constantly more money going out than there is coming in, you will end up broke. If you don’t do anything to generate cash-flow (sponsor distributors or sell products) you won’t make any money. And if you don’t make any money, that’s means you’re losing money. I’d bet that more than 90% of the people in our industry don’t do anything to create cash-flow. They don’t sponsor new distributors or find new customers EVERY month. And then they wonder why they are losing money. Funny, huh? So, before you go and spend lots of money on seminars, books, tapes, training, tools, systems, inventory, etc., go out and sell some products. Generate some cash-flow and use your profits to reinvest in your business. That way, you don’t have to use your personal funds for these things.

3) Evaluate the Numbers: I personally know people who have been involved in the industry for 20 or more years and have never made a dollar profit. Yet they stay involved in the industry. Let me ask you, would you continue to operate a traditional business for 20 years, if you never made a dollar profit? I doubt it. I’ve found that so many people make “emotional” decisions when it comes to network marketing. Of course, it’s human nature to make an emotional decision and then justify it with logic. We all do that to some degree. But the best entrepreneurs are people who can put their emotions aside, step back from the situation, and evaluate the numbers. They look for trends and patterns. They evaluate revenue and expenses. They find creative ways to increase revenues and decrease expenses. More importantly, they evaluate their business financially, every month (or week/daily) to see where their business stands.

4) Think like an Entrepreneur: Employees and entrepreneurs think differently. If you’re accustomed to working two weeks and then getting a paycheck, you will need to adjust your mentality to succeed in network marketing. Entrepreneurs don’t get paid to show up and work. They only get paid when they produce results. If you’ve never been an entrepreneur before, there will be an adjustment period. It takes most people a couple years to make the switch with their mentality. If you are serious about succeeding as an entrepreneur, you should read every book you can find about entrepreneurship. I’d start with the book “The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Fail” by Michael Gerber.

5) Develop your Sales and Marketing Skills: Network marketing is a sales and marketing business. The people who earn the most amount of money in our industry are sales and marketing gurus. In most cases, they had to learn these skills during their first few years in the business. Very few people join our industry that already have these skills. If you want to make the big bucks in MLM, you need to develop your sales and marketing skills. The best way to do this is to read books, reflect on past mistakes, and counsel with your successful upline distributors.

6) Don’t Expect Instant Success: Rome wasn’t built in a day. Neither was Amazon, Wal-mart, Facebook, or any other profitable business. All businesses require hard work, perseverance, and long-term thinking. Most people who get involved in this industry shouldn’t be involved in the first place. Most people who get involved with network marketing are unemployed folks, disgruntled employees or people looking to get rich quick. When they join the business, they expect to be making money (lots of it) within a few months. Even worse, they expect to do this without doing any work. They think they will sign up and the tsunami of money will start to come in. And when that doesn’t happen, they quit. Even worse, they create a website about how they were ripped off. That really pisses me off, personally. If you study any successful MLM distributor, you will learn that they failed (for several years) before they achieved success. You have to sow, before you can reap. The same applies to a traditional business. Just ask Jeff Bezos of Amazon.

7) Get More Customers: This will resolve almost every issue mentioned above. Rather than focusing ALL your efforts on sponsoring, you should get more customers. You should generate more retail sales. This will generate more cash-flow and solve most of your financial problems. What would your MLM business look like if you had an additional 50 to 100 personal retail customers who ordered your products every month? I know one thing, it would be profitable than your business is right now! Back in the day, most network marketing companies focused on selling the products to customers. In recent years, there has been a shift to sponsoring distributors. I’ve found that most network marketers have ZERO retail customers. They simply consume the products themselves and sponsor distributors. Big mistake! All businesses need customers. Your business is no different. So, take the next couple months and find another 20 or 30 (or more) retail customers for your business!

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, there are lots of MLM Horror Stories on the internet. You can do a search for “MLM Horror Stories” and find thousands of search results. Although lots of people fail in our industry, many people succeed too. The secret to success is to follow the steps outline above. There is plenty of room at the top for you! No network marketing company is flooded or saturated with successful distributors.

After reading this article, if you have a MLM Horror Story to share with others, you can enter it below. I’ve tried to make this website as “positive” as possible, but I also realize that people need a venue to vent and share their failures too. So, if you have a good MLM horror story, just fill out the web-form below. Just make sure that you don’t slander the company or a specific person. If approved, your MLM Horror Story will be available for the rest of our online community to read and comment on. Thank you.

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