Everything is interconnected means that everything depends on everything else and its part of the whole, without the soil the rose couldn’t exist; when the rose dies it turns into soil. It also means that we are never separate from the Source and whether our actions in life are private or public, at work or at play, they interrelate and should be done with integrity and balance.
Do you want an example of everything interconnected? It is always in front of us. All we need to do is pay attention.
About Network Marketing
When I started in network marketing I thought I would find a spirit of friendship and cooperation in the industry. What I have found instead is an industry plagued by deceit in which to survive and perhaps succeed you must use a lot of caution and common sense.
Let’s examine the many drawbacks of network marketing.
A. If the product or service doesn’t have a competitive price (competitive enough to help the customers and affiliates save money) you have an uphill battle. It should also be a product that you regularly buy, need and enjoy, even if your company was not around.
B. Network marketing is full of “recruiters” who do not have any marketing skills or experience (anyone can join a network marketing company). And they will tell you that “anyone can do this business” and leave you to your own devices or recommend a “proven system” that doesn’t really work. They are looking for the “stars” that are going to make it because of their influence; the rest of us don’t matter. By the way, very few people will make it ”in this business” because without the skills to market, brand yourself and develop a circle of influence no one will care to do business with you. We don’t do business with systems or companies; we do business with people we know and trust.
C. Network marketers refuse to consider that there is such a thing as full market penetration, and when a company reaches full market penetration growth will stop. Your fellow associates (and uplines) will not mention that fact because they don’t know or care to know. Most of them are too busy trying to recruit.
D. A network marketing company will tell you also that you are an Independent business owner–that is not true. You are an independent contractor. If you were an owner you would have a saying on the decision making process within the company; you don’t! For instance, my former main company (GDI), which hosts web domains just upgraded their web builder without giving notice to anyone–unprofessional move, isn’t it? In addition the new web builder was launched without proper testing (it never worked for me) and support never seemed to know how to handle the situation. They would tell me that it was working when I knew it was not. All my work came to a standstill, my confidence was lost and I change my hosting company. As independent contractors that is all we can do.
E. In network marketing you are supposed to recommend and promote your company just because “somebody” is making a lot of money and “anybody can do it”. This is, at the very least, misleading since most people fail even when doing their best to succeed following their “proven systems”.
And what about network marketers
In fact, there is a high attrition ratio in Network Marketing; the casualties are many. For this we can blame to a great extent the lack of honesty in the industry and the misleading tactics used to recruit. The truth is that not everybody can make it big in Network Marketing, not everyone out there is a prospect and there is such a thing as maximum market penetration.
But what about network marketers? We come into the business full of assumptions and don’t bother to do our due diligence; we want to do network marketing not knowing anything about marketing. We don’t even know how to develop a sound marketing plan. We fail to see (and this is a major flaw) that a network is composed of people who need to communicate well in order to be effective. Good communication, by the way, does not mean spamming.
But we join social networks not because we want to build relationships but because we want to send spam with impunity. We don’t even bother to find out about the person we are spamming. I just received a couple of emails in one of my social networks inviting me to join the company I promote, which means that the persons involved didn’t bother to do their homework. When we do that we come across as careless and unprofessional; we show that we don’t really care about our fellow networkers and we give the industry a bad name.
So…why do network marketing?
Why network marketing? To begin with, dishonesty is not exclusive to network marketing; it is a widespread condition due to human ignorance and greed; the last company I worked for in corporate America still owes me $195.00, which I don’t think I’ll ever see. And if we conduct our business in a professional and honest manner we will definitely stand out from the crowd, wouldn’t we? And it might take longer but we will attract people of like mind; they are out there. It will also take time to brand ourselves and build a reputation based on honesty and trust but it will be worth it. The rewards will be more than financial because real success is an inside job. Class has nothing to do with money. Consider also that to get to profit is just a matter of using common sense and follow a few simple guidelines. For instance:
1. Your tax exemptions: Most of us start a home-based business while still working a job. Do you know how much you can retain of what you earn if you have a home based business? A lot! Please go to this link www.HomeBusinessTaxSavings.com and subscribe to Ron Mueller’s free bulletin “Tax tips you can bank on”. You can also buy his book, “It’s not how much you make that counts, but how much you keep.” If we don’t educate ourselves and learn about tax laws and exemptions we leave a lot of money on the table. Some people get a home based business just to get the tax exemptions–this is illegal. But it makes sense to have a legitimate home-based business, doesn’t it?
2. Only join a company when their product or service is selling at a competitive price no matter how good it is; you have competition out there. In other words, don’t try to sell a 12 ounce bottle of body lotion for $25 unless you know Paris Hilton and her circle of friends. Because most people will go to any discount store and get a fairly good moisturizer (no mineral oil in it) for $1 or $2. That $25 body lotion has a limited market, it’s not for the average person. One more thing: Your product or service should also be something you will buy from that company even if you weren’t trying to make money, is it? Example: I promote a beef jerky company Jerky Direct which provides high-quality beef, buffalo and turkey jerky (no additives or MSM) at a wholesale price, so I have a quality product that can compete even with the big discount stores. To top that I love beef jerky so even if I don’t sell it I save money. There is no way to lose, is there? By the way, I don’t pay for affiliate websites or anything else; I just purchase my jerky! See my point? There is immediate gain; there is value even without the network effects.
3. Benefits of the network effect, a quote from Wikipedia:
“Network effects become significant after a certain subscription percentage has been achieved, called critical mass. At the critical mass point, the value obtained from the good or service is greater than or equal to the price paid for the good or service. As the value of the good is determined by the user base, this implies that after a certain number of people have subscribed to the service or purchased the good, additional people will subscribe to the service or purchase the good due to the positive utility: price ratio.
A key business concern must then be how to attract users prior to reaching critical mass. One way is to rely on extrinsic motivation, such as a payment, a fee waiver, or a request for friends to sign up. A more natural strategy is to build a system that has enough value without network effects, at least to early adopters.Then, as the number of users increases, the system becomes even more valuable and is able to attract a wider user base. Joshua Schachter has explained that he built Del.icio.us along these lines – he built an online system where he could keep bookmarks for himself, such that even if no other user joined, it would still be valuable to him. It was relatively easy to build up a user base from zero because early adopters found enough value in the system outside of the network aspects. The same could be said for many other successful websites which derive value from network effects, e.g. Flickr, MySpace.”
To summarize: If we take the time to learn our marketing and develop a good reputation, if we have a product or service that we actually use and saves us money, there is no way to lose in network marketing.
The Network
At The Network we are looking for people who want to grow personally while developing their marketing skills. Our goal is to work together for the common good, keeping in mind that success is much more than financial gain…
Success is a way of life. Success is having inner balance and equanimity whether we have or have not.
My name is S (Rio) Guzman.
Any questions? You can reach me at:
1220 Rosecrans St. #167, San Diego CA, 92106
