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•Tom "Big Al" Schreiter
•Robert Butwin •Rod Cook •Jeffery Combs •Jerry
"DRhino" Clark •Greg Arnold •Artemis Limpert •Robert
Blackman •Dr Zonnya •Ellie Drake
- Contributing Editors
Back
What
Ever It Takes
by Greg Arnold
30 Years in the
business and I find myself making my first serious run at it in
years. When you’ve been around a long time you don’t really have to
work that hard to make money, so you might get lazy. I did. I woke
up one morning and realized that in a few months I’m going to be 50.
An old guy, the MLM Dinosaur. I also decided I haven’t done
everything I’ve wanted to and it was time to reawaken the giant
within. Here are a few things I did in starting over. Maybe they’ll
help you too.
First I went
looking for a company that I could call home for the next several
years, hopefully for the rest of my life. No, I won’t mention names.
This isn’t a recruiting pitch. The things I went looking for may not
be what you would look for, but you should. I wanted to find a
company that was over five years old that was already stable and
hadn’t exploded yet. In other words doing about a million a month or
so and had a good quality product line. I wanted to market
nutritionals also. That is just a preference for those of you who
like services or appliances. Those things are fine, just not my
preference.
The reason for
the pre-explosive state is frankly, I wanted to be the guy who caused
the company to explode. If you build your business to the point where
you touch off your company’s explosion then something interesting
happens. If you have 50% of the company in your downline at the time
of the explosion then you will have 50% of the company in your
downline when the dust settles. I figure you take a million a month
company to about 5 million a month over a 12 to 18 month period and
you get to light the match. I like lighting matches.
Once I found a
company that I believed fit the mold the next thing I was looking for
was; I wanted to see what was going on with the ownership and
management internally. Being a former company owner I might look for
a few things you wouldn’t. Here they are: I want to see what their
percentage of payout is. You might too, but I suspect you are looking
for a fairly high percentage while I am looking for just the
opposite. I’d like to see a number somewhere between 42% and 46%. If
it is closer to the higher percentage I’d like to see that percentage
offset with a lower cost of goods sold. Say around 12% to 15%. The
reason for this is that I want to know that the owner is keeping his
responsibility to me by keeping his company in good financial shape.
Product based companies that payout in the 50’s or 60’s percent to the
field don’t stay around long term.
Another thing I
look for is the ego factor. Most owners tend to micro-manage their
companies. It is important for them to do so in the initial stages of
their growth. A $25,000 mistake in the early stages will cost them
their business. So in an owner’s mind, if someone is going to make
that kind of mistake, it is going to be him. However, when a company
hits the million dollars a month range, I want to see that owner
beginning to delegate internal operations to an expert. I want to see
him spending big bux on a guy who has administratively already taken a
company from 10 million a year to 200 million a year. Owners are
supposed to be the keepers of the vision, not department managers.
This is a tough transition for an overwhelming number of owners.
Again, it is their responsibility to me and to you to make that
transition.
I also want to
see a quality product line but more important, I want to see an
efficient supply line. I want to have reasonable confidence that when
we pop this baby open, we won’t run into a ton of back order
problems. Additionally, the owner needs to have a good reputation,
not only with MLM distributors but with his suppliers too. Yes I ask
questions of the people he buys his products through. It isn’t always
easy to get this kind of information, but it is your life so why not
make the effort. Here are the things I don’t care about; I don’t care
if I like the owner or he likes me. I don’t care if the pay plan is a
binary or unilevel or breakaway or hybrid combining the three
together. All pay plans have a built in guarantee: If you work you
get paid, if you don’t you won’t.
Now I am going to
talk about how you dust off a MLM dinosaur and get back in shape. I
started attending generic motivational and MLM training seminars
again...a lot of them. I attended a Jerry Clark Boot Camp, a Jim Rohn
event, an event that had over 13 or 14 big names in the industry
presenting, and a company leadership event too. I also started
listening to a bunch of motivational and MLM training CDs in my car
and at home while working at my computer. No more music. I also
stopped watching the news. I wasn’t going to feed my brain with doom
and gloom. I have also consciously started to get back in shape again
physically. No, I’m not training for the Olympics. But I do a few
minutes a day on the stationary bike and I’ve taken off a few pounds.
I even shaved off my beard that I've had since 1988. I'm still
working on getting used to that one. I have a long way to go but
I’m working on it a little each day. I’ll get there. All these
things are important for building my personal confidence and stamina
for the big push.
Now the mind
set. That one is simple. Whatever it takes. Just, what ever it
takes. I’m on autoship. I’m investing in tools and samples and
mailings. I’ve spent time in the recording studio to cut a marketing
CD. I’m on the phone. I am developing more new strategic alliances.
The dinosaur is back. What ever it takes baby. What ever it takes.
If you find yourself starting over again, I hope this article helps
you to do it with a new perspective. Just win baby, nothing else
feels quite as good.
Greg Arnold is the
author of “The
Multi-Level Mangler In King Arthur’s Court.” He built an
organization of over 11,000 distributors and $30,000 per month income
in less than a year. In addition to his networking activities,
Greg serves as a consultant with top network marketing companies and leading
network marketers. He is also a world class speaker and trainer.
Greg
can be contacted at
greg@greg-arnold.com
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