How to Evaluate Your Network Marketing Company (Before You Join)

When you join a network marketing company, consider your purpose FIRST.
Will this network marketing opportunity be your part-time or your full-time business?
How much time and money are you willing to spend building your business and for how long?
What return on your investment (amount of money you expect to make) do you need for it to be worthwhile starting?

COMPANY
Does the company have a track record or is it a new launch?
If the company is an established company, it will have more credibility and provide a higher comfort level for your downline but, unless the company changes the comp plan or adds a new line of products to create new excitement about participating, growth will be much slower if you join later. Historically, early movers make the most. However, if a stable company innovates, its progress can be unstoppable because all the systems are already in place and functioning well and credibility is unquestionable.
If the company is a launch, its success and longevity is untested. It may or may not be around in a year, depending on whether the timing is right for the product or service, whether the idea and comp plan are sexy enough to excite interest, whether the company has enough capital to survive growing pains, and whether big network marketing players choose to jump in. That said, EVERY company begins with an idea and being positioned at the top in a successful launch company can be worth millions.

TEAM
Are your upline sponsor and team exceptional leaders?
Your odds of building a successful team of your own improve if they are. In addition to company marketing support (replicated Web site, teleconference calls, Webinars), a great upline can add supplemental calls, Webinars and local meetings). Network marketing stars can also identify the great opportunities more easily than the average person because of their previous experiences. Follow their lead.
Do you like and trust them as your partners in your business?
Determine what values and qualities you need in your partnership for it to work. Code of honor, trust, integrity, teamwork are a good start.
Have they made significant money in network marketing in the past?
If you want to make an extra $1,000, $5,000 or $10,000 a month extra in your business, you need to hang out with upline leaders who have done over $10,000 a month already in a previous network marketing business and can show you how. If you want to make millions, learn from millionaires and do what they do.

PRODUCT
Do you love and use the product or service?
If you are excited about a product or service from your own experiences, that energy is infectious to other people. You will be able to tell others how it helped you and how it could benefit them too. If your offer fits what they are looking for, they will follow you. If, on the other hand, you have no interest in the product, such as someone who doesn't wear makeup becoming an Avon distributor, why would anyone else?
Are you becoming a representative to build a part-time or full-time business with this particular company?
Manage your expectations of money earned and time spent. Network marketing is a people empowerment business at its best. Track your results ongoingly to see how you are doing on your written goals. Be aware nothing happens in a minute except failing. EVERYTHING has a learning curve and, probably, some discomfort to get past what you already know. Start climbing and give yourself a time frame when you will reassess your progress.
Are you becoming a representative to get discounts and to refer friends to the product or service?
Do not expect to make a lot of money if your purpose is primarily to get products or services you love more economically. Remember your own intentions. As a representative, you can choose to apply the effort to build a business as well later, if you like.

COMPENSATION PLAN
How much do you want to make with your business?
Set your financial goals at the beginning and make periodic assessments of your actions taken and results. If you don't define where you are going, you will have a hard time getting there.
What is the compensation plan and does its structure align with your goals?
Understand the compensation plan. There are lots and lots of possibilities (binary, matrix, straight line, profit-sharing, etc.). How do you make money on the front-end and on the back-end? Do you need to make money immediately, later or both? What do you need to do to be paid? Be sure you understand what results you need to accomplish to get to the money. Have someone in your upline explain the pay plan for the opportunity clearly.

PRICE
Is the price right for the value of the offer?
Value is inherently very subjective. To enroll a greater number of people, often the price is lower but the level of engagement in working the business may be less serious. At a higher price, perceived value also goes up. It also varies according to where you are (country, city, suburbs, economic background, neighborhood, ethnic diversity). The only important question is, "Will you pay that price?"

TIMING
Is the timing for the offer NOW?
Look around curiously. What do you observe happening in your town, city, state, country or world? If unemployment is high, income generation opportunities (good, bad & indifferent) will thrive. What problems does the network marketing company that you are evaluating address? For example, a number of network marketing companies have vitamins and supplements intended to address the diminishing nutritional value of the food we grow. What trends do you see in action and what trends can you speculate are coming? Getting ahead of the curve very slightly but not so far ahead that nobody else can see what you do is how to make a LOT of money.

EVALUATE your opportunity and TAKE ACTION - in or out!

The Power of Defining Questions - 3 Tips

Everybody looks for answers but it is questions that shape lives. What questions are you asking to direct your job/work/career, relationships, retirement, giving back, etc.? Good questions allow you to dance with life. Bad ones and you will probably be pushed around by it instead.

1) Should I Ask Narrow or Broad Questions?
a) Narrow questions are for choosing between two to three options you have already decided to pursue. For example, shall I take a position with Microsoft at 80K or Apple at 90K? If salary is the only issue, you will wind up working at Apple.
But what if you like the corporate culture better, or they offered stock options on top or you saw more upward mobility at Microsoft? What would you choose then?

b) Broad questions are for matching what you want to be, do and have in your life with ALL the possible choices.
For example, if you have been downsized from your job and decide to pursue dreams of building a business, you have to figure out your niche.
What industry suits you - accounting, finance, sales, computers, environment, real estate, etc.?
How much money do you want to make and how fast?
How much time are you willing to invest?
Do you have sufficient capital to launch your start-up, how much is required and how long before you see a return?
Who will your customers be - individuals or companies, domestic or international, online, offline or both, people-centric or technology-centric?
What do the market trends indicate about your chosen path?

2) How Can I Make the Most Effective Distinctions?
Ask yourself,
What did I enjoy most in my various jobs (industry, activities, teamwork, culture, finance, marketing, etc.) or relationships (funny, smart, rich, tall, interesting, cultured, whatever)? What did I like least?
Where do I spend my time? Look there for your passionate commitments.
Who do I like spending time with and what qualities must be present?
In the balance between time and money, what do I need and want?
Where will I live (city, country, suburbs, hot or cold, etc.)?
What kind of lifestyle is important to me and my family?
When my life is in balance, what does or should it look like?

3) How Do I Develop Rainmaker Skills?
In life, unless you are in a stable job (which, in this economy, is a precarious certainty), it just makes sense to learn how to generate income and be able to be self-reliant and self-sufficient. Life is unpredictable, just ask the Bernie Madoff victims or the rank-and-file at Lehman Brothers or the employees at Enron. Fortunately, there are so many ways to do that with new technologies. Here we go again... asking questions.
Am I outgoing and extroverted so sales and making presentations is easy?
Am I introverted but very comfortable with Web 2.0 technologies, Internet and affiliate business online?
Each choice has pros and cons. The extrovert may want a back office tech person who could be in-person or virtual. The introvert will probably want to team up with somebody who can make direct sales.
Once you have made the proper distinctions, what do you need to learn to maximize your ability to make money?

In St. Exupery's The Little Prince, the fox tells the little prince that he is unique in all the world. I believe that is true of each of us. We all have a choice to make - to live into our fullness or not, to fulfill our goals and dreams or not. If we choose to shrink back from who we can be and what we have to contribute in the world, nobody can take our place.
What dreams lie in you, expectantly waiting to be realized in action?