Welcome to my blog
Hi everyone! I'm Kirsty and as I am sure you have guessed, I am a network marketing professional.
I have done so many things in the past, including writing a few blogs but I was inspired to start this one after seeing a lot of things online about the anti-mlm movement. In a way I am glad this movement is gaining momentum, which may seem like a strange thing for someone who has a network marketing business to say. I am glad because there are certain parts of this industry that really do need to be looked at more closely, and people need to do their research when joining MLM companies to make sure it really is the right decision for them.
Network marketing is not for everyone, believe me and even each individual company is not for every type of MLM professional. I have been in a few in my time and sucked at most of them if I am honest.
With the rise in the anti-mlm movement and the only blogs offering an alternative opinion online seeming to come from million pound earners who are trying to sell you their latest product that is going to make you an MLM superstar I thought it might be nice for people considering joining the world of network marketing to hear from someone like me - I am just an average woman, with an average life who happens to also have a network marketing business. I am not a six figure earner and I have nothing to sell you. I am ridiculously average and I think that makes me just the type of person you want to hear from if you are thinking about starting your own network marketing business.
Let me tell you a little about how I first got involved in network marketing. Like most people I came across an ad online saying that I could earn money from home selling cosmetics. I am not naming any companies here but its likely not the one you are thinking of. The start up fee was ridiculously low and I figured I had very little to lose and hey I could have my very own business. I was 18 at the time and really needed the extra money. So my brochures arrived and I handed them out to people and collected orders in my work, I did ok that first month but never made another penny after that. My upline (I didn't even know that's what they were called back then) continually hassled me that I hadn't put an order in for a while and when I did they hassled me about paying my bill (we ordered on credit and customers paid us when we delivered) the problem was I couldn't pay my bill until I had delivered all the orders because you couldn't pay in parts and I couldn't get the money off the people that owed me it. I lasted maybe six months and made maybe £50 if I was lucky.
The problem was me. I didn't even wear make up! What on earth I thought I was doing selling the stuff I don't know. I was attracted to the idea of network marketing rather than the product I think. I shut down my first business and never thought much more about it. I then got another job in a totally different kind of network marketing, a kind you probably don't even think about - see all those charity fundraisers that come to your door or you see in the streets? That's network marketing. Sure they go to an office every day and they tend to have people placed in their teams rather than having to recruit them (once they are deemed good enough to have a team that is) but it's network marketing. They are all self employed and get commission on their sales and the sales of their teams - that's network marketing however you dress it up.
Boy was I bad at that job! I felt so uncomfortable going to people's doors completely uninvited asking them to give me their bank details so I could sign them up to a direct debit for whatever charity we were working that week. My target was just three sales a day, I think I hit it twice! All the while I was walking miles every day in the snow just generally being miserable. I stayed a few months but more because I didn't want to admit I sucked at my new job than anything else. I should have left within a few weeks, I put myself in debt to get to that job every day for nothing.
So I gave up right?
Well yeah for a while I did give up, but the idea was just always in the back of my head, I wanted to work from home, I wanted to work for myself, I just didn't know how I was going to do it. I tried freelance writing and did really well at it until the advertising revenue that used to bring in came crashing down (thank you google!) I was even an editor for a major content website for a while. I did lots of freelance jobs for clients but do you know what? I just got sick of clients! I got sick of their ridiculous expectations for the pennies they wanted to pay for their jobs.
I then forgot all about my dream to work from home, went to university and got a 'real job' which I actually kinda love. I love my job but frankly I don't earn enough money to do all the things I want to do with my life and my job does not offer me the flexibility I need to do them either.
I hadn't thought about network marketing for a good few years when my friend started with a health and wellness company. She added me to her facebook group and I was seeing everyone buy things from her, I knew I had missed out. I knew that could have been me if only I had stuck in with network marketing. I bought a few products from her and genuinely liked them and a few weeks later I was paying £200 to have my very own health and wellness business.
Well it was a disaster! That was a year ago and I still don't think I have made my £200 back! Mostly because the products are so expensive and my friend already had most of the people I knew as customers of hers. I was disheartened. I had done all the webinars, watched every training video the company made even paid a subscription to some fancy software to auto post to my facebook page and another subscription for a fancy website and fancy training stuff. None of it made a difference. People always say if network marketing doesn't work for you its you that's the problem, its not true sometimes its the fit that's the problem, as in the fit between you and the company you are with.
I couldn't promote these products effectively because I couldn't afford to use them! Be a product of the products they say, well honestly I couldn't afford to be! Also I am not sure how into health and wellness I even am. You see I hadn't picked this company because I liked the products (although I had liked the few things I had tried) I had picked this company because I had seen someone else do well with it and I wanted a piece of the action! That is probably how most people choose a company and its the totally wrong way to do so, which is probably why 90% of network marketers fail in their first year.
So what about now?
Well now I am with a totally different company that I am sure I will tell you more about over the course of this blog, but I feel I have talked enough for one post. I make sales every month and have been promoted once (very quickly actually), I don't earn a six figure income but I love the company, I love the products and I am doing well enough where I have spare money I didn't have before.
So that's a slightly longer than I had planned introduction to me and how I fell in love with the crazy world of network marketing!
I have done so many things in the past, including writing a few blogs but I was inspired to start this one after seeing a lot of things online about the anti-mlm movement. In a way I am glad this movement is gaining momentum, which may seem like a strange thing for someone who has a network marketing business to say. I am glad because there are certain parts of this industry that really do need to be looked at more closely, and people need to do their research when joining MLM companies to make sure it really is the right decision for them.
Network marketing is not for everyone, believe me and even each individual company is not for every type of MLM professional. I have been in a few in my time and sucked at most of them if I am honest.
With the rise in the anti-mlm movement and the only blogs offering an alternative opinion online seeming to come from million pound earners who are trying to sell you their latest product that is going to make you an MLM superstar I thought it might be nice for people considering joining the world of network marketing to hear from someone like me - I am just an average woman, with an average life who happens to also have a network marketing business. I am not a six figure earner and I have nothing to sell you. I am ridiculously average and I think that makes me just the type of person you want to hear from if you are thinking about starting your own network marketing business.
Let me tell you a little about how I first got involved in network marketing. Like most people I came across an ad online saying that I could earn money from home selling cosmetics. I am not naming any companies here but its likely not the one you are thinking of. The start up fee was ridiculously low and I figured I had very little to lose and hey I could have my very own business. I was 18 at the time and really needed the extra money. So my brochures arrived and I handed them out to people and collected orders in my work, I did ok that first month but never made another penny after that. My upline (I didn't even know that's what they were called back then) continually hassled me that I hadn't put an order in for a while and when I did they hassled me about paying my bill (we ordered on credit and customers paid us when we delivered) the problem was I couldn't pay my bill until I had delivered all the orders because you couldn't pay in parts and I couldn't get the money off the people that owed me it. I lasted maybe six months and made maybe £50 if I was lucky.
The problem was me. I didn't even wear make up! What on earth I thought I was doing selling the stuff I don't know. I was attracted to the idea of network marketing rather than the product I think. I shut down my first business and never thought much more about it. I then got another job in a totally different kind of network marketing, a kind you probably don't even think about - see all those charity fundraisers that come to your door or you see in the streets? That's network marketing. Sure they go to an office every day and they tend to have people placed in their teams rather than having to recruit them (once they are deemed good enough to have a team that is) but it's network marketing. They are all self employed and get commission on their sales and the sales of their teams - that's network marketing however you dress it up.
Boy was I bad at that job! I felt so uncomfortable going to people's doors completely uninvited asking them to give me their bank details so I could sign them up to a direct debit for whatever charity we were working that week. My target was just three sales a day, I think I hit it twice! All the while I was walking miles every day in the snow just generally being miserable. I stayed a few months but more because I didn't want to admit I sucked at my new job than anything else. I should have left within a few weeks, I put myself in debt to get to that job every day for nothing.
So I gave up right?
Well yeah for a while I did give up, but the idea was just always in the back of my head, I wanted to work from home, I wanted to work for myself, I just didn't know how I was going to do it. I tried freelance writing and did really well at it until the advertising revenue that used to bring in came crashing down (thank you google!) I was even an editor for a major content website for a while. I did lots of freelance jobs for clients but do you know what? I just got sick of clients! I got sick of their ridiculous expectations for the pennies they wanted to pay for their jobs.
I then forgot all about my dream to work from home, went to university and got a 'real job' which I actually kinda love. I love my job but frankly I don't earn enough money to do all the things I want to do with my life and my job does not offer me the flexibility I need to do them either.
I hadn't thought about network marketing for a good few years when my friend started with a health and wellness company. She added me to her facebook group and I was seeing everyone buy things from her, I knew I had missed out. I knew that could have been me if only I had stuck in with network marketing. I bought a few products from her and genuinely liked them and a few weeks later I was paying £200 to have my very own health and wellness business.
Well it was a disaster! That was a year ago and I still don't think I have made my £200 back! Mostly because the products are so expensive and my friend already had most of the people I knew as customers of hers. I was disheartened. I had done all the webinars, watched every training video the company made even paid a subscription to some fancy software to auto post to my facebook page and another subscription for a fancy website and fancy training stuff. None of it made a difference. People always say if network marketing doesn't work for you its you that's the problem, its not true sometimes its the fit that's the problem, as in the fit between you and the company you are with.
I couldn't promote these products effectively because I couldn't afford to use them! Be a product of the products they say, well honestly I couldn't afford to be! Also I am not sure how into health and wellness I even am. You see I hadn't picked this company because I liked the products (although I had liked the few things I had tried) I had picked this company because I had seen someone else do well with it and I wanted a piece of the action! That is probably how most people choose a company and its the totally wrong way to do so, which is probably why 90% of network marketers fail in their first year.
So what about now?
Well now I am with a totally different company that I am sure I will tell you more about over the course of this blog, but I feel I have talked enough for one post. I make sales every month and have been promoted once (very quickly actually), I don't earn a six figure income but I love the company, I love the products and I am doing well enough where I have spare money I didn't have before.
So that's a slightly longer than I had planned introduction to me and how I fell in love with the crazy world of network marketing!
Comments
Post a Comment