The History of Network Marketing (Part 3)

Okay, so let's continue with our summary of the history of network marketing. This is the third and final part of this article.

Amway and its multi-level structure were targeted by the FTC partly in response to a proliferation of pyramid programs in the 1970s. In these illegal pyramids, money was the only commodity or “value” that moved through the program. There was no underlying product or service.

Schemes were developed whose only purpose was specifically to recruit others into the program. It was the emergence of several high profile schemes that led to a rash of regulatory requirements and the ultimate targeting of MLM as a structure. It also led to the clarification of speculative or fraudulent schemes and legitimate direct sales activities.

The Amway Safeguard Rule identifies three key points which ensure the validity of the opportunity. It was the existence of these three points as part of the Amway structure that led the court to conclude the business was not an illegal pyramid.

These therefore are important criteria with which to assess any network marketing or MLM opportunity and establish whether it is in fact legal as opposed to “one of those pyramid scams”.

1. Does the opportunity require the retail sale of products or services before one can qualify for any recruiting commissions or sales?
2. Does the opportunity have a mechanism in place to prevent the stockpiling of inventory of physical products with no intention of reselling?
3. Does the opportunity offer representatives who choose to leave a buy-back provision on unsold, unopened inventory or products?

The term “network marketing” became popular in the 1980s.

It was partly coined as a way of getting away from the stigma of MLM.

Ultimately, direct sales and multi-level marketing are distinct subsets within the overall network marketing industry. In simplistic terms, they can be defined this way:

Direct selling is where the profit or commission for a retail sale is paid to one person.

Multi-level marketing is where the profit or commission for a retail sale is shared with an up-line (or recruiter). Typically there are also bonuses paid based on recruiting activity, so long as the recruiting is accompanied with ongoing retail sales activity.

Finally, network marketing gained a strong degree of legitimacy in the 1990s and into the 21st century.

A number of very well known and respected authors and business people began to lend their public endorsement to the industry. People such as Brian Tracy, Robert Kiyosaki, Paul Zane Pilzer, Jim Rohn, and even Donald Trump began to openly talk about the merits of the industry and, in fact, encouraged people to consider it.

At the same time, network marketing morphed into a proven, preferred method of product distribution by some of the largest companies on the planet.

Corporations came to the conclusion that network marketing, as a distribution channel, offered many advantages, not the least of which is that it’s lower cost.

Commissions are only paid on the sale of product or services and the structure allows the companies to offload much of the time and training requirements onto its representatives, who are incented to train the new representative they recruit.

In particular for new product launches, network marketing distribution allowed companies to avoid costly traditional advertising campaigns.

Pretty soon telecommunications companies, travel companies, satellite providers, financial services companies, and many other industries joined the party. Today there are literally thousands upon thousands of network marketing based companies operating throughout the world.

Today, network marketing is a +$100 billion dollar industry.

So there you have it, we’ve come full circle. The history of network marketing in about 1700 words or so.

So now let me ask you this question. Do you still feel as though there is a reason to feel ashamed or embarrassed to admit you are involved in network marketing?

Visit my website at http://www.InspiredAbundance.com or feel free to email me at warrenhw@mts.net. if you'd like to hear more from me Subscribe to my weekly newsletter by clicking here now.

And as always, if you have questions about my posts or what I do, feel free to call me at +1-204-878-4564. I'm in the central time zone (GMT-6), so be nice about when you call!

The History Of Network Marketing (Part 2)

While we're talking about the hisory of network marketing, the term “network marketing” specifically is 20th century creation.

Its’ genesis lies in the post World War era of the late 40s and early 50s. This was the dawning of the era of the subdivision in which genuine neighborhoods flourished with their own circle of trusting relationships and backyard barbeques.

It is out of this trend that the term “belly to belly” marketing – or warm market as you may better recognize it – was coined.

A company named California Vitamins came to the realization that many of their new sales recruits were in fact friends and family of their existing sales force. These new recruits’ primary motivation to becoming a sales associate was that they wanted the products for themselves at the wholesale cost.

That led the company to recognize it was easier to build a sales force with a lot of people who sell a small amount of product, than it was to find a small number of top sellers who would move mountains of product.

And so California Vitamins designed a revolutionary sales compensation model encouraging their salespeople to invite new representatives from satisfied customers, most of whom were family and friends. Each of those new representatives in turn had the same right to offer the product and opportunity to become a representative to others.

This allowed the sales force to grow exponentially. The company rewarded its representatives for the sales produced by their entire group – or network – of sales representatives. And so multi-level marketing was born.

It was also during this time that the home party plan was introduced.

The original party plan was the Stanley Hostess Party Plan, by Stanley Home Products. The focus of the party plan was to demonstrate the myriad of uses and benefits of the products right in the home. Out of the original Stanley dealer roster came the founders of such future marketing program giants as Mary Kay and Tupperware.

The introduction of the multi-level, person-to-person sales program in the mid 1950s coincided with another pair of new giants arriving on the scene. First, Shaklee was launched. Then, a couple of years later, in 1959, came the birth of Amway.

The term multi-level marketing, or MLM, became a part of the industry lexicon.

And the direct selling industry would never be the same.

The popular notion that MLM companies really gained steam in the mid 1970s when the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charged that Amway and its multi-level marketing structure constituted an illegal pyramid.

This made lots of headlines in the mainstream press.

In fact, in 1979 the court sided with Amway and deemed its multi-level marketing structure valid and legal and that its model represented a legitimate business opportunity.

Out of that court decision, the “Amway Safeguard Rule” set the legal standard for direct selling, multi-level, and network marketing based companies going forward. And it became one of the most profound milestones in the recent history of network marketing.

However, the myth of all MLMs or network marketing opportunities being pyramids lives on.

Visit my website at http://www.InspiredAbundance.com or feel free to email me at warrenhw@mts.net. if you'd like to hear more from me Subscribe to my weekly newsletter by clicking here now.

And as always, if you have questions about my posts or what I do, feel free to call me at +1-204-878-4564. I'm in the central time zone (GMT-6), so be nice about when you call!

Sppiritual Selling

Folks, if you have not yet listened to the Joe Nunziata's recorded call in our "Bonus Audios section, I highly recommend you make it a priority. We have by now, all heard of the Secret and we are working at applying it in our lives...Well during this Ultimate Network Marketer session, Joe revealed to us why so few people actually get the desired results when promoting products or services. He spoke of what we need to do and just as importantly, what we need to stop doing. He spoke of how to Be the person folks will be attracted to doing business with. You see, it's really all about an inside job.

Too many folks are still trapped in the mentality of you can't make money and really enjoy what you are doing. We need to work on some of our false beliefs and vibrate from a different place. Furthermore, Joe made it very clear that people are FEELING us more than hearing us. What messages are we subconsciously putting out?

If you have not yet obtained your desired results, this is an important call to listen and relisten to.

Make it a great day!

Lynette Chartier

Visit my web site at http://www.thepowerisinyourhands.com

Should you have any questions or comments about my posts, or you simply want to know more about what I do, feel free to call me at 204-290-8802.

The History of Network Marketing (Part 1)

As participants in Liberty League International, we are a part of the network marketing industry, and the network marketing industry has quite a storied history. And being a part of network marketing can be a cause of some anxiety for people.

What about you?

Do you find yourself sometimes feeling embarrassed to admit you are in network marketing or, if you’re not in it yet, are you embarrassed to admit you are seriously considering it?

If so … why?

What is it about your beliefs around network marketing that lead you to have these feelings?

Network marketing today

Network marketing is a +$100 billion dollar per year industry which represents an accessible way for the average person to launch a legitimate business with the potential of generating very substantial income.

It offers the opportunity to launch a business on a part-time basis, and then growing that into a full-time (or more) income. And it requires the least amount of start-up capital and ongoing operating expense of virtually any legitimate business model.

It is responsible for enabling the creation of an untold number of millionaires.

Paul Zane Pilzer, a world renowned economist and college professor, goes so far as to predict that over 10 million new millionaires will be created through network marketing over the next 10 years.

If this is true, why on earth would you feel ashamed or embarrassed to be part of this industry?

Well, there’s a lot history behind network marketing. So let’s review that history for a few moments and perhaps it will shed some light on where a lot of your feelings and attitudes around the industry may have come from.

The History of Network Marketing

Network Marketing as a means of product distribution – which is really all that it is – has been around literally forever.

You can go back through history and the establishment of trade routes and find examples of traders who distributed goods, food, and fur, face-to-face, on behalf of various backers. Sometimes these backers were rulers of a country, sometimes they were powerful individuals, and sometimes they were large businesses or companies.

The North American history of the notion of direct selling can be traced back to the 1600’s. For example, the Voyageurs established fur trading routes and posts on behalf of the Hudson Bay Company. The Hudson Bay Company itself relied upon the influence of Prince Rupert, who was the cousin of King Charles II, to acquire the Royal Charter which, in May, 1670 granted the lands of the Hudson Bay watershed to "the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson Bay."

In New England, in the mid 1700’s, began the phenomenon of the Yankee Peddler, in which peddlers would travel in their cart home to home throughout the countryside, selling their wares.

From there evolved the concept of the door-to-door salesman. The Watkins Company was launched in 1868, selling a popular liniment. The late 1800s saw the spawning of new companies employing door-to-door salesmen to distribute bibles, books, spices, remedies, perfumes, tonics and the like. The California Perfume Company, which later became better known as Avon, was founded in the late 1800s.

The Fuller Brush Company debuted in the early 1900s and it was Alfred Fuller who is credited with transforming door-to-door direct selling into something different. Rather than positioning himself as a salesman who sold brushes and focusing on the features of the brushes, he instead focused his attention on selling the benefits of his brushes to the consumers.

This is referred to as “empowering the consumer”.

His entire company vision was crafted in the context of the service he was able to provide to his customer. The approach was revolutionary.

The early 1900’s also saw the emergence of vacuum cleaner and encyclopedia companies such as Electrolux, World Book and Britannica.

It was a new age.

And that's where we'll pick up the story in Part 2.

Visit my website at http://www.inspiredabundance.com or feel free to email me at info@inspiredabundance.com

If you have questions about my posts or what I do, feel free to call me at +1-204-878-4564. I'm in the central time zone (GMT-6), so be nice about when you call!

You Can Transform Your Life Through Personal Development & Self Growth

Personal development, self development, self growth, self help – these are all terms that can be used somewhat interchangeably to describe an industry that has been often maligned, but which is also growing exponentially and now seems poised (with the advent of such phenomena as the film The Secret), to enter a new stage of heightened growth and mass consciousness.

Critics of the personal development industry will assert that the ideas expressed within self help books and by inspirational speakers are misleading. They will suggest that such programs offer "easy answers" that don't hold up to practical scrutiny and in fact prey upon the inherent psychological susceptibility of people.

Cynics suggest the only people being helped by the self growth books on the market are the authors who wrote them. Or they argue that many of the principles behind personal development, such as Law of Attraction, are based on pseudo-science and without validity.

Yet for all of the detractors, there is a genuine movement afoot. And it is clearly based on something people perceive as "real". Something definitely is going: people's lives are being transformed.

And regardless of what critics may think of someone such as, say Tony (Anthony) Robbins – who has in a large way shaped the modern personal development industry – there is no denying that he has helped thousands upon thousands of people live better, happier, more successful lives.

And I need look no further than my own life to find evidence of the transformation that is possible through the active practice of personal development.

Since leaping into the study and practice of personal development in 2004, my wife Michelle and I have personally witnessed a tremendous transformation. We replaced an executive income with a home based business, have become happier people, better parents, created an unencumbered lifestyle where we are free to do what we want without asking permission from someone or asking to be allowed to take the time to do so, feel good about ourselves, help other people, and have nearly tripled our net worth.

So there is one thing we can say based on our personal experience – the principles and daily practice of personal development and self growth absolutely work.

So put those same personal development principles to work for yourself and see whether or not you are able to transform your life.

Visit my website at http://www.inspiredabundance.com or feel free to email me at info@inspiredabundance.com

If you have questions about my posts or what I do, feel free to call me at +1-204-878-4564. I'm in the central time zone (GMT-6), so be nice about when you call!

Discover The Crocodiles In You Mind And Use Law Of Attraction To Overcome Them

As you spend each day learning to more deliberately apply Law of Attraction in your life, is it becoming clear to you that that majority of your obstacles are inside your own head?

Consider this.

"The crocodile attack that claimed the most human lives happened on February 19, 1945 when part of the Imperial Japanese Army unit guarding a stronghold on the Burmese island of Ramree was outmaneuvered by a British naval force.

The Japanese soldiers were forced to cross 10 miles of mangrove swamps to rejoin a larger battalion of the Japanese infantry. The swamps were home to thousands of 15-ft saltwater crocodiles. By the next morning, only 20 of the original 1,000 Japanese soldiers had survived."

When I read this recently, I was astounded by the story. And it got me to thinking.

So what are the crocodile infested swamps we need to navigate in our lives? What crocodile like obstacles must each of us become equipped to overcome if we want to achieve the freedom we seek?

I believe the ugliest and the baddest of the crocodiles are the crocodiles that lurk in our own minds.

Specifically, they are the self limiting beliefs and other thoughts that don't serve us, but which we insist on hanging onto.

I'm willing to bet that each of us has thousands of self limiting beliefs that we buy into every day. Often without even realizing that's what we are doing.

So what does it take then to be successful? Well, what did it take for the 20 surviving soldiers to successfully navigate their way across the mangroves?

To overcome the crocodiles, it's necessary to start from the end. Be larger than yourself in terms of vision and goals, trust in the magic of your belief, and then follow-through with unwavering persistence.

There is a magical moment when you finally really, really believe in what is possible for yourself and what you are able to achieve - well beyond what you may have previously considered.

This is often what you experience when you have "breakthrough" success in a new venture (be it a home business, a new project, venture or otherwise). You may have started out doing what you knew you had to do because you see an opportunity that is so attractive and because there is a process that makes logical sense to you.

But the tipping point comes when as the results begin manifesting, you are finally able to believe completely in what you can do and those lingering doubts vanish. You can see the progress you are making towards your goals and you create a vision larger than yourself that you believe unequivocally -- and that is when everything explodes exponentially.

Just imagine the degree of doubt those 20 surviving soldiers would have had to overcome and how impenetrable their belief in their ability to cross the mangroves had to be in order for them to survive. Consider what the spectacle of the feeding frenzy amongst the crocodiles must have looked and sounded like and the degree of fear and self limiting beliefs each soldier had to overcome. And think about the degree of commitment and follow-through that was necessary to make it to the other side. There was no room for hesitation - everything relied upon instant decisions and follow-through if they were to survive.

Just as few of the soldiers survived the crossing of the mangroves, few people ever survive the crossing of the swamps in their minds that enables them to live out their dreams.
But for those that do, it is the focus and vision that they have, the absolute belief in their vision that they carry, and the non-negotiable follow-through that they employ. These are the basic ingredients, available to each of us, which can be used to determine the thoughts we choose, the beliefs we foster, and the actions we take which ultimately will define the path to our own success.

There are tremendous opportunities and enormous waves of momentum that are out there to be ridden. Opportunities abound everywhere. But in order to catch a wave, each of us needs to be prepared to swim out to it. It is our own vision, belief and follow-through that will determine which of us will get there.

If 20 Japanese soldiers were able to cross 10 miles of mangrove swamps and overcome thousands of crocodiles, while 980 comrades were eaten, I have absolutely no doubt that any of us can navigate the swamps in our mind and achieve anything we choose to achieve.
There is absolutely no limit to what you can achieve except for the limits we impose upon ourselves.

And if we begin surrounding ourselves with like minded people with the same strong sense of belief and vision as we have, pretty soon we can leverage the strength and support of an entire team surrounding us.

So, there is no reason for any of us to ever limit ourselves.

Be awesome and start swimming today by learning to make Law of Attraction work for you.

Visit my website at http://www.inspiredabundance.com or feel free to email me at info@inspiredabundance.com

If you have questions about my posts or what I do, feel free to call me at +1-204-878-4564. I'm in the central time zone (GMT-6), so be nice about when you call!

Law Of Attraction Works Whether You Use It Deliberately Or Not

In our work, we're very focused on the deliberate use of Law of Attraction.

This law states, simply, that you attract into your experience whatever it is you focus on.

Period.

This is very powerful. For it means that any of us has the power to create whatever life we desire simply by applying Law of Attraction in a deliberate way.

But there's a downside to Law of Attraction. And it's this ... you attract into your experience whatever it is you focus on.

Now if your focus is on what you don’t want – too many bills, too much debt, things that have gone wrong – then guess what you are going to get? More of those things you do not want.

And so there’s the downside.

By not being consciously aware of what you are focusing on, should your default position be on the things you don’t want (which tends to be the case for the majority of people), then Law of Attraction gives you more of the same.

This is why the deliberate use of Law of Attraction is so key. It is in this way you can control what you are attracting.

This can be a very elusive concept.

Remember, the thoughts you have lead to words, which lead to a feeling, which leads to an action, which determines the vibration you are sending.

Law of Attraction matches your vibration.

So, if that’s the case, then your job is to mind your own vibration. It's your job to ensure your are in vibrational harmony with what you want.

So how do you mind your vibration? By being very mindful of and monitoring the language you are using in your conversations. And taking the time to correct your language whenever you catch yourself.

Now, there’s one conversation in particular which requires very specific attention. That’s the conversation you are having with yourself.

You know what I’m referring to. It’s always there. Even right now while you are reading this.
There’s that little voice in your head which is always commentating of what you are seeing, what you are doing, what you are thinking – everything.

And it’s easy to recognize when you’re paying attention. It may say things like “that’s stupid”, “that was dumb”, “this isn’t going to work”, “I always fail”, etc.

Well, in everyone of those examples, your self talk is entirely focused on what you don’t want. And Law of Attraction doesn’t know the difference between what you want and what you don’t want. It only gives you what you are focused on.

Realize that every time you say something like that, whether out loud to someone else or to yourself, you are sabotaging yourself and your results.

So monitor your language diligently. Each time you catch yourself, pause and then correct.
“So, what is it I do want?”

“That’s interesting”, “this works for lots of people, it can work for me too”, “I always succeed when I put my mind to it”.

Begin monitoring your language and you will start to get better at refocusing on the things that you do want.

And as you get better at that, the better your results will be as well. You will be avoiding the downside of Law of Attraction because you will be applying the Law of Attraction deliberately.

Visit my website at http://www.InspiredAbundance.com or feel free to email me at info@inspiredabundance.com

If you have questions about my posts or what I do, feel free to call me at 1-204-878-4564. I'm in the central time zone, so be nice about when you call!