Is my business realistic?
 

I started a business in network marketing. It's through a company called Stream Energy. You are to recruit 3 associates and 10 customers, then your associates recruit their 3 and 10, and so on. Some people make $30K per month off of this after about 14 months. You invest about 15 hours per month. Eventually you get monthly checks for doing nothing.

It's the perfect business. You only work with people you already know. you set your own hours, you wear what you want, you don't have to answer to anybody.

My sister is involved in this and she said I could turn this into a full time gig. But I have a feeling that she's overly enthusiastic.

I have 1 associate and 2 customers so far. I've made $150 in a few hours. I need 2 and 8, particularly 2 to get $500 and 8 to get another $100.

I just tried to recruit a friend as an associate or a customer and he was very guarded and declined. I got discouraged about the prospects of this business becoming full time.

I wonder if anyone is familiar with Network Marketing. Is this a viable business?

Also should I continue to jobhunt? The economy is so bad it seems like a lost cause.

Thanks.

This type of thing generally has a very bad reputation. This obviously makes it harder to recruit people, but, more importantly, the reputation is bad for a reason. The whole business model is built on recruiting people with hopes to get easy money without providing value, which makes it completely unreliable. I'd say don't get involved. It doesn't matter whether you want to be employed, freelance or run your own business, the best business strategy is always creating and delivering value. Not as sexy as easy money, yet much more reliable.

On job hunt: go here I Will Teach You To Be Rich and watch the presentation, it's very very good (you need to sign up for newsletter which is free).

Sounds like a pyramid scheme.

AGREE. I watched the video Friday, wrote a resume and cover letter for a job I wanted yesterday, and was contacted about a phone interview today. This is the fastest response I've ever had, and after months of what felt like a crap shoot, it was nice to refine my technique and actually get some pretty darn fast results from it. Ramit knows what he is talking about.

Hey, sent Ramit and email and let him know how the interview went :D

Anyway, his free material is awesome, I'll definitely sign up for Earn1k one day :)

What is the benefit to the customer?

The customer saves 15% on their energy. Because it's people you already know, they'd be helping you achieve your goals.

To tell you the truth, I find that the most reliable way to make money with such a system, is to create the system yourself. Like, I have a friend who was involved in this network marketing thing, and he tried to get me in. He was almost mad at me for a month when I told him I wasen't interested, but nowadays, everytime I ask him about it, he tries to steer the subject.

If you want to make money, you have to create your own system, and focus on delivering value to people.

For instance, just recently, I started creating and publishing apps for the blackberry smartphone, and so far, I made more money in 3 months, than I ever did eversince i've been trying to make money online.
However, if you go to blackberry's website in the developpers section, not ONCE, do they ever claim that you will get rich by publishing softwares for them, or even make money with them.

They'll use terms such as "Create compelling applications that push data to users [...] and much more.", but they'll never give you any figures on how much you should expect to earn, when they clearly know that an above average app can easily return $1000+/month in revenue for life.

Nothing sustainable ever comes from "ripping people off", or "getting rich from others", and stay away from any money making system that tells you upfront that you'll be making a lot of money with them, or even worst, that you'll be making a lot of money by putting in little hours and effort.

Convert friendships into money isn't the greatest idea.
Many people who are into network marketing lost many friendships.
If someone tells you such a story you should ask:
How many people does the median associate recruit?

*sigh* I should have known this was a bad idea. I shouldn't have let my sister pressure me into this. I can see how this could cause a falling out between friends.

Seems like a scam. But mom believes it's not a scam and assured me that my sister is normally very careful about these things and does her research, but I don't think so.

Ignore these people bad mouthing this just because the company markets their service through a network marketing structure. What you have to ask yourself is, are you truly offering value to the customers you sign up to the company? Are they really saving money on their bills? If they are, you can do many things to promote this. You can for example try and build a personal finances site (a site on how to save money) and use the site to market this. You don't have to sell only to people you already know.

Hi lycan,

I value your opinion highly. You make a lot of sense to me.

Thank you for supporting my ventures. I already have a company website and a customer website.

Thanks again.:)

I laughed out loud when I read this.


Sorry, but that's all I'm gonna say.

I worked for Stream Energy 3 years ago in the verification department. For sure the business is legit and I met a lot of people that make very good money in your department but they worked very hard to get there.
So you can do it but would have to work very hard, 15 hours a month are not enough...

Hey guys, Ramit linked to this thread in his latest newsletter! :D (Agota, did you send the link?) I'm pretty pleased about being quoted. That is all. ;)

I saw that too. Pretty awesome! :D

He might have done more than quote you if you'd left your last avatar up! I hear Ramit's a bit of a ladies man. ;):cool:

It's a naturally limited exercise!
If you recruit 10 customers and each of those recruits 10, then in pretty short order you will have recruited the entire planet in less than 10 moves so who will they all be buying/selling to?
This is why Pyramid schemes fail - the first few in the chain might do alright but after that, everyone is trying to sell to each other and there's noone left to sell to!

I disagree with everyone that is disagreeing with this business model. First off, network marketing or multi-level marketing systems are not pyramid schemes. Pyramids are illegal and don't involve actually selling a "PRODUCT". The whole world is based on network marketing system...it's just that nobody recognizes that(every company recruits when they hire employees) and somebody is ALWAYS at the top making more money than someone else.

Take Walmart for example- The owner, president, ceo, managers, supervisors and finally employees make up the company....who is earning more? Obviously the people at the TOP!

Joining a network company involves a lot of hard work and you have to be strong with an open mindset. You will be rejected by hundreds of people and you have to be able to conquer the rejection and keep on going to achieve your goals! It can be done but with a little more than 15 hours a week though, you can probably make a few hundred dollars in 15 hours a week but if you want to climb the ladder to earn 30/month you have to put in the effort. Everything in life requires effort, nothing comes for free! Once you get the system working for you then you earn residual income but this will take anywhere from 5 to 10 years!

They provide excellent training and will change your life as you know it if you BELIEVE in yourself!

If you lose friends over this than were they really your friends to begin with? Don't let negative naysayers stop you from achieving your goals and dreams, trading time for money in a job will never make you rich...but believing in a proven system that works(IF YOU FOLLOW THE SYSTEM) will!

Good Luck!:)
Read the book Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill...it will give amazing insight to what you are having doubts about!

Thanks Happy Mom! You're right this is not a pyramid scheme as those are illegal and this is perfectly legal. I just have to put in the effort and give it time (5 to 10 years) to start getting residual income. Thanks again.

Jerry Hicks (from Abraham-Hicks) made his money at first through network marketing. The structure is not what is important. Network marketing is simply a way to structure a company's sales force. You can make money by selling direct to the final consumer or by recruiting and training people who do. The problem are the companies that have unmarketable products and rely on "selling" the opportunity to sell these unsellable products.

Go get a job, pronto! After you land a job you can look at doing a side business, but you have to cover your basics first. Make sure you have enough money to cover your bills, plus some extra cash to invest in your business. Invest in your education - you are a sales rep, so study sales psychology, leadership, and your business and products.

You can do it, and make a go of it, but you need to think long-term. It's going to take time to learn and grow.

Please read this:

Multi-level marketing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

CroMagna does not like meeting other human beings.

Just meeting hundreds of people (never mind whether they reject her or not) is a notion that would probably be very unappealing to her.

It's not illegal but it would be a hard case to state that it's ethical. For every successful individual there has to be at least 100 failures. That's just the way it works. That's not a very flattering figure when you consider that what's truly being sold is ''financial independence''.

Sounds like a bit of MLM to me, Quite a bit of it going on right now. You eventually get tired of trying to recruit others close to you and need to start attracting prospects through direct marketing instead.