Work at Home Success Story:
Our Ten Steps to MLM Success

Work at Home Success Story: Our Ten Steps to MLM Success

Work at Home Success Story:
Our Ten Steps to MLM Success

A successful husband and wife team candidly share their story and explain as honestly as they can what has helped them achieve a $5000/month income in only one year in MLM.

A successful husband and wife team candidly share their story and explain as honestly as they can what has helped them achieve a $5000/month income in only one year in MLM.

I had worked in corporate America for the past ten years. My work, which was not particularly rewarding, provided a level income while the cost of living steadily increased. From the very beginning it was a dream of mine to own and operate my own business so that my earnings were only limited by my effort rather than a highly subjective performance review resulting in a marginal pay increase. The first hurdle was convincing my wife Becca that working at home in a business of our own could actually provide the security that conventional jobs used to do. When we got married I was already in terrible debt even considering bankruptcy. I had little to say that would reassure her I could be successful at a home business. The proof would just have to be through my actions. Unfortunately, I had a run of poor attempts at working from home, which seemed to convince her to the contrary. I tried phone cards, gas cards, buying and selling surplus inventory, factoring loans, selling web sites, secret shopping, and specialty supplements to name a few. Not only did I not make any money at them but in some cases my efforts added to our debt, and exhausted us mentally, emotionally and physically. Yet I never gave up. To paraphrase Thomas Edison, I hadn’t truly failed, I’d just found a “thousand” methods that didn’t work and every attempt that didn’t work was just a step toward one that would.

Somewhere in these years of trying, Becca began to see my dedication and started entertaining the idea of self-employment and having a work from home career. I think it was the fact that her own experience in corporate America was just sucking the life out of her that changed her mind and sealed my determination to find the right work from home opportunity.

What’s ironic is that it wasn’t any opportunity I was working on that finally panned out. It was a company that Becca was buying products from as a customer that brought in the first checks. She wasn’t even working at it. She was just using the products because she liked them. Then we got a check; a small one. Then a bigger one. And an even bigger one, until I had to sit up and take notice of them. Here was a company we hadn’t put any effort into and it was paying us more than anything… no strike that…. Paying us more than everything… every business, every opportunity I

had invested in all rolled into one. Becca started working it part-time and in a short period of time was able to make the decision to quit the corporate travel industry and work from home full time. We still work from home and she’s never gone back.

There have been hurdles, certainly, and overcoming them has developed us into leaders. The first hurdle was making the initial great push in getting the ball rolling. We had desire and a lot of good reasons but turning want into work required more than just a firm resolution, it took action. It was a difficult thing to make that first call but Becca just did it, she would later say, “like pulling off a Band-Aid.” The first few people were not interested and it was discouraging. She kept on going through the steps getting better and better. Then she got her first enrollment, which was a great satisfaction and gave us confidence.

After that our mentor was able to coach Becca and her skills developed at an accelerated pace. Many people consider motivation to be the greatest factor when getting things started but experience has taught us that the two most important elements are work and coaching. You can have the best intensions and be highly motivated but unless you actually do something, I mean really get out there and try it over and over again, your enthusiasm will dwindle and you will end up wondering why you never got anywhere. On the other hand, you may have doubts and even lack spirit, yet if you actually try regardless of how many times you think you’ve failed eventually it will pay off. Having someone there to show you the best methods is indispensable and it reduces the trial and error period so that you get that ball rolling at a good pace earlier than if you were on your own. So make sure that you are partnered with a great team if you want great results. We are very fortunate to have access to the best training completely free.

Another hurdle was finding the best resources for leads. Because of my former networking attempts, our warm market had turned us cold to the idea of referring our friends and family to anything new until we could prove our success and satisfaction with the products. Even though a choice few of our family members did sign up early on we decided to save sharing the products and opportunity for a time when we would make the best example of ourselves. This is contrary to the way most people begin and it meant that what is considered to be the best market was closed to us for start up. Instead, we decided to create an advertising budget that we would fund by cutting back expenses anywhere we could. We brown-bagged our lunches, car-pooled where possible, skipped vacations, watched TV instead of going to the movies, and wore our wardrobe thin before buying new clothes. We also took risks that aren’t advisable like putting off vehicle maintenance and home repairs. These sacrifices along with the moderate checks that were already coming in from the business provided us with a limited means by which we were able to buy leads and advertise.

Our tiny budget necessitated highly efficient spending. That meant that we had to keep good records (which we would need for taxes anyway) so that we could calculate two important figures. Cost-per-response and cost-per- enrollment. The former is how much it cost us to get a person interested our business. The latter is how much it cost us to actually enroll a business builder or customer in the program. To calculate cost-per-response simply divide the total cost of your leads from any one source by the number of people that actually listen to a presentation. To calculate cost-per-enrollment divide the total cost of your leads from any one source by the number of people that actually sign up. Between the two figures, cost-per-enrollment is by far the most important figure because it helps us see if our budget is going to get us where we want to go and if we need to increase it with a loan. Still cost-per-response helped us determine if a lead source was worth the money we were paying. I can’t tell you what a good number is for you because it depends on your budget and what you are willing to spend. I can, although, tell you which tactic works best for us. Interestingly, it’s not purchased leads or even our website (yet). It’s postcards. But, if you just can’t muster an advertising budget from your current economic plan then use the preferred warm market. It won’t cost you anything and both the response rate and enrollment rate is much higher.

Do we work our warm market? It doesn’t feel like work because the products we use are thoroughly part of our life. Recommendations come very naturally and it’s about more than just acquiring a new customer or business builder. It’s about changing lives for the better. The products of the company we are partnered with are all non-toxic so every time we sign-up a friend or family member we know that we aren’t just asking them to spend their money in our direction; we’re helping them make a lifestyle change that can have serious impact on the quality of their lives and general health for a long time. We enjoy discovering which products our friends enjoy the most and hearing their thank yous. So we highly recommend finding a partner company with the right fit for you. You have to really like the products and really buy them because you like them and not out of any obligation. Otherwise you will never have the confidence to share them, especially with the people that are closest to you.

After our work from home business started to grow duplicating that growth in others became the next obstacle. There are so many programs out there promising sure-fire methods of success and duplication. The daffiest ones come from people who have never built a work from home business. Some of them are more of a philosophy, false religion or cult. We knew that there really is no “secret” to duplication and you surely can’t get to that level by visualizing and convincing yourself that your visualizations are reality. That’s actually magical thinking of the Emperor’s New Clothes fairytale variety, which in the real world is dangerously close to being delusional. It’s also just rehashing the Napoleon Hill book THINK AND GROW RICH from 1937. Instead of setting our expectations on a Cartesian principal of “I think therefore I’m successful” we opted for something far more practical, trustworthy and tangible. It’s called hard work. Nobody who is climbing the top of a mountain wants to be given a slippery, puffed-up pipedream like snow covered ice to hang on to. They want solid non-icy rock and a safety harness. So, we tell it like it is. If you want to succeed you’re going to have to work consistently and learn to be resilient. Keep working even when the going gets tough. Those that persevere and continue with actually approaching and inviting people are the ones who get ahead. Sometimes it happens in spurts. Sometimes they even slip back, yet we found that their previous hard work makes the best safety harness (as does encouragement from a great team) because they know from their own experience that hard work does in fact pay off. Don’t get me wrong, we want our partners to dream and dream big, we also want them to put that dream into action instead of expecting it to mysteriously materialize effortlessly. So it’s important to us to lay good groundwork, a good foundation before building. Otherwise when the storms come, and they did come and will probably come again, the poorly formed and fair weather business builders will collapse and disappear. So we let them know early on how hard it is but we promise to be there for them at every step, not just the successes but the failures too. We also share stories of our own prospecting droughts once we get through them so others will more easily associate with us and see our position as realistic and attainable.

Working as a husband and wife team allows us to distribute tasks according to our talents, which has the net effect of potency and efficiency. Each of us gets to focus on the tasks for which we are best suited so that each of us develops our best skills to their fullest potential. Many team members do the same but it is not required for success. A single person who is motivated and resourceful is also well suited for working at home. What would be detrimental would be if a married couple was divided on a chosen work from home business because then each spouse would be like horses pulling a carriage in opposite directions when it can only go one way. Success in this case is very difficult and unfortunately very costly; it sometimes separates people instead of uniting them. So we consider ourselves equally yoked and we advocate that for all couples interested in a work from home business.

The most important block in the building of our success is properly setting priorities. Priorities will not only help you focus on your work from home business but will help you enjoy leisure time to the fullest, because when you finally get to relax you’ll be able to just rest and not have any unfinished business nagging you in the back of your mind. Setting priorities for us means putting God first, then family and then work. Sometimes family and work still duke it out for an hour or two but the number one spot is immutable. We don’t take credit for the good work that we have done without knowing in our hearts who the prime mover of our business and our life really is.

We’ve both worked in corporate America where, for some reason, being outwardly religious is generally shunned as kooky. So, now that we work from home in our new business we are decidedly FREE to be ourselves which isn’t overt but really rather subtle. It means more than being able to use an email signature block with a Bible verse or comfortably say “God bless you” or “I’ll pray for you” when the moment arises. Those things are important to us and they are meaningful. Moreover, it means we actually schedule time to meet with the Lord and thank Him for this great gift of working at home. And a spirit of humility is conducive to work and makes you approachable and likeable.

So in conclusion allow me to outline the discoveries we took that lead to our success so that you can more easily see them as steps to your success:

1. Choose an excellent company to partner with. One that has products you really want and use.

The authors are a husband and wife team who have achieved a $5000/month level in their organization in about a year.

Work at Home Success Story:
Our Ten Steps to MLM Success

A successful husband and wife team candidly share their story and explain as honestly as they can what has helped them achieve a $5000/month income in only one year in MLM.

Work from home

I had worked in corporate America for the past ten years. My work, which was not particularly rewarding, provided a level income while the cost of living steadily increased. From the very beginning it was a dream of mine to own and operate my own business so that my earnings were only limited by my effort rather than a highly subjective performance review resulting in a marginal pay increase. The first hurdle was convincing my wife Becca that working at home in a business of our own could actually provide the security that conventional jobs used to do. When we got married I was already in terrible debt even considering bankruptcy. I had little to say that would reassure her I could be successful at a home business. The proof would just have to be through my actions. Unfortunately, I had a run of poor attempts at working from home, which seemed to convince her to the contrary. I tried phone cards, gas cards, buying and selling surplus inventory, factoring loans, selling web sites, secret shopping, and specialty supplements to name a few. Not only did I not make any money at them but in some cases my efforts added to our debt, and exhausted us mentally, emotionally and physically. Yet I never gave up. To paraphrase Thomas Edison, I hadn’t truly failed, I’d just found a “thousand” methods that didn’t work and every attempt that didn’t work was just a step toward one that would.

Somewhere in these years of trying, Becca began to see my dedication and started entertaining the idea of self-employment and having a work from home career. I think it was the fact that her own experience in corporate America was just sucking the life out of her that changed her mind and sealed my determination to find the right work from home opportunity.

Choose an MLM company with products you honestly use and enjoy.

What’s ironic is that it wasn’t any opportunity I was working on that finally panned out. It was a company that Becca was buying products from as a customer that brought in the first checks. She wasn’t even working at it. She was just using the products because she liked them. Then we got a check; a small one. Then a bigger one. And an even bigger one, until I had to sit up and take notice of them. Here was a company we hadn’t put any effort into and it was paying us more than anything… no strike that…. Paying us more than everything… every business, every opportunity I

had invested in all rolled into one. Becca started working it part-time and in a short period of time was able to make the decision to quit the corporate travel industry and work from home full time. We still work from home and she’s never gone back.

There have been hurdles, certainly, and overcoming them has developed us into leaders. The first hurdle was making the initial great push in getting the ball rolling. We had desire and a lot of good reasons but turning want into work required more than just a firm resolution, it took action. It was a difficult thing to make that first call but Becca just did it, she would later say, “like pulling off a Band-Aid.” The first few people were not interested and it was discouraging. She kept on going through the steps getting better and better. Then she got her first enrollment, which was a great satisfaction and gave us confidence.

Get a good MLM coach and good training.

After that our mentor was able to coach Becca and her skills developed at an accelerated pace. Many people consider motivation to be the greatest factor when getting things started but experience has taught us that the two most important elements are work and coaching. You can have the best intensions and be highly motivated but unless you actually do something, I mean really get out there and try it over and over again, your enthusiasm will dwindle and you will end up wondering why you never got anywhere. On the other hand, you may have doubts and even lack spirit, yet if you actually try regardless of how many times you think you’ve failed eventually it will pay off. Having someone there to show you the best methods is indispensable and it reduces the trial and error period so that you get that ball rolling at a good pace earlier than if you were on your own. So make sure that you are partnered with a great team if you want great results. We are very fortunate to have access to the best training completely free.

ADVERTISE.

Another hurdle was finding the best resources for leads. Because of my former networking attempts, our warm market had turned us cold to the idea of referring our friends and family to anything new until we could prove our success and satisfaction with the products. Even though a choice few of our family members did sign up early on we decided to save sharing the products and opportunity for a time when we would make the best example of ourselves. This is contrary to the way most people begin and it meant that what is considered to be the best market was closed to us for start up. Instead, we decided to create an advertising budget that we would fund by cutting back expenses anywhere we could. We brown-bagged our lunches, car-pooled where possible, skipped vacations, watched TV instead of going to the movies, and wore our wardrobe thin before buying new clothes. We also took risks that aren’t advisable like putting off vehicle maintenance and home repairs. These sacrifices along with the moderate checks that were already coming in from the business provided us with a limited means by which we were able to buy leads and advertise.

Monitor Advertising; Find what works.

Our tiny budget necessitated highly efficient spending. That meant that we had to keep good records (which we would need for taxes anyway) so that we could calculate two important figures. Cost-per-response and cost-per- enrollment. The former is how much it cost us to get a person interested our business. The latter is how much it cost us to actually enroll a business builder or customer in the program. To calculate cost-per-response simply divide the total cost of your leads from any one source by the number of people that actually listen to a presentation. To calculate cost-per-enrollment divide the total cost of your leads from any one source by the number of people that actually sign up. Between the two figures, cost-per-enrollment is by far the most important figure because it helps us see if our budget is going to get us where we want to go and if we need to increase it with a loan. Still cost-per-response helped us determine if a lead source was worth the money we were paying. I can’t tell you what a good number is for you because it depends on your budget and what you are willing to spend. I can, although, tell you which tactic works best for us. Interestingly, it’s not purchased leads or even our website (yet). It’s postcards. But, if you just can’t muster an advertising budget from your current economic plan then use the preferred warm market. It won’t cost you anything and both the response rate and enrollment rate is much higher.

Work your warm market.

Do we work our warm market? It doesn’t feel like work because the products we use are thoroughly part of our life. Recommendations come very naturally and it’s about more than just acquiring a new customer or business builder. It’s about changing lives for the better. The products of the company we are partnered with are all non-toxic so every time we sign-up a friend or family member we know that we aren’t just asking them to spend their money in our direction; we’re helping them make a lifestyle change that can have serious impact on the quality of their lives and general health for a long time. We enjoy discovering which products our friends enjoy the most and hearing their thank yous. So we highly recommend finding a partner company with the right fit for you. You have to really like the products and really buy them because you like them and not out of any obligation. Otherwise you will never have the confidence to share them, especially with the people that are closest to you.

Be a good mentor and provide solid training.

After our work from home business started to grow duplicating that growth in others became the next obstacle. There are so many programs out there promising sure-fire methods of success and duplication. The daffiest ones come from people who have never built a work from home business. Some of them are more of a philosophy, false religion or cult. We knew that there really is no “secret” to duplication and you surely can’t get to that level by visualizing and convincing yourself that your visualizations are reality. That’s actually magical thinking of the Emperor’s New Clothes fairytale variety, which in the real world is dangerously close to being delusional. It’s also just rehashing the Napoleon Hill book THINK AND GROW RICH from 1937. Instead of setting our expectations on a Cartesian principal of “I think therefore I’m successful” we opted for something far more practical, trustworthy and tangible. It’s called hard work. Nobody who is climbing the top of a mountain wants to be given a slippery, puffed-up pipedream like snow covered ice to hang on to. They want solid non-icy rock and a safety harness. So, we tell it like it is. If you want to succeed you’re going to have to work consistently and learn to be resilient. Keep working even when the going gets tough. Those that persevere and continue with actually approaching and inviting people are the ones who get ahead. Sometimes it happens in spurts. Sometimes they even slip back, yet we found that their previous hard work makes the best safety harness (as does encouragement from a great team) because they know from their own experience that hard work does in fact pay off. Don’t get me wrong, we want our partners to dream and dream big, we also want them to put that dream into action instead of expecting it to mysteriously materialize effortlessly. So it’s important to us to lay good groundwork, a good foundation before building. Otherwise when the storms come, and they did come and will probably come again, the poorly formed and fair weather business builders will collapse and disappear. So we let them know early on how hard it is but we promise to be there for them at every step, not just the successes but the failures too. We also share stories of our own prospecting droughts once we get through them so others will more easily associate with us and see our position as realistic and attainable.

Work as a Team, specially husbands and wives.

Working as a husband and wife team allows us to distribute tasks according to our talents, which has the net effect of potency and efficiency. Each of us gets to focus on the tasks for which we are best suited so that each of us develops our best skills to their fullest potential. Many team members do the same but it is not required for success. A single person who is motivated and resourceful is also well suited for working at home. What would be detrimental would be if a married couple was divided on a chosen work from home business because then each spouse would be like horses pulling a carriage in opposite directions when it can only go one way. Success in this case is very difficult and unfortunately very costly; it sometimes separates people instead of uniting them. So we consider ourselves equally yoked and we advocate that for all couples interested in a work from home business.

Set Priorities

The most important block in the building of our success is properly setting priorities. Priorities will not only help you focus on your work from home business but will help you enjoy leisure time to the fullest, because when you finally get to relax you’ll be able to just rest and not have any unfinished business nagging you in the back of your mind. Setting priorities for us means putting God first, then family and then work. Sometimes family and work still duke it out for an hour or two but the number one spot is immutable. We don’t take credit for the good work that we have done without knowing in our hearts who the prime mover of our business and our life really is.

Be thankful and humble

We’ve both worked in corporate America where, for some reason, being outwardly religious is generally shunned as kooky. So, now that we work from home in our new business we are decidedly FREE to be ourselves which isn’t overt but really rather subtle. It means more than being able to use an email signature block with a Bible verse or comfortably say “God bless you” or “I’ll pray for you” when the moment arises. Those things are important to us and they are meaningful. Moreover, it means we actually schedule time to meet with the Lord and thank Him for this great gift of working at home. And a spirit of humility is conducive to work and makes you approachable and likeable.

So in conclusion allow me to outline the discoveries we took that lead to our success so that you can more easily see them as steps to your success:

1. Choose an excellent company to partner with. One that has products you really want and use.

2. Rip off the band-aid and just start doing it

3. Get a top-notch coach or mentor. (Part of finding a great company)

4. Work both your warm and your cold market.

5. Create an advertising budget

6. Keep records to measure advertising success (cost per enrollment)

7. Be a realistic mentor and provide tangible training

8. Work as a team whenever you can. (Especially if married)

9. Prioritize your life (make appropriate sacrifices)

10. Be thankful and humble for this great work from home opportunity

The authors are a husband and wife team who have achieved a $5000/month level in their organization in about a year.

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