In the MLM industry, there are a few factors to consider when considering which
company to build a long term business.

• Product background
• Marketing or Compensation plan
• The team (Upline, Sidelines, even the company staff)
• The trend of the time
   

First off: It has been said in the past – your UPLINE chooses the first company you join.
It still is the case today for many who are either unexposed and their friends or relatives
who join an MLM first approaches them.

The unexposed might oblige their upline and if they are not careful, will cause a very bad
first impression on the industry.

Today, you don‟t need to be picked by someone else. You can choose first. Do a good
survey based on the guidelines above. As a matter of fact, you don‟t even need to join
the first person who invited you in a company. You have a choice to choose someone
else to be your upline within the SAME company.

Products are very crucial in MLM. Just because one company says our product is the
„best‟ doesn‟t mean that it is. Just like any other business, people seriously building an
MLM will only say good things about their own product. They will even give fantastic and
even outrageous testimonials about how the product can help them.

Many are very sincere and well-meaning, but the rule of thumb to remember is – yes,
you say the product is the best, but that is also because you haven‟t tried any others
because you are in this business!

I firmly believe that most MLM products are of exceptional quality. That is because the
product must work then only can the distributor give good testimonials due to the nature
of the distributor doing direct sales (dealing directly with the prospect/customer). There
are companies that DISCOURAGE their people from using products from a competitor
MLM (some even ask you to stop buying from the supermarket and buy from your „own
business‟ instead).

Beware: some even go as far as to talk down about the products of other MLM
companies. Most people, in their zealous zeal to recruit others, may use this tactic. This
is often perceived as rather unprofessional.
–
Bear in mind: in MLM, if you talk bad about other MLM companies or their products, you
are talking bad about the entire industry as a WHOLE (you mean to say that only your
company, product, compensation plan, team is the best in the world and the rest of all
the other companies are of inferior quality? Man… I don’t want to be in this industry.)
Can you imagine if every network marketer is doing this? No wonder the industry has a
bad name!

The Marketing or Compensation Plan

The plan is very important. It shows how much work you need to do to get paid this
much. All marketing plans have their own advantages and disadvantages. Different
companies offer different margins for their products. The key to remember in margin
comparison, if the company pays the distributor too low, you might not survive; if the
margin is too exorbitantly high, you might earn a lot, but your retail customers will suffer
and the business might not be long term.

Before I share with you a few more popular type of marketing plan to give you an idea
about what company will offer what, I wish to highlight two things in every plan:

DEMOTION and MAINTAINANCE

DEMOTION means dropping from one MLM position to a lower one (usually resulting in
a loss of future potential income) or your remainder quota required to reach a certain
target is increased (the volume achieved in the past do now count towards the grand
total anymore) Demotion is an important factor to consider in every marketing plan as
someone who suffers demotion suffers a sudden loss in income and could be very
embarrassing to others.

MAINTENANCE (sometimes called auto-ship) is the minimum amount of sales volume
(usually every month) a distributor or serious business builder has to buy either his own
personal volume or combined with group sales in order to maintain his rank, be eligible
for bonuses, overriding commission or sometimes even maintain his distributorship.
Having maintenance or no mainteance all has its pros and cons. I will highlight 3
scenarios to give a clearer picture.

A) MANDATORY MAINTENANCE

Some companies require you to purchase products every single month. This is
good if you have built a large organization and it ensures you have guaranteed
income every month. Not good if you are forced to maintain and you are not
making money in your business. If you are in love with the product and don‟t
mind paying for it every month then it is fine. But this can cause a person who is
not seriously building or is still struggling with his business some pressure and it
is one of the main causes of drop out in MLM.

If the maintenance is too expensive, people might shun the company. However,
the upline with a lot of people in his group can build a large stable income this
way. Some companies may not require you to maintain at the early stages and
increases the maintenance after they achieve a certain rank.

B) NO MAINTENANCE

This is very good for people who have just started their business or for people
who is just casually „trying out‟ an MLM. There is no pressure and a person can
be in an MLM for years but still at the same rank.

The bad news is that it might not be good for the long term (because no
maintenance means no downlines need to buy anything) unless your group is in
love with the product or if you and your downlines have built a solid customer
base and the demand of the product it there.

C) OPTIONAL MAINTENANCE

This is also very good for people who just started or the casual type. They will
only ask you to buy a certain volume of products when you want to override your
commission from the company. This is also very good in the sense that you are
not pressured to pay maintenance and you only pay when you are making
money.

There is one problem with this, however. Among the serious business builders if
the downlines are not producing any sales, even having a large organization will
not pay you well if not at all (just like a zero maintenance company, no downline
sales means those in the middle will not maintain, causing a chain reaction all the
way to the uplines at the top). This is a hollow organization where your rank/title
means nothing without income.