This Covid-19 pandemic has been extremely stressful for some, a much-needed break for others and has been a downright bummer for the majority. It is what it is though, though it sucks big time that lots of
people have lost / are losing their jobs and suddenly are finding it tough to go through their expenses without any sort of income. While we can and have castigated businesses for laying off people and ruining their livelihoods, one has to consider that even businesses are suffering from a decrease in or in some cases, a complete lack of customers.
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Say for example, the local swimming pool. No one in their right mind would be going swimming now so basically the person running the pool has zero incomes whatsoever. Thus, does he have any other choice but to lay off his employees like the security guard and life guard whose jobs have become redundant in this time? As I said, this is a difficult time for people but it is what it is and we, as a human race, must adhere to the safety protocols so it all gets better sooner than later.
In situations like these, people have lots of time to think and whenever that happens, bad decisions tend to be taken a lot. One thing that many people get hooked on to is what is called network marketing or
multi-level marketing. At its heart it is a very simple concept and is quite easily understandable.
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What is Network Marketing?
Let me explain this in terms of an example:
Suppose A manufactures his own brand of soaps. He wants to eliminate the middlemen and all the marketing costs and everything. So, he directly markets to people. He signs up people who must both sell his products and find other people to do the same and so on. Through this, a huge network is
created and A pays commissions and bonuses to the ones who sell above a particular limit. Also, A slowly inserts a condition that each person signing up for this must buy the product for themselves too
regularly.
Suppose I am B. I sign up for this. I make 5 of my friends sign up too and ask each of them to sign up 5 more people and so on. I receive commissions and bonuses based on the combined sales of my whole network, i.e., based on the sales of all those I signed up and the ones they signed up and so on. Thus, this becomes more about creating a network rather than selling it to people because the bigger network you have under you, the better your income. And frankly, A doesn’t care if you don’t sell to the public as
long as you keep increasing your network. The bigger the network, the more the people who sign up, each of whom has to buy the product regularly.
This is basically how network marketing works and it looks to be a great idea. Come on, if you can earn money while just asking people you know to sign up for this, it sounds kind of simple and easy to do and you will start dreaming about the extra income. But get this thing right. Whenever you see a get rich scheme, run or turn the other way or do whatever you do to avoid it. It never is as simple as it is and, in all probability, you will spend more than you earn from it.
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Why network marketing seldom work?
1) People only want to show off their strengths and hide their weaknesses. That is the inherent way most humans are wired. All the get-rich schemes showcase their success stories (though there is no way to actually verify them) but never the ones who failed. For every guy making thousands of dollars per year, 100 others have failed to do so. A get-rich scheme where just about 1% of the people actually get rich sounds like a really bad idea.
2) Lack of transparency is worrying. I was approached by a friend purporting a ‘business opportunity’ and being a naive guy I was/am, I was enthusiastic and had conversations with one of his seniors. Only after a couple of Zoom meetings did they even bring up the term ‘network marketing’. While at that time I had an open mind, the secretive way of doing things irked me. Before that, no one really explained to me what the opportunity was, preferring to spout vague descriptions that made zero sense to me. Not just me. Many people actually do not like to be led on.
3) Network marketing seems easy to do but look deeply and you realize it is pointless. You can initially think making 5 of your friends sign up is easy but actually try doing that. You’d realize how tough it is. Your upline (the one who signed you up) will subtly push you to bring in many people and this will only result in you losing your friendships or relationships with the people. I say this because in certain network marketing companies, they encourage you to sever ties with people who do not have a good
opinion on the business.
4) They berate every other profession. During my conversations, I had to listen to people belittling doctors, scientists, engineers etc. For them, network marketing is the only way to make passive income. When I finally manned up and told them I am not interested, my friend’s upline openly told me I’ll never be successful with this mindset and challenged me to name any other alternative to this. People often have a ‘I can do it’ mentality and go for it and there is nothing wrong with it. What I have
written is a drop in the big ocean that is network marketing. There are far more pros and cons which I could never hope to cover in a single article. Maybe you can actually do it. Maybe you can build up a passive income stream that will make you rich beyond your dreams. But the most likely probability is that you cannot. I have detailed why I felt this was a waste of time for me but for someone, the same reasons might be the ones they sign up for this. Maybe. You never know. For me, the cost far outweighed the benefits.
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Here’s my pros and cons list
Pros:
- Simple way of ensuring alternate income.
- Very little to no technical skills required.
Cons:
- Have to listen to all the success stories, half of which sound too incredible to be true.
- Their ‘me or nothing’ mentality.
- Substituting my favorite brands for their products. (Come one man, you can’t ask me to move away from the toothpaste and soap I have used my entire life and have come to love!)
There are no statistics to back my thoughts or no proof of anything (they simply aren’t available). But
with a bit of common sense, one can understand where I am coming from and what I am trying to say. I
bid you thanks for reading until the end.
You may curse me, abuse me and castigate me but please don’t waste your time and money with
network marketing. Unless you have both in abundance. Else, steer clear!
Have a great day!
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Chennai DynaCity 
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