3 Questions to Ask Before Joining an MLM Business Opportunity

November 13th, 2009 | by Chris |

Today especially on the Internet there are a lot of schemes and scams that disguise themselves as MLM business opportunities and are only after the money of their members. In order to learn to identify such schemes and avoid them you have to ask the right questions. Questions that can reveal to you the whole truth about the company and the business opportunity that you are planning to join. Not everything that shines is gold so you have to be very careful before signing up with an MLM company in order to not regret it later.

So what questions Should you ask?

Well, you need to ask if this multilevel marketing business is a pyramid, how much of the profit you are receiving, and whether they have a training program that can help you build your business.

Questions to Ask Before Joining Any Business by Christine Green

With this being the information age, there is a double edge sword in terms of businesses on the internet. Where on the one hand you have access to an unlimited supply of legitimate businesses out there that truly have great products and a potential to earn you extra income, you do have some so called “business opportunities” that are able to disguise themselves as legitimate opportunities through the power of the internet and are in actuality scams.

This causes people who are looking for a home based business to potentially get involved in a business without having the right information. So how can we avoid this and potentially calling a business a scam or a pyramid before knowing all the facts? This is where setting up a set of criteria for what a legitimate business is and what your want out of a business. Here are a few steps below that I have created for myself. It is based on several years of trial and error and being scammed myself in the past.

The first thing is to ask yourself what is a pyramid and does the potential business fit the bill? I have come across some people that throw that word around a lot without truly knowing what a pyramid is. A pyramid by definition is a non-sustainable business model that involves the exchange of money primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, often without any product or service being delivered. Sometimes it can be enticing and lucrative in the beginning to join a business like cash gifting where money is just continuously exchanging hands and you don’t have to struggle with promoting a product or service that people may or may not want to use. However, eventually what happens with these types of programs is mathematically they just don’t work out and when they do start to slow down and stop paying out, it’s the people that got in last that suffer the most. So if the business you are looking to join does not have a product or service, then it’s considered a pyramid or scam and by that standard, not an opportunity you should not get involved in.

STOP Snowing!
Photo by John Talbot

The second thing to ask is how much of the profit you are receiving? With most mlms, you do get a certain percentage of the profits because most of that goes towards the business, your upline and the shipment of products. So it’s important to find out how much of the profits you will be receiving per sale or referral after the things I mentioned above have been paid out. Once you have figured that out, you can then decide if your earning potential outweighs how much you have to invest.

The third thing to ask is, is there training and support available? One of the most important things that I look for is a simple system that I can use to promote my business. The business can be have great products, a lucrative compensation plan and endorsed by a well known celebrity or guru but if you don’t have a way of promoting it and a support team that can help you progress in the business then how will you be able to tap into that earning potential and all that the business has to offer. Now, I’m not talking about training or support that does all the work for you but I’m a big believer that training should be something that is designed so that you can follow in the footsteps of people that have been successful in the business before you. As a result of copying what others have done, you have more and more people making money and promoting the business even more. So that is why it is one of the main questions I ask even before knowing more extensive details about the business or product/service.

To find out more information on this topic plus about tips and tools that you can use to help you in the area of promotion, then take a look at my blog: http://yhbteam.com/blog

If you liked what you have read please consider subscribing to our newsletter because we want to keep you informed.