I want to take a moment to get really honest here. I would like to see my relatives, go on a play date, and/or meet someone new at the park without having them trying to sell me stuff that I don’t want or need. I mean, really, I don’t need $400 in cheaply made canvas bags, or body wraps that don’t work, every time we see another human being. And, whether you are selling with your kids to raise funds for their school, or trying to generate a personal income, people hitting me up for money are getting way too out of control.
I have been on the other end of end of network marketing sells with multiple companies, so I get how it works, and for anyone deciding if they should sign up as a representative to anything, let me give you some of the facts I’ve learned about network marketing:
- These companies do not limit how many people are able to sell in an area. Think Girl Scout Cookies – they let every Girl Scout sell them because that makes Girl Scouts the most money possible. But, if a girl is struggling to make her quote to get a prize, or earn enough money for a trip, Girl Scouts, the multimillion dollar corporation, could care less and will tell you to try harder next year to reach your goals. Every one of these network marketing companies are the same way, they make huge profits from the starter kits, and they don’t care about you over their profits, so they will not limit how many reps can sign up. They in fact seek to flood the market, and if you don’t make your quota every month you’ll often lose rank/earnings.
- The market is finite – not everyone and their brother will buy make-up or an endless supply of scented wax – so that means every rep who gets a sell ultimately takes a sell away from you. Think of it as your customers being fish and you are a hunter. You have a pond with 20 fish in it, and there are 40 people trying to catch a fish for dinner. Only half of you will get a meal (if people don’t snag multiple fish), then the fish have all been used up, so there won’t be any other food available for a long time. That is network marketing in a nutshell – it’s survival of the fittest in a system of limited resources.
- Because anyone can sign up to sell, and markets are constantly over-saturated with representatives, that tends to mean everyone already has a close friend or relative who sells your products already. It is considered bad form to ask someone to purchase items from you if you already know that they have a representative, and some companies will penalize you for doing so. Even so, some people will be very cut throat and do anything to make a sell – even sell people items for less than retail, just so they get the customer and you don’t.
- The companies try to convince you that they aren’t a pyramid scheme, yet, the only way to make more money and to move up in the company is to get other people to sign up and sell under you – then they have to do the same. These places argue that all businesses are a pyramid structure, but, if I go from a bagger to a manager at Krogers, I do not have to meet a sales quota, and they pay me for my time there whether I make my goals or not. Further, I do not have to get people to pay money to purchase special starter kits to work under me.
- No one wants the stuff! Even if you are enchanted with the brand and truly, truly believe in it, that doesn’t make the brand any more magical to other people. For example, my friend started selling toddler toys for a network marketing company. She kept inviting me to come to parties and begging me to order, and I tried to tell her that my kids were way too old for that stuff. She was so desperate to make her sales quota that she kept harassing me to buy baby toys, trying to justify to me how my kids can like them anyways, until I had to block her online from contacting me again.
- Everyone cannot make a million dollars a year selling things from home, in fact, 99% of people make nothing after a few weeks. Here’s how it’s always worked for me – you become a representative, you show off your goods to everyone under the sun and your friends and family make their one-time obligatory purchase (if you’re lucky). But, what happens after you’ve hit up all your friends and family and no one else is buying? After all, no one is going to buy a new set of cookware from you every month. Well, then you get desperate and start begging people to host parties for you, so that you can pressure their friends and family to buy from you. You have to start harassing people in the parks or at the checkout lines, and you’ll leave thousands of fliers around the county, and, after five months or so, you will be making nothing.
- It’s a money pit! While you’re desperately trying to make your quota, the company and those above you will recommend that you buy tons of product to demonstrate and/or sell on the spot. They claim that people are so much more likely to buy something if it’s right there in front of them, but that also means that you, as the rep, are taking a huge financial leap of faith that will likely not pay off for you. “You have to spend money to make money” is a phrase that network marketing companies feed on to keep you trapped into buying their products and believing their own hype.
For group fundraisers (cookies, popcorn, wrapping paper, flower bulbs, etc), I have the following points to make:
- You should speak to people before sending your child to sell them something. It’s good for the kids to ask and try to sell to people on their own, but you can still talk with those people privately first and ask them if it’s okay for your child to try and sell to them. A lot of people are in a tough economical situation and they don’t need to feel bad because they can’t afford to buy over-priced chocolates and popcorn.
- Remember that people who have children don’t need to purchase things from your kids. Even if my kids are not selling, if I wanted any of the fundraiser items, I would have signed them up and bought from them.
- Don’t forget that fundraisers are endless. Once one ends another one starts up, so don’t get irritated if people won’t buy form you or your child, because you can’t even go through a check out line without getting hit up to donate money these days. No one can support everyone!
- You should make yourself very aware of where the money goes before you start selling. So many dojos and dance studios and teams will do these restaurant fundraisers, but then you have no idea how that money is being used, or if it’s staying with the team or going into the owner’s pocket. Our ballet school has had dozens of fundraisers, yet their ceiling-to-floor mirror is still cracked and they have had no new equipment to show for all those supporters. School’s are the same way too, they are always doing fundraisers, but never once have I seen or head about anything that was “bought with funds from ____ fundraiser!” or seen any changes/improvements done within the school with that money. We also had a Girl Scout leader who sold cheap bags in network marketing, and she swore that she would give 50% of her profits to the troop. Yet, low and behold, there was never a deposit put into the scouting bank account.
- For smaller scale fundraisers (“I’m raffling off a cake that I baked,” “I’m selling oranges out of my truck,” or “I’m holding my own virtual 5k!”) most people will not be interested in supporting the cause because it’s not credible. It depends heavily on the scenario and the venue, but going door-to-door or having Facebook events for this type of fundraiser usually results in an epic failure. And, yes, all of my scenarios above have happened to me. I did have a random little girl and her mother knock on my door and tell me that I needed to buy raffle tickets for their homemade cake, and they got very angry when I declined. It seems like a con to get quick money from people. I can buy a cake in the store for less than $5, and I don’t know you to know if you’d put rat poison or nails inside the thing if I did win it. Same was true with the oranges – I can safely buy them from the store, or pay you the same price to get them out of a truck that might not pass any health or sanitation standards. Not to mention, who raises oranges in the desert? Are they stolen? Did a store throw them out because they’re going bad? Hmm, can’t imagine why I would turn that down…
- For the larger scale fundraisers, more often than not, the corporations take the bulk of the money and the kids selling it actually raise very little in comparison. For example, to keep picking on Girl Scouts, troops get $0.30 to $0.60 per box of cookies on average, yet their campaign materials tell you that 70%+ of the sale goes to help girls. Now, camps are closing down all over, girls have to pay out-of-pocket for everything (and it’s all pretty expensive!), and free services are severely limited in scouting, yet the single highest paid salary in Girl Scouts (according to the BBB) is over $800,000 a year! I’ve found a few like Girl Scouts that I do not support any longer because I do not agree with how the fundraising money is divided up. I believe if I’m doing the work and finding the customers, than I should get the bulk of the profits for my cause, and, with some digging, you may find out that you do not agree with some of the fundraisers that you are also participating in.
Trying to Mom 