What exactly is an MLM business?
MLM stands for multi-level marketing and it is also sometimes known as pyramid selling, referral marketing or network marketing.
It is named so for a very good reason as it is a marketing technique which is employed for the sale of services or products and the revenue of the company is procured from the non-salaried workforce who actually sells the company’s products and services.
At the same time, the participants also earn payment through a binary compensation commission system or from a pyramid-shaped system.
It is actually up to the company to decide how much to pay the respective participants. Also, unlike other distribution methods, MLM companies do not advertise their products on TV or any other mass media and rely on the participants for marketing.
Related: Know more about Multi level marketing
A common feature that can be observed in most of the MLMs is that the compensation plans payout to the participants from basically two potential revenue streams.
The first is paid out from the commissions based on the wholesale purchases made by the other distributors below the participant who has recruited other participants into the MLM.
These participants are referred to as the down line distributors. The other is paid by the commission of sales made out by the participants directly to their own retail customers.
Thus, MLM salespeople should sell products directly to the end users by making using of different marketing strategies like word-of-mouth marketing or relationship referrals.
But they are also expected to recruit other people to join the distribution chain as fellow salespeople so that they can become down line distributors.
Thus, MLM is more than just a way to sell a service or products to a large number of people without any ost of advertising, but it is also a way to earn some passive money by selling products directly as retail and also by signing up someone else into your network.
The more people you manage to add into your network, the more your income is.
Also, for a direct sale, you can get more money than adding people but adding more people is an important part of MLM.
Top Notch MLM businesses
Now that we know about MLM, let us look at some of the top-notch MLM companies that rule the market. I am sure you may have heard of most of them. That is how strong the power of MLM is. Let us get into it then.
Amway
it is the biggest MLM marketing company in the world with over $8.6 billion worth of revenue yearly. The health, home and beauty products the company sells are real and FTC ruled that the company was legit since it was actually selling a lot of products.
Herbalife
Again, another one of the biggest MLM company, Herbalife actually makes an yearly revenue of over $4 billion and has more than 2 million distributors across the world.
Avon
This company has been around for quite a long time since 1886 and has yearly revenue of $5,6 billion with over 6 million distributors around the world.
Vorwerk
With an yearly revenue of over $4 billion, this German direct selling company has been around since 1883 and sells cosmetics, household products, carpets, and floor coverings.
Mary Kay
Another famous MLM company, Mary Kay earns an yearly revenue of $3.25 billion and has been around since 1963. By the end of the year 2012, there we over 6 lac Mary Kay women, only in the US.
Related: Top 5 successful MLM business tips
Benefits of MLM
Love it or hate it, MLM does have a lot of benefits. Let us discuss a few of them now.
1. The first one is that MLM offers flexibility to the salespeople as they can choose whether to work part-time from home or set their own hours.
2. MLM allows people to start their own businesses without a huge monetary commitment.
3. Is a very good way to earn passive income.
4. Huge tax perks that a usual employee doesn’t get.
5. Support – there are a lot of people working in this business and they are very willing to help and support you and let you grow your network.
6. You don’t need any experience or training or specialization for this work. All you need are people skills and you are good to go.
7. A very small amount of risk as compared to other forms of businesses as an entrepreneur.
8. Very low operating cost.
9. A large demand for good-quality products.
10. No need to stock up or ship inventory.
Future of MLM
The recent downfall in the economy has more and more people opting in for MLM businesses.
Especially in developing countries, a lot of people are very interested in MLM and wants to be a part of it.
Considering the fact that it allows you to be independent, a lot of people are attracted to this prospect.
As long as you make sure that you know about the goods and services the company offers and are sure that it is not a scam, MLM business will grow huge in the near future, especially since the demand for good quality products are increasing and people are craving more independence in their careers more than ever before.
Why is the future of MLM businesses bright?
A lot of the people nowadays want a source of passive income in addition to what they make through their jobs.
Also, being the owner of a business and being one’s own boss is a trend that is growing these days. MLM makes sure that both of this can happen without a lot of financial investment and with very low operating costs.
It helps you earn a considerable amount of passive residual income if you know how to work it and for the entrepreneurs, it helps them to start their own business with a very low risk factor and initial investments.
In the modern virtual world ruled by social media, MLM is very profitable and practical more than ever before. One can easily network and connect with people across the world from remote locations.
Related: Software for network marketing
Networking is the most important aspect of MLM and modern time is perfect to do that. Also, the growth potential is just very vast and unknown and if you really commit to it, you can earn more than you ever imagined and grow your business as well as a person, owing to the new connections that you made.
No matter what age or where you are in the world, you can make MLM work for you and use it to make some income, no matter what else you might be doing, be it studying or working.
Related: 10 MLM Future Success Strategies
Conclusion
MLM is on the verge of entering its golden phase and this is the best time than ever before to jump right into it, if you haven’t yet.
But always make sure that you are not getting involved in a scam, be true to your work, sell good quality products and you will surely find that you enjoy it more than you thought you would and it really does help you earn some passive income with a very little amount of effort.
