Everything changed for me that first week in January, 2008. I was called into the office of the company owners that I work for and was told that my salary was going to be reduced by 40%. I know this was not a new thing in our economy – it was just new to me. I had great fears that I couldn’t pay my bills. I was right. What was I to do? Quitting my job wasn’t an option. I had no place to go and not enough savings to live off of for several months to find a new occupation.
I needed another income stream, but where to find it was a mystery. A little later in the same month, I got a call from a neighborhood friend to come and see him. He didn’t tell me what it was about, but I knew. He wanted to talk to me about his business. I knew that he had been successful with a revenue sharing company that I thought was in traditional multi-level marketing (MLM).
I already had my reasons for saying, “I like the idea of referral marketing, but I’m not interested.” Ten years before I had been the general manager of a company that was in multi-level marketing and an independent marketer for the same company a little earlier. I wasn’t very successful in the marketer role, but knew the company’s products and so when the offer came to go on the “inside,” I took it.
After 15 months I decided for some personal reasons to leave. The legacy I took with me was a liking for the concept of referral marketing. Hey, to get paid for sharing something with someone, sharing something I liked, that seemed a no-brainer. It was like telling a friend to go see a great movie, only this time I get paid to do it. The idea is very compelling, but I hadn’t seen it done well. Products were priced high and I couldn’t see me in that arena again. My wife had been telling me for years that I’m not a salesman – and I’m not.
So, on that evening, we sat down and I told him I wasn’t interested before he could say anything about his business. The bottom-line is this. I joined the organization that night, having learned that the sponsoring company has a very different business model than traditional MLM companies and does not consider itself to be MLM at all. I agree with them. I have developed a passion for the products and company. I don’t recruit (interpret that as having to “high pressure sell”); I just tell people about my experiences with the products and they sell themselves.
Need another revenue stream? Read more in this blog to see if this is something that might work for you.
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