Showing posts with label McDonald. Show all posts
Showing posts with label McDonald. Show all posts

Friday, October 04, 2013

The Appeal Of Network Marketing

(written for Vishwa Sandesh)

The Appeal Of Network Marketing
By Paramendra Bhagat (www.paramendra.com)

I signed up for network marketing not long back. I don’t plan to quit doing the other things I am doing – tech consulting, my tech startup idea, my interest in Nepal hydro – but I am so glad I signed up. I once delved into it before I moved to New York City in 2005. I liked the business model, but I was on the road too much at the time to put in any serious effort. I was already familiar with the business model and a believer. What struck me this time was the products and services were things people were already using. There was this potential for mass appeal.

Traditional companies and distribution networks spend a ton of money on advertising. Network marketing companies do not spend on advertising. Instead they give that money to the marketers in their network. It is not a scam. It is a legitimate business model. Compare the million dollars you need to launch a McDonald’s franchise to the 500 dollars I had to put in to get started. That is a no brainer. This might be the only shot most people might have at business ownership.

There is hard work involved. This is not easy money. Many people sign up and quit because they thought it was effortless and it is not. And it does work. On October 3 Michael Maser showed up at my house. He flew in from Miami just for the event. He is my upline Senior Vice President, the top achievement in the business. He has been at it for 12 years now. He started part time. Then he quit his job once his income from the business matched his income from his job. Now he makes close to 80,000 dollars a week from the business. I saw those figures on his iPad. My most famous local upline is a Bangladeshi guy called Rahman: a bundle of energy and determination. Rahman signed up and made 150,000 dollars in his first four months. You might have seen Santanu at the TD Bank. He currently makes 8,000 dollars a month from the business.

Maser might make a few million a year, but that is not a billion. This is not a billion dollar idea for those who sign up, although it is for the founders of the company. A successful tech startup might be a billion dollar idea. But a million dollars is a lot of money. Less than 5% of Americans make more than 100,000 dollars a year. Rahman made 175,000 dollars in the past six months alone. The dude was driving a cab when he signed up, although he did have a calling card business on the side, which he still operates.

People sign up, go to an event, get excited, and then they go approach a few people and the force of rejection hits them so hard they either lose steam, or quit. The thing is you are not trying to convince people. Prequalifying is important. That way you reject them. They don’t reject you. You ask a set of prequalifying questions. Unless they prequalify, you don’t even bring up the topic. Once they prequalify, you bring it up the right away. And then you are ready for their answer: yes or no.

The support system is a tremendous aspect of the business. You are an independent business owner, but you are not on your own. Your uplines are so willing to go out of the way for you. Michael Maser showed up at my house before I had signed up my first person. Why would he do that? He would do that because he is part of a tremendous support system.

This is not for everybody, but it is for many more people than those that have already signed up. One speaker said, go find the PHDs: poor, hungry, driven people. Or go sign up business owners, people who are already striving to make a buck or two.

More than 99% of the people out there work jobs. Business ownership can feel like a leap of faith. It always strikes me how easy it is to misunderstand this very simple business. The mind keeps flying off of tangents for many new signups. Think about it, if the company is the same, the product and services are the same, and it is the same support system, it has got to be you. You are the reason why it is not working for you. You can become an Independent Business Owner for 500 dollars. But unless you are committed to being a team player and someone who seeks to go through tremendous personal growth, you might not make it. Most people fail because they give up. Most people fail because they do not make use of the support system. You plug into the system, and you plug your downlines into the system. And you learn. You soak it up every step of the way. Speakers get up to speak. You take notes.

Santanu who makes 8,000 dollars a month only signed up five people. He now has 800 people in his network and 18,000 customers. Those five people brought people who brought people who brought people. And all that happened in 12 months. You get the idea.

Some people first sign up as customers. Later they might or might not end up being Independent Business Owners. That is also a nice route to take.

To learn more go to http://bit.ly/1dndWg2

Photo Album: ACN: Saturday: Hotel Pennsylvania
Photo Album: ACN: Michael Maser At My Woodside Home
Relationship Marketing: The ACN Way: An Overview
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Thursday, March 08, 2012

The Blogosphere Blooms

Česky: Toto je ikona pro sociální síť. Je souč...Image via WikipediaFacebook is like the McDonald's chain. The blogosphere is like the endless number of Chinese restaurants. Collectively the blogosphere is bigger. And that's the way it should be. I am an avid blogger. I am a glad, avid blogger.

Nielsen Wire: Buzz in the Blogosphere: Millions More Bloggers and Blog Readers
.... consumer interest in blogs keeps growing ..... over 181 million blogs around the world, up from 36 million only five years earlier in 2006. ...... 6.7 million people publish blogs on blogging websites, and another 12 million write blogs using their social networks. ...... 7 out of 10 bloggers have gone to college .... Women make up the majority of bloggers ..... Bloggers are active across social media: they’re twice as likely to post/comment on consumer-generated video sites like YouTube, and nearly three times more likely to post in Message Boards/Forums within the last month ...... Three out of the top 10 social networking sites in the U.S. – Blogger, WordPress and Tumblr – are for consumer-generated blogs. Blogger is the largest of these sites with more than 46 million unique U.S. visitors during October 2011, making it second only to Facebook in the social networking category, and Tumblr was the fastest-growing social networking or blog site on the top 10, more than doubling its audience since last year from home and work computers to 14 million unique visitors. Overall, these three blogging websites combined for 80 million unique visitors, reaching more than 1 in 4 active online users in the U.S. during October 2011. ..... 92 percent of Pinterest’s audience also visited Mass Merchandiser sites during the same month.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

An Immigrant Story For Brad Feld



I was at the NYC 3.0 blog, and I was just done watching and leaving a comment on a Fred Wilson interview, and out of the corner of my eye I spotted a tweet by Nate that swiftly sunk down from the page. But it said something about submit your immigrant founder story. So I went to Nate's Twitter page, and sought out that tweet.

Brad Feld was looking for immigrant founder stories. If anyone had a story, that was me. My story blows a hole or two into my LinkedIn page. What's my story?
Born in India, grew up in Nepal, came to America for college, got elected student body president within six months of landing. Was a founding member of Chaitime.com that raised $25 million round 2. We were trying to be the top South Asian online community. They asked me to drop out of college. I said let me finish, I will rejoin you. By the time I finished, the nuclear winter had set in. I hit the road in a 18 wheeler, and hit all 48 states in two and a half years on and off, and did not understand why until I met the MeetUp CEO Scott after moving to NYC in 2005 who went to work at McDonald's for a few weeks after his dot coms went down. 
There is a concrete mathematical theory called the butterfly effect. A butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon could be the reason a cyclone hit Bangladesh. During April 2006 over a period of 19 days, over 8 million out of Nepal's 27 million people thronged the streets to shut the country down completely to oust a king dictator. I was the butterfly flapping my wings in New York City. I am extremely good with vision and group dynamics
This is my startup's relaunch. I am trying to raise 100K for my round one right now. I was done doing that, and then in February 09, reacting to the worst economy in 70 years, most of my investors walked away. I took time off, focused on social media, accumulated more followers on Twitter than Donald Trump, experimented with pro blogging, and now I am back in the game. 
I am looking to sell 2% of my startup for 100K. The first 100K in Google became a billion in 10 years. I don't expect to match that. But I think I could do at least one third as good in twice as much time. I bring the passion of a freedom fighter to my startup. Internet access is the voting right for this 21st century. http://jyoticonnect.net The two Google guys had their algorithms. I have the equivalent in group dynamics. Show me some respect. What they are failing to do in Iran, what they failed to do in Burma, I succeeded to do in Nepal. 
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