Moms’ Prosperity Network | Kelly Smith

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When you’re looking at networking companies for a new home to represent, make sure you do your homework. Having a gut feeling about a certain “opportunity” is good too, but you want to know who you will be doing business with. Today, we fortunately, have business partners so we can all do our part of the research of discovering all the aspects of the company we will be dealing with, but that wasn’t always the case and have learned a thing or two from our mistakes. 

Here are few aspects to look at:

– Company owners’ histories
– Experience
– Marketing plan
– New School or Old School?
– Tools
– Associates or Friends
Let’s discuss these points in more detail.

Company owner’s history - Now, if it’s a start up chances are there is still some dirt under rocks you can dig up. But look at the sources of dirt first. Is it real fact finding information in newspapers and journals or just some frustrated people who don’t like mlms? This is especially important when you are just starting out in this industry. You don’t want to call a networking veteran about a company and he proceeds to tell you the owner of the company you represent has driven other companies into bankruptcy or siphoned money out of representatives’ bank accounts in a former company. This is frightening but true (we’ve experienced it) and many of these owners are never charged legally and just move onto a new company. ***If you can find company owners with a great history of working together in the networking industry - stick with them.

Experience - Do the owners have any clue what they are doing? If it’s a start up company which are always popular, sometimes the owners are brand new to ownership, so be aware you are taking a risk. Lack of experience will soon show itself when they have no clue about marketing or trying to teach people their’new’ tactics that have been around for eons. If you’re green it will take longer to discover how inexperienced they are until the bottom of the company falls out and you’re once again standing on your own to find a new home.

Marketing plan - Does the company have marketing plans in place for offline as well as online networkers? Success is all about marketing and if the company doesn’t know that, run don’t walk. And don’t try to help them run the marketing side of things unless they are paying you a substantial sum.

New School or Old School - You really want a company that can represent both. There are so many networkers operating on different levels out there and their success stems from their own personal preference. Brad and I are online marketers so if the company is strictly old school we keep on moving. We could create our own tools, videos, systems, etc… but we are already creating social networking and online marketing methods so why would we want to do all of that extra work? Most people who come into networking companies and want to market online don’t know how to create their own tools and expect the company to provide systems for them. Better yet, if they have a free system it’s a bonus. On the same note, we also have people on our team who market using the phone or face to face methods and these tools will be available to them as well.

Tools - People love tools and will often join a company because it has so many great tools. Why? They don’t want to create their own or don’t know how. Tools only enhances the member’s marketing arsenal and give you that extra edge.

Associates or Friends - Often we hear you are who you surround yourself by. One of the great aspects about the Internet is when you are around long enough you hear and see what’s going on with networking companies and the kind of reputation people develop. Do you really want to be associated with people who have treated their members poorly? Lied to them? Surround themselves by others who are doing the same? Look at some of the people at the top of the company and their leaders. Talk to others about these people’s reputation, hang around forums, talk with trusted business partners etc. You would be amazed the kind of things you can dig up.

Here are some basic rules of thumb I have learned through the years (by our own trial and error) of choosing the company we will enjoy marketing for as well as make a lucrative income. It’s not to say we won’t make more mistakes but we will learn more of what to look for in business partners and company owners as well. Once you find a trusted and experienced business partner, stick with him or her and you will soon have an incredible team and never have to work alone again. This industry is not for the faint-of-heart and can be quite challenging at times but also extremely lucrative. You want to feel good about a company, great about the team you’re working with and be able to sleep well at night. How was your night last night?

Cheers and we will see you at the top!

by Piotr Bizior