OK, so let’s answer that one right here, before going any further.

In terms of conducting business, and more specifically a network marketing business, I believe that, yes, honesty IS the best policy.

“Hello there, my name is Gary Wilmot, and I run a highly successful business and I want to show YOU how to share in that success for FREE!”

OK, hang on a minute, in the spirit of the topic above, let’s rephrase that…

“Yes my name is indeed Gary, and I am currently working full-time as a database consultant / systems analyst. I’m actually just like a lot of people out there, I hold down a full-time job to pay the bills, and I run a couple of home-based business ventures too.

One is a straightforward web hosting business, the other involves a couple of network marketing systems. The reason for these home-based efforts is to supplement my main income, and eventually to provide my family with a degree of financial independence.”

There you go, that was much better wasn’t it? No pretending to be the head of a major international independent corporation, and no declarations of earning thousands of dollars for next-to-no work (and all achieved in about 3 days!)

That is honesty, and that is transparency, two themes that are central to my business philosophy, and ones that I believe many other people will share, and respond to. You see, I don’t NEED to pretend to be something I am not, I have a few things in place that I believe in, and I have a network that is building on strong foundations.

When I surf around business-oriented networking sites (Yuwie and DirectMatches in the main) I see a constant stream of spam, smoke and mirrors. You introduce yourself to someone, and they reply with something along the lines of “Nice to meet you, tell me about your business. By the way you should look at this system, it’s making 1000s every day, so here’s the link”.

The thing is, the majority of people you might meet on those sites are doing something very similar so, after a while, you start automatically filtering this “noise” out. This is such a shame, because these networking sites are incredibly powerful tools for everyone, with real connections to be made on a business level, and socially. I love meeting people online from the world over, but spam is spam no matter what language it speaks.

So are people inherently liars, with a desire to spam the hell out of everyone? NO WAY!

They do this because they have a dream, and they have learned from their system’s instructions that this is the way to do it. In the current climate, maybe it is one way of doing things. With so many people, pulling in so many different directions, there is perhaps a need to get your message across quickly and efficiently. The thing is though, most people will automatically filter you out, no matter how great your system may actually be.

So is there an alternative? You might have guessed it already, but yes I think there is. Honesty.

Actually, not just honesty, but also throw in transparency, respect for others, and making genuine connections with your fellow inhabitants of this planet.

To give an example, when I make a new connection with someone online, I generally start out by leaving a comment on their profile page, thanking them for the “friend add”. I use their name because I bothered to check it, maybe I say something nice about their profile page (if I liked it) and I wish them a good day (or something similar) – you get the idea I’m sure.

What I don’t say is anything about the systems I use, nor do I explicitly give them referral links. They can of course take a look at my profile, or web sites; what they do beyond that point is up to them.

This approach has given me 2 things; contact with some really lovely people that I have things in common with, and some good business leads and contacts. Many fall into BOTH categories.

When it comes to working with the people I sponsor, I again use honesty. If I sell them a story that doesn’t pan out, they will very quickly lose trust and respect in me, and faith in the system. No, what I offer them is honesty, support, advice, and encouragement. They of course need to provide the desire, effort, and willingness to stick at it for more than 5 minutes, but they do all that within a supportive environment.

So why bother using this approach? Well, for one thing, it allows people to move beyond the superficial level, fosters real relationships, and leads to ways of working smarter rather than harder. It also frees up some of the time that would be spent spamming everyone with referral links; time that can be spent on working with your team, developing your business, or communicating with online friends in meaningful ways.

Cut away the need to “act out” a role, and that energy can be used far more productively; even freeing up time to spend with your family!

So why do I think this approach works? The key to that is understanding WHO these marketers you meet online actually are. The majority are NOT MLM gurus, nor are they running a large company. Most of them are office workers, housewives, students, IT guys, truck drivers, landscape gardeners etc. etc. In other words, they are ordinary people like you, trying to earn extra income, and gain access to some of the good things that a bit of wealth can provide.

The current methods are turning us into faceless robots, typing and clicking for hours on end, acting out online versions of the “foot in the door” salesman! We as a global community should be connecting at deeper levels, not jumping from the wage slavery frying pan into the “small cog in a giant internet money making machine” fire.

Let’s keep it honest guys, let’s be more transparent and let people know we are just trying to do the right thing for our family. People will respect that and, what is more, it is something they will continue to respect because there is no mask to slip off.

People respond to people, so just be yourself.

Gaz

“Leader” is one of the terms that gets a lot “airplay” in this industry, but what does it really mean, and what does it mean to “Be a Leader” in a home-based business?

In a traditional workplace context, a leader may be seen as someone who can manage a department, someone who is willing to make tough decisions, or someone who is comfortable hiring and firing. That may well be valid in the job setting, but this is absolutely NOT the type of leadership I am talking about here.

For my money, the mark of a true leader in the MLM context is not someone who knows everything, is not someone who is able to manage a team of 30 telesales people, and is not someone who makes motivational speeches. Sure, leaders may well have one or more of these qualities AS WELL, and more often than not they do, but the key for me is in the phrase “leading by example”.

A true leader in this industry is someone who “walks the walk”; they buy the product, they are active in business building, and they stand up to be counted. Effective leaders are generally good role models, willing to share information and experience, happy to help people learn, and they also realise that the right people will follow voluntarily; you quite simply cannot achieve meaningful, sustained success by coercion.

To be a leader, you need to put yourself “out there” so people can get to know you, get to know what you stand for, and learn from you (directly or indirectly). Putting yourself up on public display can be a little disconcerting at first, but the age old advice of “be yourself” is just as applicable here as it is in a job interview!

The network marketing business is all about people, connections, and building relationships. Leaders are those who have realised this, and have effectively marketed themselves rather than focusing on their products. This approach attracts people to your business who already like you, already want to deal with you and, having heard what you are doing, are already wanting to emulate you.

This isn’t an ego thing though, this is about making genuine connections, and building real relationships with your business contacts. If those ties are strong enough, they will last, and your business will thrive, having been established on firm foundations.

If you focus on hard-selling and coercing people, you MIGHT get some initial success, but at some point the house of cards will surely fall. Forget about selling your product, forget about trying to convince people, build your business the right way; Be a Leader.

The answer to this question is both “yes” and “no” – let me explain…

In the sense that MLM can provide you with an income, and that this income will need to be accounted for with the tax man, and the creation of this income requires you to grow your “organisation” – yes it is a business.

But it’s NOTHING like a typical bricks-and-mortar business that most people associate with the word. In fact, Ann Sieg (of Renegade Network Marketer fame) summed it up quite well as a “solution” rather than a “business”.

You see, what people actually build in MLM is a network of consumers, some of whom also generate retail sales. Fundamentally though, MLM “business owners” essentially consume a product, and actively encourage others to do the same. These new consumers are shown how to obtain the product at wholesale price (by becoming a distributor) and so the network grows.

I don’t for one minute wish people to infer that MLM does not require much effort; the reality is you still need to build the organisation, and in many ways we have an uphill struggle due to the scepticism MLM inspires in people.

But when you break it down it is very simple – you consume product, you encourage others to do the same.

Imagine if all food and consumer goods were sold in this way? Wouldn’t the world be a much better place?

Think about it, tell me what you think.

Gaz