MLM and network marketing myths: Starting my own business from scratch is better
If you believe that starting your own business from scratch is easier, cheaper, and better than starting a network marketing company, then I am deeply concerned about your understanding of entrepreneurship.
After 30 years of being an entrepreneur, there is nothing easy, fast or cheap about starting your own business. It’s time consuming, expensive, and there will be at least a thousand things you don’t know how to do or even thought you needed to know.
My first business was a franchise. I took Molly Maid to the west coast of Canada in 1981. It was a great introduction to business because I learned systems and then more systems and then more systems. While at the time it seemed incredibly tedious to learn the system for cleaning a house, doing marketing, keeping customer records, employee files, etc. it was a fabulous foundation for my next three decades of being in business.
However, after leaving the safety of a franchise, I certainly quickly learned the challenges of starting my own business. When something didn’t go right, he would ask the obvious question, “Why didn’t anyone tell me?” The answer was always: you didn’t ask the question.
It didn’t matter that he didn’t have enough knowledge to ask the question that so desperately needed to be answered. I would lose money, a sale, a customer, or an opportunity because of my ignorance and naivety. It is a common scenario for entrepreneurs. We don’t know what we don’t know. That is why starting your own business from scratch is a risky business these days.
To be successful in business, you need four crucial components:
1. Money
2. time
3.Knowledge
4.Experience
Now you can use someone else’s money, but they usually want to see your knowledge and experience before investing in you. Very few people I know have enough free time to do what they’re currently doing, let alone take on a new endeavor. If you’ve never run a business before, you may be knowledgeable in your field, but you may very well be inexperienced.
Each of these components can be purchased. For example, through delegation you save time. You can buy knowledge and experience. But to do those three things you need money. If you have little money, time, knowledge and experience, then starting your own business is riskier than buying a lottery ticket.
That is why network marketing is the perfect answer for people today.
* The investment is small, usually less than $500 to start. It can fit in the evenings or on weekends.
* You are given the knowledge you need and then supported by those with more knowledge
* You have access to hundreds of years of experience in a typical network marketing company
Nowadays, since money and time are such precious assets, starting your own business that is NOT MLM is absolutely foolish in most cases. If you are missing any of those 4 components, then network marketing is the quickest, easiest and least expensive route to take.