OK… you have built a huge MLM downline.
You have thousands of distributors on monthly autoship.
You’re raking in thousands of dollars in profits monthly.
There’s just one problem… you have found the next great project to devote your life to and you need a cash infusion. You realize you won’t be able to work the old opportunity either. (Or you’ve been told you have 6 months to live, you want a new house, or for some reason you wan to cash out.)
You want to sell… for cash.
Now there are holding companies who will buy your MLM distributorship for a lump sum of cash and hope to earn lots more from the monthly residual. They even have investors who believe it’s possible for a downline to be maintained, motivated, and expanded by a holding company that knows absolutely nothing about the business!
I can’t imagine something with more variables, but then I’m just a dumb blogger.
My gut reacion is that you might want to sell out before the investors learn otherwise!
Read more:Holding Company Purchases MLM Distributorships…
Mainland Chinese are moving to home employment by the score thanks to the Internet and a growing internet auction access.
From Fast Company
Mchael Cai grunts as he rummages through a pile of 500 stuffed animals in his Shanghai storage locker. “It’s in the back here!” he says, pushing through a stack of plush Winnie the Pooh and Tigger dolls. Finally, he locates what he’s looking for: a pink pillow in the form of a pop-eyed pig. He unfolds it–and it turns into a blanket. “It’s the best-selling item we have abroad!” he beams. “Foreigners love it!”
Two years ago, the 24-year-old Cai was a brand-new college graduate just hoping to eke out a living. Now he runs a tiny international business, buying toys from local factories at ultracheap prices and hawking them on an eBay store (51Toy.com). Last winter, he was pulling down $6,000 in monthly sales, with a profit margin as high as 40%, which puts him in the top fifth of earners in China–better than most white- collar workers. Almost 90% of his customers send their payments to him online. “The Internet,” he says through a translator, “is how I reach the world.”
Another merchant, who had quit his job as a marketing rep for a medical supplies firm, says he had been auctioning part-time, “but I was making as much money as my salary, sometimes even more. So I decided to do it full-time.” He says it seemed weird at first not to have an employer, but points out that “more and more people in China work from home– it’s considered normal now.“
Many small businesses use MySpace and other social networking sites to bootstrap their marketing.
One tool to automate My Space marketing is SpaceAdder.com
Test it yourself. I’m not a My Spacer so can’t comment on its relative virtues but thought you might want to know about it.
Promoting on Myspace? – SpaceAdder.com
Promoting on Myspace?
Friend Requester – This one allows you to send up to 350 – 400 new friends request a day, that’s 2800 a week!! You can send request to another users friends list, groups, by age, gender, zip (by radius), and much more.
To send 350 – 400 friend requests it takes you 3 to 4 hours or more.
With Friend Requester it takes you 15 minutes!!
Comment Broadcaster – This one is really cool, it allows you to send up to 225 comments a day to your friend list. (Myspace only allows 225 a day). When I use this one I get soooo much traffic.
Event Invite – This allows you to send event invites to everyone on your friends list, no limits. The premium version of this allows you to send to the demographics you specify. No other Event Invite program does this.
http://spaceadder.com/
If you have any questions after checking out the site call 1-714-253-3442 12noon – 3am PST
From Steve Marr
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If you are married, take this marriage health inventory test. On a scale of 1-to-10, measure yourself and then honestly evaluate your score.
(1) How well do I communicate with my spouse? – Do I spend time with my spouse, catching her/him up to date with my day, plans, spending, dreams, etc? (Though one of you might run the business exclusively, the other needs to know what is going on to a certain degree.)
(2) How often do we pray together? – Is praying together important to my spouse, our marriage relationship, our family, and me? Are we open to praying aloud together? Do we pray together as much as I would like?
(3) Are we on the same page? – Does my spouse know what I am doing or wanting to do? Are we aware of what is required to successfully launch this business, financially, emotionally, and mentally? Are we both on the same page in areas that matter most?
(4) Do we share the same financial values and limitations? – Are we in agreement on spending habits, spending limits, and borrowing money? Have we communicated how much financial risk we are willing to take to reach our dreams? Is one of us willing to take greater risks than the other — and is the non-risk-taker at peace with the decision?
(5) Are our boundaries in place? – Have we discussed what is required, especially from the time and money side of things? How much time are we willing to spend each week? How much money are we willing or able to spend overall? Are our safeguards in place?
(6) Are we spending enough time together? – Do I wait for my spouse to suggest time away on a date? Do we spend regularly scheduled time together without distractions? (This counts time away with your children, if you have children. Family time is separate and also important.)
(7) Am I an open book? – Am I defensive when my spouse asks about my business dealings? Does my spouse even have the freedom to ask me things? (Running a business involves transparency, which is to your direct benefit!)
(8) Do we believe in each other? – Does my spouse believe in me and do I believe in my spouse? Regardless of what I do and regardless of who brings home more money, it is vitally important that we believe (verbally express it!) in each other. Do I express my belief in my spouse?
(9) How quick am I to forgive? – Issues will arise. That is natural, but am I quick to seek forgiveness and to extend forgiveness? Do I sleep regularly on the couch because of arguments? If so, am I willing to right the wrongs before going to bed?
(10) Am I a good listener? – How well do I listen to my spouse’s ideas, thoughts, corrections, and recommendations? (Do you “connect� with what is being said, implied, and meant? Listen as you would like to be listened to!)
What was your average score? If your score is low, it might indicate your marriage needs work. So focus your time and energy on strengthening your marriage before starting a new business.
People sell lots of information courses about “government grants”.
If you get one however, you’ll be subject to Federal Title VI regulations and are expected to have procedures in place to accomodate this legislation.
Basically it’s well intentioned… you are supposed to treat all people fairly.
But what does that mean to the government?
At a training session I attended today, it means, for example, that if someone comes in to your place of business and speaks a foreign language, you’re expected to contract with a translation service so you can understand them.
In fact, you can be investigated and prosecuted for not “reaching out” to micro communities in your service area.
There are other things that make you wonder if anybody can actually comply with the law, but if you’re one of those would be businesses that wants to get started by a government grant or funding of some sort, are you adding compliance costs into your business plan?
Start with contracting with a stand by language translation service so that you can serve people who have what the feds call “Low English Proficiency.”
It’s true.
I got it from one of their trainers today.
Here’s an article for new online entrepreneurs.
By Pam Lindsay
Like many people, you may have been dreaming of the day when you can start your very own online business. You’ve got a great idea waiting to explode, and you know that it’s going to be a winner. The vision is there, as are the enthusiasm and skills. Now there’s just one more thing you need before you can make that dream a reality, and that’s a website-your public face to the world.
Building a website can be an exciting experience. However, when it comes to creating a business website, it is very important to look before you leap. Here are a few things to consider before launching your online presence:
1. COMMUNICATION IS THE KEY
When creating your business website, the most important thing to consider is exactly what it is you want your potential customers to know. Before the first page is prepared, you need to clearly outline the purpose of your business, then communicate that information via your website.
Over the years, I’ve visited countless websites that provide virtually no content at all. When it comes to a business website, lack of information is disastrous.
Imagine for a moment that you need a new pair of shoes. Checking the telephone directory, you find a listing for a shoe shop at the local mall. Eager to find the perfect stilettos, you hotfoot straight over.
Arriving at the store, you are surprised to find that there is no stock on display, no information about what is available, no sales assistant to answer queries, and nothing to indicate how much a pair of shoes is going to cost.
Without a backward glance, you turn on your heels and walk out the door, knowing all too well that there will always be another shoe shop just around the corner.
A scene like this is too ridiculous to believe, right? Yet, it happens thousands of times every single day. Not at the mall, but in the ever growing cyber-marketplace.
If you have a product or service to sell online, then you need to present it in a way that is both informative and enticing. Your homepage, in particular, must communicate your message clearly and grab your visitor’s attention. If it doesn’t, they will click off the page faster than you can say, “Lost opportunity.”
If you lack the confidence to write your own customer-attracting text, it may be worth hiring a writer to prepare it for you. It could make all the difference.
2. POLISHED TO PERFECTION
We’ve all heard that “you can’t judge a book by its cover,” but the reality is that we all do-and the same is true for a business website.
When it comes to a personal website, almost anything goes. However, the same freedom does not apply when it comes to business, where the website should be a polished and professional representation of the business or service, while still reflecting the personality of the owner.
Many fail to grasp the importance of that first impression. As an online business owner, you will literally only have seconds to capture a potential customer’s interest.
If your site is sloppy, slow to load, and generally looks like it was built by your grade school child, it is a fairly safe assumption that you will never develop the successful online enterprise of your dreams.
Today, with the availability of online site builders, there is no reason for anyone to have a site that looks unprofessional. Even without any knowledge of programming or HTML, site builders make it easy to create an online business presence that is polished to perfection. It’s as simple as selecting a template and typing in your text. Before you know it, you’ll have a website that says to the world, “I’m ready and more than able to serve you.”
So put those days of psychedelic backgrounds, neon text and flashing logos, away forever by taking a 10-day free trial of one of the most powerful, yet cost effective, site builders on the internet:
HighPowerSites.com
3. THIS LITTLE BUSINESS WENT TO MARKET
It’s amazing how many people go blissfully into business with the notion that they only have to open the door, and the customers will come running. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is a common denominator found in the majority of unsuccessful online businesses, and that is a lack of marketing.
No matter how brilliant your website may be, or how clever your product or service, success will be very slow in coming if you don’t take steps to get the word out to the marketplace.
People often tell me that they are disappointed because their new website is not generating any sales. The first thing I ask them is whether they have done any marketing. More often than not, their response is that they haven’t really done anything at all.
Building a successful online business takes time and effort. It can take many months, if not years, for a business to develop a reputation for reliability and trustworthiness. However, once gained, that reputation is more precious than gold. Unfortunately, most business owners give up before they ever reach that point.
When promoting your business, the first step is to make sure that your website is optimized for search engines. To do this, ensure that your website meta-tags include the most important keywords pertaining to your business. Keywords should also be included in the title tag.
Once you’ve done this, and your website is completely ready to be seen by the public, submit your site to the search engines. To do this, you can use the FREE service provided at the following site:
http://www.submitexpress.com
Another excellent site is selfpromotion.com. Here you can gain valuable information on how to market your business. They will even submit your site to search engines if you make a donation to their service:
http://selfpromotion.com
Having your site listed with search engines is essential. However, to get traffic quickly you will need to use a Pay Per Click service, such as Google Adwords and Overture.com (Yahoo search marketing).
Decide on the keywords and phrases that most people would use if they were looking for your service. Then start bidding for those words, making sure that you ONLY nominate the lowest amount available. Google and Overture will suggest a figure, but DO NOT bid that amount. Start small and see how much traffic you can generate. Once you see results and your business begins to grow, gradually increase your bids, if necessary.
When preparing your website and promoting your business, it is very important to remember that every penny and second spent improving your online presence, is an investment in your future.
Ultimately, there are two types of online businesses-those that are website failures, and those that are website winners. Get things right at the start, and your dream business will never become a nightmare.
Pam Lindsay, has been a work at home mom for many years. Her website WahmZone.com has teamed up with HighPowerSites.com to bring everyone who works at home the the easiest do-it-yourself website builder on the web. No programming or design skill required. Get your own website online in just 5 minutes with HighPowerSites.com at: http://www.highpowersites.com
