Building a large downline, however, should not be your sole
goal. This important distinction will clue you in as to whether an
MLM company is offering a legitimate opportunity--or an illegal
pyramid scheme.
Pyramid schemes mimic multilevel marketing in that they
compensate distributors on a multilevel structure, providing
incentive to sell the business opportunity to prospects. The
difference, however, is that pyramids focus primarily on recruiting
new salespeople for your downline, not on selling products or
services. In fact, in many cases there is no real product or
service. Be wary of any ad, flier or e-mail message that says you
don't have to do anything but recruit--recruit people like you
to recruit people like them to recruit people like them, and so
on.
"A scam almost always emphasizes just getting bodies into
the system, instead of emphasizing the building of a large network
of users of the product or service," says Marcia Smith, a
Fairfax, California, entrepreneur who has 16 years of experience in
MLM and is a leading distributor for Mannatech Inc., a company
based in Coppell, Texas, that manufactures a line of nutritional
supplements.
Content Continues Below
Do a background check on the company you're considering.
Contact your local Better Business Bureau (or log onto its Web site
at http://www.bbb.org) for a
reliability report on the company. Consult the Multi-Level
Marketing International Association by phone at (714) 622-0300
or by visiting http://www.mlmia.com to see if the
company is a member in good standing. The Federal Trade Commission
(FTC) in Washington, DC, has information on any complaints that may
have been lodged about the company; contact the FTC at
(202) 326-2222 or http://www.ftc.gov
Page
1 |
2 | 3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 