Picture the scene. It’s the middle of 2006. I am a matter of weeks away from returning to work following my maternity leave. My baby is five months old. I’m still in the haze of lack of sleep, full of love and with a tinge of separation anxiety. I can’t fit into any of my work clothes, I’m concerned about the cost of childcare and how I will do my job again. And, I’m not ready to go back to work. I want to stay at home longer with my baby girl. I will do anything. I’m desperate and emotional and vulnerable. Then, I didn’t know the flexible working opportunity I should avoid. That’s why I am writing this today.

About a year before, I sat listening to an opportunity one evening at a friend’s house. It’s selling Aloe Vera based products that, I quote “Are life-changing”. You can build a business from home and help other people to do the same. Your investment will be paid back in the first month, and you can set your hours, work from where you want. They are new to the country, so you will be one of the first to take part (lie number one, they came to the UK in 1992).

Now, I’m a new mum, looking at my options to make sure I can have the flexible work I feel desperate for. Could I join this organisation? I had some savings left from my maternity leave. I can sell, heck I’ve been in sales all my life. It’s a no brainer, right?

Now luckily my Network Marketing story pretty much stopped there (I did have a 6-weeks stint with a card company, but that was more about my love of the cards!). It was bought to my attention by a VERY astute person that they only way to make money was to recruit; and even then, you would potentially run out of people within your social group to match the income I needed. I dodged a bullet, as over the past 13 years I have seen these business models grow and infiltrate the very world I work in now.

So, if Network Marketing or Multi-Level Marketing is a new phrase to you, let me set the scene. It’s a business model where you sell a product or service (which narrowly stops it becoming an illegal pyramid scheme) and you get a commission from the product/service PLUS a cut of the people you recruit into the business model. You don’t need to have any previous experience, BUT you have to buy kits/products to join, and you need to keep a volume of purchases going yourself to keep in the business (irrespective of what your “recruits” are doing).

On paper, it seems a dream come true! I thought it could have been in the early days of parenthood.  I understand why so many people buy into the dream, especially when they feel that their options are limited. My awareness of the industry has ramped up since I started The Balance Collective. When I changed my LinkedIn header to include the phrase “parents” the floodgates opened; people wanted to introduce me and my clients to an opportunity (that apparently, they could only tell me once we had agreed to a meeting?)

Parents, especially Mums, seem to be a target; when women and men are at their most vulnerable time, the messages are constantly there on social media and potentially on the playground. That going back to a job makes you a bad parent. That they can have a life where they are with their kids all the time if they just join the team. That their health will be better (and therefore THEY are a better person) with this supplement or product.

However, investigation after investigation are uncovering the following consistent issues with this model. MLMs are an emotional issue, once you are bought into the business you are trained to see anyone that is against it as someone to be ignored. So, this is only going to deal with fact and figures. They can’t lie:

The people at the top of the structure/pyramid/pile are the ones that make all the money.

Approximately 1% of people in an MLM make any more. It’s hard to get a hard figure on that, due to the way that expenses and sales are recorded (or not) and reported.  Every MLM member will tell you that their business is the one that is ethical and doesn’t work the way the others do. Trust me, I haven’t as yet come across anyone that doesn’t work in a triangular way. I talk again and again with ex-network marketeers that have tried so hard, and ended up out of pocket, or even in debt, as well as feeling dejected about the way they have been treated.

Don’t believe me? The Talented Ladies Club have done all the heavy lifting crunching the numbers.

As a distributor, YOU are actually the customer

Time and time again, when speaking to ex-distributors, I have found that THEY are the customer. To retain their “active status”, and therefore get their “income” they have to purchase a certain value of products monthly. Notice that, purchase, NOT sell! And this is not just anecdotal. This research paper, based on a section of MLM in Utah, USA (a hotbed of MLMs) had found the same. In fact, they find that the odds of gambling in Las Vegas are far better (and likely to be more fun and keep more friends)
 
You won’t be running your own business

When you are told what to sell, at what price and how to promote it, then it’s not an independent business. This model benefits the people at the top and those that started at the outset. For everyone else, you are working commission only. I have heard of lots of MLM people comparing a standard business to an MLM; a hierarchy, a structure, and commission (especially when there are sales involved). Yet, a business has a basic salary, training (you don’t always pay for!), holidays, health care and, well, employment law to protect you. In my work, I find lots of organisations that can offer you the flexibility you desire, without losing your money and potentially your friendships! Don’t believe me. Then watch this!

So, if you are in a position where you are looking for a flexible working opportunity, then please heed my warning. MLMs only benefit the people who started it. It is likely you will be working more hours with less stability and income. Use that entrepreneurial spark you have in you to look at creating a genuine business opportunity for yourself! You can find lots of resources on my blog under the Be the Boss tab.

And if you are currently in one, and want to leave. Remember this. YOU are not a failure. The system is. Use everything you have learned and the confidence you have developed an apply it to an opportunity that is worthy of your talents and skills.

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