MLM Tip - Expanding Your MLM Business Around the World

The most exciting thing about new MLM Business is that you have the opportunity to be doing business around the World for a relatively low investment. Currently, I am doing business in seven countries and soon expect to be doing business in 20 more. The beautiful thing is that I did not know any of the people in these countries before I got involved in my business.

Below are some tips for expanding your MLM Business around the World -

1. Build a Local Base that will take you around the World - You want to start by building your business in your local area. The reason being is that it is much easier for people to work if they have somebody close by them to work with. However, one caveat is that if you are well connected on the Internet, the geography and time barriers can be broken down.

2. Ask people you know whom they know in certain countries - Most people do not get this question too often. Who do you know in Korea? This question will at least get people thinking and will take you one-step closer to building your MLM business around the World.

3. Advertise for bilingual leaders in your local area - If you advertise for bilingual leaders in your local area, you will automatically find people who have connections in their local countries. Finding these people gives you access to people in your local community who have connections that you do not have.

Uniting Small Businesses Around the World in a Common Cause

Can we unite the small businesses in the United States and use the synergy created and the efficiencies attained so they can compete against the big boys and multi-national corporate conglomerates? A few visionary leaders, having an online discussion at the Online Think Tank believe so, in fact, they believe it is possible to unite the whole World in a Common Cause, to serve communities and people, as well as profits and smart growth. How so you ask - can this really be done?

Sure, this can be done, using a quasi-franchise - licensing model. Small Business Owners could join the group and the business would need to either pick a "community service on-going project program" or invent one would be approved, and the over-all groups could perhaps use or modify to fit regional variations in other areas.

The small business networks could easily compete due to economies of scale in the market place against any corporation, as corporations are slow to move and innovate and such a group would be the opposite. McDonald's Ray Kroc, discusses the synergistic power of franchising and groups of small businesses with owners close at hand:

"Grinding it Out" is an excellent book indeed, all business owners should read it.

A group such as we are proposing would need some motivational leadership, a recommended book reading list and some online video training stuff. The support group or brain could be net-centric think tanks meeting locally and an "online apparatus" with categories for specific niches of various industries. Small Businesses could get general advice, local advice or industry specific information that they needed.

The only problem with a model like this is that it could very easily dominate the world and change the face of human commerce forever. It could be very dangerous to the status quo. Although it would also help some of the larger corporations, with a new customer base and those companies supporting the small business teams would love the synergies, new customers and product flow as well.

What about Wall Street would they love it too? Yes, because it would be a steady ship. Emerging markets would love it because it develops new markets and local economies, people would like it because the businesses are one with the town and community. Bankers would love it, because there is a lot of money to be made funding small enterprises, micro-loans and the small business failure rate would drop significantly, making small business funding a safer bet.

Such a group could allow the small business sector to prevent or power out of a recession. Indeed, once strong enough it could end all recessions. What about our Corporations, how will it help them? Well it would make corporations much more innovative and competitive, this means lower prices, better quality products and more consumer choice. For a free-market economic win for all - everyone wins, except the fat, dumb and happy barrier makers and those who pull their strings. Of course, I for one am more interested in solving problems than pumping more money into corrupt fat cats. What say you?

The Best Home Based Business in the World

So what's the best home based business in the world? Before I get into that, I want to show you what's wrong with having a job or running a traditional business.

With a job, you will need to invest your time each day and get 2 weeks off once a year. If you work 10 hours a day, you get paid 10 hours. If you work for half a day, you get paid 5 hours. If you miss a day, you get paid for 0 hours.

In a job, you have to trade your time for money.

Same thing if you have a small business. You have to trade your time for your business. You have to deal with customers. You may even need to devote more hours per week then your employees. You basically have to word hard to keep your business running at all time year in and year out.

And now, I want to get to the part where I will share with you the best home based business that you can get started with part-time.

This home-based business opportunity is called:

Multi-Level Marketing or MLM for short.

If you are not sure what this business is all about, let me explain in the most simplest way possible so that you would be able to understand.

Let's say that you buy vitamins each month to have better health. What if I told you that you can actually make money from taking them each month just like you are doing right now.

Instead of buying it from the store, why not buy it from the MLM company? So let's say that you buy the supplements from the MLM company each month for $100. So you get started in the company for $100. Now, you tell 5 other people to do the same and join the company under you. So the first month, you and the other 5 people each produce $100 which equals to $600.

Let's say that month 2, your 5 people each get 5 people. So then you would have 25 people plus you and the person that you sponsored yourself. That would be 27 people each producing $100 each. That would be $2,700. If the company would pay YOU 10% of that, you income would be $270.

That 2nd month's income will not get you too far and won't buy you a nice house with nice cars in it, but let's keep going and let me show you the power of leverage.

Let's say that after 1 year, your group goes from 27 people to 300 people. If each one produced $100, that would be $30,000 in group volume. 10% of $30,000 is $3000 a month that you will get every month in residual income. Do you see where I am getting to?

Imagine what would happen to your income in 5 or 10 years. I don't think that your income would grow like this in your job or in your traditional home based business.

With MLM, you just need to do the work ONCE and you get paid leverage. The people that are on your team are not working for you. They are each working for themselves and building their own teams. You just need to find a few KEY people who will grow their own teams.

Olympic Sponsors Fail to Win the Gold

The Olympics have become my new obsession this summer and I’m not alone. People around the world have tuned in to watch these super human athletes compete for the chance of a lifetime; winning the gold. Americans sit at the edge of their seats as we all gasp, cheer, and hold our breathes hoping for the impossible. It is so difficult to watch both the heartbreak and drama that unfolds, especially realizing most of these athletes have prepared for four years, the time it takes most people our age to get a high school or college degree. 

The perseverance and drive of these individuals becomes an inspiration that Olympic sponsors have tried to capitalize on. Commercials are filled with our favorite current stars such as Michael Phelps, RyanLochte, Jordyn Weiber, and Rebecca Soni. The overwhelmingly emotional and patriotic themes help our country feel unified and we suddenly remember why we are proud to be Americans, associating these positive messages with the commercials we see.

But the important question is: can you even identify the names of these Olympic sponsors? If you can’t, don’t worry you aren’t alone. 

Team USA Olympic Sponsors

In a recent online survey, many participants incorrectly identified Pepsi, Burger King, and Nike as official Olympic sponsors. Considering that their rivals (Coca Cola, McDonalds, and Adidas) pay hundreds of millions of dollars for their sponsorship, this is a major problem. Olympic sponsors get the sole right to associate their brand with the games and use Olympic trademarks on advertisements and packaging. Furthermore the Olympic committee has restricted athletes by only allowing official sponsor endorsements for social media sites and commercials during the games. It would appear that rival companies should be the underdog in this battle for advertising gold, but so far Olympic sponsors are failing to achieve a victory.

The Life of a Summer Intern at: RTC

Today is the first Monday in two months that I’ve been able to sleep past 6 am, and I’m a little sad about it.  My internship with RTC, a marketing agency in Washington, DC, just ended and I am already having some serious FOMO (fear of missing out). A relationship marketing agency with a wide range of clients and an awesome group of people, I learned so much and made so many connections in the short time I was there. I had heard of RTC my freshman year when our adviser, Professor Harms, put me in contact with their HR person, however I decided not to pursue an internship that summer. Then, RTC came back onto my radar when they presented at an AMA meeting last semester (See, those meetings are better for more than free food) and I was blown away by how great it sounded. I then got back in touch with their HR person and when I went in to interview with my soon-to-be boss, I felt so much more comfortable, because by hearing her speak, I knew so much more about the company and we had plenty to talk about.  I was part of the Insights and Innovation team, which evaluates and plans marketing strategies for clients. I worked on a wide range of projects, from client-specific consumer research, to compiling a creative competitive analysis, to creating infographics about applying new technologies to marketing to serve as education tools. From all this, I learned so much. Here are just a few things:

Write, write, write!
As a marketer, you need to be able to write. In marketing, and especially in an agency, you need to learn how to communicate your point of view in the most succinct way possible and sell your idea before you lose people’s attention. This is something I plan to work on this year by writing as much as possible, whether that be in a daily journal or blog, or offering to do the writing sections in group projects. In a lot of business schools’ curriculum, there isn’t much focus placed on writing, but if you get good at it now, it will save you a lot of hassle and red pen when you get a real job.

Speak up
If you have a special skill that could add additional value to your work, speak up and let your boss know! I was placed on a project to do research about mobile strategy with another intern. We were initially supposed to just create an outline, and then send it up to the creative team to make it into an infographic, but I asked if I could give it a shot instead, and I was able to use my graphic design skills to pull the create a much more visually pleasing way to present the information. Had I not let my boss know, I would have gotten the opportunity to use multiple skills and have a better deliverable in the end.

Get out of your cubicle
One of the things that made my internship the most fun was the people that I worked with. Although you want to be a dedicated worker, you also want to make sure to connect with the people around you. Make small talk with the people in the kitchen and take the time to get to know them. I was so excited to be around such experienced marketers and wanted to know how they got to where they are now. Most people are very interested in giving you career advice or just sharing their own stories with you if you take the time to ask questions. I learned a lot from the people above me and feel like I made some great connections that will benefit me in the future.


I could go on for way longer about all the great experiences I had at RTC and I really am sad to be leaving because I feel like there is so much more for me to learn. Plus, I'll really miss the Pad Thai from the place across the street...
Hopefully I'll return to RTC in the future to take advantage of those opportunities!

Selling Space For Cash: Has the NBA gone too far with sponsorships?

           If you haven’t heard yet, the NBA has tentatively agreed to have sponsor patches on their uniforms beginning in the 2013-14 season. The patches on the uniforms will be similar to those on WNBAand European socceruniforms. With this agreement, the NBA will become the first of the four major sports leagues (for those wanting a challenge here’s a quiz on all four major sports) in the US. According to their projections, this new agreement will lead to around $100 million more in revenue for the league. While this sort of revenue may seem trivial in comparison the money paid to the players, this sort of revenue directly benefits the league.

            As you may have read already on this blog, advertising in sports is being revolutionized and becoming more and more prominent across all sports. While sponsors on NBA jerseys may not come as a surprise to most, it does bring up the question of how much is too much when it comes to advertising in sports. Stadiums and broadcasts are already flooded with large advertisements for all sorts of products that are not even relevant to sports in most cases. With uniforms starting to be sponsored, it seems like it will only be a matter of time until jerseys start to resemble NASCAR suitsand cars.

            What do you think will happen? Will the other major US sports also adopt this idea? Where should the line be drawn with sponsorships? Is THISthe future of NBA jerseys? Let us know!

Four Tips to Becoming a Successful Intern

Good news everyone, It’s almost Friday! If you are working this summer, I’m sure your respect for Friday has increased tenfold. I myself recently started a new internship with Stanley Black & Decker in the Channel Marketing division. Towson, MD is home to the Construction and DIY World Headquarters, so I work in the consumer products group for Black and Decker and Porter-Cable power tools. Since I’m still fairly new, I’ve been learning a lot of different things all at once. It’s almost like a crash course in the company. To share what I've learned, I decided to compile a list of the top 4 things I’ve recently become super familiar with. You probably aren't power tool savvy so I promise I won't lecture you on drills or jigsaws. Instead I will focus on the things most interns can relate too. If you aren’t an intern yet, I’ve included some advice for the future.

1.     Excel

If Excel were a person, I think we would be best friends right now. Or maybe Frenemies, I’m not sure.  No matter what company you are interning for it is probably a safe bet to assume you are spending some part of your day working with Excel. I myself have spent the last two days staring at it nonstop. I’m not complaining though. I’ve created the most beautiful spreadsheet I’ve ever seen. I’m considering wallpapering my cubicle with it. In all seriousness though, my expertise pre-internship applied mostly to PowerPoint and Word. So just some advice for anyone who hasn’t interned yet, familiarize your self with Excel. 

2.     Office Lingo

This one is something that will be unique to your own company. Regardless, you will have various terms to learn that will have your head spinning for the first few days. Before I began my internship I received a binder with 9 pages of acronyms used at SB&D. Wanna know my favorite? WYDWYADYGWYAG. Otherwise known as “When You Do What You Always Did, You Get What You Always Got”. Whewww, what a mouthful! I’ll be honest though, I haven’t really used that one yet. However, OPP, PPT, DIY, GSV, and a few others have been pretty commonplace (bonus points to anyone that knows what those stand for). My advice: don’t worry about remembering them all, just make sure you know the important ones. Also, don't hesitate to ask if you don’t know the meaning. Most people at the company will completely understand.

3.     Coffee

            

Always know where the kitchen or cafeteria is. Some companies like SB&D provide coffee, tea, and even hot chocolate for all those mornings or afternoons when you need a little pick-me-up. I always used to make fun of the commercials for 5 Hour Energy that would dramatize the 3 o’clock Crash, but laugh no more! It’s a real thing! Your eyes get heavy, you start mixing up numbers, and pretty soon your beautiful excel sheet is a mess. No worries! Go get a nice steaming cup of caffeine and you’re good to go. However, you really should go to bed early. We only have to play pretend adults for the summer, so suck it up.

4.     My Project

If you don’t know much about your project, you probably aren’t going to be a very successful intern. After all, your internship is basically a really long interview. The company is trying to deicide whether or not you are worth the investment. Don’t let them down! Impress them! Go the extra mile and do your own research. In the past two weeks I’ve learned so much about drills, routers, jigsaws, oscillating tools, and sanders through my assignments, but whenever I have free time I’m always reading customer reviews and familiarizing myself with our products. It pays to know your stuff (literally and figuratively), so learn all you can and your managers are sure to be impressed.

Now get back to work!