This is Part 2 of "MLM Business Opportunities: Which are legitimate and truly profitable?" Click here for Part 1 of MLM Business Opportunities

4) Your (MLM) goals are not being met in relation to the time, effort and monies being expended. If you are working hard and you find that you are creating a retail base and a productive downline sales force yet you are constantly disgusted at the low bonus checks and little retail profits, you may have picked a company with a dysfunctional compensation plan. These are plans that are not balanced. They do not fairly compensate distributors at various ranks in the program.

Don't be unrealistic and expect to make large sums of monies quickly. Any business takes time to build. However, you still must take into account the length of time you've been in the business, how many hours you put in each week, if you are using effective strategies and tactics, etc. to evaluate if you are going somewhere OR on the fast track to nowhere. Only by doing this will you know if your goals aren't being met because of YOU or because of inherent problems in the company's comp plan and/or other weaknesses in the program and/or its administration.

These could relate to poor customer/distributor services, not getting product in a timely manner, erroneous bonus checks due to poor data processing systems, lack of substantive training programs, etc. If you are involved with a new (MLM) company give them some leeway since all new companies have some "growing pains." The need is to distinguish between what many would consider to be normal "growing pains" versus outright inadequate planning and poor management.

5) No one seems to really care about your success or failure. Management of a network marketing company (MLM) has a responsibility to respond to its distributors. You may not always agree with their answers, but you have a right to a response. A neglected distributor force is one who often sees management up on stage encouraging the sales troops at conventions but other than that, they only seem to have the time of day for what they consider "key" people in the upper echelons of the sales force. Often this signals weak management. They do not understand that there will be NO leaders if the rest of the team feels disenfranchised and high drop out rates ensue resulting in overall volume decreasing.

A great network marketing company (MLM) will always seek out ways to recognize the success of people at various ranks. Success is all relative to the resources one has in starting any endeavor and one's own personal goals. Hence, a person at a lower rank who has started with no resources (few contacts, no extra monies, no business background) but is creating a solid distributorship could be considered far more successful than someone at a higher rank who started with a lot of resources and never came close to producing what could have been done in capitalizing on those resources. A company that only recognizes the highest income earners demoralizes the rest of the sales force.

How else does the company show its cares?

It does this by providing ongoing substantive training, excellent support systems (online and offline) such as quality customer/distributor services, fulfillment, marketing and promotional systems along with support tools (books, tapes, etc.). If there are any major voids in these areas, such as erroneous or consistently late bonus checks or continuous back orders on products, you need to be alert.

This article addresses some of the major factors you should consider in determining if you picked the right MLM business opportunity. There are others.

You'll discover what else to look for along with additional critical information as a subscriber to the premier e-newsletter (free!) for the MLM industry, MyNetBrief. See information below for how to subscribe.

Best wishes in your MLM endeavors!

Debbi A. Ballard is president of INLC (International Network Liaison Corporation), an international consulting firm for the network marketing industry. She is also president of the Professional Association for Network Marketing (www.panm.org), a nonprofit trade association for the MLM industry. An expert witness in court cases, she is known for her research, consulting, powerful presentations and revealing articles. She has also been recognized for her volunteer work on behalf of the industry.

Her special report on MLM compensation plans,

SIXTY Things You Should Know about MLM Compensation Plans!

contains shocking information never before disclosed.

Find out how you could be losing monies because of what you don't know about your comp plan. See if you may be putting yourself in legal jeopardy. Don't be without this report no matter what your position is in the industry. This document is based on twenty years of research and actual plan development work for MLM companies by Debbi.

Click now to www.mlmcompensationplans.com for information.

At that website, you can also sign up for the free e-newsletter edited by Debbi, MyNetBrief. This publication gives you strategies, research reports and news relevant to your MLM business. You can find Debbi's extensive credentials there as well.

INLC and MyNetBrief are trademarks of International Network Liasion Corporation.

copyright, 2003, Debbi A. Ballard

Click here for Part 1 of MLM Business Opportunities

For over twenty years, Debbi Ballard: www.mlmcompensationplans.com has provided consulting to MLM (multi-level marketing) companies in the U.S. and abroad. In that time, she has done extensive research, written MLM compensation plans, developed marketing strategies, and provided a myriad of other services. She has also written a book and many articles pertaining to the industry. She has spoken in the U.S. and abroad on MLM/network marketing and serves as an expert witness in court cases.