by Lon Lindsey

After everything is said and done, the most common question asked by most network marketers is "why am I not making money in network marketing?" That statement, in itself, is saying most networkers don't make money (a profit) in their chosen business. Why is this?

There are numerous reasons why this is happening and I'll mention only the ones that seem to be most prevalent.

CHOOSING THE WRONG REPRESENTATIVE BUSINESS - I will say this is most likely the major reason for not making money in a networking business and let's assume the business will survive their first five years when 90% of the new businesses fail and go out of business. By choosing the wrong business, I'm talking about businesses that have poor pay plans or even complicated pay plans or businesses that do not have the necessary support tools or businesses that do not train their leaders adequately so they can train the new distributors as they come in. Of course, the question comes up as to what is considered a "poor" pay plan. A poor pay plan is one in which companies get rich at the expense of their distributors. The idea is for distributors to profit as companies profit as goods and services are moved to end consumers. Companies with poor pay plans will have only a few distributors making good money at the expense of those distributors who come and go in the business. They are heavy hitter oriented businesses.

LACK OF SERIOUSNESS - Treating the business as if it is a part-time business is a biggie! I don't know of anyone who really wants to build a part-time business. They want a full-time business with a full-time income. They may want to work their business part-time, but even so, the goal is usually to build a full-time business and income. I'm talking about an attitude here . . a mind-set. My fear is, most people who work at building their business part-time are also thinking part-time business. The goals should be the same and the necessary strategies and work should be the same. The only difference is the length of time it takes to accomplish the ultimate goal.

WRONG EXPECTATIONS - Expecting the upline to build the business for the downline is an example of such. We've been our own worst enemy with regards to this. In an effort to sponsor more and more people, statements like "we'll build your business for you" or "you don't have to do anything, we'll do it for you" or "just follow our system and the business will grow by itself." Not only are these misleading statements, they eventually disillusion the new distributor after they discover that the best business is one in which a person builds himself. The result is people get a negative feeling about network marketing because it didn't work for them. The truth is . . .they must work for themselves.

LACK OF FOCUS - By focus, I mean to have your business as THE business and not one of many. The business you want to build is what I call a "major focus" business which requires the majority of your focus on it in order to build it. It is possible to be in other programs that will help you build that business, but once you start working your "minor focus" businesses as a major business to help pay for them, the major focus business becomes a minor focus business. It's best to remember to keep the main thing the main thing.

LACK OF PERSISTENCE - Persistence is keeping at something over an extended period of time. As great as the Internet is, I have seen something develop. I liken it to going to a fast food restaurant and having to stand in line for more than five minutes to place an order. Everything is relative and we expect "fast" to be "faster." It appears we have become an impatient society because we have learned to speed things up. The same is taking place in the network marketing industry. We think we should be making more money faster because of all the technology that is available to us. I tend to think we are skipping some very fundamental aspects of what building a network marketing business is all about. Making money in network marketing requires persistence through the low times. I've often said, if we didn't have valleys, there would be no mountains. I am finding that people who do not persist simply move from one business to the next with the same results . . .almost with a lottery mentality.

LIMITED STRATEGIES - Technology has brought about an age of specialization. The worst thing any networker can do is to have one and only one strategy for building a business. Depending on only one way of doing things will certainly bring discouragement and ultimate defeat because if everyone did the same thing, it would not appeal to enough people. Different strokes for different folks in applicable here. Building a successful business is the result of utilizing numerous strategies and sharing such with others. What works best for one may not work at all for others. The worst thing a business can have is a "just follow this system" approach. Can you imagine everyone trying to do the same thing? It works at first, but then loses its effectiveness as "the system" makes its way around the networking community.

LIMITED FINANCIAL RESOURCES - We've all heard the phrase, "it costs money to make money." Network marketing is no different. The difference is networkers don't need the huge capital needed in order to start a business as is needed in franchising or store front marketing. Unfortunately, some people think they don't need much money at all. In fact, I've seen more people who have NO money come to network marketing as their great hope to, all of a sudden, making money. It doesn't work that way. Money is needed for product purchase AND for marketing. Most new networkers look only at product purchase as their only need for money when, in truth, the biggest initial expense is marketing the products and the opportunity. At some point in time . . . after you have a sizeable organization, you can cut back on the marketing costs as you show and help others to duplicate what you have done.

LACK OF KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE - This is certainly another reason that most networkers do not make money. They jump into something without knowing much about the industry or even a full understanding at how networking is suppose to work. They consider it a magical way to make money when in truth it is simply another way to distribute products. The solution is to read up on the industry and ask questions of experienced networkers and then get trained for the specific business one is promoting.

LACK OF GOAL SETTING - How can you get to where you are going if you don't know where you want to go? What do you want from your business . . . .one year from now . . .five years from now . . ten years from now. You must have an ultimate goal and short goals along the way. People who jump into network marketing who do not know what they want, can't possibly figure out what they have to do to get it. I'm sure you've heard the phrase, "people don't plan to fail, they fail to plan."

THE GREENER PASTURE - I feel this one may affect more networkers than any of the others because once a person gets involved in the networking industry, they are prime targets of other networkers. Because of so many programs/businesses now available, networking has become very competitive. The result is networkers get bombarded with business opportunity after business opportunity. Networkers are most susceptible about 30 days after they have joined and started their chosen business. That is when reality sets in and people realize they may need to work harder than they anticipated . . or maybe they have yet to see any results of what they have done. Along comes another opportunity that looks better than theirs and they start questioning themselves . . ."maybe I chose the wrong business." I've seen networkers (or should I say networker "wannabes") who not only jump from one business to the next month after month, but they may be trying to work several businesses and they just accumulate as if income will accumulate as well. That is a sure way to, not only fail at networking, but to run out of money as well. "The pasture is always greener on the other side" . . or is it? With proper research and business choice, there will be no need to look elsewhere. Just put the blinders on . . .even if another business has some advantages over your chosen business.

LACK OR LOSS OF MOTIVATION - I've written another article called "You Gotta Have The Why To Get The Wherefore (MasterNetworker Article #64)." The driving force that makes people do things they may not ordinarily do is motivation. I'll take it a step further! Let's call it PASSION! Without a passion to want something badly enough, the motivation will not be there to do what is necessary to get the results needed. If you don't have the motivation to get started, you probably won't get your business off the ground . . .in fact, you probably wouldn't become a distributor to start with. If you lose your passion/motivation, the loss of your business will surely follow.

In summary, I would just like to say that many factors, together, will determine your success and whether you make money in network marketing. There is no one factor that will make you a successful entrepreneur, but unfortunately, if you possess just one of the above negative factors, it will have such a detrimental effect on your business.

"WHY AM I NOT MAKING MONEY IN NETWORK MARKETING" may, certainly, be your final question, but if you have . . .and don't change . . . one or more of the negative qualities above, you will have a final answer as well.

If you have not already done so, I would like to invite you to take a self-assessment to see if you are cut out for your own home- based business. It's free and will take only 3 minutes of your time. Go to: http://www.masternetworker.com/test/index.html