My MLM Mistakes and What I Have Learned

I certainly made many mistakes when I started out in MLM. In his song "Second Wind" Billy Joel says your mistakes are the only things you can truly call your own. And yet, I believe many people make the same mistakes I did. Here are just a few:Not reading the policies and procedures (didn't know they existed!)
Believing someone who told me their compensation plan was "the best around"
Believing someone could pay me full-time to assist them in building their team
Blasting my opportunity at people without building relationships
Buying leads
Renting expensive booth space at trade showsMy turning point came when I found a mentor, mastermind group, and training system and was shown the error of my ways! What did I learn? Your company policies and procedures is your contract with the company and you MUST read it! What other contract would you agree to without reading (or having your attorney read?) It covers the conditions under which they can terminate your business. It tells you if you can keep earning a check should you decide to stop working the business to retire or due to illness. It even sometimes gives an indication of how long the company plans to be in business and if they really believe in the MLM business model.There are many types of compensation plans. To compare them fairly you need to level the playing field. You need to crunch the numbers and figure out how much sales volume you need, and how many people does that translate to in your downline (or as retail customers) to make the kind of money you want. It is also useful to know what it will take to break even on your monthly expenses, since if you are breaking even you can stay in business forever! There is more variation in those numbers than you might believe, as much as tenfold or more! You can't believe it when someone tells you they have the best compensation plan, until you compare it to others.MLM is like any other business, it has a "gestation period." It will not turn a profit overnight. The less experience a person has, the longer it will take to learn the necessary skills. It should be viewed as a 2-5 year plan. So if someone, especially someone with no prior experience in MLM, offers to hire you away from a full-time job and pay you to help them build their team when they are first getting started, RUN! Someone who already has a large and successful team can afford this overhead, but not someone new and inexperienced.In fact, if someone tells you that you can afford to leave your full-time job when you start MLM and that you will quickly be earning just as much, I wouldn't believe that either. I would keep the other job and build your MLM part-time. Even Tom "Big Al" Schreiter gives that advice! Buying leads is a waste of time and money. They are not as targeted as they are advertised to be and most of them are really looking for a job, not a business opportunity. Many times the person who tells you to buy them (and to keep trying for at least 90 days!) is actually earning a commission from your purchases! You can learn how to generate better leads for less money.While you may find some good leads by renting space at a home show, health fair, or trade show I never had much success and I know several other people who did not break even on it. You must consider not only the cost of the booth, but the cost of materials you will hand out and any prize you give away. Plus you need signs and banners, a way to get people's curiosity up so they will stop, and a way to get their contact information. The only time I rent booths now is if they cost no more than $30.I hope you can learn from my mistakes! The key is to find a great mentor who has already "failed forward" and can save you some time (and money). I'm happy to help!