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I know the last posting was long Im sorry!!! The difference between network marketing and multilevel is this (this is the best way I can put it) they are both the same thing but with network marketing you are building teams and usually the commissions are to be made MOSTLY from sales. With MLM most of the money is made from recruiting. They are basically the same but you will find that companies that show HUGE commission checks as enticement and build big organizations and stress recruiting more so than selling are the ones who get in trouble..Amway, Nuskin ..etc. What they are doing is NOT illegal its the MEANS by which they do them and it works on emotion. This is not to say if someone goes to a Tupperware meeting or MK that they will not be enticed but you usually dont hear about these companies being in trouble because of the fact that the PREMISE is sales and not recruiting. Regardless of the comments you have heard on this board about Directors and recruitment practices the PREMISE of MK, Avon, Pampered Chef etc is sales and very rarely will you hear about these companies being accused of frontloading or deceptive practices. It mostly happened with Amway and Nuskin and Equinox. These companies have good products dont get me wrong its just that the PREMISE of their money is made on recruiting because the commission on the products is not high enough to make a living so you are encouraged to recruit family and friends and build downlines so huge organizations will buy from each other. You dont have to recruit a SOUL in Pampered Chef of MK or Avon and if you hustle you can make a reasonable living. I would think more so with Pampered Chef or MK more so than Avon but no disrespect to anyone on this board who may sell Avon or who is thinking about selling it. IN MLM recruiting is stressed and in other direct sales companies the training is more SALES focused. In actuality you can say ALL of these companies are MLM and Im sure Laura would agree BUT Im also sure she would agree with me that when you think of Avon you dont think of people recruiting people you think of the catalog hanging on your door or with MK you think of the facial or skin care class or party. I know Im crossing a fine line here by saying that MK is kind of MLM because a director would come in here and say Im wrong but they say that because they dont want to be associated with other MLM's and I can understand that. ALL of these companies have been in some kind of legal trouble even 9-5 companies (Does Enron ring a bell?). If you see a direct marketing company where the commissions are 25 percent and higher chances are the focus is on sales but if you are only getting 10 percent or lower BEWARE that is definitely an MLM where the chances of you even making 200.00 a week are slim unless you are recruiting a lot of people. Most of the bigger MLMS dont have much training either. With the direct sales companies that I named above you will find the training to be pretty good and people wont be drawing circles at meetings or constanly talking about downlines and uplines and all of that.

The only time those conversations even REMOTELY come into play in MK is if a person wants to become a DIQ or team manager or Director. Remember even with Amway and the bigger MLMS that you hear about what they were selling and doing is not illegal its the WAY it was done which is Lauras beef with some of the directors in MK. For instance - not seeing the directors agreement before you become a director, people telling you that you only have to work 5-10 hours a week and you can make 1000.00 a week, FREE CAR (you earn the car its not FREE) , people not knowing the FULL requirements to maintain certain standards to keep the car or the cash compensation. NOW in favor of the COMPANY all of this IS in the brochures and there is no excuse as to why people dont know this they can do the research themselves. HOWEVER if you are NEW you are not going to do that and you may feel that you have been pressured into something or not told and this is where the trouble starts and Im sure Wendy and I KNOW Laura would agree with me. I have to tell you that although I sympathize with Laura I STILL have hard time believing that 50 percent or MORE of the directors in MK are like this but Im sensitive to her concerns so I dont want to speak for her. Ive seen all of these plans and have been in two of them and I can tell you when it comes to incentives and commissions at least for WOMEN I think MK beats them all but there are some who use the inventory excuse and go to Pampered Chef and Avon because you dont have to buy inventory. DONT BE FOOLED Avon reps have to pay for those books and samples just like the MK women do and if you dont do so much within a campaign you are off of the rolls. this is nothing against them its their policy just like MK has policies they ALL do. But MOST of those policies are written out in agreements and brochures. I was not shocked by anything some of the people on this board have said because Ive seen it all. The ONE thing that disturbs me though is in these direct sales programs I have seen people whine and complain and they didnt do one class or sell one of anything!!! In ANY of these programs you have to work and most people dont want to do the work involved. I think if someone likes to cook they should do Pampered Chef its a wonderful product, if someone wants to earn a car and have a team or they like makeup they should be doing AVON or MK or Beauticontrol or something along those lines. I hate to just say MK because there are other things out there I happen to like MK. I have also noticed that MK seems to attract the professional woman I dont see to many women from corporate america leaving to do AVON and if Im wrong I stand corrected and welcome all examples. In all of these programs you will have some charlatan tell you that they only work 20 hours a week and they are making 200,000 a year and its not that hard and thats not true. You start to get the vision when you do a class and its 500.00 and you were there maybe 2.5 hours and you realize you just made 125.00 an hour and THAT is what people mean by they were making more in less time than they were at their full time job. I really want people to know that MK is a wonderful opportunity and people should know the facts but regardless of some greedy recruiter or non supportive director or DIQ (which is not as common as some believe) and that is just MY opinion the facts are laid out before you with most directors and you cannot hold them or the company accountable for YOU not working. Also they should not make you feel that you are worthless because you are not selling but its also your responsibility to take control of your emotions whether its business or a relationship (I realize thats easier said than done).....If you are willing to do the work ANY of these direct sales programs can make money for you there are millions of people in the world and they are not saturated. Its up to the person. I hope this helped with the difference of network marketing and MLM yes they are the same but the emphasis is different, Stephanie

Hi Stephanie,

Thanks for your reply, I do appreciate the time and effort it takes to lay it all out; and, in the end, it seems pretty honestly the case that MK actually IS a form of MLM, but that (fact) is not necessarily to be regarded as a negative, because the company has obviously tried to build "a better mlm," by building in some safeguards/compensatory mechanisms against problems that regularly arise in mlm's. Of course, there is no ultimate defense against human nature, so the company cannot control for all corrupting variables, all the time.

And you are so right that there is no business structure that is immune to corruption, misuse, and/or criminal abuses, and Enron is only the most lately famous member of a very large, and old, club, lol.

Whether or not the network marketing plan, and/or mlm, are ideas whose time came and is now passing, is another question ... there are some very cogent critiques of the structure and mechanism - with or without abuses - by some good business heads out there, but there is always room for dscussion, until or unless something crosses the line into illegal practice.

Philosophically, too, there is some legitimate dissent from the idea that nm and mlm, in both principle and practice, are consistent with an ethical approach to life and business; some very fine essays have been written on the subject by people who once subscribed to nm/mlm as good and ethical in essence, and now, do not so subscribe.

Thanks so much again for your explanation, I do think I understand, finally.

Bunny - 18 Feb 2004

_______________

Thank you Stephanie, The first month I joined MK my director called me from a directors convention in California to quiz me on how any of my friends and family I could/ would recruit. Keep in mind I hadn't yet held a skin care class and she wanted me to focus on recruiting. I suspected she was given as assignment by her NSD at the convention to make phone calls to her team members about pontential new recruits. So yes MK is about recruiting, the percentage, for example 50% sales/ 50% recruiting, will be different for each consultant and team. But from my experience the 50% split is about right. So I agree that MK is a type of MLM company but fortunately has a good reputation by avoiding the pitfalls of unethical Amway-type business practices.

MaryWard? - 18 Feb 2004 ______________________________________________________________________________________ Thank you Stephanie,

That was a good explaination - to add my two cents, MK is such a large company at this point that of course there may be some consultants and I dare say directors that do not always uphold the company standards. We truly don't want anyone in MK that doesn't want to be there. On the other hand, many senior consultants and directors have experienced the joy of having someone else become a consultant and we see how it can change a life for the better and in some cases directors may want a certain level of sucess for a recruit more than the recurit does. I really don't think it means that they are pushing you to recruit - they just see how much fun it can be, how beneficial it can be and they truly do want your success. I am so sorry for those out there who may not have had one of the many AWESOME directors who live exactly the way MK designed.

Johanna

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