This came up to bite me in the ass twice.
As I posted on here in the past, I had tax issues in the 90s. Thus.. I could not be on anyone's payroll for a period of time, and wanted to try and make enough money at home to make a living, and iron out my problems.
I started in a company where we were told to recruit sales associates, to sell Gold Bars. I mailed out flyers to people on a mailiing list.. We had conference calls, etc, and had what was called a "downline". After a while, I got a letter from the post office that such "pyramid schemes" were illegal, unless you sold a legitmate product or service. I thought that the Gold Bars were the legitimate product, but apparently not, according to the post office. At that point, I stopped mailing the flyers, and dropped out of the company I was participating in.
The company I was involved with from 2001 to 2004, Market America, was, and still is, a legal company approved by the Federal Trade Commission. By this time, my tax issues were ironed out, so I was able to be on a payroll.
In spite of Market America being a legal company, and people I was working with making a lot of money with it, I was unable to recruit sales associates, because many people I approached, had been burned in "Pyramid" "MLM" Schemes. Market America had two aspects, Direct Sales, and "Network Marketing". Network Marketing, had a very bad name.. because of the people having been burned in MLM's. In spite of my working at the company for almost three years, I was forced to drop out when I couldnt make a living. Even my old sales contacts in the MLM type companies werent interested, both because they had been burned in Pyramid Schemes, and because Market America, was, and is, a very complex company that not many people understand.
Due to my past experiences, I would now avoid a company like Market America, Amway, etc. Let me be clear. Market America is a solid company, with good products. I met a lot of fine people there, who were very helpful to me. It was not their fault that the company didnt work for me. It was just that Network Marketing had such a bad name, that getting sales associates to sign contracts, was next to impossible.
Mitch
I should also make one other point about Market America.
At the time I joined Market America in 2001, I was talking to my father. His two business partners at the time were lawyers. They knew I had been burned in MLM type companies in the past, and both the lawyers and my father checked out Market America in regard to its legality, being a solid company etc. After their investigation, they told me to proceed forth with the company. At the time I was in the MLMs, from 1996 to 1999, I was not in touch with my father during those years, so I had no CPA or lawyers at my avail to check things out. Looking back on it, with the MLMs, I should have been more careful. What happened to me with Market America, was not my fault, and was just bad luck.
