16 MLM Lessons from 16 Years in the Industry

Today, I want to share 16 valuable MLM Lessons I learned during the past sixteen years in this great industry. I hope this information will help you take your business to the next level. 

# 1 You MUST stick with one company, through good times and bad, for the long-haul. Most top earners have been with ONE company at least FIVE years. Many of them have been with the same company ten to forty years. Chasing shiny objects and switching opportunities is a dead-end road. Pick the company you want to have your problems with and stick with it.

# 2 If you’re really hurting for money, get a job and do this as your side hustle. This is not an IMMEDIATE solution to your money problems. This is NOT the lottery. It takes time to make a profit in ANY business.

# 3 Retailing and recruiting are the ONLY two activities that actually grow your business. Everything else you do is busy work. Make sure you spend at least 90% of your work hours on income producing activities.  Otherwise, you will be busy, but you won’t make any money!

# 4 No business is successful in the first 90-days. The goal the first year in any business is to learn and survive. This really is a TWO to FIVE-year plan of CONSISTENT part-time work to build a FULL-TIME income. Give yourself a fair chance to succeed.  Take the long-term view.

# 5 You must have a mentor WHO IS SUCCESSFUL and be humble enough to follow their advice. This mentor will probably not be your personal sponsor. Look upline in your success team until you find this person. Don’t make the mistake of trying to reinvent the wheel.  Follow a proven success system and do not deviate.

# 6 Self-discipline is vitally important to your success. You must commit minimum one-hour per day to your business, on INCOME PRODUCING activities. If you can work a job 8-12 hours per day, you can work your business 1-hour per day. Don’t make the mistake of starting and stopping.  Consistency is key! Do the things you know you should be doing, even when you don't feel like doing it. 

# 7 Exposure is everything, you must talk to minimum TWO new prospects daily, and ideally five to ten people per day. This is a business of exposures. If you want to sponsor more people, talk to more people. To double your income, double your efforts. What you lack in skills you can make up for in numbers.

# 8 The fortune is in the follow-up; most people will need MINIMUM five to ten exposures before they join or buy. Stay in touch with everyone you talk to at least twice a month. Have a recruiting process and walk all of your prospects through a series of exposures until they are ready to make a definite yes or no decision.

# 9 Crawl with the crawlers, walk with the walkers, jog with the joggers, run with the runners and sprint with the sprinters. Meet people where they are at. Treat everyone well.  Love on everyone, but work with the willing. It’s not your job to save people or drag them across the finish line. Spend your time where it is deserved. 

# 10 Recruiting will make you money, but retention and reorders are what will make you rich.  Attrition is a killer in this business.  Repeat business is what you want. To reduce attrition, you need a system. Help people get a check quickly. Help people have a good product experience right out the gate. Give people something to lose. All of those things will help increase your repeat orders.

# 11 You only need a few good people to build a dynasty. Most top earners in our industry make 90 percent or more of their income from five or fewer people, even if they’ve personally sponsored hundreds of people.

# 12 Be the type of person you want to sponsor and be the type of sponsor you wish you had. Lead by example at all times. Take 100% responsibility for your own business. Realize that you attract what you are not what you want. Be someone worth joining.

# 13 Your business will only grow as much as you do, so work on your personal development daily. This business is a personal development business with a compensation plan attached to it. Do something every single day to improve your skills and attitude and then let the Compound Effect take over from there.

# 14 Success will not happen by accident. You need written goals, a solid game-plan and HUSTLE.  If you want to be successful, you must know your WHY. Without a crystal-clear WHY, nothing else matters. Once you know your why, take some time and set written goals. Next, come up with a game-plan to reach those goals. Finally, get off your ass and hustle until you achieve those goals.

# 15 You can’t be a prophet in your own land. Those who you know you best will often be your biggest critics (spouse, parents, friends). Build it anyway. People are watching you. They expect you to quit.  Build it big and many of these folks will come around and eventually join your team. And if they don't, they'll ask you if you are hiring!

# 16 Skills pay the bills.  Like any profession or career, you must master and develop specialized knowledge. The people who make the most money in our industry are the people with the skills. The only real way to develop and fine tune your skills is to get in the trenches and learn by doing. You can study something until the cows come home, but you will learn 100x more by doing the thing you are trying to learn, making mistakes and learning from your mistakes.

Final Thoughts

There you have it folks. These are 16 things I learned from 16 years in the MLM Industry. Which tip is your favorite? Leave a comment below to let me know what you think. 

About the Author

Chuck Holmes is an author, blogger and network marketing professional. He lives in Florida. Learn more about his opportunity here.