Hey there!
Last night an old friend of mine from Big Spring messaged me on Facebook to talk about business.
He said he was considering starting a business of his own…
And he asked me if I ever heard of the company he was interested in.
I hadn’t…
So I did a tiny bit of research and it turns out that it was one of those “Multi Level Marketing” companies.
Sometimes referred to as “pyramid schemes” because of how you need to recruit other people to get any returns.
He’s not the first person that’s ever asked me about one of these types of businesses…
So today I wanted to talk about what I think about them.
First things first, we must talk about the elephant in the room..
How does one earn money with the company in question?
You see, with most of these companies you do not earn anything (or very, very little) from actually providing a product or service to someone else.
Instead, you only earn money by recruiting someone else into your ‘downline’.
Now in case you’re wondering how I know this…
It’s because I’ve tried one of these darn things a few years ago!
There’s tons of them out there – including many who even try to leverage faith as a way to get people to join…
And they make huge promises about the potential to earn while doing little to no work.
But the truth is, less than 1% of folks who join a Multi-Level Marketing company earn any profit according to the FTC…
So you’re essentially being asked to idolize an extremely small percentage of people.
Plus since most MLMs require you to chase that 1% chance of making anything by recruiting other people…
(Which by the way, would be considered a “pyramid scheme” and is actually illegal!)
I’ve seen countless examples of goodhearted people that end up looking at their friends, family, and loved ones as dollar signs…
So they harm their relationships with those they care about, all over the hopes of building their ‘business’.
And it’s a shame too…
Because who wouldn’t want to earn an extra income from home, right?
If I didn’t want to do that.. I wouldn’t be a Digital Tentmaker!
But where these MLMs get things wrong is their promises of overnight success for essentially zero work on your part.
What I’ve found is that many of them are very shady about what you need to do to actually see any returns…
And I think that if the business or company in question was providing real means to better the lives of other people..
They should want to make that clear, don’t you think?
I’d say the bottom line here is this:
Business should be first and foremost a vehicle for building the kingdom and improving the lives of others.
If it’s not crystal clear that the business or company in question is working towards those same goals…
Or if we only earn money by selling other people on the same promises we were sold on…
Then more than likely it should be avoided.
Well, that’s all I got for today!
Like I said, I had been part of an MLM a few years ago (it was when I first stepped out of youth ministry)..
So a lot of how I feel about these types of businesses comes from personal experience.
In any case, I hope you enjoy the rest of your day 🙂
Blessings always,
Cory
P.S. Interested in joining our community of Digital Tentmakers?
It’s the best way I know of to buy back your time, be free to go serve, and provide more for our families!
During the past year in particular, we’ve been able to provide a valuable service to business owners all across the country…
And our work has helped keep their families shielded from all the craziness too.
Just click the link below to discover more:
