What To Look For In A Direct Sales Company!
By Amber Bishop

Starting a home based business requires that several factors are taken into consideration to see if building a business is something you can actually do. For instance, do you have the time to dedicate to working? No one becomes successful without consistent activity over time. Can you put 10 – 15 hours a week into your own business? If you where going to purchase an expensive franchise, you would make sure you had the time to see it grow. The principle is equally applicable to your own home based business.

Secondly, do you have initial capitol to begin your business? There has never been a successful business built that has not had initial capitol investment upfront. Most traditional businesses take 5-7 years before they are generating a profit. The incredible opportunity in the direct sales industry is that you can begin a legitimate business at home with a much smaller amount of money. You need to be clear on what you want. Do you want to make a little extra money for Christmas presents? Do you want to make and extra $100 a month to put into savings or pay off debt? Or do you want to make a full time income by working from home? All of these scenarios can be achieved by working from home if you have the right team, the right company, and the right attitude about your business. What is even more incredible , it that you even have the opportunity over time to start out just needing extra money for Christmas and graduate to complete financial freedom within 5-7 years. It all depends on you.

Now you have determined whether you have the time and you understand that it takes a little money to get going. Now how do you know if the business you are looking at is a legitimate, reputable, ethical company that will stand the test of time? Look at the company and its leadership. Have they been around and are they established. Most network marketing companies do not last more than 3 years. There are pros and cons to going with companies with a long established name or a newer company just starting to gather momentum and name status. The bottom line remains. What do you want? What do you like? Can you be passionate about the companies’ product? Would you buy the product even if you did not want to build a business around it? Then you are getting close to making a decision.

Does the company have consumable product? This is a very important point to consider. You will save yourself time and money in the long run, if you build a network of consumers that love to use your businesses product over and over again. If they get to the bottom of a container and can’t survive without your product again, then you are starting to build a distribution system with ongoing product sales that provide passive residual income. Does your company offer a way to sell their product online or allow clients to order products themselves? Think long term. Act as if your business is a multimillion dollar international business that is servicing hundreds of thousands of clients around the world. This is bigger than asking a friend to throw you a party. This is big business.

What are the timing and trends in culture? You surely do not want to be selling VCR’s right about now. You would be in the poor house. “Health and Wellness” is this decades and the next decade’s business boom. “Why?” you may ask… because of the Baby Boomers. They want to look younger, feel younger and stay fit and energetic well into their 80’s. Does the company you are thinking about representing, provide products that hit that market?

Do you have the ability to leverage your time? Leverage is the key ingredient that makes good businesses take off. CEO’s get paid off of the efforts of their employees, and there can only be one CEO of a company. However with direct sales, you can teach and train others to do what you do. They get all the benefits of being their own CEO while you get a percentage for teaching and training them how to do it. It truly is a brilliant business model. Everyone wins.

Do you have strong corporate leadership and up line support? These are vital components for long term success. You want to join a team that know where they are going, and have the ability to show you what to do as you are first starting out. More importantly, do you have strong personal leadership? Do you know what you want? Are you going to let anything or anyone stop you? That will get you through the bumps and bruises of your first year in business. If you are committed to working on yourself, developing the skills needed to be successful and give your business time and consistent effort, the sky is the limit.

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Amber Bishop is the co-founder of www.smartmoms-smartbusiness.com and www.smartmoms.freeforums.org online resources for work at home moms. She is also the owner of www.homeschool-diva.com She stays home and home schools her three children while building a successful home based business.

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