What's the Greatest Obstacle to MLM Success? It's Not What You Might Think.

Something like 95 percent of the people who start out in MLM, fail. That's an alarming statistic and it begs the simple question," why?" Any number of reasons have been postulated by some of the best analytical business minds. What you believe, largely depends upon which circle you run with. If you are in the pro MLM crowd, you will hear things like; lack of support, poor compensation plan, lack of knowledge about the business or products. The list goes on. If you are in the anti MLM crowd you are likely to hear things like; MLM's don't work, they're nothing but pyramid schemes, only the guys at the top make any money. This list goes on, as well. But I'm here to tell you that none of these is the answer to the question posed. None of them is THE reason that most people fail. So, what is the answer?

The number one reason most people fail to achieve MLM success, or success in any endeavor in life, for that matter is embodied in one very simple, yet very powerful word. Excuses! That's right, excuses! I don't have any money. I'm no good at sales. I don't have the time. I know someone who tried one of those businesses and they didn't make any money. I need to wait until ____ fill in the blank. This list, like the ones above, goes on and on. In fact, ALL of these so-called "reasons" are nothing more than excuses, every last one. These excuses either prevent someone from taking advantage of a legitimate business opportunity that could change their life forever, or they are pointed to, in retrospect, as the reason the business failed. We humans are good at making excuses. It's a habit that has been ingrained in us from our youth. Like an infectious disease, this habit has been passed down from generation to generation, in all cultures and in all walks of life. No one is immune.

It's much easier to make excuses as to why one can't do something than it is to have the courage to to attempt it. It's much easier to excuse away failure than it is to take responsibility for it. The truth is, if someone REALLY wants something, if the desire or the need for it is strong enough, they will do whatever it takes, to get it. No excuse, no obstacle will stand in their way! Let me prove it to you. Suppose I handed you a small hand shovel and told you that buried in that one acre, ice and snow covered field over there, is a chest. Inside that chest is a treasure worth one million dollars, find it, and it's yours. What would you do? Would you say, "it's too cold out here" or "this shovel is too small" or "the field is too big" or "I don't know how to dig" or any other lame excuse? No! You would start digging and you would not quit until you found that chest! What if Instead of giving you the shovel, I offered to sell it to you for one hundred dollars? Would you argue with me or would you find the hundred bucks and buy the shovel? You'd buy the shovel!

The secret to MLM success is simple. Want it badly enough and do whatever you have to do to achieve it. Your company has the tools, the support, the training, the marketing plan, the product or service and the compensation plan to enable your success. What they don't have and what only you can supply is the desire and commitment to succeed. Look in the mirror, you're looking at the one variable you have control over, you! Stop making excuses, get in the game, commit, refuse to fail, refuse to quit. Your dream is worth it, your desire is worth it, you are worth it. So, in the words of that crazy comedian, "Git 'R Done!"

No Boundaries, The Berry Tree Opportunity

Tonight, I did something really interesting. I called a new distributor in my Bery Tree business. So what, you might ask, is so interesting about that? Well nothing, other than the fact that this gentleman lives in Australia, in a time zone 14 hours ahead of mine and the fact that it was a three way call with another person in California, a time zone three hours behind mine. Ok you say, that's fairly interesting. Oh, but I left out one small detail. My guy in Australia is not Australian. He's Serbian and speaks English as a second language, a very second language. His English is a bit rusty and he understands a good bit better than he speaks. Ok, a little more interesting. Add to that the different accents. Yes, friends, we Americans do have accents, just ask someone from Serbia. So, as you might have guessed by now, my third party in California was a translator, a Serbian National teaching at the College level in the US. I'm sure by now that you will agree, rather interesting. It was the ultimate three-way training call!

That's the beauty of this business of ours. We literally have no boundaries! Someone from Serbia, living in Australia who barely speaks English, found one of my articles in one of the online article directories and clicked on a link in the article to find out about my home based business. On his own, he signed up for The Berry Tree free trial and before the day was over, upgraded to a full member. All this, before I even had the chance to call him. This happened a few weeks ago and I have been having rather broken conversations with him while looking for a translator to enable me to properly educate and train this new distributor. In the meantime, I found a Berry Tree distributor, a young lady named Nicola, in Sydney, where this gentleman lives. Nicola IS Australian. She was willing to make contact with him and try to help him for me, while I was on the hunt for a translator. Nicola isn't even in my upline or my downline, she is in Shane Woods' downline! Talk about camaraderie and international cooperation! What a great business. It truly is for anyone, if they can just see the opportunity in front of them. Zivko did, and he barely speaks my language. Through the power of MLM and the universal reach of the Internet, we can do business anywhere in the world! So, why am I blogging about this? What's the point? I'll tell you.

If I can do this, find a translator, set up a three-way call spanning 17 time zones, to work with a person who found The Berry Tree business by reading articles on the Internet, how difficult can it be to pick up a phone and call someone just a few hundred miles away, or to reach out to someone in your own neighborhood? It's not difficult, at all. All one has to have is the desire, the will and the determination to overcome whatever barriers are placed in one's way and the willingness to get it done. We have a truly wonderful opportunity, here. We have a business that changes peoples' lives. Our products offer truly amazing health benefits and our business opportunity offers a truly incredible financial reward to anyone willing to do whatever it takes to succeed. Over the next weeks and months we have the chance to gear up our efforts in preparation for our national Infomercial advertising campaign. We need to be training our downline distributors, getting them up to speed, getting them ready to handle the flood of new members that will come rushing in. Yes folks, we need to get ready. The Berry Tree is going to take the MLM and home business world by storm and we are in a true legacy position, on the front edge of a wave that is literally going to circle the globe. People are going to become very wealthy with this business and I intend to be one of them. Let's put away the excuses, break out the elbow grease and get to work. What do you say?

Putting Things Into Perspective

This post has absolutely NOTHING to do with home business. I was just sitting and musing, thinking about how out of control politics has gotten in this country. It's an election year and all of a sudden politicians are bending over backwards to tell us just how much they care about us, their constituents. It can be absolutely nauseating at times. Emotions get whipped up into a frenzy, lines are drawn, die is cast, sides are chosen and families are split in two. In another couple of months things will die down, life will return to normal, families will mend fences and we will wait another four years for the dance to begin again. Two years if you count the non presidential year congressional and senatorial elections. Anyway, here are the thoughts I was musing over.

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of all the political rhetoric, all the finger pointing, right to left, left to right, over and over and over again. The news is full of it, political ads are full of it, even the debates are full of it. Today the phone rang and when I answered, this pre-recorded message began to play bashing a particular candidate for the NC Senate. Let me tell you, I'M SICK OF IT! I believe there are others of you who are sick of it as well. How can we know what a candidate stands for or against when all they do is bash the other guy?

When one candidate tells you that their opponent voted for or against this bill or that bill, they don't tell you that the bill in question was loaded with riders that their opponent, and probably even they themselves could not support but that would pass along with the bill if it passed, so naturally they had to vote against it. When one candidate quotes another on a given issue, they almost always do so out of context, painting their opponent's comments in an unfavorable light. It's tactics like this that just make me want to never hear another one of them speak again!

So, how can we put things into proper perspective? Here are a few of my ideas. I realize that none of these ideas will ever be put into practice. Heavens no! Why, they are just too practical. They make too much sense. That would really throw a monkey wrench into our political process, now, wouldn't it?

I would like to see a debate where the rules prohibited one candidate from bashing the other. When a question is asked, all the candidate can do is say what he or she believes, what he or she would do to solve the problem, meet the concern, whatever the issue, without pointing out what their opponent has done, has not done, would not do, etc. They would actually have to answer the question.

I would like to see campaign advertisement reform that would limit or even prohibit name calling, finger pointing, opponent bashing, all of it. Only ads that present a candidates beliefs, plans, ideas would be allowed in this new reform. What we need to know is what they will do to solve the problems that face us as a nation, not what their opponent has failed to do.

I would like to see, on network television, comparisons of the candidates' actual voting records. No fluff, no hype, just how they voted on the important issues. Along with that, I would like to hear the candidates actually state what they believe to be the important issues and what they would do about them if elected.

If we could know what a candidate stands for without hearing what the other guy doesn't stand for, then we as responsible citizens would have a real basis upon which to decide who we want representing us in government. The emphasis is on REPRESENTING US, not special interests or party politics. That would definitely put things into perspective and we might actually achieve government "of the people, by the people and for the people."

What is BTStartFree?

BTStartFree is the brain child of two brothers, Art and Rob Phelps of Massapequa, New York and their marketing partners, the father and son team of Bob and Blair Bremner of Mechanicsville, Virginia. The Berry Tree, the up and coming Health and Wellness MLM conceived of by this team came into being in March of 2007, went into a six month pre-launch period in which all the kinks were being worked out of the system and then into a full launch in September of the same year. Since that quiet beginning they have done something like Three Million Dollars in sales while putting together what is becoming recognized as perhaps the most powerful home based business opportunity of our time. It certainly has worked out well for this husband and wife team. So, what is this BTStartFree, and how does it work?

In a nutshell, BTStarFree is a program that allows someone to test drive The Berry Tree business free for one month, paying only shipping cost of $4.95 for the company to send them some product samples to try. What a brilliant idea! There are any number of home business opportunities for people to chose from these days, some better and some worse, some legitimate and some that are nothing but scams. The Berry Tree knows this, so to help people decide whether or not this business is right for them, the BTStartFree program was conceived. For about the same cost as a cup of coffee at Starbucks, a person can get started in their own home business, access all the training materials, see how everything works, try the product and then make an educated decision as to whether they want to continue. If they decide they want to do so, they simply upgrade to a full member, a $49.95 per month commitment, and they are already well on their way. If, on the other hand, they decide it's not for them, they can simply cancel and never pay another dime.

This is a great way for the average person with limited financial resources to get started in a business and begin building toward a life of freedom and financial independence. With a solid national and international advertising campaign, BTStartFree can be seen in any number of home business related magazines, numerous incentives and fast start bonuses and an upcoming TV Informercial on The Berry Tree, momentum is building rapidly. More and more people are coming on board every day. The Berry Tree has leveled the playing field and is poised for massive growth which will make it one of the top income producing MLM's in the very near future. If you want to learn more, how you can take advantage of this MLM revolution, click BTStartFree and take advantage of the free trial offer. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

How to Start a Successful Home Business

With the economy seemingly coming apart at the seams, families everywhere are struggling to make ends meet. They are finding themselves more often than not, in need of extra income just to get by. Many of them are choosing to start a home business, rather than to look for a second job. This makes sense just considering the cost of gas, alone but as with any new venture in life, there is risk involved. How does the average person with no business background know how to start a home business and a successful home business at that? An in depth treatise on the subject would be difficult to tackle in one article and would probably bore the reader to tears in the process. However, there are a few basic principles that will help the aspiring entrepreneur get started in the right direction. Volumes have been written on how to succeed in business. That is not the purpose of this piece. The focus here is on getting started. Think of this article as "How to Start a Successful Home Business 101."

First, you need to determine your business niche. What interests you, what are you passionate about? Is it Golf, health and wellness, teaching a musical instrument, what interests you? You will be far more likely to succeed if your business is in a niche that you have an interest in and can have fun with. Second, there are lots of business models to chose from, such as MLM, direct sales, an online store, owning a booth at the local flea market, and so on. Some business models will be dictated by the niche you chose or how much money you want to make. Other than that, you're really only limited by your own creativity. So, in order to know how to start a home business you first have to know your niche and decide on what for you will be a successful home business model. The main point here is you need to like what you're doing and you need to have fun. It's important that you enjoy what you are doing, otherwise all you will accomplish is to take on another job and what's the fun in that?

Once you have decided on your niche and your business model, you need to do some research. There will be steps to take depending upon what you will be doing. If you want to own an eBay store, you will need to learn how to go about setting up and running the store, what products you will be selling, items from around the house or from yard sales or will you be working with a drop shipper, etc. If you want to teach guitar or piano, you will need a studio. This can be a room in your house or you can go to your students' homes to teach. My point is, there will be steps to plan out and in order to start a successful home business you need to go through that planning process, carefully and thoroughly. Many people like MLM's because they are typically a turn-key business with systems and tools already in place. All you have to do is plug in and you're on your way. But be careful, here. Chose an MLM wisely, products, compensation plan, marketability, and so forth. Another consideration is who you are signing up with. This person is going to be your mentor, you will need to be able to work with them. I personally like MLM, it's a proven and very successful home business model and can generate enormous amounts of money if it's with marketable products and a good company.

Lastly, your goal is to start a home business, not a hobby. You need to be passionate about it and treat it like a business or you will not be successful. You will only succeed to the degree that you apply yourself to the tools, the systems, the training and to the degree that you have passion and a business mindset. It can be tempting to not take this seriously but to do so is a recipe for failure. When the going gets tough, a hobby is much easier to quit than a business because a business carries with it a sense of ownership. Yes, have fun, by all means, have fun, but at the same time give your business the mental and physical energy it deserves. So, have a business mindset and remember why it was that you started it in the first place. I call this remembering your "why." If your why is powerful enough, and you stay focused on it at all times, you will succeed, no matter what obstacles come your way. This is how to start a successful home business, one that will provide you and your family with the income you need to accomplish the goals you set out to achieve.