Scale Up Your Business
There are only so many hours in the day, so if you really want to become financially independent, there will come a time when you need to scale up your business. You, as one person, can only give so much service, so scaling up really means providing more service.
So how can you scale up your business? Well that depends on what your service or product is. Could you provide more valuable service? For instance if you have a gardening service, could you incorporate landscaping as well? If you are selling a product, could you sell related products or higher end products, to your existing customers? This is called cross-selling and up-selling.
Next, could you scale up your business by hiring someone to do what you do? Lets go back to the gardening example. You alone can only mow one lawn at a time, however, you could hire someone do the same as you. You would charge the customer a percentage more than you pay your assistant, so that the difference is business profits. Then why stop at one, you could hire a team of gardeners.
Other People’s Time
You are now leveraging other people’s time. As you scale up your business, it becomes more complex, with more admin tasks. Would it not then make sense to divide up the different tasks? You could have someone finding new customers (Sales and Marketing), people actually doing the gardening (Service Providers), someone looking after collecting fees and paying bills (Accounts)? There is an excellent book by Michael Gerber called the The E-Myth Revisited
No discussion on how to scale up your business would be complete without talking about software and the internet. Think about any task that can be performed and the internet can help. Need help finding business leads? Then there is Google Adwords or Third Party Sales Teams. What about someone to look after payroll? There’s even cloud based payroll companies. You could in theory outsource everything, but then remember this is your passion, so you might want to keep something for you to do.
If all this sounds like you need an MBA from the London School of Economics, there is another way to scale up your business. It’s not for everyone, but hear me out:
Multi-Level Marketing (MLM)
Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) or Network Marketing is a terrific way to gain financial independence.
What MLM isn’t
MLM is not Pyramid selling or a Ponzi scheme, these are illegal and rightly so. It is also not passive income or residual income, although one day it might turn into it. There is nothing passive about this business, when you start. Like any business it takes hard work, focus and stick-ability to succeed.
What MLM is
Yes, like any business, there is hard work involved but the beauty is that if you find a reputable company, they should provide support and training for you. The start-up costs can be very low or even zero.
MLM is direct selling, this means you are marketing or retailing products directly to people cutting out the many links in the supply chain. The way in which the system works is that you retail products and then recruit other people into your team. These people then do the same so that you build up a large network of people. The way you make money is firstly from the profits from your sales. You don’t need to hold stock as, when your customer buys from you at retail cost, you buy the product from the company at wholesale cost; You keep the difference as profit. The really exciting part is the Bonus system. You not only gain from the profits from your sales but also from the sales of everyone in your team through bonuses. Because the amount of people you can have in your team is open-ended, the amount of bonus you can earn is also open-ended.
Some Considerations about MLM
If you are interested in starting a Network Marketing business, the first step is to find a product that you love, from a reputable company.
Do your homework as there any many scammers out there, who give the industry a bad name.
Use the products yourself and believe in them. The company should sell products you already use, this way you are not adding another monthly expense. Remember control your expenses?
As you start to become a Fanatic about the products, you will be naturally telling people. This is how you retail the products, you simply tell people about them. Don’t think of this as selling but sharing. It’s exactly the same as if you tell someone about a great new restaurant you have been to, but you get paid for doing so.
Recruiting
Recruiting is where you start to scale up your business. As you start to build a small base of customers, these become Satisfied Retail Customers. These are the best people to recruit into your team. Simple ask them if they would like to buy the products at wholesale price and even earn money selling them to people they know.
Then as you start to become successful and earning more money, you friends and family will take note – ask them if they want to take a look. What about colleagues at work? Social Media is a great modern tool for connecting networks of people together – tell the world about your business. Then as you get really confident you will not be able to help yourself from telling people when you are out and about.
Coaching
The thing I love about Network Marketing is that anyone can do it. You don’t need any skills to join and there are no interviews or exams. However you will need to develop the skills you need. But you are never alone, the company will coach and train you. There are one to ones and also group trainings. You in turn will then coach your down-lines (people who you recruit) in the very skills you have learned. This is why it is such a democratic business model; it is totally meritocratic and open to anyone. Use your company – they will offer training courses at very low costs or free. (e.g. £20 for a day seminar). One final warning, though, they are not get rich quick schemes, they take hard work and dedication, but the rewards are there.
If you would like further information on the MLM company I am involved in then please contact me.