I always had the ambition to live out the American Dream, and eventually earn back the most valuable asset that we have in our lifetime, which is time. Even though I am a student of higher education and love my field of study, I never planned on living my whole life and devoting most of my time supporting someone else’s dream inside of a cubicle while he/she is on a beach somewhere living the life that we all deserve. We all have dreams that don't deserve to die as we get older. For me, coming up from humble beginnings on the south side of Chicago my goal was to not only take care of my parents for all the sacrifices they have done to get me to where I am now, but also help develop and uplift struggling communities that don't have a lot of opportunities and resources.
I came across network marketing my freshman year of college during the summer. I had just got back from nationals and my friend wanted me to meet his sponsor for an business opportunity. For the most part I am an open minded since our mind is like an umbrella. It only works when it is open. So after I had this meeting and was explained the business opportunity, I went home and did my own personal diligence. The overview of this business plan was an opportunity to build an organization and leverage your efforts by first acquiring customers, and then duplicating your efforts through your team(organization) for an lucrative leverage opportunity. For a minor startup fee you were entitled to due business internationally and develop teams across the globe. The company also offered a versatile market of product and essential services to offer customers. Now when I saw this of course I believed pyramid scheme right away. However, by definition a pyramid scheme is a form of investment (illegal in the US and elsewhere) in which each paying participant recruits two further participants, with returns being given to early participants using money contributed by later ones. Fraud can not go on forever especially when there is no product to be sold, no service has been provided, and no true wealth has been created. Eventually those at the bottom will suffer the most due to the fact that it is impossible for the cycle to sustain itself. This MLM company in particular made it clear that without customer acquisition, no money will be made. As a recruit/Independent Business Owner, you can make a profit from the sales of the product or service, so you don't necessarily have to recruit more salespeople below you. While you may be encouraged to recruit other salespeople whose sales would give you more profits, you can stick to just selling the product directly to the consumer if you choose. With this company, you don't even have to worry about inventory. Strictly customer acquisition and they take care of the rest. The growth opportunity is limitless. In other words, a person can climb up the ladder at his/her own pace as opposed to a corporate level entry job. It may be years before you even get considered for a promotion and even then they can lay you off at any given day/time due to a reduction is the "budget".
I related this concept to franchising. As of you, the reader, you may disagree or agree with my comparison of the two, but hear me out either way. Keeping an entrepreneurship mindset, I decided that I wanted to invest in a McDonald's franchise. In order for me to do that the franchise fee is $45,000 with a liquid capital requirement of $750,000. As a franchises, sales does not necessarily reciprocate the money going into your pockets. You have to cover your expenses which include the payment towards $2.2 million investment to cover the franchise. However, do not allow me to confuse you in any way , good money is still made within that opportunity, but we can all agree that a lot of capital is required to fully own one.
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