WORK FROM HOME Choose Smart & Live the Dream ppt

WORK FROM HOME
Choose Smart & Live the Dream
By Christine Sutherland
SMASHWORDS EDITION
* * * * *
PUBLISHED BY:
Christine Sutherland on Smashwords
How to Make More Money:
The Simple Strategy that Outperforms Stocks and Shares, Real Estate, and Superannuation
Copyright © 2011 by Christine Sutherland
PUBLISHED BY:
The Lifeworks Group Pty Ltd
Work From Home!
Choose Smart and Live the Dream
Copyright © 2011 by Christine Sutherland
License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold, and no
part of this book may be used or included in other products. You may freely distribute the PDF
of this book in its original form, but may not brand, alter, or mark it any way.
Please be discerning regarding whom you forward a copy to. Share freely with professionals,
entrepreneurs, and business owners who are ethical, pleasant people.
If you use this book as a tool to grow your business, remember to follow up promptly. You may
like to photocopy this book and “lend” copies which you then collect, allowing you opportunity
to present your business at the same time.
Thank you for respecting the author's work.
Work From Home Facts
Fact: Right now almost everyone is desperate to secure their financial survival, and they
know that a home business, in a proven and widely-respected industry which is immune to
economic ups and downs, is their only chance. If only they can find such a thing.
Fact: People already know that internet marketing is a lottery, not a business, and are intensely
wary of these and other scams.

Fact: Women, and parenting men, are still discriminated against in the workplace.
Fact: Men and women are deserting the traditional workplace in droves in an effort to get quality
and sanity into their and their families’ lives.
Fact: A job done at home is still a job, and has no more security than any other job.
Fact: In order to protect your and your family’s financial future, you need a high-grade business
(over 74% of wealthy people accumulated their wealth in a successful business.
Fact: Without doing the heaviest-duty due diligence, your chances of picking the right business
are tiny (less than 3%).
FACT: This book is your secret weapon in choosing the right business with the best possible
chance of success.
WORK FROM HOME
Choose Smart & Live the Dream
CONTENTS
FORWARD - Living the Dream
Chapter 1 - Home Business, the Good News and the Bad News
Chapter 2 - Income Acumen - What You Were NEVER Taught at School or University
Chapter 3 - Your Financial Options
Chapter 4 - The Process of Due Diligence
Chapter 5 - What Will You Need to Do to Be Successful?
Chapter 6 - What Personal and Professional Qualities Are Required?
Chapter 7 - How Much Money Can You Make?
Chapter 8 - What Next?
ADDENDUM - Fears, Doubts, Junk in the Trunk
Contacts and Support Site
WORK FROM HOME
Choose Smart & Live the Dream
FORWARD – Living the Dream
The 2 big issues of our time for people with families are:
1. No time
2. No money

Mothers and fathers spend their weeks on an endless treadmill of working for a boss, battling
traffic, juggling kids and kids’ activities, cooking, cleaning and general home and yard care, and
even struggling to get enough peaceful sleep to support their own physical and psychological
health. Very few adults actually even get time for their own leisure activities.
When a child or a spouse is sick, the remaining partner feels torn and guilty regardless of
whether they decide to go to work or to stay home.
When the job requires overtime, likewise – mothers and fathers desperately want to be with their
children, but are forced to abandon them for an even greater part of the day because of the need
to do whatever it takes to earn a living so they can keep up with the bills and make enough to
provide food and shelter.
For women the situation is often particularly grim. Women’s working hours typically provide a
worse payoff for the time they’re sacrificing because they’re paid at a lower rate. Women are
often forced to tolerate wide-ranging discrimination and insult in the workplace merely because
they are women. From the subtle put-down, to blatant mistreatment, the working environment is
often an even more stressful environment for women than it is for men.
As large numbers of people leave home to go to work, whole communities are being laid waste
because instead of being thriving hubs, they are mausoleums during the day, and merely a place
where people go home to catch an inadequate sleep overnight.
When we add to this the fact that missed working hours mean missed pay, and that so few people
have job security especially in our deteriorating global economy, the stress becomes intolerable.
No wonder disorders like anxiety, depression, anti-social behaviour, sleep disorders, overweight/
obesity, and sexual dysfunction are at epidemic levels. Families are living in a poisonous
environment that is absolutely not conducive to physical or psychological wellbeing.
No wonder people are voting with their feet and moving their working life back home, with a
projected 65% increase in people working from home in the next 12 months!
There Are Sound Economic Reasons for Working from Home
Whether it’s a job or a business, working from home instead of from commercial premises
makes sound economic sense. Analysts estimate that:
- A single home-based worker can save the company approximately $20,000 per year.
- By working at home and cutting out work travel, the employee can save $4,000-$21,000 each

year for traveling costs.
- It’s estimated that at least 50% of current employees could successfully work from home. Even
if just 40% of the workforce actually worked from home it would save the economy a massive
$650 billion a year! AND we could cut oil imports by 37%, a great help to the environment!
But a Job at Home is No More Secure than a Job Elsewhere
With even major firms going bust, and more trouble on the way, it’s not surprising that analysts
predict 2011 will see a 17-year high in unemployment. Almost every major industry is in deep
trouble: retail, hospitality, manufacturing, tourism, real estate, the finance industry, housing and
construction, and even food production and distribution. I know, I see the closures daily.
Almost no-one has job security.
A Job at Home Can’t Provide Total Flexibility and Can’t Provide for Your Future
A job at home has the same disadvantages of a job anywhere. You still have to operate under the
instructions of an employer, and that will determine what work you do, and when.
And you are still in the trap of being paid only for the hours that you work, not for what you
create. You’re bearing the costs of running the business (your home office, your extra electricity
and gas, and a myriad of other costs) and yet you’re not getting a return on this investment.
You’re certainly not establishing an income that will continue to properly support you in your
retirement, or which can deliver a better lifestyle for your family right now.
The Great “Work at Home” Scam
It’s a sad fact that the Federal Trade Commission has found that an estimated 90% of “work at
home” advertisements are scams or linked to scams. Every year the Commission takes hundreds
of legal actions against these but more pop up all the time. The commission estimates that from
just 4 successfully-prosecuted cases, consumers lost around $30 million!
The Commission also estimates that every year the perpetrators of these scams earn around $750
million.
Obviously People Need Sound Advice as Protection Against Rip-offs
The reasons that practically everyone wants to work from home are obvious, logical, and healthy
every which way you look at them. But people need to realise that if they really want flexibility,
and they really want at least a degree of wealth, then a home business is the best choice.
However unless they plan on being amongst the losers (ie, the poor consumers coughing up $750

million a year thanks to scams) they need sound advice. The good news is that this sound advice
is right here, in this simple little book, backed up by online support at no cost.
Enjoy reading this book and making the most of it! Any questions about the book, or even if you
just want to chat about a business you’re considering, feel free to write to me at info@lifeworks-
group.com.au.
WORK FROM HOME
Choose Smart & Live the Dream
Chapter 1: Home Businesses, the Good News and the Bad News
The good news is that you hold this book in your hands, and that it is indeed possible to build a
successful home business, even one that is a million dollar earner, without burning yourself out,
without ignoring your children and family, without risking the very home you’re based in, and
without spending a lifetime to achieve that.
The bad news is that there will be people who read this book in the hope of turning their current
home business into a million dollar home business, who will discover that they have chosen the
wrong business, or will discover that regardless of which business they may choose, they are not
personally or professionally equipped to succeed.
I would like to re-assure you that even if you are the latter, it is not too late to change horses, or
to learn how to become successful, provided you have the right attitudes and are open to
learning. There’s an old saying “don’t throw good money after bad”, and that has never been
more true when it comes to business. You can save yourself an awful lot of pain, loss and
suffering by recognizing sooner rather than later that it’s time to “bite the bullet” and hook your
wagon to a better opportunity, or to step up and develop yourself personally and/or
professionally.
There’s another old saying “you can’t make a silk purse from a pig’s ear” and although that may
sound derogatory, if people are negative in their attitude, if they don’t actually like other people,
if they have no interest in growing personally or professionally, then the best advice I can give is
to get the best job they can, and give up on the idea of building a business, because business
success is always about the quality of relationships you create and maintain - relationships with
customers, colleagues, and your whole wider network.
So to sum up, this is a book which shows you exactly why you have so far not been able to make

the money you want, so that you can, in a fully-informed manner, decide what’s going to be
easier for you: keep doing what you’re doing, or make an intelligent choice to go in a different
direction.
This is also a book which specifically describes the personal and professional journey required to
become the creator of a million dollar home business. That’s fun for me to share because I get to
spill the beans on one of the most remarkable set of self growth tools the world has ever seen. Be
prepared, and enjoy!
WORK FROM HOME
Choose Smart & Live the Dream
Chapter 2: Income Acumen – What You Were NEVER Taught at School or University
He sat at the table, head in hands, anguished at his struggle to provide for his family. Finally he
blurted out “Will somebody just tell me how to earn real money and I’ll do it!” This book is for
all those people who simply don’t have enough: enough to live on, enough to escape debt,
enough to fulfill dreams, enough to retire in real comfort. This is how to never have too little
ever again.
Some people end up with a lot of money in spite of having no income acumen. For instance a
person may marry a very wealthy partner, be given money by their parents, win the lottery, or be
paid millions for a talent. You could pin your hopes on that, but that would be pretty much
leaving things to fate rather than taking control. That kind of “roll of the dice” way of becoming
wealthy is not what this book is about.
You might be relieved to hear that this book is also NOT about internet marketing and I hope by
now you realise that this is for obvious reasons – except for a lucky few, that’s a pretty dumb
way to go about achieving and maintaining wealth because no matter how you automate it, it’s
still a job. And it’s notoriously fickle, with great ideas going from “flavour of the month” to
“yesterday’s garbage” in a blink.
You can spend months or years getting to the top of Google, only for the search algorithms to
change and to find yourself invisible all over again, and your traffic (and business) down the
drain. So I would NEVER advise anyone to consider internet marketing as a business – the only
people who make money out of it are the gurus who sell off their unwanted secrets because
they’re now out of date!

Do you think if someone really does have a strategy to make money from the net, they’re going
to accept even $1000 from you, when they could be enjoying a monopoly all to themselves? Not
likely! By the time you see those strategies on sale, they are dead in the water!
So with that in mind, this book is designed to deliver the crucial knowledge of wealth creation
and maintenance that hardly anyone is ever taught, and which was certainly not part of any
diploma or degree program you may have studied.
The simple reason that I can share this information is that the businesses I’m going to be talking
about cannot become over-saturated, and are so open to competition that practically anyone can
make excellent money, and people who’re prepared to commit can make incredible money. And
none of that will detract in any way, shape or form, on what I do in my own home business. It’s
win/win!
In a nutshell, this book outlines the 4 options for making money, and demonstrates that 3 of them
are either a poverty trap or leave you exposed to risk, and only 1 of them (the home business
model) is simple, rapid, and risk-free, as well as holding the single biggest potential for you to
quite literally choose your income, and choose whether that is hands on, or totally passive
income.
Will you do this simple strategy? Pretty much 100% of people COULD do this strategy because
you don’t need any special skills or knowledge to start out – it’s just that most people don’t, and
as you read more you’ll see why, and you’ll also understand why anyone with an ounce of pro-
activity does so well.
However I can guarantee that 99% of the people reading this book will either not take action, or
will not take correct action, and are not open to even free learning OR ASSISTANCE to take
action using this simple strategy. Over the last 37 years I’ve been involved in business, it’s often
been tough to watch people who COULD succeed, not even try, or give up at the first hurdle.
I’ve reconciled myself with this somewhat over those years, but I still hate to see people struggle,
or short-change themselves, when I know they could be working smarter, and getting a lot more
out of life.
Read on and decide for yourself whether you are one of the 1% who will benefit from this simple
strategy.
(Co-incidentally, studies show that by age 65 less than 1% of people will be wealthy. With

pensions and superannuation likely to crumble as governments seek to support the baby-boomers
as they move into retirement, this is a figure that you need to take very seriously.)

Why Home Businesses Fail
Home businesses fail significantly less than the failure rate of traditional businesses, and slightly
less than franchises fail. Some people try to blame the failure of home businesses on the business
model itself but there is really no evidence for that.
The real reasons that home businesses fail are the same reasons that ANY business fails: either
the new business owner failed to do adequate due diligence (even though they THOUGHT they
did), or the new business owner was simply not personally or professionally equipped to run it
successfully.
This book will comprehensively cover these matters so that you can literally guarantee your
success in your home business, to any level you desire, whether that is a few hundred dollars per
month extra, or hundreds of thousands of dollars per month extra.
How Much Money Do You Need or Want?
Some people have small dreams and some people have enormous dreams. If you were to sit
down and make a list of every hope, desire or goal that you had, without once thinking in terms
of money constraints, what would be on that list?
Are you happy to live with those kinds of constraints, or in your heart of hearts would you prefer
to have more choices, and be able to confer the same benefits on your children when they were
ready to handle that freedom?
The amount of money that you need or want in order to feel that you have “enough” will be
different to what someone else requires. If you feel that you can live on a few hundred dollars a
week and you feel confident that your current savings can generate that in your retirement, or if
you feel confident that your pension or superannuation fund will pay that out in retirement, then
maybe you already have all that you require and this book is a waste of time for you. Pass it on to
someone else. Given what’s happening to the economy I’d consider that type of confidence
deeply unwise, but it’s not my job to convince people of that.
However if you know that you need or want more than what you already have, if you want to get
rid of debt, or if you have hopes and dreams that require more cash, or if you want to be able to

help your children more, or help a worthy cause dear to your heart, then this book is perfect for
you.
Likewise if you are currently in a situation that is causing pain because you don’t have enough
power of choice in how you spend your time, if you’re being torn from the people who need you
because of a job that controls you, then this book is perfect for you.
The big message in this book is that unless you already have an adequate, secure source of
residual or passive income, then you need to find a way to get that.
Trained to Be Poor!
Did you ever hear these words as you were growing up?
“Work hard at school and get good marks so you can get into a good
university course.”
“Work hard at university and get good marks so you can get a good job.”
“Work for 40 or 50 hours a week, for 40 or 50 years, and if you’re lucky you
might end up owning your own home, and retire on about 1/3 of your
working income.”
Most of us have been taught that we need to spend the whole of our working lives accumulating
a lump sum investment (eg, superannuation) which will continue to deliver an income into your
retirement and cover all of your increasing expenses over that time. (We baby boomers are well
aware that pensions and other government support are evaporating by the second.)
If we go along with that view, then depending on the risk level of your investment, you’ll receive
somewhere between 4 and 10 percent interest, less whatever tax level you’re categorised at. For
most people the nest egg which can be accumulated over 40 or 50 years will be somewhere
between $500,000 and $1,000,000 dollars, providing an income between $20,000 and $100,000
per annum. Statisticians tell us that the average is actually around $30,000 per couple -
absolutely not enough to live on.
If you were able to save to that extent, how long would it take you to save that amount of
money? How old would you be by then? What are your chances of getting hold of that cash if
you continue doing what you’re currently doing? Is there really a faster way that can short-cut
years of arduous saving?
Let’s take a look

WORK FROM HOME
Choose Smart & Live the Dream
Chapter 3: Your Financial Options
Option 1 – Get Another Job or Win a Raise
If you want to stay in the job lottery (and maybe you have no choice while you build up your
home business) you can increase your current income and save more money by:
• Getting a second job
• Having your spouse get a second job
• Studying for a better qualification and getting a better job
• Winning a raise in your current position
• Getting a promotion to a higher-paid position
You may be able to increase your income by perhaps $10-20,000 per annum with this strategy,
minus tax at a higher rate. You should be able to save maybe an extra $7-15,000 per annum with
this strategy, and if you did this for 20 years without ever dipping into it, the accumulated
savings and interest would be somewhere between $300,000 and $893,000. At the end of 20
years, that would generate a passive income of between $12,000 and $89,000 per annum, less
any taxes payable.
Of course, in 20 years that money won’t be worth anything like what those sums represent right
now!
For the overwhelming majority of people, this is nowhere near enough to live on, with any
degree of comfort, let alone freedom. But it’s a choice that the majority of people make, and for
some people it may be all that they’re capable of.
What usually drives people away from the employment scenario is the pain of not having enough
money to live the life of their choice, and also not having control over their time, having to
literally ask permission of a boss before making decisions about where to be, and for how long.
This latter issue was brought home to me very loud and clear when a colleague described having
to take holiday leave in order to visit a critically ill brother. Unfortunately as it turned out it
became obvious that he was going to pass away in the relatively near future and of course every
shred of her being wanted to be there with him and the rest of the family at such a tragic time.
My colleague was put in a position where she actually had to call her boss and literally beg to be

allowed to stay, and it was then that she realised she’d been living the life of a slave, where her
time was not her own. Never again.
Option 2 – Start a Business
Only this morning I was looking at a list of our State’s top 100 wealthy people and what stood
out was that invariably they were entrepreneurs, and invariably they had made money in
businesses associated with engineering, mining, oil and gas, or large hospitality or education
holdings. Nowhere was there anyone who’d made big money in small business.
Nevertheless it’s quite surprising how many people think that starting their own small business is
a smart way to accumulate wealth or to build an asset which has real value. The cold hard facts
are that something like 90% of small businesses fail, and that most business owners don’t
actually own a saleable business, but instead have “bought a job”; one that pays poorly and robs
them of personal and family time, as well as providing a whole lot of stress.
If you’re lucky enough to survive the first 3 years, you certainly will not have made a profit in
most cases. Most businesses don’t even break even in that time.
Starting a business, whether buying a business or building a new business, is an expensive, high-
risk strategy that could lose everything you have worked so hard for.
Option 3 – Learn to Invest in Property or Shares
Really I should put these in 2 different categories because property investment is so much more
secure than investing in shares or trading in shares. But one only has to see how property prices
have plummeted in the United States virtually overnight, and are still falling month to month in
Australia, to realise that even this has its risks.
Lots of people think that things can’t get much worse in Australia, but despite our mineral wealth
we are absolutely at the mercy of our international markets. If China crashes, or no longer needs
our minerals because it has its own (and it currently owns 100% of a massive mining operation
in Western Australia and is about to build another, plus it is working on alternative sources in
developing nations where they can secure supplies more cheaply) then our resources sector
would crash overnight.
As I write this, share prices worldwide are crashing and many analysts are predicting a worse
scenario than the Great Depression.
In relation to share trading there are “outfits” (I won’t dignify them with the word

“organisations”) which promise to teach you to make money on the stock market whether it is
doing well or poorly. If this were true then don’t you think the most skilful and highly-
experienced brokers in the world would be doing it for themselves? Sure there are success
stories, but most people waste their multi-thousand-dollar training courses and lose money on the
stock exchange as well. Money they didn’t have.
So while investing in blue-chip stocks may be wise, and while prudent property investment may
be wise, both of these require substantial cash or assets in order to secure the shares or property,
and both take time to return an income. Plus both carry risks, particularly in today’s economic
climate.
My advice is to look at them, but don’t use them as your main source of income because that
would make you 100% exposed to risk. You need another “iron in the fire” in order to both
accumulate wealth, and assure a continuing, growing income over the years, one that keeps
coming whether you work or not, which you can sell or bequeath to your children as you see fit
in your declining years.
Option 4 – The No-Risk or Almost-No-Risk, Home Business Residual Income Strategy
Only about 1% of people do really well with this strategy and that’s because 99% of the
population:
• Make the wrong choice because they don’t do proper due diligence. I’m going to be spending
a lot of time and space on due diligence in this book so that you will not be one of those people!
• Won’t even look at it because they presume they’re all the same (most times having had only
the most appalling experiences of it and watched loved ones lose money and more because they
“bought a dud”). If you’ve had a closed mind to the potential of this type of business, be
prepared for some very pleasant surprises.
• Won’t even look at it because they think they have to sell, and “selling” is a dirty word. In
fact if you have to “sell”, it’s a dud! And anyway, the most high-pressure people in my business
are not those who’ve come from professional sales backgrounds. The very worst are ordinary
people with a lot of enthusiasm, who come across way too enthusiastic and pushy. My hardest
job is teaching people NOT to sell. NOBODY appreciates being sold at.
• Are not prepared to stick to a simple plan – these people keep trying to re-invent the wheel,
only they keep re-inventing it square and wonder why it won’t work. You’re not going to get

anywhere by ignoring a proven plan in favour of seat-of-the-pants experimentation. Some people
are just too “maverick” and thereby avoid success, rather than enjoying it.
• Think they have no time, when in fact if it’s the real deal they can do it on 1 hour a week.
Most people I talk to are high-quality professionals or business owners and almost without
exception they initially believe they don’t have enough time. The problem is that most people
don’t manage their time as efficiently as they could – when we work together to streamline their
day and make it so much easier, it’s always possible to find at least 1-5 hours that they can
conveniently dedicate to building their own successful home business. If financial security is
important to them, they'll find time. If it's not, they won't.
• Have an attitude problem and are simply too negative to be involved in a strategy that relies
on authentic relationship building. You actually have to like yourself, and like other people, and
have a genuine interest in being the best that you can, personally and professionally, and be
willing to commit to lifelong learning. Anything less will achieve only mediocre results, if any.
• Won’t ask for help. No-one ever succeeded in business by themselves. In every case of a
successful business person, there was invariably a whole, giant network of people around him or
her. Success is a team effort and we need to have the strength of character and maturity to
recognise when we’re out of our depth, or when we’ve hit upon a personal or professional
weakness, or lack knowledge. We need to feel perfectly comfortable about working with more
experienced or skilled team members in order to keep moving ahead.
This strategy that I’m talking about is network marketing. Now put away your garlic and
crosses and listen up.
A few years ago I wrote a book called “Why 98% of Downlines Fail” in an attempt to protect
people involved in network marketing, simply because the problems in the industry were so
appalling and so many people were getting hurt. I set up a web site with free membership to
accompany this free book so that people could get the help they needed, regardless of which
company they’d joined.
I wrote the “MLM Code of Ethics” because despite the industry peak body having brilliant
ethics, these weren’t being translated to the coalface, except within a handful of model
companies.
So I am a fan of the industry in general for the reasons you’ll shortly see, but a pretty loud critic

of the bad practices I’m sure you’ve come across.
The reason I’m a critic is that I see too many companies that operate more like pyramid schemes
than bona fide businesses, and especially too many companies that have products that are over-
priced or which people don’t really want. I also see companies that are still stuck in the cowboy
days of the industry, or where a lot of distributors engage in unprofessional, bullying behaviour.
The reason I’m a fan is that this is truly the most egalitarian business model in the world,
where the guy at the bottom can earn more than the guy at the top, if the compensation plan is
fair. And it’s an industry where it really is possible, provided you pick the right company, to
build a sustainable residual income that can deliver any level of wealth that you choose. The
good companies provide incredible support and resources and literally work alongside you every
step of the way to give you the expertise you need, and the information you need to reach that
success. There are not-so-nice people in every industry, but generally you’ll find good people in
good companies.
It’s also an industry which can deliver wealth where there has been poverty, and can protect
troubled economies from the impact of local catastrophe. It’s an industry that can make every
business person a global business, competing easily on a world scale. It’s an industry where an
ordinary person, with commitment and diligence, can indeed achieve any income he/she dreams
of.
The next chapter is about how to avoid even well-meaning duds, and how to pick the strongest,
most lucrative and most enduring business you possibly can.
WORK FROM HOME
Choose Smart & Live the Dream
Chapter 4: The Process of Due Diligence
Crucial to your success is picking the right company, and here’s a simple list of due diligence
items that should always be carefully checked but almost never are. You can ignore these and
just go by gut feeling, or just believe the sales material or information that the company itself has
given you, but do that at your peril. If you want to achieve wealth, you need to have a
professional approach to the selection of your company, and to the execution of their proven
business building strategy.
You also need to be skeptical, and avoid gullibility at all costs. This means developing a level of

sophistication particularly when it comes to checking out scientific claims, because I can tell you
that there are the most ridiculous, obscene, claims being made out there by traditional businesses,
and by network marketing businesses alike, especially in the area of health and beauty, and even
more especially in the area of anti-aging. There are companies that are obsolete, but are
desperately hanging onto market share by trying to trick you into thinking they, too, have a
genuine anti-aging product, or a genuine weight loss product.
The following will help to protect you against being taken for a ride, as a business owner or as a
consumer!
The 14 Steps of Due Diligence
1 – You need to have a product or products which many people strongly desire, which is not
available any other way or anywhere else, and which is affordable and competitively priced.
Wow, that’s a lot packed into one heading, but I urge you to consider each aspect very carefully.
If there isn’t a proven, ravenous consumer market for the product then you’ll be pushing the
“proverbial” uphill every time you show people. If it’s a common thing they can get anywhere,
trust me, they’d rather keep doing that than change their purchasing habits and buy from you. If
it’s not affordable, or priced above what people are already buying, then again it’s going to be
hard going.
There are a lot of network marketing companies where there isn’t actually any real consumer
base, and where the only people buying are the distributors in order to get their point score up.
This is not a real business and there is next to no hope that you will make money. There must be
a genuine consumer market of people who are crazy for the product.
So if the product is one that people are crazy for, if it’s a complete monopoly and they can’t get
it anywhere else, and if the price is terrific, then you know you’re not going to have to struggle to
move big volumes. It’ll just be a matter of sharing it and people will be making up their own
minds and pulling out their credit cards.
Many companies claim that their products are “the highest quality” or “the most natural”. These
days that is nowhere near enough! The world is absolutely awash with completely natural,
highest possible quality products and this is no longer a competitive advantage! You need a
degree of exclusivity which is way above this in order to really succeed.
Why waste your time on boring or dud products when you can be involved with products that are

so exciting and unique that people think of you as their new best friend?
Now here is an incomplete list of the types of products that in my opinion you definitely should
avoid:
Coffee – coffee, despite what the MLM company will tell you, is not a differentiated product.
They may see it that way, and their distributors may see it that way, but I assure you the general
public does not, and that’s what counts. Relatively few people are going to think that it’s sensible
or convenient to buy your “special”, expensive coffee by auto-ship from you rather than just pop
their favourite brand into their shopping trolley at the supermarket. Sure some people are making
big money, but it’s hard, hard going, working with this type of product. My advice: avoid this
type of deal like the plague.
Chocolate – exactly as for coffee.
Cleaning products – exactly as for chocolate.
Health drinks – yes, I know there are some good products out there, but the problem is that they
are way, way too expensive and people end up dumping them and going back to their old habits.
You’re constantly suffering from loss of your customer base, and having to find new customers
all over again. You simply cannot build a business that will sustain you after retirement on this
basis.
Jewelry – way too much competition. And there’s no guaranteed flow of consumables from
month to month.
Clothing – exactly as for jewelry.
Communications technology - this includes telephone services, email services, video calling
services, etc. (See the section on technological immunity to understand why these are bad news.)
Anything where you have to convince people that what you have is better than what they’re
already using, unless it is an absolute world beater that can do phenomenal things that nothing
else can get close to. You must be picky!

2 – Again regarding products, there must be proof of any claims
It’s so difficult for the man in the street, without the benefit of skills in business analysis or
critical thinking, and without knowledge of how to assess so-called scientific data, to make an
informed decision.

The health and wellness industry is awash with claims that are merely vague inferences, or are
backed up by invalid or low-grade scientific references, or aren’t backed by anything at all. One
slimming product had a scientific study that was done in a third-world country by fairly
unknown academics - this type of "study" is absolutely meaningless. Don't join a business in this
industry unless there are rigorous 3rd-party studies by scientists who are regarded as being at the
top of their field and are associated with world-respected universities or laboratories.
I often get sent requests by people to check out the science behind their product. They’re
invariably as pleased as punch to be able to sock it to a big-mouth like me by showing me that
they do too have proper scientific evidence for the claims made for their products. If that’s you
please don’t bother – invariably I find these so-called studies full of potholes that a 4th-year
science student would spot a mile off, packed with conclusions that are not in any way supported
by the very data they quote, run by scientists who are about as far from the head of their field as
you could imagine, and certainly not major, randomised, double-blind, controlled, cross-over
studies designed, run and analysed by people qualified to do so.
Even worse, they offer bucket loads of testimonials as if this were some kind of proof. This is
absolutely not proof because for every person who claims a benefit, there could be thousands of
people who've gained nothing. As an example, look at the credence that hypnosis has as a quit
smoking strategy. Almost everyone knows someone who knows someone who's quit smoking
after hypnosis. However if you keep records of large numbers of people who've tried hypnosis to
quit smoking, you'll see that less than 1% succeed. That's a lower rate than people who try to
quit simply by going "cold turkey".
So if you see some silly wrist band that claims to increase people’s energy levels, or give them
superior sports performance, or some other such claims, run a mile! If you see a weight loss
product, run a bigger mile, because one thing we absolutely know is that no product currently on
the market achieves permanent weight loss. Even the weight loss shakes that are around now
don’t work. Over time people’s tummies adapt to them and they just stop working! If you don’t
believe me, check out the forums of users and listen to their stories.
Please, before you sign your name, before you hand over a dollar, just put “product name, scam”
into your browser and see what respected scientists have to say. Also Google “has anyone used
product X” and you’ll come right up close and personal with the failure of that product to do

what has been promised.
There certainly are some amazing products out there, but they are few and far between.
3 – Don’t let them “nickel and dime” you
I often see companies with products or services that merely deliver a few cents or a few dollars
per transaction, per person. This means that you need to find hundreds or thousands of customers
before you break even. If you can’t show your prospective downline how to make money
quickly, why would anyone look twice at your company?
Sure they’ll tell you that you need to build a big team in order to get LEVERAGE that will
multiply those cents into hundreds or thousands of dollars. Why not combine this principle of
leverage with a decent amount of income per transaction? Don’t settle for a few cents or dollars
per transaction because you don’t have to!
Make sure the flow of income is substantial even for beginners.
4 – Don’t stock big inventories or do monthly orders of stuff you don’t need!
I’m always horrified when people show me companies which require people to carry large
stocks, or to purchase advance orders of stock they don’t personally need. Some time ago a dear
colleague asked me to review an opportunity he was assessing. There were several things wrong,
but a key fault was that they required him to purchase over $300 of stock per month which he
was expected to onsell.
In some businesses that wouldn’t be such a big problem but this one was in a competitive market
where people could already get an equivalent product cheaper. He had to find 150 new customers
(whom he would personally deliver to) or a regular retailer (whom he would also personally
deliver to) who would put it on the shelf at a wholesale price higher than they were already
selling other product at retail. It was total madness.
5 – Don’t get involved in businesses where you’re running around delivering to customers
This is another of my pet hates and I regard it as completely unprofessional of the company to
require its distributors to do this. In fact I get angry when I see competent business builders have
their time wasted in this way, let alone being dumped with the delivery costs which the company
should be handling!
Make sure that from day 1 of your business, you are building leverage, NOT creating a job for
yourself. The question you need to ask yourself is “who’s going to do this after I’m gone?” If the

answer is “no-one” then you don’t have a business.
6 - The product/s should be immune to technological change
We can never be totally sure with technology whether something is going to last, or whether a
company is going to stay at the forefront and therefore survive and thrive. If the product/s carry
strong patents and it would appear that no-one can duplicate or improve on it, then you’re onto a
winner.
If it’s communication technology for instance and you can see that pretty soon it’s probably
going to be free or almost free and offered all over the place, then you sure wouldn’t base a
business on it!
Example 1 – Video Phones: there is a technology company which has as its showpiece some
video phone technology. The fact is that even right now people can do free video calling with
their mobile phone, anywhere in the world, including conference video calls. We even have
internet-enabled televisions that can replace the home phone altogether. This company is a slow-
motion train wreck and yet to this day people are still flocking to it!
Example 2 - Video Email Facility: another company offers video email facility, quoting studies
that show increased open rates and increased response rates on video emails. Anyone can already
send video emails FOR FREE if they know the simple method, and as more people become
technologically savvy, this is a service that will soon be NOT ONLY completely free but
probably a simple add-on for Outlook or some such. But of course they’re signing up heaps of
new people who are completely unaware that their business will soon be obsolete.
I’ve got a lovely old business friend who has basically chucked in her interior design business to
devote the last years of her working life to this dud business. I’ve tried to point out that people
can already send video emails for free but she’s so financially and emotionally trapped that she
can’t listen.
And by the way, the only studies I’ve seen about video mails were about how intrusive people
found them. If I got 100 video emails in my inbox I’d be putting the whole box through another
layer of filtering to block them out.
7- There should be a flow of consumables via automatic monthly delivery that pretty much
every customer WANTS
One of the biggest complaints about network marketing is that there is no genuine consumer

market because the only people who buy and use the products are the distributors. In most cases
this is absolutely true so I’m the last person who would debate or criticize that complaint.
THERE ABSOLUTELY MUST BE A PROVEN CONSUMER MARKET FOR THE
PRODUCT, AND THAT MARKET MUST HAVE DEMONSTRATED THAT PEOPLE ARE
BUYING AGAIN AND AGAIN BECAUSE THEY RAMPANTLY DESIRE THAT
PRODUCT. END OF STORY.
Also, if you have to constantly find new clients, instead of having clients that buy and buy again
automatically, then it will be a struggle. There’s no leverage in that. By having products that
people really WANT regularly, and which attract a significant discount and other rewards by
being on auto-ship, you’ll ensure continuity of that income stream, as well as eventually a huge
raft of customers who rave about your products to others and literally act as your happy sales
team!
If you will get this right, you’ll quickly build a global business because as people refer to others,
that will include friends and contacts all around the world. Brenda will know someone in
Sydney, who will know someone in Jersey, who will know someone in Cape Town, who will
know someone in New York, and so on and so on. This kind of news spreads fast, and this is
exactly why word of mouth beats anything you can do on the internet, for example.
One very savvy company actually uses auto-ship to build customer loyalty and retention, and
increase sales at the same time, by not only discounting auto-ship over standard purchases, but
by giving back a massive rebate in free products of the consumer’s choice. This leads to
consumer’s trialling products they otherwise would not have experienced, and liking these so
much that they add them to their future orders.
Who gets the benefit? The company, the distributor who found the customer in the first place,
and the customer! Now that’s smart!
8 - The age of the company is a good indication that it’ll be around for a while yet!
You might be surprised to know that thousands of new network marketing companies start up
every year, and thousands die. The younger a company is, the less of a track record it has, and
the more risk you are taking on.
This doesn’t mean that all young companies should be avoided, or that all old companies are a
good choice, but it’s an indication. If you’re in your 20’s and have got time to get it wrong, you

can afford to take more risk. If you’re 30’s or above, you should more likely stick to solid
companies that have exceptional track records.
I’ve known of highly-skilled distributors who’ve spent months or even years building up a very
lucrative home business, only to have the parent company collapse and the products disappear,
along with their monthly cheque. Don’t invest your time or your energy in something that is
unlikely to go the distance.
9 – The founders and chief executives should be people of excellent repute
This may surprise you but there is a strong prevalence of business failure, lousy ethics, and even
criminality in this industry mainly because it’s seen as a “get rich quick” scenario. It attracts the
worst of people as well as the very best of people.
Check carefully that you are joining a company led by the best of people. Find out who are the
founders and the key executives, as well as the leading scientists both on staff and on the
scientific advisory board. Google their names along with the words: scam, crime, problem,
complaint, court case, etc, to dig all the dirt you can.
I did this when a colleague tried to sell me on a company selling a bogus “energy bracelet” and
discovered that the founder had lied about his credentials (he didn’t actually have any), that an
“award” he’d been given was from a colleague, that a patent he claimed to have in fact had been
rejected by the patent office (I saw a signed copy of the rejection letter), that the one and only
“scientist” on the team was a discredited doctor currently being investigating for distributing
controlled substances, and that the only other “doctor” was a chiropractor whose only association
with a university was as a track team coach. Did my friend want to know about this stuff? No
way, he flatly refused to believe it!
Please be very skeptical, but at the same time recognise that not all complaints or criticism are
valid. All big companies have skeletons in the closet, like past and existing legal cases for
instance. You can’t achieve without stepping on toes, and business generally (not just network
marketing) was once pretty “wild west”. And remember that human beings work in all
companies, and human beings can and do make mistakes, and can and do make poor judgement
calls also. Everyone is working toward higher levels of professionalism and ethics.