With the worldwide economy in a mess, millions of people losing their jobs, and government bailouts of big companies occurring on a regular basis, people are now, more than ever before, desperately looking for another source of income should anything happen to their primary job. Unfortunately, the odds are that the economy is going to get worse, before it starts getting better.

You probably know someone who has been affected by the current economy, and the effects of the current economic crisis are just now beginning. More layoffs, job cuts, and general economic upheaval are still on the horizon. But while these facts may be depressing, there is some good news for those people who are open-minded enough to look for it.

Do You Have a Plan ‘B’?

While I’m sure you may have considered starting your own business at one time or another, there is no better time than now to get started in your own home based business. Think about it, thousands upon thousands of people worldwide are searching daily, looking for something to help them with their current economic struggles. Whether they need an income due to a lost job or are looking for something “just in case”, the opportunity to profit from your own home business has never been better.

One of the best home business types to start during a down economy is a Network Marketing business. Here are a few of the reasons why Network Marketing is the best opportunity in times of economic strife.

Low Start-Up Costs

Depending on which network marketing opportunity you choose, your start-up costs can range anywhere between $0-$500, with the average start-up investment being $299. As you can see, it’s quite affordable to start your own home business.

Can Create An Immediate Income

If you desperately need an immediate influx of income, you can easily offer your products to friends, family, and acquaintances. Since most network marketing companies offer 15-30% retail profit on their products, you can make much needed money quickly.

Ability To Set Your Own Hours

Think about it. You’re the boss of your own business. You set the hours you want to work. It’s one of the great things about owning your own business. You make the rules.

Work From The Comfort Of Your Own Home

This is obvious since it is a home based business, but it is a perk none-the-less. While it does take some discipline to work at home instead of relax or play, the rewards are well worth it.

Earn Passive, Residual Income That Can Pay You For Years To Come

One of the benefits of starting a network marketing business from home is that you can generate a residual income by sponsoring others into your business. You’ll earn a residual, royalty override on all the business the person you sponsor generates. While initially small, this residual income can grow over time to be an significant portion of your income.

Work With The People You Want To Work With

Since this is YOUR home business, you can work with whoever you want to. If you don’t like someone, then you don’t have to work with them. As a network marketing leader, it’s up to you to determine who you should be spending your time with.

Special Incentives, Recognition, Vacations

Every network marketing company has some form of special incentives, recognition programs, and incentive vacation trips which help to motivate their business group leaders. Among these incentives you’ll find car allowances, cash bonuses, special recognition when you meet a specific volume levels, and some of the best trips to exotic locales.

The Ability To Pass Your Business To Your Heirs

This is another great feature of having your own network marketing business. The opportunity to build a big business and then pass it on to your children is a major incentive to a lot of people. You’ll never have to worry about your children (or their children) having enough money.

Can Replace And Even Exceed The Income Of Your Job

Depending on your hard work and dedication to your network marketing business, you can replace and eventually exceed the income of your current job. This is a major benefit of owning your own home business, and the number one reason many people are attracted to network marketing.

While there are many other reasons to start your own home network marketing business, these are, in my opinion, some of the most important. As always, when you decide to start your own business, take your time and pick a company that you feel comfortable with. I hope this article has given you some insight into why you should have a Plan ‘B’.

Network Marketing is one of the best business models available today for the average person looking to create long term residual wealth.

Unfortunately, since the vast majority of people who get involved in network marketing do not have prior business ownership experience, they may not understand some of the pitfalls that can be associated with the industry.

Hopefully, this article will help you to understand some of the things that you should be looking at when you are considering associating yourself with any network marketing company.

1. The Company Management, Customer Service, Company Reputation

Does the company management have long experience with integrity? Is there a phone number and physical address located on their website? Check http://earth.google.com to see if their location is a house or a business. Are they a member of the BBB? Are there excessive complaints with their local chapter of the BBB? Do they have an excessive number of unresolved complaints? Are they a member of the DSA (Direct Selling Association)? Do they have a track record of great customer service?

2. The Timing

Has the company been in business less than two years? Never get involved with a startup unless you are willing to take the chance to lose everything that you have built. Because of the enormous growing pains that startup network marketing companies face, the vast majority of new network marketing companies will fail within the first two years. Do not allow yourself to be a guinea pig just because something sounds too good. Remember the old saying: If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

3. The Product

Is the product or products unique? Are they fairly priced? Are the products consumable? Could you purchase a similar quality product for less elsewhere? If the product is a service, could you get the service somewhere else for less? Would you purchase the product if a pay plan was not involved? Is the product worth selling?

4. The Pay Plan

Is the pay plan easy to understand? Is it fair? Are there any sponsoring conditions required to receive a commission check? Are the independent contractor’s agreement and the terms and conditions easy to understand? Since the majority of your team will be part-timers, does the compensation plan reward the part-timers as well as the full-time networkers? Can you make money retailing the product without sponsoring anyone?

5. The System

The thing to consider here is that people are not duplicatable, but systems are. Does the company and/or upline have a system in place for training? Is there someone there to help you past the learning curve? Are the brochures, catalogs, samples, and training materials reasonably priced?

These are just some of the questions that you should be asking yourself prior to joining any network marketing company. Spend some time investigating the company and upline prior to signing on the bottom line.

Finally, once you find a company that you believe answers all your questions and you feel that you could promote with integrity, then never quit, never give up, do the work, and enjoy your success.

I wrote this article a couple of years ago, and it became fairly popular on several article directories, with thousands of views and many newsletter owners immediately picked it up since it is a decent primer on network marketing.

Why Network Marketing?

Perhaps a better question to ask would be “Why Not Network Marketing?”

Of all the various types of home businesses, Network Marketing has proven itself over the years to be the leading method by which the average person can achieve above average results.

Thousands of people, just like you, join Network Marketing companies every single day. Whether you’re only looking to make a few hundred dollars extra each month or create a large residual income, Network Marketing can help you achieve your goals.

“But what exactly is Network Marketing?”

Network Marketing is a method of moving products from the manufacturer to the consumer via word of mouth advertising. Instead of the middleman (wholesaler or jobber) taking his or her cut before moving the product to the retailer, the ability to earn that money is passed directly on to you, the Network Marketing distributor.

For example, a traditional brick and mortar business model goes something like this:

Manufacturer -> Wholesaler -> Retailer -> Consumer

The manufacturer creates the product and sells it to the wholesaler/jobber who then raises the price and moves the product to the retailer. Since the retailer is in business to make a profit, he too must raise the price. The end effect is that the consumer could be paying a lot more than they should be for that particular product.

The Network Marketing business model is somewhat different.

Network Marketing Company -> Distributor (You) -> Consumer

In this example you can see that the Network Marketing Company is selling the products directly to you, the distributor, and you move then on to the end consumer. This allows you, the distributor, to receive the difference in price from wholesale to retail, which would, in a traditional business model, be taken by the wholesaler and retailer.

But that’s only part of it. When you help someone else get started in his or her own Network Marketing business, you will receive an override, or residual, on the volume of business that person does, which can, in and of itself, end up being a large portion of your overall earnings.

“But I’ve heard that Network Marketing has a 95% failure rate.”

This is true of all small businesses, home and traditional brick and mortar, not just Network Marketing, but the figure tends to be incredibly misleading. People quit things all the time for various reasons, not just Network Marketing. Maybe they didn’t understand that Network Marketing does require work, or they don’t have enough time to build it right now, or possibly the time just isn’t right for them.

Whatever the reason people quit, they don’t want to admit to themselves why they quit, so they end up blaming Network Marketing in general or this or that company in particular. This is why Network Marketing gets such a bad rap in the media.

But thousands upon thousands of people worldwide are earning a portion of or a large part of their incomes directly from Network Marketing. So the business model does work…if you work it.

Whether you get involved with Network Marketing or not is your decision. I’d recommend that you keep an open mind, do your due diligence, investigate several different companies, and then make your decision, based not other people’s opinions, but your own research.

I wrote this article a couple of years ago, and since I lost all of this blog’s content, I thought I’d repost it here now. This article got quite a few views at ezinearticles.com, and also several people posted it to there newsletters.

What’s funny is it only took me about 10 minutes to write. One of the fastest articles I’ve ever written. So here it is:

Have You Succumbed To The Dark Side Of Network Marketing?

As I was watching one of my all time favorite movies, Star Wars, today, I was reminded of my first years in Network Marketing and the hotel meetings that were the “proper” way back then to build a Network Marketing business.

You may have been to one of these types of meetings before, but let me give you a quick rundown of how they usually went.

False excitement fills the crowd as someone rapidly walks on-stage, grabs the mike, and spends the next ten minutes telling you how much of a privilege it is for him to be here, and how privileged you are to be there, to listen to Mr. X, who’s a super successful businessman, that only today decided to fly in from some exotic locale, just so he could show you how to be super successful too.

And won’t you please give a big round of applause for Mr. X! (at this time a bunch of people in the front rows all jump up and start clapping ecstatically and whistling)

Begin Theme Music: Darth Vader March Dum Dum Dum Dum De Dum Dum De Dum

Mr. X, dressed in a professionally tailored suit, diamond cuff links, rolex, and diamond ring, slowly makes his way from the back of the room to the front, taking the time to point to people in the crowd and shake a few hands.

As he makes his way on-stage, he stops to shake the hand of the person who just spent the last ten minutes introducing him, who almost faints from the excitement of being in such close proximity to Mr. X.

Mr. X then spends the next 45 minutes explaining how he went from a dirt poor sharecropper to a multi-millionaire, with all the money, houses, cars, boats, etc, to prove it, and all because of network marketing. He even pulls out a wad of $100 dollar bills and explains that he never leaves home now without at least $10,000 in what he calls “traveling money”. After that he spends less than 5 minutes “Showing The Plan”, hands off the mike to another person who closes the meeting by telling you to get back with the person who brought you there.

Does any of that sound familiar? What just happened?

You were being seduced by the Dark Side of Network Marketing.

The money, the exotic vacations, the clothes, the jewelry, etc…

The Dream of Overwhelming Abundance.

These things in and of themselves are not a part of the Dark Side.

It was the tactics that were being used in those meetings that were.

The Hype, The Lies, and The Misleading Statements…

Think about it. Have you succumbed to the Dark Side?