If you were to invest with a company on the stock market, would you pick a company that didn’t invest back into their own business? One thing that people often get the impression of when they get started in network marketing is the idea that it takes almost no money invested into the business to get things 
started. While this may be sometimes true, it will often set the wrong tempo with the people that you are recruiting to your business. Furthermore, I have been involved with some people in network marketing that is almost feels like they are hiding what the actual costs are. It is completely true that the initial start up costs are low (usually around $500), and so are the monthly costs (usually ~$100-150), but this doesn’t mean that their isn’t a benefit of investing in yourself, whether it is time, money or effort. In fact, business mogul, and network marketing advocate Robert Kiyosaki gives us some MLM Secrets and says, “what you save in capital you will make up for in sweat equity.”
Set Your Budget
Eventhough the overall cost is low, you should have an idea and an expectation of what your monthly costs are in order to keep yourself moving forward. At the very least, you will need to have a monthly budget to pay for presentation tools, samples and most importantly, personal development tools. These may be training tools that you buy top improve your prospecting skills, work on your mindset to help you transfer to “business” mode, or putting an effort out there online to get leads, help convert your leads, or provide training for your team. One of my business partners, David Wood, advocates investing back into your own business as one of the key points that helps him continually build his business.
Setting The Stage For Disappointment
Just coming out and saying it, the best way to approach your prospects is to give them a realistic idea of what it will take for them to be successful in network marketing. I personally believe that leveraging online marketing tools is a great way to build a long, powerful business, but the monthly costs could be and additional $10 per month on a personal development book. Additionally, it is a reasonable expectation for your prospects to have internet access and have some kind of phone service (this may seem easy for some, but is a consideration for others). Also consider conference costs and other things that are encouraged for the people in your down-line to take part in. The overall point is that if you don’t come out in front and be clear about these points, it is much more likely that you will get a group of people on your team that aren’t going to be happy when the costs mount up. The other side of that is how many people do you want to go into business with that don’t have the drive or willingness to invest back into their own business? If you are forthcoming about the costs, it can really help to keep your team full of folks that really want to be there and are willing to do what it takes to make it happen. One last question to consider again with the cost situation, if you were picking a company to invest with on the stock market, would you pick a company that didn’t have a plan to invest in their own business?
Justin
