So how much inventory is enough? What I’m talking about is how much product should you buy in order to meet your goals in relation to the short term rewards outlined in a comp plan? (Also see video at bottom of article).
My recommendation is don’t make hitting sales volume a higher priority than maintaining good control over your expenses (on the other hand, deferring “excess” sales may be win-win advantage). Building a business, including a network marketing business requires a long range vision, and your numbers will grow accordingly and organically if you have a sound business plan.
What? A business plan? I’m in network marketing, do I need a business plan?
If that is your response, you may need to realize that, in case no one is emphasizing this, you are an independent business owner (IBO). You run your own business and take responsibility for your success. Don’t just follow the Chief Goat but become a student of your personal success.
Don’t just be part of the herd, you are a business owner, start thinking for yourself! Image source: you-tube
While the social and community aspects of network marketing are crucial and well-known, the ultimate objective of any business, whether it is the company you are affiliated with or your own, is to build towards profitability.
The rewards for properly building a business are a residual income, recognition, and ultimately freedom. While you may find hitting the next rank is important for you, the question you should be asking yourself is, are you doing it in a way that is sustainable and not stealing from your future growth?
A lot of people get involved in network marketing because they don’t want to be the stereotypical “salesman” but then they end up getting some bad advice from up-lines pushing them to rank advance using techniques that are not based on the growth of your network which in turn will require them to become more of a “salesman” in order to move their inventory.
If you are a customer or an IBO, don’t end up buying a boat load of product that you cannot either use or turn around quickly and sell directly to customers. Don’t expect your downlines to absorb your inventory as this may (see your company’s regulations for sales credit transferability) take away from their future growth since they need to buy from you instead of buying directly from the mother-company. Unless all transactions can be accomplished within that month, the paperwork gets complicated, someone may not receive their due credit and it all can easily snowball into an undesirable distraction.
If your downlines are only geared up to sell product rather than building a network, then that may work out as they can still resell your inventory for their part of the profit.
If you do extend your inventory, at least have a clear plan to sell the products. If you do not have a proven mechanism in place to move your product, and you are not breaking the common sense law of not buying more than what you can realistically use in the short term, you need to ask yourself, “Why am I doing this?”
Remember, for all practical purposes, every method you employ should be duplicatable by your downline ‘for ever and ever amen’ (Thank you Randy Travis for that one).
Contrary to what you may be thinking, as wonderful as rank advancing is (and it is), the main purpose of running your business is not to rank advance, it is to build a stable and profitable business and in network marketing that means building a network of enthusiastic people, iMHO, with a passion to achieve a life of freedom. The awards will come in time.
If your vision is to ultimately have the freedom made possible by residual, recurring, continuing or legacy income, you need to be building a network, a huge network. Otherwise you’ll just be running a retail business which is much less likely to provide a powerful long lasting residual income.
To take the lesson from the tomato and pumpkin plants, absorb nutrients and grow, grow and then get more nutrients to grow some more. They just can’t sit there and absorb and absorb without growing, that would be weird and unnatural.
Are you being misguided by others about how much product to buy? Check out my video for some flora-based advice on what you should be doing.
Be like a veggie, eat what you need and grow. Veggies don’t eat more than they can handle and then stagnate, rather they grow to their potential with good soil. In the video I mention “unscrupulous” when in fact, they may not be, they may only be not as effective or misguided, perhaps too hung up on the short term rather than looking at the duplicatability-shortage of their system – In effect – providing garden soil with inadequate fertilizer.
How can you keep growing rather than continuously stock-piling?
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I’ll see you… on the next page
Challen Yee
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Also, I invite you to check out my first research on personal development in the form of a report/guide to OVERCOME this MENTAL OBSTACLE. Just sign in with your name and email on the online form on this webpage and it is all yours. BTW, I am currently planning to replace this offering with another offering, so the availability of this one is for a limited time.