She finds literally hundreds and hundreds of offers with a simple search of terms like “make extra money” or “work from home.” They promise her the moon and the stars, all with just an investment of $49. After looking at a few, and knowing she truly needs a financial break, she commits herself to doing without a few simpler pleasures one month in order to invest her funds and takes the plunge.
Often, the purchase she made is into some sort of network marketing or multi-level-marketing type of opportunity, where the “plan” seems to be to sell some over-priced product of average quality, at a ridiculously low profit margin and to find hundreds of others to do the same. Maybe she even goes so far as to even commit to some impossible-to-cancel monthly auto-ship program in order to keep herself at an optimal percentage bracket.
At this point, the reality sets in for Jane. She hits up her friends and family to get some orders (and out of love for her, a few do place an order). Perhaps she even has the guts to talk to a few strangers. If she's rare, she might even go so far as to have some business cards printed up and hands them out to a few dozen strangers, in an effort to drum up some business.
What often happens for so many of these Janes is, at the very best, perhaps they make a $100 check for their investment of $350 altogether (counting all expenses like their own purchases of products, business cards, gas going to and fro, “business lunches,” etc.,). It seems like all she needs to do is keep trying. Most don't even end up doing this good.
But, after a few months, she finally realizes the plan she was offered on the company's website isn't what she's experiencing. She starts noticing the very same product she's trying to market for $50 is available at the local Wal-Mart for $20. Sometimes it's at the local dollar store.If she's fortunate to have good, caring friends, they point it out to her, hoping she'll drop the company like a hot potato and quit wasting her time. The smarter Janes of the world, do. Jane is crushed. Jane realizes her product is over-priced and she can't compete.
Jane also realizes the profit margin on her product is ridiculously low. Wal-Mart usually runs a minimum of 30 percent profit margin. So, if they're making 30 percent minimum on a $20 item, why is she only earning 5 to 25 percent of a $50 item? Then it hits her: The company she's working with is full of crap. They designed their marketing plan, not as a way for her to profit, but for them. While they assured her in conference call after conference call of their “commitment to her success,” all they're really interested in is their success.
She also then comes to learn how many thousands of others just like her have been promised those same moon and stars as she was. It's then that Jane sees that the real plan for the company is to get as many suckers to order their product - at a huge mark-up - as possible. Jane is crushed emotionally. And she's not the first.
All that passion, all that energy, all that work, all that money invested and here she is now, worse off than before. It seems the “Great American Dream” is dead. But it's not. Jane just fell victim to a bullshit line. She's no different than the rest of us who've been burned. She's not a “failure” at all. She just learned a valuable lesson. If Jane's a fighter, she'll come to realize a wonderful secret to making the kind of money she needs and having the kind of life she wants.
It's three little words and it's my hope that some Jane out there has kept reading this far. Here's the secret, free of charge to you, my dear readers, after having spent so much of myself to learn it for my own life: Find your passion!
All that work, energy, blood, sweat and tears selling someone else's dream enriches them. If you're going to put so much hard work, late hours and money into anyone's dream, let it be your own. This way, you're in control of prices, special deals, the rules and how you go about building the business, whatever type of business it is.
I once worked with a company (I won't say their name but their initials are A-M-W-A-Y) who had a crappy little rule that said you weren't allowed to market your product off of store shelves. So, there went any chance to build up volume bonuses intelligently. You also weren't allowed to order products in large quantity containers, such as 55-gallon drums, so there went another opportunity for me to market one particular product of theirs to friends who worked in the various oilfield industries.
Other companies I've tried working with had similar rules in place which kept their profit margins ridiculously high, while stifling every creative approach I tried for, myself. It was almost as if they didn't want me to find any real success! I've since learned this wasn't just my perception. If they limit any one individual's success, they keep more chumps on the line.
Working for yourself, on your own, personal, passionate plan also keeps anyone else from screwing you over on commissions. The closer you are to the hard, nitty-gritty details of your business operations, the more control you enjoy overall, and the less chance there is another person can find some bogus reason to not pay you what you've earned.
It doesn't matter what your passion is. Figure out how to turn what you have an interest in and go for making it profitable. As you grow your business, you'll learn all the finer details. Just start living your own life now - and not that of someone else. Otherwise, you may very well just be better off sticking with a regular 9-to-5. The world needs factory workers too. So there's no shame in it.
If you want to succeed on a long-term, real-world basis, find your own passion! Sell YOUR DREAM, not someone else's. Find what YOU love doing and do it. It's really that simple. It might actually be more work, harder stress (in some situations) and even longer hours. But, being your own baby, it's more of an act of love than a struggle. Why put all of that effort into continuously enriching someone “over you?” It's not foolish to benefit those who deal with you (In fact, I highly recommend you always strive for the mutual-win scenario in all arrangements) But to spend your days achieving someone else's dream, is. Find your passion. Sell your own dream.
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