…..about average incomes, the job market, working from home and achieving
prosperity

Thanks Lucretia for compiling this.

Facts: The median income of all U.S. households in 1989 was $39,696. By the year 1993 it dropped to $36,959. That is a steady 2.7% decline per year. The fact is: “It now takes two wage earners to make what one brought in 30 years ago.” How are people making it? They are not. Consider the following statistics:

The average America has $7564 in credit card debt. The average American wakes up to an alarm clock, puts the children in day care (no stress there), deals with rush hour traffic, has little opportunity for advancement, gets only a two week vacation per year, receives little job recognition, has little job security, deals with a boss who is not
always accommodating to one’s personal life (to say the least), gives his/her all to the job and yet retires in poverty., all without much satisfaction or purpose. Even people who are winning the rat race are
feeling like a rat.

The facts:

At age 65, after 40 years of Work…

• 24% are DEAD
• 70% are Dead Broke
• 62% earn less than $10,000 annual income – including social security (!!!)
• 88% earn less than $20,000 annual income (!!!)

ONLY:

• 15% have $250+ in cash/savings at retirement
• 21% have assets of more than $35,000
• 5% are Well Off (can afford an annual vacation)
• 1% are Wealthy (live the lifestyle they please)

Where will you be with your present income and savings at the age of 65?

Where can a person go to make a better income AND have a better lifestyle? Even with the best college education, it used to be that if you joined a fine company and worked hard, you could expect to climb up the corporate ladder to success. Now job security is a thing of the past and the average college graduate is earning only $29,872 per year. I have talked with intelligent people who have worked hard for companies like Wal-Mart and Fred Meyers for 10 years and they have told me they still have not been promoted to management. Others have told me they don’t want the promotion because of all the overtime required. 40 hours a week is enough to work and the salaried income of $2,000 a month is not really a pay raise – it is just more hours.

Many family businesses are no longer a viable opportunity. Big corporations (like Wal-Marts, Fred Meyer’s, and other big department stores) buy things at such low prices due to the high volume purchases they make, the Mom and Pop stores can’t compete with their prices. They go out of business losing their life-savings as well.

Many people are finding a way to work for themselves. Is it worth it?
The fact is 74% of the wealthy people got there by working for themselves, not by working a job.

How many people do you know who would love to escape the rat race? Statistical polls show that 85% of people (conservatively 200 million Americans) would love to work for themselves… the following four basic fears held them back:

• 1) it takes too much money
• 2) it takes too much time -
• 3) it involves too much risk – 80% fail within their first two years.
  80% of those that succeed don’t make it to their fifth year.
• 4) they don’t know how – they’d never taken any business courses. They
  have had no business experience. They don’t know anything about how to
  get a product or service to market successfully or taxes, accounting,
  marketing, how to deal with workman’s comp and the myriad of other
  skills a good entrepreneur must possess. And finding and keeping
  employees who don’t steal your profits away.

So where can the average person go, or the person that is considered “too old” or “too young”, the person without a college education or with a good college education, the person without $25,000 to start up their own business, the person that is dealing with social prejudices like race, religion, gender, age, body size, looks, a poor resume, etc., the
person who wants to work from home for family reasons (able to raise their own children or take care of a family member who needs care), the person who is disabled and can only work from home, etc., etc., etc.
Where can they go to make a decent income?

In the 1960′s, franchises were considered a scam and a scheme. There was a major move in Congress to outlaw them. All that has obviously changed and franchises are now a very well respected business vehicle. With their turn-key system benefits, franchises offer a revolutionary ready made small business. You don’t need to know all there is to know about franchising to operate one. They offer a product or service, training, vendors, policies and procedures and a way to boost one’s business success. Still- 1/3 fail, 1/3 break-even and 1/3 make a profit – after 3 to 5 years. Average time commitment: 50 to 80 hours per week.
Average income ranges: $60,000 to $100,000 per year. The average
franchise cost is $85,000. A McDonald’s can cost over a million dollars
- and that’s just for the license fee. You still have to rent or buy the building, buy equipment, buy initial inventory, etc. Those costs can be another million however average around $200,000. Franchises have nevertheless come a long way in the last 40 years. Today over 34% of all goods and services sold in America – 800 billion dollars a year -
are sold through franchises! Quite an investment of time and money considering only 1/3 are making a profit!

A business vehicle that evolved from the extraordinary business concept of franchising is known as “Multi-Level Marketing” or “network marketing”. Some people believe MLM stands for “making life meaningful” as the business is wonderful for mothers who want to put first things first, work from home and make money (with this business mothers and fathers can do just that) as well as wonderful for all those frustrated by the job market who seek not only a better financial opportunity than the job market offers but also a nicer lifestyle.

Network marketing offers many of the same turn-key system benefits that a franchise offers: the main company develops the products or services (including R & D, product formulation, labeling, inventory, shipping of product to your consumer so you don’t have to warehouse product, customer service, sales taxes, liability insurance and legal matters, etc.) plus provides most of the business tools a new business owner will need to successfully run the business (tools such as promotional and educational literature, toll free numbers for ordering, registration,
information, and conference calls, websites, FOD documents, and training via conference calls, websites, national events and personal coaches and mentors supporting your success.)

Network marketing is Franchising for the common person. All you have to do is plug into the system and follow your leaders. A person can register with the company by purchasing literature and/or literature and products and be legally set up in their own independent business with all the tax shelter benefits of a home based business to boot! The cost to order just literature or literature, a website and product ranges from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand. Mean while the potential for income growth can be the same or better than most franchise opportunities- and with less risk. You can literally save thousands of dollars a year in taxes by keeping receipts and learning what legal tax deductions you can take even before you have developed a strong income .

According to the BBB, a pyramid scheme is when you put money in and get nothing back but only get a return if others join, but a legitimate MLM opportunity you get product back so even if you receive no income you can’t get ripped off. Get a copy of this. Except for Social Security and I am sure you don’t plan to count on that for your future income.

Think about it- what is the chance for someone who goes to work for a corporation like Chrysler or Wal-Mart, who starts out at the bottom and works real hard for say 5, 10 or even 20 years to rise to the top, to become the president or CEO of the company? What is the chance that they will make six figures a year and have the same long vacations and retirement pension plan the president of the company is given? In network marketing, you can create a six figure income, a great lifestyle and a nice residual retirement income, you can “rise to the top” but only by educating, training and helping enough other people to do the same.

Network marketing is a business vehicle that has doctors, lawyers, people with Ph.D.’s, college graduates, professionals and others tired of the rat race, leaving their profession to educate others on why network marketing is the most equitable opportunity there is! Think about it: average ordinary people (young, old, tall, short, overweight, disabled, no college education, etc.) are all given an equal opportunity to create income from their home. The harder working ones often are earning extraordinary income. But isn’t that the way it should be?
What makes network marketing more equitable than the “corporate pyramid” is that a person who comes in under another person has the same equal opportunity as the person that sponsored them; if they are ambitious, they can even make more money than the person who sponsored them. Where do you go in the corporate world in which you help all your workers to achieve your status or better? Usually they try to hold you back and see you as competition. Whereas with MLM everyone is working to help you have success and with Network Marketing, we have a chance to make a difference in people lives.

Another consideration: 50% of the cost of almost any product you buy from packaged cereal to your television is due to advertising costs that must be recaptured. For example, to create one new regular customer costs McDonald’s around $100. And we do get bombarded with all their advertising on radio, TV, magazines, newspapers, billboards, street benches, school vending machines, etc. Think about it: would you rather support: the big corporate advertising giants or your woman friend who is trying to raise her own children? Would you rather support your big Safeway food market or the father who is trying to support his family as his job at Wal-Mart, even when he worked over-time, was not allowing him to do so? The rich are getting richer and the poor poorer. Who do you want to support? And besides, who do you trust better, your friend who said a product worked from them, or a TV ad? The big corporations taketh away the Mom and Pop stores. The network marketing companies giveth back ‘the family business’. Yes, “trust marketing” is considered “the next step in our free enterprise system.”

Who can be successful in network marketing? Anyone who cares to help others out can be successful. Great success can be had by anyone who takes the time to educate others on products that work and a business vehicle that works. To quote an unknown author: “Wealth is hidden to those who must do it all themselves. Wealth exposes itself to thosepatient enough to train others.”

What does it really take? It takes desire and it takes vision. It takes people who treat this business vehicle with the same respect they would any other business. People who do not treat this like a potential multi-million dollar business opportunity for themselves are not going to make it big. If you treat it like just a little hobby, a little multi-level thing and if your attitude is, if it takes off, great, then maybe I’ll get more involved. You can’t treat it that way; you can’t treat it like that and expect to have rapid income. You would not start up a restaurant or a dry-cleaning business like that. If you were starting up any other type of business, you would get some training, study about it, take some college classes. You would be rearranging your schedule. You would be talking about having to do a complete focus. You would probably be putting in 16-hour days, 7 days a week for your first 9 months to three years and you would be giving it your all to get it off the ground, to make the thing work. That’s how people go into other businesses or professions. The stories go on and on from Walt Disney turned down by 83 banks before he got a yes, to Rosanne Bar being tormented for 8 years in Hollywood before she made it, to how Ford motor company came into being, toÖ you name it. Most successful people had a 5 to 10 year journey of absolutely commitment to their success before they become successful.) Give Mannatech some serious commitment and for a lot less time, effort and expense you can reap far more rewards. Now network marketing, people who do, often generate a six figure yearly income within 24 to 48 months. (Some are able to reach six figures much earlier with Mannatech.) Now, if you want to go the leisure route with this business, as there is no big financial burden and no real overhead as with most businesses, you certainly can work your own pace. You will have many dropouts and that is to be expected when you go slowly, yet it can still work.

If you have tried network marketing and it did not work for you, do not say “never” again! You only need to align yourself with the right company, products you can be excited, even passionate about sharing with others because they work. Also get with the active successful people upline who can mentor you to success. This is what few realize they need to do. Success is inevitable with a partner who acts as your guide and personal coach if you will learn to think and make decisions differently than you have in the past. When knowledge and action come together in partnership, there is nothing that can beat it. Did I mention Mannatech has already paid out over $150,000,000 in commissions?

This business is about caring, sharing, educating, inspiring and empowering others. It is not about selling. Ask questions, find out people’s needs, then, if applicable, educate them on how Mannatech’s products may help their health or their finances or their lifestyle by telling them ho wit is helping yours. If they are not interested, don’t go on and on. Change to another subject. On the other hand, don’t be fearful in sharing with your friends or even strangers! You will never know all the lives you may save and the opportunity for quality of life and prosperity you will have given to others by sharing this technology and this opportunity. It is all about “paying it forward.” Someone shared these wonderful products and opportunity with you. Don’t be afraid to share it with others. Thank God the person who sponsored me was not afraid to share these products with me. My health, my lifestyle, my love for what I do helping others and my income have all been blessed by the Mannatech opportunity.

Yes- this business is about sharing a vision but more simply, just sharing your story. Young and old can do that. Your story can be worth a fortune to you and others. Just as you would share about a good movie or share about a great place to eat or fun and beautiful vacation spot, share Mannatech. If you enjoy helping and sharing with others, then you too can become successful in your own independent international business.

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Tags: business small business, franchising, job, Mannatech, mlm, network marketing