How I got started in Network Marketing

When I was a lot younger, my earliest memory of network marketing, was when I was about 12 or 13. It was after my parents had separated and my mum started dating my now stepdad.

He was working in Amway and was a direct distributor. I think my grandparents had joined Amway and they set my mum up with him at a convention.

Amway

I remember that he used to dress smart and people would come around to our house. My stepdad would show them product demonstrations and then draw pictures with circles. I suppose I now know that he was writing up the marketing plan.

My parents also had all the products all over the house. I also remember that all of us would go to organised family events and meet people that were in his team.

Self Help

My stepdad used to have many motivational books such as think and grow rich, ask for the moon… and get it. And also, the infamous how to win friends and influence people. I read all of them and found them to be interesting reads as I had only been used to reading Roald Dahl storybooks.

Some of the books he had, explained bout network marketing. There were also cassette tapes that we used to listen to with a guy called Skip Ross that would talk about self-improvement and self-development.

Utility Warehouse

When I was 23 years old I thought that it was my time to get into the Network marketing industry. Lynn and I had heard of Utility warehouse and went to London to listen to the person telling about how it worked and how to get started. As with anything like this, there were people there to tell their story with the aim of bringing enthusiasm to the floor.

We signed up and this was our first venture into network marketing. There are many factors that should be considered before finding the right network marketing company to join, but with that said we didn’t know then what we know now.

Also in that time back in 2001, there were no Facebook or social tools for connecting with people. Instead, it was just a telephone and address book with about 30 names inside.

Kleeneze

The second try at Network Marketing was with Kleeneze. I went out with a trolly delivering the brochures to 200 houses every week to get the required sales (yes, even in the snow). We also tried recruiting people to do the same.

I managed to get 1 person to join me but unfortunately, they pulled out after not wanting to continue with delivering the catalogues. We stuck with it for about 7 months. We got a Pin for achieving volume but decided to stop after. I think we probably stopped because we had never really committed to doing it properly.

Forever Living

In 2007 I found Forever Living the products were great as they helped me with the ailments that I had. We signed up just to get the discount as if you sign up and get the starter pack you get 35% discount for life.

All of us drank the Aloe drinking gel and used all the different products that were on offer. When we decided to move to Saudi Arabia in 2010 we bought as much stock as we could carry and left the company behind as at that time it was not available in that country.

Never Look Back

After returning from Saudi Arabia, we realised that we could once again start with Forever living. I had absolutely no idea what my previous ID was so had to re-join. I re-joined with our friend who subsequently, was doing well with her business. We looked at how fast they had grown their business to a better than average income that was sustaining their full-time involvement in Forever living.

That was when I decided to go full-on with it and really decided to do it properly.

Forever Living has all the qualities that you would want from a network marketing company; great marketing plan, repeatable customers from consumable products and long-standing company with year on year growth.

What was your first experience?