Are two MLM's better than One?

There have been some great comments here and I am glade too see people taking the time to write such good information.

Well if your an Entrepreneur then you must make logical and calculated desisions. People who are in the top income brackets know one imporant rule. Multible income streams are key. The more income streams you have then the less risk you have. Anything you can do to bring your risk down is a good thing.

That being said your time needs to be spent gaining valuble skills in this field and teaching them to your downline. Unless you are making a very large income from your mlm then you still have a ways to go to get where you need to be. Networking is an all day thing if you do it right. This is very true when your still trying to get it off the ground and make the big money. You have to work as hard for your downline as you do for yourself.

97 percent of people fail to make big money with mlms. This is a well known fact. You have to go above and beyond the marketing hype to get into that 3 percent. Now there are a few recent programs that are revising how mlms work and are showing great potential in breaking that 3 percent number but always remember that there will always be more people that fail at anyone thing then succeed. The more people in your downline, the more people who will potentialy give up later so stay in touch with them. help them. form a relationship with them and they will be more likely to stay the course. Be a leader and they will follow.

 

I see this all the time...pepole doing more than one mlm at a time and jumping from one company to another. Here's what happens. A few "leaders" and I use the term loosely will plug themselves into getting info on the next mlm company coming out. Then, they'll hit up the same people they just sponsored in the last "great" mlm opportunity. All they do is keep taking theses mlm junkie's money over and over again. A lot of these are money games, meaning they just take your money and then sizzle out. Some are true mlm companies. These same "leaders" will be doing several mlms at the same time. They lose ALL credibility. They're content with making a little bit of money over and over. If you want to make real money, look at the top leaders in ANY of the mlm companies...How many mlms are they working? EXACTLY! Just ONE at a time. Get with a company that you can be passionate about and focus just on it. See what a difference that will make. You'll be surprised!

 

Hi Jan,

The best advice I would give you is to work with only ONE program. Once you build it into an income that you are comfortable with, then you can look for other opportunities out there.

If you work with 2 at the same time and neither one is bringing you a nice income, then you are just going to be very frustrated.

Work with one and then when it become really profitable for you, look for other opportunities.

 

Other income streams are ok as long as they're not another mlm company. The top leaders in ANY mlm are NOT doing two mlms at the same time. Focus on just one. If you do more than one, you lose credibilty with your team AND they copy what you're doing. Would you rather your team was joining every new opp out there or focusing on the company that they're in with you?

 

Interesting,

This has been a big debate for years, and in my experience, having owned a traditioonal business, as well as several online businesses, it all depends on the person. There is no such thing as a black or white yes or no anwer in my opinion.

As example, I had built my business on referrals, and always provided the best of customer service and the best savings without sacrificing the personalized service and always treated my clients as if they were my only clients. Of course, this is old school and a given when you are in a professional business where clients expect more.

The point is, it all depends on the business and the owners experience level. When I started my first business, the first few years was a learning experience, what marketing works best, which doesn't, what people are best to hire, which are not, never mind cultivating referrals by going the extra mile and rewarding my customers with incentives and rewards for their referrals. So as you can see, there are too many variables to say yes or no to more than one business.

When the first recession hit the economy, and all businesses started to feel the losses, you either think outside the box or you go out of business, so I chose to add services which would appeal to my professional client base, and it worked. One lesson I learned is that it is far easier to offer more to your existing clients than it is to establish new customers, so this was my first experience with owning more than one business, and it worked out great for me.

When I saw the market trends changing, I moved my business to online, so again, it depends on the business. As one who has always been aware of the power of leverage, just as I learned how referrals are similar to compounding, if done right, it will grow your business, just like in the network marketing arena which depends on this leverage. Online businesses are easier to work more than one business at a time, much easier in fact, so this is exactly what I have been doing well before it was considered wise or not by the old timers. Think about it, what does any leader want, they want you to focus on their deal, not split your effort between two or more for they end up losing money, simple, so who do you believe?

Again, it all depends on the person, just like most people like the structure of a job, one task, easy route, etc., others like myself get off on the challenge of doing it my way, as in, being an entrepreneur, so to each their own. I don't say working more than one MLM is the best idea for most, but as we see on this thread, it is more acceptable now than ever, but how many companies have gone under for various reasons, or changed compensation plans, etc.? I got burned when a telcom decided to drop independent network marketing agents division when new management came onboard, and people like myself lost a six figure income overnight. Thankfully I still had my traditional businesses and this was my third business which I brought in under my umbrella of services, so lesson learned, never put all your eggs in one basket. I am sure that is familiar phrase to everyone. lol

Bottom line, I believe is working more than one, and once burned, I would never rely on just one business, company or product or service as too many things change in the market day to day, year to year. Another example, what is hot today is not guaranteed to be hot tomorrow. Telcom is perfect example, land lines and public phones are long gone as far as profits go, never mind demand. Mobile smart phones have superceded the former, just as they are now superceding PC's, the markets are forever evolving. Look at the severe economic collapse, who would have thought home values would tank, fortunately, I did, and adjusted my focus from mortgage broker to helping my clients save their homes from foreclosure. Who would have thought that millions would be facing foreclosure, unemployment over 9.1%, and how many business owners were prepared? Not enough sadly, and now I am doing commercial foreclosures, so never say never, be prepared, and always plan on having more than one business is my best advice, well earned advice from years of experience in traditional and online businesses. By the way, online is far more profitable and far easier than my traditional businesse ever were. lol

Success to all,

 

NO I know several people who are doing multiple mlm's! First of all if they are product based that means they are buying products for example, make-up, hand bags, weight loss etc that more than likely changed their personal buying habits and can hardly give it away.

Then have to look at the personal purchase to stay qualified or even in a position to earn a commission. I have suggested for them to choose, they are BROKE buying things they can not sell.

Really do your homework. Almost every MLM out there is product based and a conflict of interest for me except maybe hand bags and jewelry. In many you better be a hustler at sales. Think out of the box. How many times a year is a gal going to buy jewelry? How many candles? Do women buy skin care and make-up monthly? I sure don't. Then when your warm market runs out then what?

All of those are limited sales. Have to find the right company that applies to every home never affecting the home budget.

Just food for thought before getting involved with multiple companies.

 

If one of your MLMs supports the other and vice versa it is easier to accomplish working two.

 

globalmentor

I for one tend to agree with globalmentor except for the occasions where the products complement each other.

Case in Point: When I was with Herbalife I sold NSA water filters as it was also in the healthy life style of products.

If I were Selling Solar Panels and such I would also be involved with the same Energy Company I'm now with since it's a free add on service to the customer who will still have to connect to their local utility. Even if I sell them Solar panels that will lower their bill the customer saves money with both products. This is a win win on both ends and I make money from both companies.

Just my 2 cents.....

 

I don't see a problem with having two MLM business. I think the key is balance. You need to find two products that can work together rather then competing. What I mean by this is find two products that complement each other or rather a product that you can use to sell another product. I'll give 2 examples so that it makes sense! For example if you are going after the health shake market, Vi for example, it would be a natural fit to choose another beauty product to "complete" your look. You could almost sell them together because they compliment each other. Now next option is to find a product that you can use to sell the other product, and I mean this literally. Like the company I sell, YouDazzle, is a online file sharing and collaboration tool. Meaning I can share files, conduct web meetings, screen share, and view analytics. Now what I do is I use the features such as web meetings to meet with clients to not only show off this product but another another product. I could show the different types of options for one product like health food shakes while showing off the features of YouDazzle. I can even screen share to walk them through the sign up process of one or two of the products I am selling. It definitely can be tough to juggle multiple jobs let alone multiple MLM opportunities. You just have to think a little outside the box in order to accomplish 2 MLM's I feel!

 

Try to find a MLM company have great products and compensation plan. And go for it. Otherwise you can lose your concentration.

 

I would advice anyone to FOCUS on one at a time.

Once you establish yourself and your team is growing by itself in your primary opportunity, then you can look for other opportunities and RINSE AND REPEAT.

 

The key point is to build your presence as a leader and have the marketing system in place when working with any MLM/direct sales kind of opportunity.

The benefits here are that you protect yourself and your hardearned relationships/customers from whatever happens with the business you promote. This will also give you multible streams of income from marketing material and people saying no to joining which gives you cash to continue in business.

 

I honestly think it's better to succeed in one MLM and then start on another one.
To really succeed in MLM you need to put all the time and effort you have into it rather then splitting your time and effort into 2 MLM's.
However, once you succeed in one MLM you can always join another and build another successful company as your other company will continue to grow without you needing to be there.

 

Interesting discussion. I can agree with both sides of the argument, but would have to agree most of all with the fact that you can actually waste time and spin your wheels if you try to run several mlms too quickly. Get one up and going before you start another one... what you may find is that if the first one is truly successful, you will be so busy helping your team members that you won't have time to think about doing anything else for awhile, except to find place to invest all the money you are making in that don't take any of your time to manage.

 

I personally wouldn't be able to handle more than one. If you are crazy energetic then two could work. I think the people around you, who know you, and are invested in you and your one MLM, would like to see your energy devoted to their cause.

 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with multiple streams of income. However, the pitfalls to watch out for would be:

Pitching the same list/team/group of people with different opportunities/products (especially if these are not related to one another)
Not focusing enough on either business to have success.

My suggestion would be, build one business successfully first and then you can start diversifying into other areas.

Plus, if the businesses are unrelated, or not complementary to each other, then i would recommend you build separate lists for each one.

 

To each their own, that is what I say. Most cannot and do not like selling, and if you don't like selling, then MLM may not be the right fit for you. Needless to say, if you can sell, and represent good solid value based business opportunities which save people money, then it is easy to work more than one business and I have chosen this strategy over one based on experience. Old school use to preach focus on one company only, and back in the day, that is what I did, but when my six figure income vanished over night for no fault of my own, one was a bad industry wide rumor, the other was when company abrubtly discontinued their MLM and went direct, which is now known as Sprint. So lesson learned, never put all your eggs in one basket, never invest in one stock, you have to be diversified and the internet enables everyone to easily promote more than one company or one product catagory. I simply research those which all save my customers money, and that is what I focus on, one message, save money and earn money, makes sense to me.

Good luck to all,

 

I am inclined to agree with a focussed approach. There are several reason for this the least of which not, is the need to develop customer (and network trust). If you flip flop around, chances are poeple will not trust you easily, making your network development even harder.

Of course once you have achieved a certain level of success, notably you have developed a fairly vaulable resource (your network.) If you are able to develop complentary business at this point, perhaps some value in considering this.

Be sure however that you retain a clear and solid direction.

Good luck !!

 

I would recommend, at least while starting out to take one MLM at a time. You could always diversify your income through affiliate marketing other products and services, without having to recruit into two MLMs. Focus on one thing at a time until that one thing is where you want it to be. When it's successful and can create an income for you without you needing to be present 24/7 you can look into other opportunities that come your way.

Too many people try to juggle a million things at once, and aren't able to achieve what they're really wanting. The most successful people in life know how to focus in on one thing at a time.

 

I've tried 2 MLM's at the same time and here are a few problems I had:

1. keeping track of which person I was sending where.
2. It is a pain to have to login into multiple back offices. So just double the work load for every task, join 3 MLM's to triple it!
3. Under estimating how many people you have to talk to build 1 MLM and again just double that!
4. I love learning and training, but again there is enough to worry about 1 company and it's events.

Now, the idea of building 2 companies or even 3 is attractive to me, however I'm not the dude that can do that right now. I have heard of people maxing out there comp plan then starting with a new company while the original runs on auto pilot. And I did speak with the guy I'm referring to about building 2 companies and he told me that he would never build 2 at the same time because it is too much to take on. His advice to me was build one and max it out, then start another one after that like he did.