I've been a Nairalander since my NYSC days in 2007 when I joined because the job section was awash with genuine job opportunities. Companies used to recruit en-masse then. How things have changed! Has anyone noticed that there are no mass recruitment exercises anymore? Instead, we hear of the opposite ; massive job cuts. The world is changing rapidly, but only visionaries can recognise these changes and prepare themselves.

A lot of people are still sitting around waiting for that dream job .While some lucky ones will get employed and actually be able to live comfortably, others would get jobs that barely pay the bills. Now what kills me inside is the fact that people settle for just anything. How can you be paid 75k - 150k a month to wake up at 4am, get home at 9pm and be expected to survive? For me, this is ridiculous!

I was inspired to write this when I saw this thread - https://www.nairaland.com/3022/how-much-good-salary-nigeria

I am an employee, but I do not plan to be forever. I want to become part of the solution by vacating my spot and showing others how to do the same. We can live much better lives, because there is a better way! Now, last year I found a plan B. It's not a get rich quick scheme. I had to invest my spare time reading, attending trainings and presentations and looking for wealthy mentors. Between then and now, I have become a totally different person. I know that becoming wealthy is a deliberate act and honestly, I don't know if I'm ready for it, but I'm preparing seriously for my own success.I would not blink at a job offer of less than 1m per month, because I know I'm above that, even though my business on the side makes only 10% of that on a bad month.

I will post my experiences with my business very soon. It would be an honest account, and I hope to inspire as many serious minded people, employees and job seekers alike. I'm not an authority yet, but I will be the best I can be in that business.

Watch out for the continuation.

So how did I get here? I remember in 2008 when I got my first and only job till date. I was coming from VGC where I did my pre employment medical screening. Then I was driving a very old honda, which was practically falling apart. It was 1pm and I was going to drive to Benin that same day. I saw one of my secondary school classmates, who just got a job with a telecoms firm and stopped for a brief, joyful chat. Oh we felt very lucky!
Our jobs were very demanding, and so we never saw until December 2013 during Christmas in Benin.We both happened to be planning our weddings, happening a week apart in February 2014. We lamented about the cost of wedding planning, and how we could still be complaining about money after working for over 5 years in more than one country. It gave me some comfort to know that I wasn't far behind after all!

Sometime in January 2014, I began to notice a change in his social media posts. He was always talking about business ,leadership,financial freedom and all that crap (or so I thought). kai! Dem don catch my friend o! Even though I ignored his posts for a long time, a part of me always wanted to call him, especially when I was broke. So in June 2014, he told me he was coming to Port-Harcourt for a 'Business Masterclass' organised by his Business Club. Well, I was free on that day, and so I decided to attend, and dragged my wife along. I was in for a huge shock! We arrived 10 minutes late, and my friend was the presenter. I was disappointed, because I actually went there with a notepad and a pen. I felt like the 'Business Masterclass' was a waste of my time, until I actually noticed that my friend was not the same person I met in December. He looked, acted , sounded and behaved like a wealthy businessman.His presentation was fantastic! It forced me to ask questions that I had never thought about before then e.g why do I keep the company of fellow average friends that I keep? How do we benefit from each other? Why do I squander time sharing stupid things on social media? for how long do I plan to work before realizing that it's difficult to get as wealthy as I really want by being an employee? do I even have a foolproof plan that wouldn't require a lot of capital? The bottomline of his presentation was that we should all bet a plan B. The bomb dropped when he showed us his payslip for the last month. It was more than my take home pay! His plan B was actually paying him more than my job! I went home a broken man.

Now, the painful thing was that I had done that business in 2010, and I dropped it because I thought it was a waste of time. I had wanted something that involved investing cash and reaping massive profits without any personal effort. I began to imagine where I would have been if only I had taken the business seriously then! I couldn't sleep for many nights afterwards. Inspite of the fact that I was scared of failing, I resolved to give the business a second try!

To be continued.

The business opportunity I am going to describe is one that is difficult to make people understand. Even Nairaland rule number 16 implies that it's a 'questionable scheme'. This is because a lot of people just do not understand it. It's taken me up to a year to develop the kind of respect that I have for the business because I have studied the subject extensively, while practicing at the same time. I have failed many times,but ultimately learning from my failures and have picked my fledgling business off the ground. I have seen too many success stories around me, and I know that if everybody understood the concept, a lot more people would embrace it as the fully legitimate business that it is.

Let me start with an example. It costs about N17 to produce a can of coke. In sales and marketing, every producing company has a marketing mix, called the 4 Ps - Product, Price, Place and Promotion.These have to be balanced by the sales and marketing team to ensure that the company continues to sell products at a profit. That's why they spend billions advertising. That's why Iyanya et.al have endorsements. All they want is for that can of coke to get to you!.......Now, that can of coke passes through a regional distributor, who buys from the Coca-Cola company and sells to Local Wholesalers at a profit. The wholesalers add a mark-up and sell to retailers ( Spar, Quilox, roadside aboki, Nicon Hilton e.t.c), who sell to the final consumer. Now, the final price would usually be determined by the place of purchase. It could be N500 at Nicon Hilton and N100 in traffic. At the end, the consumer bears all the overheads (including endorsements) and is also generously gifted with health risks! This model is common to most companies that sell physical products. At the end, all the cost is pushed to the consumer.

In 1958, a company based in the United States called Amway decided to try something new. They figured, after extensive research, that most people did not buy products because of adverts. More people bought products because friends, family members and colleagues recommended them. They started by selling their products on a small scale to a tiny group of people, and promised them a large percentage of the profits if they could get other people to buy the products. They actually kept records of this activity, and began to experience geometric growth! The company began to prosper,the distributors began to prosper and the first official network marketing company was born! It's still the biggest till date! Other companies saw the sense in this model, and began to adopt it. Initially, the American government and the large corporations tried to stop this growing segment of the industry, but ultimately, Network Marketing succeeded and became recognised as a legal business model.

HOW IT WORKS

It's important to note that all network marketing companies are just like coca-cola. They just want to sell products and make a profit. The difference is that distributorship of products of conventional manufacturing companies is not open to the public. However, Network Marketing Companies are open to every Tom,Dick and Harry. Each company has a compensation plan that is strictly tied to performance. The more products you sell, the more you get paid. Very Simple!

There are two classes of people who sign up with network marketing companies;

1. Those who just want to be customers. They buy the products at wholesale price and are happy with that. It's the same thing as having a loyalty card at spar or the bodyshop.

2. Those who want to take advantage of the compensation plan to build a business that would yield residual income.

Within the second class of people are billionaires, millionaires, those who make hundreds of thousands, those who make tens of thousands and those who make nothing whatsoever! I', talking about all currencies!
It takes the average person up to 1 year of constant work to break even in network marketing.You need to read a lot of books. Attend a lot of events. Learn your products. Develop emotional intelligence. Change your mindset. Understudy your mentors. Most importantly, don't put too much attention on money at the beginning. Just be consistent and focus. Commit for at least, a year. If you can't generate at least, N150k per month in your sleep at this time, then consider quitting. Even though we say anyone can do it, not everybody will succeed.

Signing up in the typical network marketing company costs from N80k upwards, for people who want to start as business owners. To be a customer, you only have to buy what you need, although there will be a minimum amount, usually between 8k and 11k.
Signing up is the easy part, afterall 80k is not so difficult to get. Now, why do some people succeed and others struggle and end up giving up? It's because there are some things you must have as a minimum to increase your chances st success.
1. A good sponsor. This is the person who signs you up, and is responsible for your initial orientation. If you have a bad sponsor, you may never succeed.
2. A good team. This team must be independent of the network marketing company itself, and must have regular weekly activities, mostly led by the more successful members, who would normally handle trainings and presentations. If your sponsor is bad, a good team can insulate you from him or her, as you can earn more than your sponsor in this industry.An example is my team; The Fahrenheit Business Group.
3. A good company. Experts recommend companies older than 10 years old, except you are willing to take chances. After all, companies over 10 years started from 1!

A lot of people believe that you stand a better chance when you join a new company. The truth is that a good network marketer will succeed anywhere. It's like studying civil engineering; a beam is a beam, whether it's in USA or Enugu-Ukwu! It's the skills that make you successful, not the company.

The companies offer product, personal development and leadership training programs. Some locally, others internationally ; requires the distributor to qualify. Everybody is allowed to carry on with his business independently, guided by a set of rules.

Just like in any other business, there are unscrupulous elements who make frivolous claims about the business (e.g. Just bring your money and we will do it for you, you will get paid even if you do nothing, bring 2 million and qualify for the dubai trip..etc). These people actually spoil the business for others and destroy the opportunities of other people. Most of the time, they end up making money for a short while before their dubiousity catches up with them.

So far so good

My mission here is to educate people. It pains me to see people struggling everyday when I know that half the effort they spend working low paying-high demanding jobs would earn them triple the income. The average 30 year old has over 500 phone contacts, 100BBM contacts, 600 facebook friends. this is excluding colleagues, church members, interest groups and so on. This is what we call Social Capital. Each of these people knows other people you don't know.

Imagine this; if you consistently invite these people for business presentations every weekend, chances are that some will come. 5-10% of them will join your business and do the same. The ones who do not join you may become customers, buying the product from you.
Do this consistently for a year, and you would be surprised at the results. While a lot of people would never have anything to do with this business, there are people out there who would embrace the opportunity if they attend a good, honest presentation that shows the opportunity as it is!

RESULTS

I have seen a lot of results already. For me, my mindset has changed. I constantly think about growing my business. There's no risk for me. I don't care how the products get to Nigeria from America. All I want is for me and members of my team to walk into the Forever office and get our products!
Our team started in 2013. Currently, we are already over 500, mainly in Lagos, Port-Harcourt and Abuja.We have at least, 10 people who make over 1 million every month. A lot of people over 500k, 400k, 300k and the over 100k people like me. Many people have left their jobs to do it full time. I haven't done that yet. The success around me keeps me going.
While I'm biased to my company (forever living products), I know that there are other good companies around, like Longrich, GNLD, Organo Gold and the latest players, GWT and AIM Global.
I love Network Marketing to a fault, and I'm happy when people get involved the right way, no matter the company. I hate the practice of 'bad-mouthing' other companies to sell your own. Most of the companies have good intentions and really want to make people rich.

Network marketing made $167 billion last year. 40% of this went to distributors' pockets. Another 10% went to incentives like trips , house and car plans. Now why would anyone not want to give this a serious shot?

The subject is very wide, and can be covered from very many angles. if you want to learn more, you can hit me up on brume.odufa@flp.com. Like my team's page on facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/fahrenheitbusinessclub.

See you at the top!

Your epistle is too long

OP, kuturu uwana if you choose to advertise an e-book for us. From the name of the Facebook link I already find it hard to believe you were originally a nairalander.

charix:
OP, kuturu uwana if you choose to advertise an e-book for us. From the name of the Facebook link I already find it hard to believe you were originally a nairalander.

Have you seen any e-book advert here?

seunwen2:
Your epistle is too long

No be force to read am na! I've seen longer epistles about how some guy slept with whoever, and no complaint!

Happy New Month!

engrbrume:


No be force to read am na! I've seen longer epistles about how some guy slept with whoever, and no complaint!

you are Rude with your reply?

The reply was not rude my brother.....OP stated the fact. Besides he didn't say read or die did he?!

Alarib:
The reply was not rude my brother.....OP stated the fact. Besides he didn't say read or die did he?!

Thanks Alarib. People need to grow up!

Bump