Here’s a collection of tools (software, sales aids, motivational signs, workbooks) that you can use to keep your business on track and in the black.

Lisa Wilber’s “The Winner In You” offers products and services to increase the sales and recruiting efforts of MLMers, direct sellers and party plan sellers (including labels, buttons, rubber stamps, newspaper lists). For more information call: 1-800-258-1815 or visit: http://www.winnerinyou.com/winnerinyou

Finding it tough to stay motivated and inspired in your business? Well, here’s a fantastic new product that will help you keep at the top of your form. “Auto Affirmations” are plastic-coated cards that you place on your dash board to reflect motivating statements on your windshield as you drive - such as “If it is to be, it’s up to me.” Both standard and customized messages are available. Call 1-800-552-3135 for more information or visit their web site: http://theshop.net/autoaffirmations

The Downline Builder by Kaizensoft is a Windows based program that helps you keep track of your prospects and your growing downline. After you enter your downline information into the program, you can look at a visual picture of your downline structure, manage your network through the database, and keep track of when you need to follow up with your people and your prospects. The software lists for $69.95. Call 1-800-656-4769 for more information. You can get a free demo of the Downline Builder software from their web site at: http://www.kaizensoft.com

Version 2.0 of MLM Easy Money by Kynetics Business Software has recently been released and has lots of new features making it better than ever. This nifty tax and business management program runs on any version of Windows and makes organizing your business finances and tracking your downline and prospects a snap. MLM Easy Money has a nice, intuitive interface and is easy to use and set up. After taking a test drive of the software myself, I decided to use it for my own business records this year. The cost is $59.95. For more information call (415) 594-9058 or visit their web site at: http://www.kynetics.com

The year is more than half over and if you haven’t got a handle on your tax records you need to get the Tax Smart Workbook. Not only will this comprehensive and easy to understand workbook help you to get your records organized, it can also help you save tax dollars as well. The 172 page workbook sells for $79.97 and includes: 15 envelopes to store income and expense receipts, a file storage box in which to file all your records and an Expense Account Diary for recording all your business transactions. Designed specifically for the home-based business, Tax Smart will help you get business smart fast. For more information call: 800-685-7280 ext 6481 or visit: http://www.tax-smart.com

Linda Locke is the editor of MLM Woman. You can reach her via e-mail at regent@west.net

Sell yourself first . . . on your company, your products, and your dreams.

Make your total business commitment for at least two years.

Use all your company’s products regularly.

Spend 90% of your business time with your distributors, customers and prospects.

Present your products and business personally to at least one new person a day.

Advertise. Let everyone know what business you are in.

Duplicate yourself by teaching your distributors how to become increasingly independent.

Motivate your organization monthly by offering recognition, travel and rewards for specific achievements.

Praise your distributor’s accomplishments every time.

Be persistent. Understand that only one out of every 10 people you approach will become serious about your business or be interested in your products.

Lead by example. Always be sponsoring, teaching and retailing your products.

Keep it simple . . . do things anyone can easily copy.

Keep in your touch. Communicate by newsletter, meetings, weekly calls, postcards, e-mail or voice mail - always pass on pertinent information immediately.

Remember to listen 80% of the time and talk only 20% of the time.

Satisfy any complaints immediately.

Concentrate on what you can do for your distributors and customers - not on yourself.

Ask for five new referrals from your best customers.

Tell your customers and your distributors how much you appreciate their business.

Build your contact list daily while building your reputation as a leader.

Use an answering machine or service and return all your calls within 24 hours.

Set daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals and do whatever is necessary to achieve them.

Subscribe to MLM training publications and read all the books you can.

Turn your “driving time” into “learning time” by listening to audio cassette tapes in your car.

Think BIG. As soon as you can, expand your business world-wide.

Invest your resources in the things that will provide you with the highest return — namely, your mind.

Read biographies of successful people and become inspired by their lives.

Plow your profits back in building your business.

Challenge yourself. Believe that if others can do this business, so can you.

Have so much fun in your business that others want to join you, and

Remember, it’s always too soon to quit!

Thanks to MLM, Sibyl could finally make use of her multiple personality disorder. She not only made three-ways all by herself, but conference calls, too.

We’ve been asked on more than one occasion to defend the business that we’re in. In addition to the title question, we’ve been asked if what we’re doing is “legal” and/or “ethical” and/or “moral.” So, here is a conversation that you can memorize and recite at will when someone puts you on the defense about our industry.

SPEECH BEGINS HERE:

There are a lot of misconceptions these days about “network marketing”, or multi-level marketing/MLM. Whichever term you prefer to use, both are just a description of a type of compensation plan.

The truth is that network marketing is not a “pyramid scam” or a “ponzi scheme” or a “chain letter” or “a cult” or any other attemptedly insulting term that we often hear bandied about among our family, friends and most often, the media.

The truth is that Network Marketing is nothing more than an alternative method of distributing a product or service to the consumer. It is not a business in and of itself. It is a way of DOING business. It is a “marketing method” that crosses over to many different types of businesses (nutritional, telecommunications, office services, etc.) and each marketer is an “independent distributor”...not a company employee. Each of us has his or her OWN business. No matter WHEN we join a Network Marketing company, we are always the “head” of our own company!

It is THE most effective, powerful marketing system in the world and is utilized by many Fortune 500 companies such as Colgate-Palmolive, Gillette, Coca-Cola and U.S. Sprint and Rexall. Yet, while more and more people are enjoying its benefits, most are still very unfamiliar with it.

Network marketing is a real business, with the same risks and potential rewards as ANY business....it’s not a hobby.

To quote Richard Poe, former Senior Editor at “Success” magazine, and author of several good books on the subject: “...network marketing has risen from the soil and roots of America’s heartland, boldly promising wealth, freedom and limitless horizons to those with the courage to seek them out. In network marketing, the American spirit of free enterprise finds is purest incarnation today.”

Network marketing is the perfect vehicle for home-based businesses. It is urban, rural, global.

In traditional forms of business 80% of the cost of getting a product or service to the consumer is “marketing” related.

Network Marketing companies eliminate all of the go betweens such as, jobbers, wholesalers and retailers (as well as the high cost of advertising and marketing) and deliver the product or service directly to the end user (the consumer) through their distributors. This GREATLY reduces the expense of getting the product or service sold because everyone involved along the way in the traditional retail sales process marks the cost of the goods or service UP as it passes through their hands. With the Network Marketing form of distribution, the increased profits are shared with the distributor network according to their activity.

Network Marketing enables individuals to create an income of their own with very low risk and very high potential return.

Being a distributor for a Network Marketing company is like being a salesperson in a large department store, only every customer you have can become, in turn, a salesperson for the product you are selling, and YOU get a percentage of what they sell, wherever they go after leaving the store! What a deal. In a traditional business, this would NEVER happen! In Network Marketing, this is exactly what takes place.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the movie theater paid you a percentage for each person you had referred to one of their current films?

Network Marketing IS a legitimate, legal and ethical form of doing business and it CAN provide you the security and freedom you seek. So, as we said, memorize this tip and lay it on the table for someone whenever you need to!

Kelly Kalcheim and Gina Rea are the team behind the “Network Marketing Tip of the Day,” an online service that provides MLM business tips via e-mail. If you would like to sample a FREE 1-week trial subscription to Network Marketing Today, send an email to NMTOTD@getback.hartley.on.ca Subject: Subscribe Tips Body: Dept: MLMWoman Copyright © 1997 SuccessKeys All rights reserved. PO Box 219, Morristown, AZ 85342 (602) 388-2315