Evaluating a home business opportunity objectively is not always an easy task. Everyone's website and marketing materials are designed to highlight the positives and evade the potential negatives. This is neither good nor bad in itself; it's just a fact. After seriously looking at over 100 business opportunities, I developed a checklist of "Things to Know." These are broken down under the subheadings of Things To Learn About The Company, Things To Learn About The Products, Things To Learn About The Pay Plan, and Things To Learn About The Training. This article will cover the third category.



What you need to know about the pay plan

1. Since you are going to put hours of time and effort to build a successful business, be sure you are working toward a stable and steadily increasing residual income. There are two sources for this: from repeat sales to the end customer or from ongoing monthly fees (subscriptions, dues, etc.). If the pay plan has some kind of "breakaway" feature, you will continually be building your business as you continue to lose people who "break away" from you.

2. Run away from any kind of pay plan where you are required to "pass up" your recruits. Pass ups are called many different things ("qualifying sales," for instance), they all do the same thing. The first "X" number of people you recruit go to your sponsor, along with all of the business they may ever create. After that, your sponsor no longer gets paid your efforts, but has "X" new members to produce sales to be passed to him. Once you meet your pass up requirement, your sponsor has NO incentive to help you.

3. I love mlm and network marketing, but they have one huge flaw-- to make a lot of money, it takes tens or hundreds or thousands of people in your organizaton. Most often, this is a result of the small profit margins available from the sale of products, after paying a small piece to level upon level. If each sale or recruit earns you only a few bucks a month, the money does not add up very quickly. Look for the kind of pay plan where you make up to $900 or more per sale.

4. Look for a pay plan that does not require you to harass all of your friends and family. If you have already approached them with a few "can't miss" opportunities, you have already learned this. If this will be your first venture into the home business field, prepare yourself for the fact that your family and friends probably won't be interested in your business until you are earning some money without them.

After the company, products, and pay plan have met the requirements of your check list, you are ready to find out what you have to know about the training.