It's very easy to get carried away by the excitement of a glossy company brochure or a compensation plan promising wealth and residual income beyond your wildest dreams. But before getting caught up in sign-up fever, please ask some hard-hitting questions.



Asking these questions can spell the difference between your success and failure in your MLM business.

First off, do some research on the company management. Find out about their history and experience. What about the financial standing of the company, is it solid? Do a search on the directors. If they have skeletons in the closet or have been involved in any dodgy dealings, there is most likely to be something on the Internet about them.

You don't want to work your buns off, only for the company to shut up shop, leaving you high and dry.

If the company looks sound and as far as you can establish, its directors are honest and upstanding citizens. Now you need to know: How long has the company been trading? What's its position on the growth curve? How much potential does it have for further expansion?

The growth curve of a company is comparable to rolling a heavy stone up a mountain. Picture the effort involved in getting the stone moving in the first place, the backbreaking struggle of forcing it upwards and the constant danger of it rolling back down again.

Once the stone has been taken to the summit, it creates its own momentum before easing back off again.

The rapid momentum stage is the optimum time to join a company. During this stage it is already established, has built a reputation and is now in the prime growth phase.

Statistics show that this phase in the company's growth is the easiest time to build your downline.

The high-growth phase differs but is usually around the 3 to 5 year mark.

As well as timing in the company, timing in the company's sector is also critical.

What's the market for the products and services sold by your company? Are there streams of eager customers waiting to snap them up?

An MLM company isn't just about building a downline, it also requires product customers, i.e. consumers who just want the product or service for its own sake, not in order to earn money from it.

Without product consumers, an MLM business can't succeed.

Check out the product prices. Are they value for money? In the best MLM companies product prices are identical for both product customers and distributors. If the retail prices are too high to be attractive to normal product customers, the MLM company is not viable.

Next take a look at the compensation plan. How many people would you need in your downline to your target monthly income? Ask the company. Tell them how much you're aiming to earn each month and ask how many people you'll need in your organization to achieve that figure.

It's amazing how the size of the organization required to earn the same monthly amount varies from MLM company to company. To earn, for example, USD 10,000 per month with one company takes just 350 people in your downline and more than 8,000 in another. (Or 35 and 800 to earn USD 1,000).

This is a mind-blowing statistic when you think how much easier it is to build a 350-strong organization as opposed to an organization of 8,000. But the monthly paycheck is just the same.

The next things you need to be clear on is training. Does your upline have systems and tools in place which you can plug into right away? Ask them: exactly how will I go about building my downline, what do you do? If they can't provide you with proven methods to effectively market your business, what are the chances of you succeeding?

And the final, but equally important step, a step that only a few ever take before signing up with an MLM company, is to read the company's Policies and Procedures.

Most people join an MLM company in order to create residual income and to give themselves and their families time and financial freedom.

Did you know that in many MLM companies, once you've built your organization and are ready to sit back and enjoy some of that time and financial freedom, you get fired?

Yep, many of them have a clause whereby if you become inactive, i.e. you stop actively recruiting and promoting the business, you are out the door. Just like that. No more monthly checks, Adios Amigo, nice doing business with you.

What about if you pass away suddenly? Who gets your business then? Can you bequeath it to a named beneficiary or does everything you've strived to achieve pass on to your upline?

So as you can see, there are many key issues as to what makes the best MLM company.

If you choose the right MLM company it's pretty hard to fail if you follow the training and systems provided by your upline.

Choose the wrong one and it doesn't matter how hard you try or how much money you throw into promoting your opportunity, you'll be like a boxer fighting with one hand.