I can't take credit for the following post, but I want to thank Tony Rush for the content.  I thought the issue of competitive advertising, which a successful business inevitably faces, would make for an interesting post.  Tony is a senior adviser at Liberty League and has a great perspective on issues such as this one.

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When you search for "Liberty League" on the Internet you see paid ads that say things like "Why are Top Earners leaving?" "The League that was", and "Look here before you consider joining The League". It’s interesting that all these businesses have taken out advertising and specifically mentioned Liberty League. From my perspective, this is great!

It’s just amazing that just about every direct sales company out there has reps that are spending money on the Liberty League name. This is clearly an indication that they believe that LLI is the top organization in this industry – which is the truth. But, the cool thing is that whenever these ads are run the value of the Liberty League name is increased, which means that these companies must even bid more money in order for their ad to be seen. And they keep advertising, no matter the cost.

As for top earners leaving LLI, I know the top earners, and most of them are experiencing record sales and are not going anywhere. In speaking to one of the top earners, they were not aware of anyone leaving LLI who was consistently making $20,000 a month. When you’re working less than 20 hours a week and earning $50k+ (what top earners make) every month do you really think you'd be looking for a new company to join? I don’t think so.

What’s so funny about all this competitive advertising is that none of these companies are even in competition with Liberty League. Not one of them. As far as I know, the major direct sales companies are not selling anything even remotely like the Beyond Freedom Life Achievement course. And, they are certainly not selling anything like the Liberty and Summit conferences. They selling travel vouchers, financial curriculums, or resort memberships.

Still it's somewhat understandable that these companies are jealous of Liberty League. One of the so-called major direct marketing companies, as an example (let’s not mention names), recently had their annual conference in Mexico. Guess what the attendance was for their conference? 70 people. That's right, that’s it. Liberty League in turn has had over 11,000 people attended their events in the last 18 months alone.

If you are interested in learning more about LLI compensation plan, products, and compliance program please visit http://www.libertyleaguesite.com.

When you start your home business and begin to recruit people to join you in your vision for your business model, you learn a lot about people’s motivations when it comes to work.  Most people don't really like their corporate job but are afraid to leave it because it provides some level of comfort knowing that there is steady income every month.  However, what more and more people are learning, especially in today's economy, is that there really is no comfort in the corporate world.  Layoffs are becoming a regular occurrence.  There is no loyalty that companies have for their employees when bottom-lines shrinks.  These laid off workers then look for another job, starting the potential for the same sequence of events that they had just experienced.  And, worst of all, these newly laid off individuals, when they do find a new job, are always on edge because they feel like they could be let go again.  This is not a great feeling for the breadwinners supporting their families.

Some of these laid off workers look for an alternative in the work at home business market.  However there is still the fear of not having a traditional salary that they can depend on each month.  That fear drives these people to become employees of successful home businesses performing piecework.  They are told that they are independent business people, but are performing envelope stuffing, data entry, and customer service.  Although free from the corporate business model they had once known, they are still in a JOB.  The job they do will never make them wealthy, and they certainly do not have the free time for their family, to travel, or just to enjoy life.  There's still the stress of doing as much as they can in order to make as much money as possible.  That doesn’t leave time for much else.

Then there are those who jump in and start their own home business.  However, with all the home business opportunities out there it's difficult to select the correct model.  Starting from scratch, say with an online store, takes forever to get to the point to where you are generating money to live on.  And, selecting a business that requires you to stock products in your garage that you sell door to door, or with at home parties, just takes too much of your time – similar to the time required from a traditional JOB.  In addition, you need to sell a lot of products to get to the point to where you can live on the profits.  Selecting the wrong business means that you can't make enough money to support your family, which means many people just give up and go back to a job.  However, as discouraging as this scenario sounds, the home business is really the easiest and quickest way to generate substantial income, allowing for the financial independence that everyone longs for.  

What I have told people who approach me about a home business opportunity is to look at how many people are making a significant income from their businesses -- $200K+.  Then see how long it took for individuals who started their businesses with the model to generate an income they could live on -- didn't need to work in a traditional job.  Once you get positive input to these two criteria, find out how long the business model has been used.  If the business has been around for more then 5+ years, it's probably a viable model.  There are very few business models out there that will provide for quick success.  So, take your time and do your research.  However, don't put your contact information into every "work at home opportunity" site you find, or you'll be swamped with unwanted calls and emails.  If you want my help, please go ahead and comment on this post.  I’d be glad to answer your questions. 

Unless you are starting your home business from scratch, just about every business model out there provides incentive compensation for existing home business "members" to bring on new members to the opportunity.  In fact, this incentive compensation is what makes the home business model so attractive.  Where else can you get paid for basically recruiting people like yourself and introducing them to a business that you are excited about?  Even the home business models that thrive on selling products that owners stock in their basements, whether you want to call it incentive compensation or not, require new members/ owners to make investments in products, and to frequently update their stock.  The purchase of these products provides a profit to the individual who initially introduced this home business owner to the home business opportunity.   

Anyway, long introduction to the topic... I was asked today the difference between a pyramid model and the "release" model that the home business opportunity we entered into uses?  First, to explain the "release" model, new members to the business are required to make five sales prior to becoming "qualified."  Once qualified, they are in a position to make money just like any other business owner leveraging the same home business model.  The new member is in an equal money making position as any other person in the business, and all of their profits go directly into their pockets -- no profit-sharing with anyone else, ever.  The pyramid model benefits those who first got into the business -- or are at the top of the pyramid -- because everyone that comes into the business below/ after them must share their profits with people above them in the pyramid.  As you can imagine, if there are a lot of people in the business it's going to drain your profits significantly.  In addition, there is no release from this model -- at least none I'm aware of.  So, you keep splitting your profits indefinitely.

So, obviously, in a comparison between the Pyramid and "release" model, the "release" model is far and away the best for the business owner. 

Now, the next question is always, "why is there an incentive model in the first place?  I don't want to give away anything and want to start earning immediately when I get into the business."  This is an understandable view.  I, like most people, don't like giving anything away.  However, when you look and think about the logic behind the compensation model you better understand the reasoning.  First, it's how the people (older members) who bring on a new member make money, and it's the way the new member will eventually make money.  Second, it encourages the older member to help the new member to be successful because it benefits the older member if the new member makes sales.  However, this also benefits the new member because the older member is helping to train and mentor the new member in the selling system and the nuances of the business.  Once the mentoring period is complete, and the new member is "released", the new member has a much better chance of being successful with the selling model, and with their business in general.  And, third, it benefits the founders of the business model because then they can be assured that new members are well trained and are representing their products fairly and honestly.

Bottom line, if the incentive model is fair, and you are getting training in return, it's better to have an incentive plan then not to have one (I’m talking the “release” model).  I can not imagine being successful by just jumping into a new business opportunity with no people support, without understanding the products, without having a vetted script and set of advertisements, and without a proven sales model.  The time to get up to speed and making real money without support is going to be significant, compared to a supportive business model.  And, we all know, the best way to encourage support is to incent people to provide it.  

No matter how honest you are about the sales opportunity in starting a home business with a really successful sales model, you always have doubters.  Today was interesting because we had doubters, as usual, but they came around quicker then expected.  I think the downturn in the job market has helped encourage individuals who really do want to believe that they can be successful in a home business.  The nice part of this story is that our model really does work.   

We had a tough week getting our legitimate business ads in a number of local newspapers for this weekend.  A few newspapers refused to allow our ads because they were for a work at home business.  This trend seems to be getting worse.  Looks like the junk in the home business market is really starting to taint the advertising opportunities for real legitimate businesses such as ours.  I'm interested in how many others have experienced this problem. 

I quit my 60-hour a week corporate job three years ago when our first child was born. After a miserable pregnancy when we almost lost our baby, twice, it didn't seem fair to return to the job and leave our miracle baby in an expensive daycare program. So, I decided to stay at home. Soon after that I was pregnant again, and was quite shocked to hear that I was expecting twins! That's when I realized that going back to work just wasn't practical, not with these three little ones. 

Life had completely changed. In 2 years we had 3 kids. While a family like this was what I had dreamed about, life started to become a little difficult. We were surviving on my husband's income alone. While we were well fed and taken care of, we were just getting by.  That's when I started my research to find out how I could to be with my kids at home and still earn a substantial income from the few hours that I could squeeze out of my very busy days?

Starting my own business was the only way to go. But, what could I do from home? I put together a checklist that consisted of the following questions to help me determine what business was right for me:

• Is the business MLM (Multi Level Marketing)? Not that MLM is a bad concept, but I need something that generated income quicker then the typical 1-3 years with MLM.

• Does the business opportunity offer a selling system, and how mature is the system? Replicating success is much easier then creating from scratch.  I want to buy into something that has already worked, not start something new.

• How difficult is it to explain what the business does or sells? Do people get it without significant time on the phone trying to explain?

• Are the costs to starting the business as low as possible? It does take money to build a business.  But, do I have to stock my garage with products that I pay for before making any sales?  Is there a huge cash outlay, and it's going to take years to break even?  I wanted a low cost opportunity with maximum upside.

• How difficult is it to run the business? With a proven system in place (see above), the the busiiness should be pretty simple, but I'm willing to do the work to make it a success as well.

• Is training and support provided? Personal mentoring would be nice, but a team oriented approach to a business is ideal.

• How much time would I need to spend working each day? I want to be able to choose my own hours.  Working at home should be fun (actually another piece of criteria). 

• Do I need to do cold calls and get into stressful conversations? Again, I'm hoping that a marketing system would help take some of this stress out of the process.

• What is a realistic first year income, and how many others are making it?  Why would I want to go through the trouble of getting started in a business if I can't make a lot of money right away?

• Is the opportunity too good to be true or a scam? Who has been successful, and are they feeling good about what they do?

I hope this criteria helps you.  If you have any questions or would like to add to my list, please feel free to comment.