Joining a multilevel marketing (MLM) business, is often people’s first foray into business ownership. But you need to understand a few things to really leverage this opportunity. It’s a 100 billion dollar industry, which means there is real money from to be made by doing them, but it is a business model that has a cycle to it. How many years can you keep at it and keep your customers and sales team pursuing this before people move on. Profit is how we keep score in business, so you need to make sure you are focused on your profit margins and have a real understanding of the time commitment required to be a successful MLM marketer.  Here are 5 key suggestions to boost your multilevel marketing business.

1. Treat it like a Business

You need a marketing plan for your multilevel marketing business. Even though it’s a turn key system with set products, services and training, you still need a plan. Success will not just happen to you. Your early wins will come from selling to friends and family, but what are you going to do after you have harassed all the people you know to buying from you? The average full-time multilevel marketer earns roughly $55,000 a year. That’s decent supplemental income if you are still working a full-time job, but real money comes from building your team and making sales—you can easily make enough multilevel marketing business to leave corporate America, if you generate consistent sales and get a cut from those on your team.

2. Understand Why People Are Attracted to MLM

According to the Direct Selling Association, women in their mid 30s to mid 50s make up more than half of the people are joining multilevel marketing businesses. Many women are looking for side money for travel, paying off credit card debt, or enrichment programs for their children, and stay at home moms are trying to contribute money to the household and have the freedom be home with their children. Multilevel marketing is also appealing to retirees looking for freedom to travel and earn money to supplement their retirement income, since people are living so much longer. To pre-qualify a potential candidate, assess their skill set to see if they would be a good fit for the opportunity you have. Ask yourself things like this:  Where do they work? What are their passions? Where do they spend the most time?  Once these questions are confirmed, reach out to set up a meeting, but be honest about why you are interested in speaking with them.

3. Learn How to Recruit Customers & People to Sell

Here’s a five step system to recruit people to support your business.

1^st Step: Invite people to look at your business opportunity with a direct or indirect approach.  A direct approach would be to ask the person to consider coming into your business opportunity for themselves. An indirect approach is asking someone to assist you by becoming a customer, and then ask for referrals for other customers or potential sales people. The relationship you have with the prospective recruit will determine how much you share before your meeting. How you position your invitation has a lot to do with whether the person will join your team or support your business.

2^nd Step: Most people do not join when first asked, so your fortune will lie in your follow-up process. You must increase your recruit’s understanding of your business model, and demonstrate how you make money on each follow-up interaction. Focus on building a stronger relationship along the way.

3^rd Step: Use success stories, actual personal commission checks, and social proof to validate the business opportunity and to increase the prospect’s belief that someone like them can be successful with your company.

4^th Step: Help your new recruit develop a marketing plan and get them off to a fast start.  How you start a new person has a lot to do with their commitment level, and how long they will build their business as part of your organization.  Because multilevel marketing is a voluntary business, the retention of team members is an important skill to learn.

5^th Step: Create a winning environment for your team to grow, praise success publicly and encourage them to feed off the energy and excitement of others.

4. Learn to Promote Your Business Appropriately

The last thing someone you haven’t spoken to you in 10 years wants to hear about is your new opportunity. You must nurture your network and reconnect at least six months before pitching anything. Don’t become a MLM stalker. People join some network marketing businesses and get so excited that they don’t separate their business from their personal lives. Don’t redirect every conversation with your friends to try to recruit them into your business, and don’t turn your Facebook page into an advertising board. Keep your business page and personal page separate.

5. Be Strategic With Your Time

Talk to the most successful business owners in your MLM business and ask them how many hours a week they are putting into their business to get a realistic idea about the time commitment required. Then work by a calendar. Plan the days and times you will work your business, especially if it’s a side hustle. Most network marketing companies have tools and events system that allow you to automate your communications and marketing efforts. Leverage the infrastructure that they’ve built to do the heavily lifting.

Once you pick a great business opportunity, you must position yourself as a mentor to your team. It’s important to create a winning environment to entice people to be on your team. Ordinary people can win in a multilevel marketing business with training, inspiration, and an extraordinary environment.