Hi S.,
I have a friend that is a distributor. She has an amazing personality and is a real go-getter. She is the type that could probably sell ice to Eskimos!
Anyway, at first she made a lot of money, and tried to get me involved. I declined (more on that later). She did make some money up front, in bonuses and sales. It has been about 9 months now, and she is not really making much money anymore. The product is expensive, and you need to rely on the people you put on auto-ship, to stay on auto ship. What happens when people need to trim their budgets? These are the kinds of products that people no longer buy when they have been affected by the recession. Now she sits at salons and other stores that allow her to show the product and tries to sell it that way. Not really what I'd like to do with my day!
Network marketing as a model is an excellant way of building your own business and you could make a substantial living with it. I personally know many people who make in excess of 6 figures. But, make no mistake... regardless of the company you choose, you need to work it. This is a business, if you treat it like one it will reward you as one, if you treat it like a hobby, it will reward you accordingly.
I have been a distributor for ACN for 7 months. I have made money, and I do receive monthly residual checks for customers myself and my team already acquired months ago. The reason I liked ACN over Monavie (I was also a Silpada rep) is that we do not sell products that people don't need when money is tight. We sell services. So, when you do approach the people you know with your services, you are not asking them to spend anymore money than they are already spending in their monthly budget, and in most cases I can save them money over what they are spending now. Our services are telecommunications... land lines, cell phones, voip phone service, satellite TV, home security. To me it made sense. Energy juice is not in my budget right now... but my cell phone bill is! And there is no monthly quota! But every time one of my customers pays their phone bill, I get paid... month after month! I never need to call them and ask them to be a customer again. They will always pay that bill, no matter how tight their budget becomes. Believe me, I have neighbors who have lost their homes, but they are still paying their cell phone bill, and I am still getting paid.
It really is an amazing business model, we have been in business for 17 years and we are backed by a multi-billionaire. If you would like to have some more information, fell free to email me here, and I will send you more info!
Good luck! A.