You’re right. Everyone has to evaluate their own reasons.

My point was to say that don’t panic and run just because other people are leaving. I’ve gotten several “The sky is falling” emails from distributors. They’re all in an uproar because someone left. They may have NO interaction with that person whatsoever. It won’t have any effect on their business either way. Yet they panic and think they need to leave.

That leader that left had their own reason for doing so. For example the guys that left my company were a partnership. They had to split their income and their workload two ways. After 6 years they decided that wasn’t the best format for their business. They decided partnership wasn’t the best solution for them. That factored a lot into their decision to leave.

Another leader I know was a doctor. He left because he went to a health and wellness MLM. That makes sense and has great synergy with his existing business.

I’m an internet guy so I love being in an internet based company. I’ve moved 4x since being here and I’ve been able to keep my business going with no side effects. I love it. No inventory to keep up with. No having to make deliveries to my customers.

On the other hand… If I can play devil’s advocate against your wife’s move…. There will ALWAYS be a new company opening up new markets. If that is the basis for her leaving then she’ll have to make the same decision again when a newer company comes to open a new market.

- Ben

One thing I’m considering is getting some blank cards for them to write their info on. As a greeting card person I’m trying to collect addresses. A lot of people either don’t have cards or don’t have their address on their card.

First of alI, the paperquality makes a huge different.
Are you cheap on quality the receiver will think your company stands for the same.
Too many companies use the same, simple quality.

Second, by using QR-codes you make the way a lot easier for your information to Get into the receivers phone.
It also shows that you Are updated.

People are looking for your business card. Not giving them one is just silly.

I know Jordan Adler doesn’t do business cards but I don’t know how much regular networking (BNI, chamber, meetup, etc.) he does.

Definitely a thought provoking video. What do you think? Is America great?

Residual Income …

Gotta love it!

Jack

you are such a feather ruffler

but you are right , if you try to please everybody you will drive yourself nuts

Jack

Great Stuff

Robert Blackman is wise beyond his years

Jack

But it’s a great idea. I do well just putting things on a little piece of paper, though.

Here’s to fifty more people in your downline!

Or you could join Send Out Cards which is releasing our iPhone and iPad app this weekend. (which can also track downloads back to you so any customer signups get tracked back to you!)

Already over 5 million iPhone 5′s have been sold since the announcement a couple weeks ago. Around 85 million iPhones have been sold in total. iPad sales are pretty similar having sold over 28.8 million so far in 2012, not counting sales in 2010-2011.

Which is more exciting? 250,000 people buying old fashioned phones who are envious of all the people with iPhones… or being able to sell to the 150+ million people using Apple devices?

Good luck with Solavei.

Number of iPads sold:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/number-ipads-sold-apple-quarter-201153619.html

Number if iPhone sold:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/how-many-iphones-has-apple-sold/2012/08/10/97c360e4-e2e4-11e1-a25e-15067bb31849_story.html

I appreciate your responses. I hope it works out for everyone involved!

- Ben

I’m not a Solavei distributor and don’t really have any plans to be one, but since I used to be in telecom MLM too I was curious about what the company was doing.

In just a short time I read a lot of information about the company and watched a boat load of their videos: webinar videos, the “vision” video from the CEO, comp plan videos and the videos from the launch meeting that distributors filmed from the audience.

One thing I noted was at the launch meeting the CEO said they plan to move into other services like electricity, cable, financial services, etc. So at least their *plan* is to become more than a cellphone-only company and thus give them a better chance to survive. (Those plans for multiple services reminded me right away of the MLM company Fortune High Tech which offers multiple services already–but come to think of it, so do some others. By the way, I’m not a FHT distributor either.)

At first glance I was impressed with the experience of the executive staff they have brought on board and impressed with some of the investors that the company has. Staff experience and investors don’t guarantee the success of a company, per se, but at least I think they have that going for them as as a start-up company.

Their back office and how it seemlessly connects to facebook, twitter, etc. looks pretty cool. On the other hand, I’d caution distributors about putting a lot of business stuff on their personal facebook feeds because other friends can pretty quickly get sick of seeing someone promote their business all the time.

As for the commissions, the same thing that “Excited” mentioned was something I was thinking of too–that commissions are only paid on complete trios.

Incomplete trios lowers the average monthly commission paid per customer to something lower than $6.66. Some trios will take a long time to be completed and some will never be completed and so Solavei will get some customers for free and some free for a long time.

And actually, I would *really, REALLY* be interested in knowing what their accountants used as an estimate of how many incomplete trios there will be in any given month. Whatever that estimate was, it was, of course, a key component when they were figuring out their comp plan and in what they thought the “actual” average monthly payout in commissions per customer would be (a.k.a., average cost to the company).

Anyways, it remains to be seen how the company will do. And like you said, Ben, one big factor is probably based on whether they remain a cellphone-only company or not.

-Brian

P.S. For the sake of the customers and especially of the friends who sign them up on the service I hope all the provisioning ends up going fairly smoothly–because there is nothing worse than signing up a friend who runs into all kinds of trouble trying to switch over their service–I know from experience! Some provisioning problems will be inevitable (like the CEO already mentioned there were some), but hopefully they will work out any bugs quickly.

I hope for everyone involved that Solavei works out. What you’re doing isn’t actually new. It’s been done twice by previous cell phone MLMs and they actually either went bankrupt or were bought out by MLMs they do more than just cell phones. No cell phone only MLM has survived so far. It’d be awesome if you guys can be the first to do it. I’m just skeptical is all

As far as what makes a pyramid scheme a pyramid scheme is NOT startup costs. Look at franchises. They were thought to be a pyramid scheme but they went to court and the courts ruled that franchises are legal. Franchise owners pay as much as $500,000 (Dunkin Donuts) to $50 million for a single (Hilton Hotel) franchise.

What makes a pyramid scheme is that you need genuine customers who don’t partake in the compensation plan. You need customers who just use the product. According to the FTC you need to maintain a 2/3rd customer to distributor ratio. Meaning for every distributor you need 2 customers. That’s why a lot of MLM compensation plans require you to get 2 (or more) customers to qualify for commissions.

- Ben

Thanks for your article. I think it is good to look at all sides of a business. I for one am excited about Solavei. I have already signed people up for it with very little effort. It is a fresh approach to MLM and working from home and I actually think they will change people’s opinion about what some believe to be “pryamid schemes”. Their payout is sustainable because the FAB bonuses are only paid one time and in the first 60 days of joining only. Also, there will be incomplete trios where no money is being paid out for these people. If you think about the billions of dollars that is spent by cell phone companies to advertise then you can see how this money will be put back into the pockets of consumers rather than being spent on paid advertisements. It is basically a form of affiliate marketing. I can’t guarantee that Solavei will be here forever but I definitely think they have a good chance. Solavei has had over 27,000 people become customers in just the first couple of weeks, and they expect to have over 200,000 within the next few weeks. I considered joining Send Out Cards because I think they have a good service, however I think they are somewhat of a pryamid scheme because they charge distributors hundreds of dollars to join so that they can distribute this money to upline distributors. If they ever change this part of their business I might be interested in joining. Thanks for letting me respond, all the best to you.

Solavei customers pay $49.99 a month
You get paid $20 for every 3 customers, so that’s roughly $6.66 per customer.
You also have fast start bonuses, leadership bonuses, etc. How much potentially can you earn per customer? $10? $15?

If it’s $15… then how much is left for Solavei to make a profit AND still pay T-Mobile. It’s got to be less than $35 that i mentioned. Probably more like $20-$25. Why would T-Mobile let them get away with that? T-Mobile’s own customers probably pay $80-$100 on average.

Doesn’t that seem fishy to you?

- Ben Fitts

Thanks for posting. I spoke with one of the top income earners in the ENTIRE INDUSTRY about this issue on Saturday September 8th. This is a 7 figure income earner from two previous MLM companies. He makes multiple millions a year currently just from his MLM business, no training or coaching. (He does do some speaking gigs but I think the proceeds go to charity.)

Anyway he and I were talking about this very issue. $49 for an unlimited cell phone plan. How can the company afford to pay out commissions and bonuses by being the cheapest cell phone provider out there? (They can’t.) They can’t pay out 30-40% on $49.99. That means they’re actually paying T-mobile only $35 or so per customer for UNLIMITED usage. It just won’t work.They have to make money some how and why would T-mobile let them get away with charging so much less? Some people are speculating T-mobile is only going to do it temporarily, cancel the Solavei contract, and keep all the customers for themselves. Just like T-mobile did with WOW Mobile.

And you’re right my opinion is just that. An opinion.

- Ben

I’m the one telling you the CEO of this company has 5 pending lawsuits and you think I’m giving MLM a bad name?

I have built a large organization and stayed with one company for 8+ years. (I’m one of the top 20 people in my company.)

Have a good day!

Thanks,

Doosh Bagge

- Ben Fitts

That’s an excellent idea. Videos and podcast are hot right now.

best
Akos