Misunderstood Work At Home Phrases

by Audrey Okaneko

 Over the years, I've found myself debating and even sometimes having a light argument with those who use hype in their advertisements. There are so many phrases I see used over and over again in business opportunity ads. I thought I'd dissect them here.

No risk - Truly there is no such thing. Once you've invested time, you risk having lost that time. If you purchase a kit, many companies will indeed refund the cost of the kit, however I've never found one who will reimburse the shipping, or the cost of the supplies you use to ship the product back. You have to use your tape to tape it back up, your pen to address it, and sometimes your packing materials. And once again, you use your time to wait in line. Sure, these risks are much smaller than the risk of a retail business, however they are still risks. Many many times, I've helped women obtain some form of refund when they've been manipulated into joining something that was not at all what they were promised. So, for a woman living on a very tight budget, $10 is a large risk. For a mom working full time with limited hours to spend with her children, investing even 5 hours into an opportunity, means time away from kids. This is a large risk as well. Again, there really is no such thing as "no risk".

Math manipulation is another big culprit of hype out there today. We've all seen ads that not only speak of earning while we sleep, but also quote incomes. http://ftc.gov/bcp/menu-fran.htm This page from the Federal Trade Commission offers some wonderful articles about working at home.

So, if you join a direct sales/MLM business what can you expect to earn realistically? According to the DSA (Direct Sales Association), the average income on products sold directly from you to the consumer is 30%. I am very aware that some companies offer higher commissions and some offer lower commissions. This is an average. So, in sales only, if you want to earn $100 per week, you'll need to sell $350 worth of products each and every week. If you don't sell, you don't earn.

Ok, so what about recruiting others? The average income from this is about 10%. Yes, some companies might offer 18% on SOME recruits, but they also then only pay 1% or 2% on other recruits. In reality, the average person does NOT sell the $350 per week listed above. Often, folks will sell only $100 in a week. So, for the sake of this post, let's go with the average person selling $400 per month. Ten percent of this is $40. So, let's build a team and recruit 10 people. If you earn $40 on each person, you've now earned $400 per month from your team and another $400 per month from the sale of products in the above paragraph. Now, $800 a month in income is a great addition to any household budget, but it's hardly the millions we read about in ads. And in this example, we recruited 10 people. Very few people actually ever recruit that many people in a lifetime. Also, please factor in attrition. Attrition exists in any business, in any job. If you have 10 people this month, at least one is bound to quit next month. Over the course of 30 years, I've found the attrition rate to be about 80% average. Sure, there are folks who stick around 30 years, but there are also folks who never even order for the first time and then leave.

As for the line "earn while you sleep", well, earnings only occur if something is sold and something can only be sold if someone has let others know you have something for sale. So, yes, someone might order an item at 2 a.m. while you're sleeping, however you did something at 2pm or 8pm to create that sale.

The third phrase that really bothers me is "I now get to spend more time with my kids". Of all the phrases used in hype, I do believe this one bothers me the most. I'm a mom. Balancing work, business and kids is very difficult. When others try to manipulate moms or play on a mom's desire to spend time with her kids, through the hype of pretending that owning a business frees up one's time, this is when I tend to feel the most annoyance. Remember above, in order to earn money you either must create sales, or you must build a team. Both take time.

If you work a 40 hour week with a 30 minute commute each way, you are putting in 9 hours per day and are off 2 of the 7 days of any given week. If you own a business, whether that business has a store front, a web site, is direct sales, ebay, or selling on your own, you are open 24/7. This doesn't mean you never sleep, however it means that every single day you'll have potential customers calling you or emailing you, you'll have products to ship out etc. If you are in direct sales and you are building a team, even if that team is only the 10 people we spoke of above, that's an additional 10 people contacting you each week, wanting a piece of your available time. Since you'll burn through your family and friends very quickly, you'll need a marketing/advertising strategy, which again will involve your time. If you look into the facts of those who use this phrase in their marketing, you'll find most have been at it under 30 days and so really have no idea how long it takes at all.