Should you pay for the opportunity?

A lot of people are supplementing their entrepreneurial dreams with side sales such as Avon, Mia Bella candles, Noah’s Ark, etc. Sometimes these products can be a nice accompaniment to your business, such as, offering Noah’s Ark stuffed animals with a Bounce House business. Many of the sales programs are absolutely free to join, and others charge a small fee, so you may wonder if the fee-based programs are legitimate or worth your while.

I’m usually always preaching that you shouldn’t have to pay anything to make money, and that’s mostly true, especially when it comes to job applications or business opportunities – but I have to admit that its not ALWAYS true. You have to be smart, use your best discretion, and research. There actually ARE times when a small, reasonable fee is justified.

Someone just recently reminded me of a work at home company for which I briefly worked a few years ago, where I would process telephone orders for those As Seen On TV items and other infomercials. I sat in the comfort of my home and the company routed the phone calls to my telephone, and I made decent money doing it, but initially, I had to pay a small fee for the background check. I forget how much, something between $15 and $30, not much at all, and I made that back a hundred fold in a couple of months. In that case, I only paid for the company’s expense in doing the background check and giving me access to not only their copyrighted training materials, but also their database of corporate clients – a risky step on their part when you consider that I could have copied down that database and went off and started my own company. From what I heard, a few people actually attempted that very thing.

With some of the distributor and independent sales companies, they require that you purchase some sort of starter kit of samples that you will use to call on your leads. Even though you may have joined as someone else’s downline and they stand to gain a small commission off of your purchase, don’t let that stop you from examining the program more closely. Some of the programs, IN MY OPINION, are just way too overpriced and prohibitive to you getting started or making any profit of your own. I’ve seen some where the starter kits are upwards of $300 or more, then you make a paltry 10-15% per sale, on hard to move items, so you are more likely to end up stuck with a bunch of samples you don’t need, and out of hard earned money. But I do think that companies are justified in asking for something REASONABLE upfront, because not only does this help separate the serious, ambitious people from the ones who will just waste time and not put any effort into their business, but they are also giving you discount purchasing privileges to their inventory and access to their business materials. You pay a yearly membership fee to shop in certain warehouse clubs, well these companies are allowing you to purchase their products at deep discounts, and if it were just open sesame and everyone could become a distributor with no commitment, you could easily join, buy up their inventory at a discount, and then quit and resell the stuff on your own.

So don’t discount the company just because they require upfront money. Research the company thoroughly, see what other distributors are saying about them – do you find forums filled with unhappy sales agents? What are their complaints? Were they not able to turn a profit? No support from the organization? Do they feel that they were ripped off?

What are you getting for your membership fee? Is it a nice product package? Does it have resale value? Check out eBay also to see if others are selling/buying this package in case you quit the business and need to get rid of it.

Find several forums of other sales agents and mingle with them BEFORE you join. See what they are saying about the company. Don’t forget to check the BBB website for both your state and the US.

Is it a product that you have tried, love, and believe in? You can’t sell something you have no knowledge of or experience with, and definitely not something you have no passion for. Your love for the product will shine through in your sales pitch, so your sample kit will also allow you to formulate a clear opinion about the products. And if you’re a fan, the money you spent on the kit won’t be a waste because you can use it yourself or give it as gifts!