Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

Hi

The thing that worries me is the selling proposition from the Warm Spirit web site, it firstly states that Warm Spirit is not a “Pyramid” selling scheme. Then it goes on to say that you will get assistance in building your team. Next there is a no minimum inventory claim, then there’s your bland statement of $200 / month or you’re out.

When you look at the websites of some who claim to be successful in the “Warm Spirit” sales arena, amongst the new age waffle and holistic healing messages there’s a steely strand of empowering personal financial growth through becoming part of the team. In other words, building a down-line. In other words, build a down line or you won’t see anything like the income that we achieve. Have a look at Maria Dowd on

https://www.aawot.com/?mod=warmspirit&p=business_ops

Now I don’t want to be a party pooper about her achievements (A five figure monthly income is to be encouraged), but you don’t get that by selling $40,000 of Warm Spirit products a month to your own, actual end users. You get it by recruiting people to sell it for you. You know the maths. The trouble is that by recruiting people to sell, in order to make your plan, you need to sell to them the same ultimate goal, which is a five figure income, achieved through recruiting your own team. A team which to meet its own aspirations will need to recruit its own teams.

The maths is exponential! Ultimately (And quickly in some cases) you run out of able or willing people to recruit into your scheme. Some MLM schemes take only 7 steps from your entry point to have nominally attempted to recruit everyone on the planet. And where were you in someone else’s down-line? OK, there are other planets to have a bash at!

I have a simple test. If you can’t make the income you desire by end-user sales then don’t take the proposition any further unless you are prepared to enter into the world of MLM. There, to my mind, you need to suspend reason and ethics. In order for you to succeed, you are inviting people to join into a scheme where your success will ultimately be at the price of other’s failure. There just aren’t enough people in the world for the MLM proposition to work if the proposition for success in building a sizeable income is extended to all the participants through down-line recruitment.

That said, and it’s quite a lot, there’s a lot going for selling aromatherapy and holistic treatments to people who want them. The margins are high and because customers buy into the idea of fragrant oils and such, they believe in the benefits.

The trouble is that you’ve already done most of the things that you need to do to achieve local sales. If you are serious about this business, then a website is a must, but by its nature that is going to have a national impact. Can you handle enquiries from across the country?

If the business is as attractive and novel as the supplier seems to think, then there should be opportunities to get PR out to the local press. Likewise, interviews with local radio stations will be attractive. Why do I sound a bit of a Doubting Thomas over this? Well, whilst the product area is attractive, it’s not novel and whilst your business is new, it’s not unique, so the reasons for media editors to give you free space and time probably don’t exist.

If kids can make $200 a month for charity or for their projects by selling lemonade from a roadside stand and you can’t, it doesn’t tell you that your products are rubbish. All it tells you is that more people actually want a glass of lemonade than they want a bottle of essential oil.

No magic answers, so I think that it’s either enter the MLM pact and start recruiting or try something else. By the way, one of my friends in the UK took the “Something else” road and started to source and bottle the oils herself. With a thriving client base, she came for advice about distribution. She’d heard about this wonderful scheme where she could get people could sell aromatherapy oils for her to their circle of friends and recruit yet further sales agents who could all make money by selling to their friends and recruiting yet more sales agents.

I gave her a maths lesson, and told her to read Dr Faustus by Christopher Marlowe. At least in 1604, they had a fairly clear idea about the consequences of selling your soul!

Steve Alker
Unimax Solutions

Hi

Trying to find that magical product that will make you a millionaire is every entrepreneurs dream. The reality is that finding the correct product and then combining it with a decent marketing mix is a lot more complex than thought. Then all of a sudden comes along a company like Warm Spirit who promise you wealth with a product that “Sells itself..” It is interesting that Warm Spirit offers the purchaser two avenues to buy products. One is the Consultant, but the other is via the web, the later obviously by-passing the consultant.

There is some excellent advice given already on this forum so I do not want to repeat what has already been said, so, I will focus on two points.

1. Why do you want to create your own business
2. What are cheap means of marketing yourself

On the first point you need to dig right down into your soul and ask if you have the right skills. MLM companies tend to profess that anyone could do it, but in reality it is a skill which needs to be honed like any other. If you are interested in starting your own business then joining forums like this is a good start. I also would advise that you read up as much as possible on how other entrepreneurs do it. Although selling to family and friends may appear a good entry point you will soon find that these will soon stop inviting you around for lunch. In short, if you are serious about having your own business then take a stop gap and investigate.

On the second point there is a fantastic book on cheap marketing. This is “Get Slightly Famous” by Steven Van Yoder (ISBN 0-9720021-1-1). He focuses on getting your name out there via the media. This could be local press, radio, web pages or email. However here is the word of caution. Be careful with fronting MLM companies as pyramid sales have had bad press.

I really hope you all the best with whatever you do. However be careful of false prophets.

Tim