13 Step MLM Business Plan To Succeed In Network Marketing

Today we’re going to talk about mapping out your MLM business plan so that you’ll know what needs to be done rather than simply flying by the seat of your pants.

Anything that you want to achieve in life will be much easier to do if you act intentionally. Your actions need to be premeditated so that you’re never stuck trying to figure out what you need to do next…

Because you’ve mapped it all out.

In its simplest form, an effective MLM business plan really comes down to 3 main steps:

• Lay the foundation
• Sell & recruit
• Long term sustainability 

In today’s article, we’re going to dive a bit deeper than that and talk about specific things you should be preparing for within each of those 3 main steps.

In total, we’re going to cover 13 things you should be mapping out in your MLM business plan before officially getting started.

Laying The Foundation

In order to get a good start, you should be spending the first week of your network marketing career laying the foundation. 

Don’t spend too much time on this… get it done ASAP while you’re still super excited about your newly discovered opportunity.

Get it done as fast as possible so that you can start taking action on the things that are going to contribute to bringing in some cold hard cash.

1. Understand The Business Model

Ideally, you should have a pretty basic understanding of the network marketing business model before even getting started.

You should know what you’re getting into and what to expect. Understand that the business is not easy. 

It’s simple…

But it’s not easy.

You’re likely going to face a lot of rejection as you’re speaking to your friends and family about your products and opportunity… and that’s OK. Understand that it’s normal, and that every single network marketer has dealt with this, too.

If you’ve been told that network marketing would be super easy and that you would be filthy rich in a matter of a few months, then you may have been lied to.

You have to understand the realities of this business so that you won’t be caught off guard when the difficult times come… 

And they will come.

To gain a thorough understanding of network marketing, why it’s powerful for today’s economic chaos, as well as the pros and cons, be sure to read through our in depth MLM analysis.

You may also be interested in this article which covers 12 downsides of network marketing.

2. Get Plugged In

There are some basic steps that you should take immediately after getting started with your company.

I. Place an activation order to qualify for distributorship.
II. Set up your autoship and replace any brands you use with your products wherever possible.
III. Learn your back office so that you know how to modify autoship orders, place orders, where to find products, how to get in contact with your sponsorship line, and other information.
IV. Connect with your sponsorship line and let them know you’re here, and you’re here to work hard.
V. Go through your distributor kit and read everything. You’ll find the company code of ethics, the nuanced details of your compensation plan, and other company policies.
VI. Apply for business credit cards and open a separate business account so that you can keep your business and personal expenses separated. Your tax professional will thank you.
VII. Schedule the next live event and plan to attend. You’ll meet the top earners in your company, receive important training, and build a stronger conviction in this business.
VIII. Set your goals and be sure to write them down. With pen and paper. Also figure out WHY you’re doing this business and write a short, detailed essay laying out the reasons you’re doing this.
IX. Schedule “business building” time and stick to it. The important things in life are scheduled in, and your business is crucially important.
X. Purchase the tools that you will need to effectively sell products and recruit business builders. Your business leader will explain this to you.
XI. Complete your candidate list. Your business leader will likely want you to make a list of 100 people or more… whether or not you plan to immediately talk to any one individual, add them to your list anyway.

These are all the things that you should complete as fast as you can, immediately after getting signed up. This will ensure that the foundation is laid so that you can simply dive into the actions that will start bringing in the money.

Check out our article where we lay out exactly how to succeed with network marketing.

 3. Learn Time Management

This is something that you will probably be improving on for years to come. Because no matter how efficient you become, you’ll always be able to improve.

But basically speaking, the majority of the time spent on your business should consist of taking actions that will directly contribute to bringing in income… they’re called income producing activities. 

You may be tempted to spend too much time on educating yourself, taking courses, or reading books to help you become a better networker.

Educating and self improvement is important, to be sure. But they do not directly contribute to your income, so do not justify your inaction or complacency by telling yourself that you’re getting educated.

You must take action.

Income producing activities consist of talking to people about your products, extending invitations for people to check out your business presentation, and following up with people who have shown some interest.

Income producing activities are NOT reading books, watching training webinars, or listening to podcasts.

Sell & Recruit

Speaking of income producing activities, let’s talk about acquiring customers and recruiting people into your organization.

4. Follow The System You’re Taught

Every network marketing company and organization will have a different system that they teach their distributors to follow. Your business leader will get you plugged into the training and help you get started as quickly and easily as possible.

It’s very important that you follow the system exactly as it’s taught to you by your business leader.

It is the same system that you will plug your own builders into. Your team will see you succeeding by simply following the system, which will inspire them to do the same.

It’s probably not going to be easy and it will certainly require you stepping out of your comfort zone…

But the system has been specifically designed to achieve a balance between effectiveness and simplicity.

Remember, your upline will not steer you wrong. Because when you make more money, so does your upline. The incentives in network marketing are perfectly aligned. 

So trust the system and follow it as it’s being taught to you.

5. Start BIG

When you initially get started with your new business, you’re going to be extremely excited and motivated to take action…

But unfortunately, that initial excitement will wear off.

So it’s important for you to take massive action immediately so that you can capitalise on that initial enthusiasm. It’ll create some fast results for you, which will serve to maintain your enthusiasm for longer.

Randy Gage describes a concept in his latest book which he calls The Major Blast. It’s a game plan that will supercharge your business right out of the gate, and it’s something that every brand new network marketer should do immediately after getting started.

Below is an excerpt from one of our MLM success guides that outlines The Major Bast:

It seems logical to move forward with your business in a very methodical, carefully planned out way.

You may be tempted to spend a large amount of time getting “ready” to build your business.

You will feel the need to understand everything about each product, and all the nuances and intricacies of the business opportunity. 

I know it seems logical, but it’s wrong. 

If you commit to doing a major blast right at the beginning even though you feel like you’re not ready, it will build such a large amount of momentum, you won’t even want to quit the business even when things get hard.

The goal is to get to a point where it takes more effort to quit than it does to stay.

Go back and read that last sentence again.

It’s hard to explain or even comprehend how doing that initial major blast will impact your network marketing business in the long term.

If you get enough people started on your team early, the odds are that there will be one or two people that will go on to build their own teams of several thousand or more people.

That’s life changing stuff.

So what is this major blast?

This is a concept that Randy Gage really explains well in his latest book.

He says to get at least 80-100 invitations out immediately after you’ve finished writing out your candidate list.

Let’s be clear…

This doesn’t mean that you will be recruiting or even showing 80-100 presentations.

That would be unrealistic.

It simply means 80-100 invitations.

If you get enough people flowing through the funnel, you will get more coming out the other side excited about your offer and ready to get started.

It’ll be a small percentage…

But hey…

It’s all about working through the numbers, right?

Some things you should be doing to implement the initial Major Blast are:

• Hosting a social get together to create a customer base for your products 
• Put together one or two business presentations to launch in your area 
• Launch an email and text message campaign 
• Distribute some mass marketing marketing materials in appropriate places around your area 
• Edit or create various social media accounts to promote your business
• And finally, move all the people that have entered the “funnel” from your various efforts towards a bigger presentation (speak to your sponsor about this bigger presentation)

You’re going to be very enthusiastic about your new opportunity when you first get started, so you may as well take full advantage of that enthusiasm before it inevitably wears off.

6. Build Your List

The life blood of your network marketing business is prospects; people to talk to about the products you sell and the business opportunity you offer.

If you want to build a huge, loyal base of customers and a profitable team that will provide you with that passive income you’ve dreamed about, you need an ever-growing, limitless list of prospects to talk to.

And the best way to accomplish this is to learn personal networking.

Personal networking is the process of increasing the number of people that you interact with on a regular basis over a long stretch of time.

If you can learn to do this effectively, you will build social capital with a large group of people. This group will start to know you as the person with a large network. The person who can provide value by putting people in contact with each other to fulfil various business or even personal needs.

As an example, here’s an excerpt from our guide to personal networking:

You add someone to your contact list who you simply can’t imagine will serve a need that you or anyone else in your network has. He’s a manager at a small grocery store and a hobbyist woodworker.

A year or 2 later, you have a conversation with another one of your contacts. She’s an accountant and is looking for someone to build custom office furniture that will fit her brand and personal style.

You can’t personally help her with that, but you remember your other contact who does woodworking projects as a hobby. You introduce these 2 folks… the woodworker now has a new customer and the accountant gets the exact type of furniture she was looking for.

You didn’t really do any work yourself… but you’ve built tremendous social capital with both of these people.

Eventually, you will become known as someone who can put people in touch and create win-win situations.

As this happens, people in your network will start to talk about you as someone who may be able to help with various problems because you know so many people.

When the opportunity arises to talk about your business to one of your contacts, you will be perceived as a credible person who, above all else, wants to help and provide value…

Because you’ve put in the effort to build social capital by playing the long game, not being annoying about your business, and providing value to people in an altruistic manner.

This is the most powerful way to have a list of potential prospects that will continue to grow forever.

Be sure to read our full guide to personal networking so that you can begin implementing this in your life and business.

You may also want to check out this list of places to find prospects to add to your list.

7. Focus On Getting Customers

There is a tendency in network marketing to focus solely on recruiting builders for your business and not putting any energy into customer acquisition.

This truly misses the point of what actually creates a sustainable business…

Sales!

Network marketing is not that different from any other traditional business. The money is made from selling goods and services into the economy. Period.

The difference in network marketing is simply the manner in which products are sold and distributed.

While recruiting is important for the long term growth of your network marketing business, you need to strike a balance between customer acquisition and recruiting.

It is a crucial part of your MLM business plan.

Besides, as a brand new network marketer, you will find it much easier to sell products to your friends and family than to convince them that they need to start their own business.

So it might be a good idea to put a heavier focus on product sales initially so that you can build a loyal customer base and begin building your passive income stream.

8. Recruit

Of course, recruiting is an important part of long term success in network marketing. The whole point of this business model is to build a sales network that will grow itself and produce sales volume for you, contributing to a passive income stream that is created by the efforts of people other than yourself.

You may find the idea of recruiting people quite intimidating in the beginning.

It’s gonna require you stepping outside of your comfort zone.

But it’s a skill you need to learn and is arguably the most important part of your long term MLM business plan.

We talked earlier about plugging into the system that your business leader will provide… included in this system will be a guide for you to follow that will teach you some basic recruiting skills.

Trust the process and follow the system that you’re taught.

If you’re not receiving adequate recruiting instruction, you may be interested in reading our MLM recruiting guide here so that you can implement this into your MLM business plan.

9. Set Goals

Goal setting is one of the keys that will help you build an effective MLM business plan. But you need to do it the right way.

Don’t set arbitrary goals that are not directly in your own control.

You might set a goal of earning at least $50,000 in your first year of network marketing. This is not a goal that will serve you well.

Because it’s not a goal that is directly in your personal control. There are too many variables that you simply have no control over.

So then you might consider setting a goal of recruiting 2 builders per month during your first year. Again, this will probably not be effective because you can not control whether people will say yes or no to your opportunity.

Instead, set a goal that is directly tied to your actions.

For example, you can commit to speaking to at least 10 people per week. This puts you in the driver seat. You hitting this goal is directly contingent on your own actions and nothing else.

Out of all the people you talk to, there is a small percentage that will be open to taking a look at your business opportunity. You just need to work through the numbers in order to find that small percentage of people.

Long Term Sustainability

The real power of network marketing comes in building a team that will be self-sufficient, produce sales volume, and grow itself over time without you putting in all the work.

So empowering your team to be independent is arguably the most important part of your long term MLM business plan.

10. Plug Your People Into The System

Duplication, duplication, duplication.

That’s what long term success in network marketing really comes down to. Not only do you need to learn how to produce sales volume and recruit builders, but you need your team to be able to duplicate your results.

So the first thing that you need to do after recruiting a new builder is plug them into the same system that you used to recruit that member.

Instead of you holding your builder’s hand through the entire process, allow the system to work.

The system will teach your builder how to sell and recruit as well as how to plug their own builders into the system.

This is how exponential growth can happen in network marketing and it truly is the value proposition of this business model.

If you need to gain a better understanding of duplication, the power of it, and how you can create it in your team, check out our MLM duplication guide here and put it to work in your MLM business plan.

11. Build A Personal Brand… Eventually

You will find a lot of training online that will teach you to build a personal brand in order to attract more prospects to you.

This is a great idea…

But…

Don’t do it immediately.

If you are brand new to the business, just focus on dominating the system that you’re being taught within your company. That needs to be your sole purpose until you’ve built a substantial income and you’re starting to see some real, sustainable duplication within the team you’ve built.

But eventually, you may want to expand your business. You may want to write a book or produce a podcast. And in order to do those things effectively, you will need to have a personal brand that people within your industry recognise.

While personal branding is not necessarily a part of an MLM business plan, you can use your network marketing career as a starting point for other things.

Some companies may actually teach you a system that involves personal branding and internet marketing.

If this is the case, then you should do as you’re taught.

If you follow the system that’s being taught, your own team will be more likely to do the same, which is the most important thing you can do for duplication.

You may be interested in reading our guide to building an MLM digitally using internet marketing.

If you’re following a system that utilizes social media, then our MLM on social media guide might be helpful.

12. Commit To Education & Personal Growth

One of my favourite things about network marketing is that it leads to so many people developing a desire for personal growth.

In the age of the internet, we have access to so much information. And you should be tapping into that information to constantly acquire more knowledge. 

But personal growth and education is not just about acquiring more knowledge. It’s about experience and discipline.

Become smarter. Wiser. Healthier.

I believe there are 5 core things to focus on in order to live a balanced and prosperous life:

• Finances and business
• Physical health
• Mental health
• Personal relationships
• Spirituality

Those are 5 things that you should commit to focus on for the rest of your life. You will never gain perfection in any of these areas, but you can constantly improve forever if you make a real commitment to doing so.

13. Manage Your Income Wisely

One of the dangers of earning a large amount of money, especially as a young person, is that you get accustomed to a lavish lifestyle sooner than you should.

People who suddenly make more money than they’ve ever made before have a tendency to overspend. 

You’ll be tempted to go out and buy that Ferrari.

Or a great big fancy mansion.

That diamond watch you’ve always wanted.

All these things are great and you should buy them when you’re ready. Just use wisdom in how you spend your money.

Consider getting a financial adviser to help you out.

Keep an emergency fund of at least 6 months of expenses.

Avoid debt at all costs.

And have a long term view when it comes to your finances.

If you’ve never gained control over your personal finances, consider reading Dave Ramsey’s book, The Total Money Makeover.

When it comes to saving and investing for retirement, I recommend you read 2 of Tony Robbins‘ books: Money Master The Game and Unshakeable.

And if you insist on learning how to invest on your own without the help of a certified financial adviser, the internet is an excellent source of financial education.

Just be careful!

There are a lot of scams and grifters in the finance space so you’ll need to be very careful about whose advice you trust. Here are a few people that I can recommend:

• Lyn Alden
• Luke Gromen
• Erik Townsend
• Preston Pysh
• George Gammon
• Ray Dalio

You’ll also need to gain a good understanding of how the global financial and banking system works. For this I recommend Khan Academy.

Network marketing will allow you to create cash flow and build a very large income. But l;ong term financial success is not just about earning a lot of money… It’s about keeping that money and hopefully growing it over time.

So managing the money you make from your business is an important piece of your MLM business plan.

MLM Business Plan Wrap-up

As we talked about in the beginning of this article, an effective MLM business plan really comes down to 3 main categories:

1. Lay the foundation
2. Sell & recruit
3. Long term sustainability 

Knowing what to expect in your business and mapping it out is a very powerful way for you to increase the odds of your success.

Because you’ll be less likely to become discouraged.

When things get tough, you’ll be OK because you knew it would. You’ll be able to power through.

If you ever wake up in the morning and you’re not sure what to do for the business on any given day, you simply need to refer to your MLM business plan.

You’ve mapped it all out.

You know what to do and you have a rough idea of what to expect over the next few years.

Instead of wandering through your network marketing experience without a plan, take control. Act intentionally.

As William Ernest Henley wrote:

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.