Setting up a home office can be a challenging task. An absolute must is to get organized. By being organized you will keep control of your business and focus on what really matters.

So what matters?

For starters, you have to treat your business like one. Most home business owners end up treating their business like a hobby. They find excuses to stop working and let outside influences affect their productivity.

You must work concentrated and find ways to be undisturbed in your day to day running’s. This includes juggling your kids and family and explain to them that you do keep office hours. During office hours you must not be disturbed by anybody unless it is an emergency.

The sooner people understand you are serious about your mlm business, the better they will be able to cope - and so will you.

Setting up your office also includes a proper desk, chair and a good filing system. The earlier you learn to keep files organized - both offline and online, the easier it will be to stay organized.

You do NOT need to spend a fortune to get started. This is where most people go wrong. Start small and once you earn decent income, you can build on it.

Here are some recommendation to get you started. You will need:

• A desk
• A good chair
• A filing system
• A printer
• Internet
• A computer

That’s about it to get you going. Most people probably have all this already in their homes. The biggest mistake many make is to go wild and shop for all kinds of things to make their office a true contender of any corporate office setup. Save yourself the hassles.

The Matrix is a computer driven plan that utilizes computers to grow the organization. The computer places new people in available slots within people’s downlines and if it is your turn, you just got yourself a new team member.

Matrixes are very popular on the Internet and if many people are involved, this plan can work very well. You can also override the computer’s placement of a new team member with certain companies. If you are Building on A Budget then a Matrix is a good starting point.

The Stairstep is a simple plan with requirements you need to meet to be promoted up one level. These steps are based on promotion and will earn you more money in bonuses and commission as you climb the ladder. This plan also requires you to qualify each month for the level you are at, usually done with volume.

Stairstep compensation plans generally have between 5-9 levels of promotion in all.

The Unilevel is a simple number of levels where you get paid by the company. There is no promotion or rank to attain to and you make money by getting a certain override on your volume. To get paid you will also need to qualify for the volume requirement. Most affiliate programs these days operate under a Unilevel structure.

The Binary is an interesting design with usually two legs of downline that require you to balance the legs to get paid properly. Unless the legs are balanced, this is harder to get paid as normally one leg is always stronger and often takes off with strong team members below you.

The problem is that we all look for easy fast money. I do it, you do it and unless we are prepared to work for results, nothing will ever happen.

The thing is that most people like to throw money at their problems and hope for some of it to stick. They are chasing the elusive dream of magical change and I can tell you right now, this is not happening unless you win the lottery or inherit a lot of unexpected money.

I suppose it is our easy come easy go lifestyle where we rather pay for something than work for it. But unless you do work, nothing will ever happen in your business.

Chasing the wrong tail end

Another reason why most people fail in network marketing and mlm is because they chase the wrong tail end. If your company asks you to distribute pamphlets and flyers into letter boxes for example, run a mile. I have done just that and never got anywhere with it.

Thinking back I have to say how stupid that was. I distributed around 10,000 flyers each months for over a year. I trod all over my neighbourhood in the hopes that some of my activity would stick. But to be honest it didn’t and in hindsight it was a lot of wasted energy and money.

You need the right lead generation methods for success

The only way you can achieve network marketing success is with the right lead generation. Offline is yesteryears method unless you ARE a fabulous speaker and LOVE to chat to strangers about your opportunity.

Most people don’t.

If you are most people, look for ways to generate leads online.

It will be the only way to grow your business exponentially.

This also applies to books written for this industry. Many are filled with useless facts that are outdated, hyped up or downright lies. If you listen to the following video, you will know how it is done. My suggestion is to be always careful when you eliminate an mlm company or opportunity.

So if you are in dire needs of MLM lead (wow, that was an unintentional rhyme), head over to Pro Email Leads and sign up.

Pro Email Leads offer several type of leads for all your mlm needs. You can choose from:

• Email leads
• Custom email leads
• Coregistration leads
• Bulk biz opp leads
• Aged email leads

For example, a 7,000 strong list of email leads aged 1-10 days will set you back $49. One negative is that those leads are limited to the US only. So if you reside outside the United States, you cannot buy these leads.

However, you can still join their generous affiliate program and make some additional cash. Just look at the highlights as indicated on the Pro Email Leads website:

1. Two-Tier Affiliate Program - How great is that! You not only earn off of your own referrals, but your referral’s referrals as well. It not only gives you a chance to earn more money, but it gives your referals a chance to earn money too (rather than them thinking you are just out to get their money).
2. Cash or Credit - You can either be paid in cash or you can receive credit toward the purchase of leads… or both!
3. A Built-in Discount - You can use your own referral link to order leads. I don’t know anyone else who allows you to do that. This acts like a rebate of 20% cash back at payout.
4. Tools & Reports - We have a growing arsenal of tools that you can use to earn more cash. We’ll provide the banners, links, pre-written emails, blog posts, etc. In addition, you’ll have access to reports to know how much you’ve earned.

If you ask me, those commissions are pretty good. Their tools page is really just a guideline about the various aspects of your home business that are essential for marketing, such as autoresponders, landing pages, etc.

I recommend you go and check them out anyway to see the range of available leads and how they differ in price and type.

One thing you shouldn’t do is to throw money at the wall in the hopes some might actually stick. Investing more money into lead generation is only a smart idea when you are actually in control of your business. Otherwise you are wasting your resources. You first have to take back that control by doing the following:

Stick to a daily schedule - no matter what

Let’s get one thing straight before I go deeper into this subject. I personally hate schedules and I would be the last person on earth to stick to one, except I know how important it is for success to work your business every day by having some structure to get work done.

By work I mean tasks that will ultimately pay you. Kaching!

See, most of us are easily sidetracked by the sheer amount of online information. It is easy to surf the web, learning about new companies, opportunities or simply to catch up with our online friends.

The hardest part of running any business is to be strict with oneself and organized enough to concentrate on income producing tasks instead. This is by far the hardest part for most of us. But with a bit of teeth gritting on your behalf and resolve you too can master this concept and once you do - you will see your business grow.

Follow up with your leads

This might be a given, but believe me it is not. I don’t know how many leads I wasted in the course of running my mlm business. I did this by being scared of follow up. I was afraid of a97aeb821no’s and therefore didn’t even pick up the phone or sent out another email.

That was not smart and in hindsight I know it. Heck, I even knew it there and then but my fear was gripping me and rendered me inactive.

What I learned from this is that people are not actually saying no to you as I wrote the other day. Instead they are not interested to join your opportunity - in this moment in time. But three months down the road they might, so unless they explicable tell you to not ever contact them again, you should.

That is why online mlm’s are so great. No need to pick up the phone. Instead just keep sending those autoresponders with plenty of helpful information to rouse their interest levels in what you do.

Personalize your autoresponder messages

The worst thing you can hit your prospects with are those impersonal autoresponder messages, mass produced by your company.

Make them more personal and GIVE people value in exchange of being able to market to them. By giving away your best tips upfront, chances are that many will learn to see you as a leader in your company.

And even if they are not ready to join you now, who is to say they won’t in three months time if you give them all this value?!

On another note, it is key to strike a good rate to send those emails too. I HATE being marketed to by the same guy day in and day out. The first I do when this happens is unsubscribe. I suggest you aim for once weekly messages, or else if your information is time sensitive, perhaps two messages a week but no more.

If your prospects keep getting bombarded from you they will only get pissed off with you and certainly not feel inclined to join your business opportunity!

Look at your self talk!

A bad business spell can often be the cause of negative self talk. If you keep mentally bashing yourself, you change the whole atmosphere around you. Since negative attracts like, you will be the creator of your own sullen destiny.

Think positive instead and you will start to take positive action for your business which in return will attract more leads. While the whole context of this is much more complicated, it really is as simple as that.

Believe in yourself and your opportunity

If you have any shreds of doubt about your mlm opportunity, or you feel like you don’t really belong there, get out. The longer you are with a company, the harder it will be to quit.

Leaving your team behind is damaging to your self worth believe me. You will feel more like a total loser and probably end up being depressed too. If your business is still trying to take off though and you are certain you made the wrong choice, quit.

There is nothing wrong in quitting every now and then, especially when you KNOW whatever you do isn’t right for you.

You can boost your mlm

By implementing each of these suggestions, you can boost your mlm business to new heights. It won’t be easy though, but anything worth fighting for usually isn’t anyway.

With Mexico already being one of the strongest markets within the company, Ecuador is the new target market for the company. Overall it is the 8th market in South America and will be led by acting managing director Patricio Cuesta.

Business will start within the first quarter of 2009 when Herbalife opens a distribution center for pick ups in Quito. Up until then, already existing distributors in Ecuador will be able to place orders via email, fax and telephone.

By the end of 2008 online ordering should also be available.

In total, there will be three available products on offer to start with. These are:

• Formula #1 Shake Mix
• Protein Powder
• Herbal Tea Concentrate (best tea ever)

In the future, Herbalife plans to expand on this line to incorporate personal care products as well.

The products on offer are perhaps the strongest in the whole range of them all, providing consumers with nutritional ways to mix a shake.

I love their herbal beverage tea and drink tons of that stuff every day. It is lemony in flavor and very refreshing.

However, leads have this stigma attached to them that they are only good for right now and if they say no, then they get thrown away.

If you think like that you are wasting money! Eevn if you don’t buy leads from genealogy lists, you are losing money because all lead generation has a cost attached to it. If that cost is time, you lose money in lost time. It is a simple as that.

You should get into the habit of creating a lead rolodex that lists all your leads from A-Z. Remember, leads who say no today don’t necessarily say no tomorrow. Especially now, in times of economic disasters worldwide you will be ideally positioned for an onslaught of new blood. I truly believe that many people will be forced to look for a home based opportunity to make up for job losses.

Not only that, but a lead rolodex will protect you when you quit your current mlm because you can take it with you. I made the mistake of not doing this and in hindsight I should have because I lost over 5,000 leads when I quit my mlm company. They all sat in the mass produced crappy lead generation website that cost me an absolute fortune every month doing nothing in regards to search engine marketing.

If I had exported these leads instead, I could still be marketing to them today - unless of course they unsubscribe which brings us to the next part of this post.

Why you always need a autoresponder

Never ever prospect your leads by normal email. Always use an autoresponder because it will protect you against spam complaints which could become quite serious for you. Before you export your leads it is also a good idea to send out an email informing your leads of your move away from company X.

You can tell them you would appreciate if they were OK by receiving periodic emails from you about the industry and those that do will just move with you. At least you are not doing something unjust and keep with company regulations. Since you paid for your leads already, they are yours to keep but you still have to do things by the book.

Your growing rolodex

As your rolodex grows (it’s just a fancy name mind you), you will have an ever growing list of prospects that you can market to over and over again. And if they don’t like this, they can simply unsubscribe from your list.

But to boost your rolodex into overdrive, also add all offline prospects who agree to receive email newsletters from you. It is the easiest way to keep people interested long term without making them feel you are pushy.

How big is your rolodex?

If on the other hand you tell them stories of success, failure and everything in between in regards to your mlm, then they are much likely to show interest in your opportunity/product.

I made this mistake myself. I thought if I learned everything to do a top quality presentation people would eat out of my hands. Little did I realize back then that it was the worst thing I could have done.

Instead of having them knock my doors down in a frenzy they were running the moment they saw me approaching them. LOL, OK it wasn’t THAT bad. But I guess you know what I mean.

I had failed to use the Golden Child of mlm - the stories.

Stories are what has us connect with each other on every level. When people hear about others who walked the path before them and did well using whatever it is you are selling, they will basically sell themselves. Especially if they are already in the market for your product type.

That is why you also target hot markets, meaning markets of people who want your stuff, rather than cold prospect on people in the street.

If you struggle with your sales tactics, analyze these pointers and rectify the situation and you will soon see an improvement in your conversion rates.

We get told over and over again how we have to just get more no’s in order to become a success story. While this is true in some ways, I think it sucks big time and I tell you why!

Most people don’t take kindly of being turned down over and over again. I am one of them. And when your successful upline tells you to go and collect more no’s, think about this for a second. Do you really see them (with their business suits and all) walking down the road, handing out cards and trying to convert total strangers when instead they could be sitting at home and converting leads online via their lead generation site?

I’m sure you are intelligent enough to see that this is NOT how these guys make their money!

Collecting no’s sucks big time because you eventually resign to the fact that no-one wants to hear about your business opportunity because the failure rate is so high.

So instead of collecting no’s, look for an online based mlm instead.